The Winter 2010 issue of The Jewelry Book featured new Novell engagement rings and wedding bands in a special section dedicated to the Jewelry Made in America initiative.

See the latest edition of The Jewelry Book online.

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Top online retailer Amazon.com, the extremely popular website that sells everything from books to jewelry and beyond, regularly highlights best selling items in each of it most popular categories. And as jewelry industry expert Cheryl Kremkow recently pointed out on Twitter, “…only two of twenty five items on Amazon’s bestseller jewelry list are above $50, [with the] top price [being] $59.99 for small gold hoops.” So with today’s economic condition, consumers for Amazon.com are looking to purchase moderately priced jewelry items.

An interesting item to notice is a featured tungsten carbide wedding band that is selling for just $49.99. The highlighted design is 8mm wide and has a carbon inlayed center. There is a similar design with a beveled edge selling on Amazon.com for even less – $39.99. However, TungstenWorld.com has a very similar design priced at $179.00.

So maybe the question is this – what is the true value of similar tungsten wedding band products? If all of these items are truly similar (i.e. the same weight, millimeter and features), why does the price range from $39.99 to $179.00? And at first glance, weight and thickness difference do not seem to vary with the common tungsten wedding band styles being featured online today.

Precious metal wedding bands can certainly be sold at different weights or thicknesses with varying prices but not with the disparity in prices of Tungsten.

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This article was originally posted on Novell’s wedding ring blog:

The October 2009 issue of MJSA Journal highlights Novell’s promotion of a new wedding song by folk-pop artist Jacqui Naylor. “Celebrate Early and Often” is featured in the Inspired Thinking-Success Strategies column:

To help raise Internet awareness of Rahway, New Jersey–based Novell as a bridal brand, the company’s marketing director Rick Mulholland turned to music. Instead of competing head-to head with other jewelry manufacturers and e-tailers populating search engine results with key jewelry terms such as “wedding bands” and “engagement rings,” Mulholland decided to promote the song “Celebrate Early and Often” by Jacqui Naylor. It’s featured on Novell’s website as a perfect wedding song for couples looking for something a little non-traditional and unique.

“We really needed a way to stand out to consumers that are planning their weddings, and to do so without spending any money,” says Mulholland. “Thanks to our online press releases (www.novelldesignstudio.com/new_wedding_song.php), I was able to earn high-ranking organic search engine results.”

“People looking for song ideas may not have purchased their wedding bands yet. So if they come across the song on our website, there’s a good chance that they’ll be curious about Novell’s prod¬ucts and start to look around.”

And Mulholland’s prediction has proven itself: He reports that web traf¬fic spiked earlier this year to the tune of about 20,000 unique visitors reading the press releases and/or visiting the webpage featuring the song, with “a nice overall click-through.” And that’s music to Novell’s ears.

Please visit www.novelldesignstudio.com/newweddingsong.php to hear a sample and download “Celebrate Early and Often.”

MJSA featured an article about a new wedding song for a new wedding generation.

Learn more about the album  You Don’t Know Jacq.

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American wedding ring manufacturer Novell Design Studio, in co-operation with jewelry industry trade publication The Jewelry Book, announces a new and forward-thinking initiative – “Jewelry Made in America.” The focus of “Jewelry Made in America” is to help promote designers and manufacturers that can proudly claim that their products are fabricated in the United States, and not imported as finished goods from abroad.

Read more in “The ‘Jewelry Made in America’ Initiative.”

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This article was originally posted on Novell’s wedding ring blog:

One of Novell’s authorized wedding  band  retailers, Patronik Designs Jewelry in Burlingame, CA, has been named one of trade publication In Store Magazine’s Coolest Stores in America for 2009. Featured in the “Coolest of ‘Em All – Small Store Category,” Patronik Designs Jewelry first opened in 1996 and underwent extensive renovation in 2003, combining intriguing interior design with an exterior jewelry “factory” motif to reinforce the fact that they do a lot of custom jewelry work on premise.

An authorized Novell wedding band retailer earns award as one of America's coolest stores.

Novell would like to congratulate Patronik Designs Jewelry for their selection as one of America’s coolest jewelry stores.

Here’s what a few of the judges said about Patronik Designs Jewelry:

“This is a store about visual excitement.” – Tim Malone (The Malone Resource Group)

“…the owners are an inspiration in their commitment and dedication to meeting and servicing their customers.” – Steve Samaras (owner of 2008’s Coolest Store in America winner Zachary’s Jewelers [small store category])

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PreciousPlatinum.com highlights several of Novell’s wedding band and engagement ring styles that have been included in recent consumer advertisements for platinum. They are:

• Brand new platinum and diamond engagement ring with a matching platinum wedding band for her.
• A set of his and her platinum engraved wedding bands.
• Platinum engagement ring with matching platinum wedding bands for him and her.

PGI re-launches new platinum website and feature platinum wedding bands from Novell.

