Recorded live at Pratt Institute as part of NYC Jewelry Week 2024, this panel discussion, sponsored by Jewelers Mutual, brings together four dynamic voices from across the jewelry industry for a candid, insightful conversation about opportunity, access, and growth. Hosted by Mark Smelzer and moderated by Emili Vesilind, the panel features professionals representing key sectors including retail, manufacturing, gemology, design, journalism, and digital innovation. Together, they explore the challenges and possibilities shaping jewelry opportunities in the industry today, offering valuable guidance for both emerging and established jewelry professionals.
Kickoff to the Conversation
Mark Smelzer: Good morning, everyone. My name is Mark Smelzer. I have the title of Vice President of Content at a jewelry insurance company so I’m sort of an oddball there. I’m not really in insurance, but it’s my job. Along with Emili [Vesilind], who’s going to be our moderator today – we are the content team. It’s our job to come up with different and interesting ways to create content opportunities like this one to further the jewelry industry.
Jeweler’s Mutual Group is 111 years old. It started as a company to insure jewelry stores because no one would as they always had open flames and fires. So, they had to create their own insurance company. It’s now a huge, massive organization, but it’s an organization that gives back in many, many ways. It really gives back to the industry. We sponsored this event today because our North Star, which is business speak for the goal that you all aspire to at a company, is elevating the love of jewelry. And in any way that we can be present to help further the jewelry industry along, Jeweler’s Mutual loves to do that.
We have an incredible panel here today. Emili and I shot high to get this panel here so we’re thrilled at the panelists that are participating. If I were to give one piece of advice, it’s just to keep an open mind. All of us have experienced, and I’m sure all of you will as well, twists and turns in your careers that you never saw coming. You never know where you may end up with this as your background. So, we have folks from four different aspects of the industry to talk to you about what they do and we hope it’s really helpful for you.
Panelist Introductions: Leaders Across the Jewelry Industry
Emili Vesilind: We’re so excited that you chose to spend this time with us, we really do have an incredible panel here, one shy but she’ll be coming. We did really aim high with these folks. These are some really bedrock incredible people working for some incredible companies. On that note, I will have them please introduce themselves. Let’s start with Brecken.
Brecken Branstrator: Good morning, I’m Brecken Branstrator and I’m the Editor-in-Chief of the Gem Guide which is a bimonthly market pricing and trends publication.
Emili: Mary.
Mary Enright: My name is Mary Enright and I have two jobs. One is paid: I’m the Workshop Manager at Van Cleef and Arpels. And my second unpaid passion is I’m the incoming president of the Women’s Jewelry Association, New York Metro Chapter.
Emili: The Workshop Manager for Van Cleef and Arpels. Just want to say that again. David.
David Berdugo: I’m David [Berdugo]. I have one job and it is paid. I am the Chief Operating Officer of James Allen and Blue Nile. Both of those are retailers mainly in the bridal industry, so engagement rings and wedding bands, but we would be able to make any type of jewelry for you. I run the operations which also means manufacturing, designs, merchandising, good stuff.
How We Got Here: Journeys into the Jewelry Industry
Emili: Blue Nile and James Allen. So, these are some incredible people up here. Thank you so much for joining us. Let’s start with the basics, which I think are not so basic when it comes to the three of you. Brecken, can we start with you? Can you please share how you came to jewelry as a career and why you’ve stayed?
Brecken: I came by a kind of roundabout. I studied journalism in college obviously, but when I graduated in 2010 there were not many journalism jobs to be had. What I found was that trade writing was an incredible opportunity that nobody had told me about. My first full-time job out of college was actually writing about alcohol.
Emili: The alcohol trade
Brecken: The alcohol trade and I don’t need to tell this room; it was so much fun. I spent two years going to all the events I could, gathering all the free samples I could. But it was creatively just not what I was looking for. So, I spent some time there.
Choosing Gems as a Career
When I was ready to make this switch, it just happened that on a journalism job board, a trade publication called National Jeweler was looking for a Colored Stone Editor. It may not make sense but really when it comes to journalism, as you know Emili, it’s much more about your writing skill than what you’re writing about. You know how to write and then you learn the rest of it. Because I had been a trade writer before, they hired me for those skills, print and digital. Then it was birth by fire for the rest.
I spent nine years at National Jeweler as their Colored Stone Editor and then in 2020, I made the choice right before the pandemic (before I knew what the world was going to be) to start my Graduate Gemology diploma at GIA. And had you know years to do nothing but study. And then I you know from there, I just decided that gems were it, that’s what I wanted to do.
