Handmade at NYGift Show - designer report

Traffic at the Handmade section of the NY Gift Show was slower than last year, said many, but the popular designer lines still had a good show.

And we had fun visiting with so many great friends.

Trends spotted at the show:

GREEN Jewelry is gaining a real toehold in our industry (see early post on Fair Jewelry Summit) and the latest to take the concept and run with it was Cynthia Gale of GeoArt. Her new Go Green campaign was attracting a lot of attention.
That's Cynthia on the right.                         

Another great green initiative is Julie Bergstein's (on the left) new locket collection for her eponymous line Just Jules. She combines vintage lockets, watch fobs and other trinkets with pearls and beads and chain to create contemporary keepsakes. She told us that she sold out by the second day -- she's on the hunt for more vintage lockets so if you see any/have any to sell -- email her from her website at www.justjules.com.

Stephen Estelle saw a great interest in his vermeil collection. His rationale? "They're simultaneously selling down with the economy (from the karat gold line) while feeling like you're keeping up because it's gold and not silver," said Stephen. Great understanding of the marketplace.

 

 

here's Suzanne Vaughan of Ann Sportun looking as cool and graceful as the jewels!

Can you see the size of those baroque pearls in front of her! To die for!

Over at Somer's Jewelry owner at Hilary Randolph told us that her gold WAS selling better than expected -- considering she's predominently a silver line this was surprising news indeed.

While at the Ann Sportun/Experimetal booth they were getting some traction for their diamond designs. These reports gave us hope that the year won't be as bad as we keep fearing it could be!

Comments

[Judith]

I am really in love with Ann Sportun's jewelry. The designs are so different and lovely. The gold is such a soft color..I'm assuming becasue of how she brushes it. Her website directed me to Altered Space Gallery, which is the only shop in LA that carries her. I was surprised that she wasn't in more places. I hope you had the opportunity to see her garnet stack rings. They are so exquisite, I could dream about them forever. I think they have pictures on alteredspacegallery.com.