Please visit an authorized Novell wedding band retailer to learn more about our platinum designs.

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This article was originally posted on Novell’s wedding ring blog:

JCK Magazine’s Mark Smelzer wrote about the jewelry industry beginning to embrace Facebook. Since I have a pretty strong opinion on this subject, I have a lot to say and posted a response to the online article. However, my comments formatted into one giant blob-of-a-paragraph. The message is there, but it’s not easy to follow.

So, in case anyone is interested, below are the relevant parts of Mark’s article, and my response – formatted so it’s easier to read.

The Facebook Era Arrives
By Mark Smelzer — JCK-Jewelers Circular Keystone, 3/1/2009
I’ve just returned from Tucson, Ariz., where I attended the Centurion show and the AGTA show. As always, the warmth of Tucson (figuratively and literally) was a terrific escape and the trip was a chance to see our friends in the industry. Topic No. 1, of course, was the economy and its continuing negative impact on the jewelry industry.

Amid the concerns, there were several fascinating topics of conversation, the most interesting being the rise of Facebook. Suddenly, everyone in the industry is talking about the hugely successful networking site and its impact on their personal and professional lives.
For an industry that once lagged behind the population as a whole with regard to the Internet, it seems we’re finally catching up. JCKonline.com’s traffic numbers continue to boom, with 162,000 unique visitors (individual persons) visiting our site in the month of January alone, our highest monthly traffic ever!

There is a particular sense of a watershed moment with regard to Facebook. It’s one thing for members of our industry to recognize the strategic importance of the Web. It’s quite another for them to incorporate the Internet into their daily personal lives. Through the use of this site and others, we’re finally realizing the role that the Internet plays for millions.

What does this mean to you, the retailer or manufacturer? It means that once again the paradigm has shifted (recall the shift from weekly magazines like Life to television), and once again you need to position yourselves where the traffic is.

Step 1 should be creating personal and business Facebook pages. Once you have a personal page, you can create a page for your business as well. As your network of friends grows on your personal page (you’ll be astonished at how quickly the numbers add up), you can invite them to become a “fan” of your business page as well. As your business fans grow, you’ll have a ready-made list of persons to e-mail on a continuing basis, to inform them of events, charity involvements, trunk shows, new product arrivals, etc.

None of this takes the place of your store or business’s actual Web site. In fact, you want to place as many links (and reasons to link) to your Web site as possible on your business Facebook page. Think of a Facebook page as plopping yourself in the middle of a busy freeway, in the hope of diverting traffic to your site. Go where the traffic is!

Read more at http://www.jckonline.com/article/CA6640742.html.

My response:
The Facebook era not only has begun, but it probably can be said that it started a while ago, and it’s pretty much just now starting to be talked about in the jewelry industry. This is a good thing. Maybe even a great thing!

In an age where people like me are asked to either greatly reduce, reserve or even eliminate budgets, tools like Facebook are very valuable. Yes – it’s where the traffic certainly is. However, it should be noted that connecting with the right audience may take quite a bit of work. One page alone may not attract customers to your door automatically.

Novell put up a Facebook page about three weeks ago (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Novell-Design-Studio/45691939078). Over the next few months, I anticipate that I will have to put in a decent amount of time to really get it noticed. In fact, I may even say that promoting Novell wedding rings through a variety of social media channels (blogs, message boards, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Digg, Flickr and many other news and linking websites) will be a big – if not the biggest – part of my job. If you wanna catch a lot of fish, then you definitely have to put your boat where the most fish are. And, of course, have the right bait. 

I am very happy to be hearing buzz within the jewelry industry about Facebook and social media in general. I look forward to the day when more manufacturers and retailers make an active presence known to existing and future customers alike. Personally, I want to be next to my competitors on many platforms. That way, consumers can easily compare and choose the manufacturer, product or even metal that’s right for them.

People like to use the term “branding,” but often I wonder if many of those who throw the term into conversations really truly know what “branding” is. At least with Facebook, your message needs to be clear and focused for it to have a chance to work. Even with my page, I know that I have a lot of tweaking to do as well. It looks to be a fun – and educating – journey to take.

“Good-bye” to relying on print ads and glossy brochures alone. “Hello” to more focused and multi-channeled messages.

####

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Over on TheKnot.com’s bridal message boards, future brides have been chatting about new wedding songs and making suggestions. And one gives “Celebrate Early and Often” – a new wedding song for a new wedding generation – a ringing endorsement.

She writes (as of March 4, 2009):
“Hello Everyone! I heard this song and fell in love with it - “Celebrate Early and Often.” I thought it was cool that the artist wrote it for her own wedding! It kicks into the perfect feeling after about a minute into the song and I can picture myself dancing to it with my soon to be hubby. 7 months to go! …Michelle”

Read more about, listen to and/or buy the song “Celebrate Early and Often.” 