Behind the Scenes at Gem Guide
Two years ago, I also started a new job at the Gem Guide and I’m farther into that. I consider Gem Guide to be somewhere between a gemology journal and a trade publication we’re sort of right in that niche. They hired me to sort of expand the content they have. If you aren’t familiar with it, we have about 60 pages of wholesale pricing for stones, about 10 of those are for diamonds. We don’t really focus on that, Rapnet does that as we probably all know. We do about 50 pages of colored stone pricing for wholesale per carat, so that’s really what we’re known for, and they hired me to expand on the editorial content as well. That’s what I’ve been working for the past two years.
Emili: Fantastic, thank you so much. I ran into you at a party after COVID and you were like I’m a gemologist now!
Brecken: Surprise!
Emili: Which was incredible and I love the journey. Shout out to trade journalism! If anybody’s interested in writing, trade journalism it’s a great starting point and haven for journalists these days, in a topsy turvy time.
Brecken: I went to school thinking I’m going to work at Elle one day. I’m going to be in the towers in New York and then they barely have full-time staffers now. I go back to my school all the time and say “let’s talk about trade writing” because it’s a wonderful opportunity. A little bit of job security in a way you wouldn’t expect because now I have this knowledge. I can never leave the industry because what am I going to do with whatever’s in [my head] right now.
Second Careers in Jewelry
Emili: Exactly. Thank you so much for sharing your story. Mary, your story starts in Ireland.
Mary: Yes, also this is my second career. So, in Ireland, in the ’90s when I was in high school, I went to a convent and we were given very limited career options. There were three: teaching, hairdressing, or nursing. I chose teaching because teachers got three months paid vacation so it seemed like the most attractive.
When I was studying, I did a year abroad and I studied in Colorado and part of one of the elective subjects I took was sculpture. I started working with copper and I was just absolutely hooked. But I had to come home and finish my degree and I taught for a couple of years. I would say that I’ve probably taken three big leaps of faith in changing my career path.
From Security to Passion
The first one was walking away from a very secure career. I went back to college to train as a goldsmith and the stars all really aligned. I got into an apprenticeship program. In Ireland we have one program and they take 12 students every two years so I do feel very blessed that I had that opportunity. After a few years I opened up my own retail store and workshop and I thought this was it. I was going to be happy in my little cottage by the sea which all sounds very romantic.
For most of the time, 99% of the time, I will try and lure everyone I can into the jewelry industry because I love it. It is one of the most rewarding careers, I feel, in the entire planet because it’s so varied. But remind me at some point to say that it’s not all positive, but the positives certainly outweigh the negatives. If anyone wants to talk about being in business for yourself, I can go into that during Q&A because it’s very romanticized but it can also be difficult.
The Challenge of Change
Emili: Challenging.
Mary: Challenging. This is about persistence and look I never give up hope on anything. I had always wanted to live in New York so I spent 19 years applying for a green card lottery and as soon as I won it, I packed my bags and closed my store. It was a big leap of faith to move. Even opening my store was probably my second leap of faith because the entire economic crisis happened in 2008 and that’s when I decided it was the perfect time to go into business, when nobody had any money. But I was in a really good position to haggle for a really good rent deal on a store, so I figured if I don’t try it, I’ll always regret not doing it.
Then the third one was moving to the United States. I arrived here with two suitcases and a pocket full of hopes and dreams and I landed. My first job was working in the Jewelry Design and Innovation workshop at Tiffany’s. They primarily focused on product development and it was where I got exposed to new types of manufacturing and technologies and it really ignited my curiosity about the industry because it’s so vast here. I had a three-year contract with them and as that was coming to an end, a friend of mine lectures at GIA, and she reached out to me to say they were looking for someone to teach jewelry design and CAD and I had a background in CAD engineering so I took that.
Staying Curious in the Industry
Mary: And then my current role, Van Cleef and Arpels never open up workshop jobs because once people start working there, they tend not to leave, but the company started growing. One thing I would encourage everyone is to remain curious about the industry and while I wasn’t job hunting, I was still actively on LinkedIn and receiving job notifications just because I want to know what’s happening in the industry. A job popped up and it was Senior Manager of the jewelry workshop.
Emili: Can you talk a little bit Mary, you and I talked before and you said kind of the first few days there you walked in and it was an all-male workshop…
Mary: Nobody said that the person coming in to oversee the technicians was a woman so I think when I walked in… Not when I had my own store, but when I moved here, I lived in Doc Martens for about 20 years in my career. I don’t know what it is about New York but I been in high heel since I arrived. So, I walked in in a pair of stilettos, like a really trendy blazer and I had all these older jewelers looking going, oh, no.
Emili: She knows nothing.