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“In This Challenging Economy,
Jewelers Want To Sell Products
That Capture The Consumer’s Jewelry Budget.”
– Bruce Pucciarello

This article first appeared in the jewelry industry trade publication – The Jewelry Book:

There’s no metal that better signifies love and commitment—or strength, purity, luxury and longevity. Since 1975, Platinum Guild International (PGI) has recreated a passion for platinum jewelry by supplying information, practical advice, support and expertise to educate jewelry manufacturers, retailers and consumers about the superior qualities of this metal. As PGI evaluates the market, they get the word out about platinum and help businesses tap the endless power of the platinum brand. PGI-USA has chosen to highlight some of the leading manufacturers of platinum jewelry. For the first in a series about the industry’s most inspired leaders, The Jewelry Book spoke with Bruce Pucciarello of Novell Design Studio.

by Jessica Teisch for The Jewelry Book

Platinum has captivated Bruce Pucciarello, owner of Novell Design Studio, since he was eighteen years old. At that time, he was working at a big New Jersey manufacturer working in the precious stone cutting department, crafting bridal products on the precision-engineered, Swiss machinery. “I liked the designing and technical expertise that go into the manufacture of a quality product,” says Bruce. “It’s a wonderful combination of art and engineering, with always something new to learn.” In 1986, after gaining further experience as a designer and machinist (and following a side career as a professional musician), Bruce joined forces with Victor Novogrodsky and founded Novell Design Studio in New Jersey. Today, Novell, a high quality, made in America jewelry manufacturer specializing in bridal jewelry and bands, is renowned for its flexible customization capabilities.   
 
Novell started to specialize in platinum in 1988—and this metal soon defined the company’s core. Novell first designed some 18 karat gold rings with platinum inserts, which increased the average men’s band profit. “Our retailers liked that and so did we,” says Bruce. “Once we started making jewelry in platinum,” he continues, “there was never a good reason for us to stop.” After two decades of experience, platinum has become the hallmark of Novell’s manufacturing facility. “As we became more adept at working in platinum,” Bruce explains, “we realized that any time we develop a new design or concept, we had to make sure that it works in platinum.” Novell works platinum into every style and discipline, from machine-made to hand crafting and casting. Novell has distinguished itself so greatly in platinum that its craftspeople prefer to work with this metal over any other.

Because of the superior qualities of platinum and its success using it, Novell remains firmly committed to this metal—not only for its purity, durability and strength, but also for the market it continues to generate. “Technology makes platinum more viable than ever,” Bruce explains. “It doesn’t matter whether platinum costs $800 or $2300 an ounce; there’s a strong market for platinum jewelry, especially bridal.” When important retailers respond to consumer’s desire to purchase platinum, they sell more and increase profitability. “In this challenging economy,” Bruce stresses, “retail jewelers need to sell products that capture every penny from a consumer’s jewelry budget.” Platinum, unlike other metals, “helps smart stores get at that profit.” Manufacturers also benefit from platinum sales: they become better manufacturing facilities because they have to improve their overall level of expertise in order to craft finer platinum jewelry.
 
Bruce finds that with platinum, success and customer satisfaction go hand-in-hand. “As long as we can make available almost any piece of jewelry in any kind of metal, we will continue to lead with platinum,” says Bruce. In this economy, that’s no mean feat. With its cutting-edge technologies and ingenuity, Novell “wrote a new list of rules, Bruce explains, which dispelled many myths about platinum, such as its difficulty to work with and its high cost. All our rules start with the words – we can. . .”
 
That attitude, Bruce stresses, is key to succeeding in this difficult economy—as are other factors. The new economy will demand better customer service, quality products and a price that makes sense.  Bruce sees creating jewelry in platinum as a great foundation for the successful manufacturer in this new business world. Unfortunately, Bruce laments, “there will be no rescue plan for the jewelry industry. We need to work it out”—that is, we must strengthen local American companies and communities, with fair work and fair pay—“and not a bail out.” Instead of the Golden Rule (“he, who makes the gold, makes the rules”), Bruce posits the Platinum Rule as a guiding principle: “He who works effectively, and labors to make a durable product that is also an object of beauty, will thrive. That is the future of American jewelry manufacturing, so he makes the rules. He, who has the platinum, has the tools!” For the jewelry industry, there’s no greater truth for the New Year.

####

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From CNN.com:   
A diamond unearthed in the southern African nation of Lesotho could yield one of the largest and highest quality round polished diamonds, according to a statement from company that found it. A mining company unearthed this 478-carat diamond in the southern African nation of Lesotho.

Experts in Antwerp, Belgium who analyzed the 478-carat stone determined it to be of the highest color grading available for a white diamond, said a statement from Gem Diamonds Ltd., the company that found the stone.

“What makes it more remarkable is the color and quality of this stone,” said diamond consultant Neil Buxton.

“It’s a D color, which is the highest possible graded color you can get, and we believe there is a chance — a very good chance — of getting a 100-carat plus” round stone with the highest color and clarity rankings.

Read more of “Huge diamond hailed as record breaker“…

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