Mary: We’re not sure we like this. But my technical knowledge of my bench skills reinforced the concept that yes, a woman can do this. I did get pushed back in the beginning and I think that’s normal in any work environment because people want to have that reassurance that you can support them. But now I think they’d cry if I left.
Emili: You’ve won them over, that’s great.
Mary: I won them. The Irish charm helps, having an accent goes a long way sometimes, too, I think.
The Best Mistake: My Unexpected Path into the Jewelry Industry
Emili: David, your background is also International. Tell us a little bit about your background.
David: Yeah, so having an accent is a thing. If you don’t understand what I say, I’ll blame the accent, I was completely clear, you’re to blame because you don’t understand people with accents. I completely stumbled into the industry, I like to joke that I’m by mistake in the industry, but it’s the best mistake I’ve ever made, maybe. I came to New York; I went to NYU to study economics because I had no clue what I wanted to study and…
Emili: Seems safe.
David: Yeah, you’re like let’s do something safe and then by the time you finish you’re supposed to know what you want to do and I still had no clue. I loved school and I loved NYU and I love studying but I had no clue what I wanted to for work. So just like someone with an economics degree that doesn’t know what they want to do, I went in finance. I was in New York, I went into finance and I worked. I worked for a fund, a hedge fund and whatever money they gave me to manage, which wasn’t much, I was able to lose very quickly.
From Wall Street to Jewelry
I was just the worst trader in the history of Wall Street. So, I had a very short-lived career in finance and I schlepped myself around. Needing a Visa is kind of a scary thing when you’re in New York and you’re a foreigner. There was this company called James Allen that was growing faster than it could ever imagine. They were taking over the world where customers were more and more willing to purchase the most important jewelry piece of their life at that moment, which is an engagement ring.
At that moment in life that’s probably the most important thing you purchased, maybe even more than your car. You didn’t buy a house yet, probably. So, it’s a super significant moment in your life. It’s a scary moment and James Allen had this approach like, we’re online and we’re cool and we’re chill and we’re funny, and you can see our marketing is really much about that and we brought it online. They were growing really well and really fast but like many companies growing too fast, there was no control. It was great, it was amazing, right? I’m going to be in my 10th year next year in our company.
Diving Into the Numbers
When I came in, “David there’s too many numbers and we don’t know how to crunch them. You supposedly know numbers”, and I say, “well I don’t know any more. I just lost quite a lot of money” but supposedly I know numbers. This is how I got in and I started looking at manufacturing and supply chain and pricing and costing and I started learning about everything.
That was because there were no structures, I was able to touch so many subjects within the company. The company kept growing, despite me joining, incredible. And that’s it. Today we sell around $600 million a year of jewelry and engagement rings and wedding bands. It’s a huge and massive thing. I’m super proud and it is the best mistake I’ve ever made because this industry is truly incredible.
Yes, I could have stumbled into selling Diet Cokes, right? I would have been just fine, but there’s something super special about knowing that every time we ship a box to someone there’s an emotion on the other side. It’s a big emotion.
The Emotional Power of Jewelry
There are few industries that can say that the product that they sell to you, that they ship to you, is guaranteed, if you’re doing it well, to provide an incredible emotion on the other side. That’s a big responsibility, by the way. As a retailer, you should never lose track of that.
I can find myself faulting in that a little bit from time to time. You want to get to your numbers and you want to get there and you need to. You get the pressure of an industry. I think this is what’s great about this panel today, because I think a lot of you [students] didn’t taste yet the industry and you’re very much in the deep emotional, bound to the product itself, to design, to craftsmanship. This is tremendous and never lose track of it.
But you’re going to see that some of my advice today is to learn the other side of that industry. Because industry means that there’s money, and there’s sales, and there’s customers, and there’s marketing, and there’s storytelling. This is great and you need to learn about that but don’t lose track of who you are today in this room as you’re about to graduate. I understand you’re Juniors and Seniors. There’s an emotion in our industry and it’s very important not to forget that the product that we sell is different than other industries, right? In that sense.
Emili: Absolutely, thank you so much, that was wonderful. I want to stick with you for a minute, David. First of all, did they give you a plaque for worst stock broker? Do you have that plaque in your office?
David: My wife reminds me every day.
More Than Creativity: Why the Business Side Matters
Emili: Secondly, let’s dive right into the heart of the matter which is career opportunities within this industry. You work for such a huge, innovative company. You said to me when we did the pre-call, it’s incredible [design students] are getting this incredible sort of baseline education. The one thing that you said you would say, and I would love for you to expand on this after I say it, is they have to learn to at least tolerate the business side. Tell me a little bit more about that. Tell the students a little more about tolerating that business side and then maybe even embracing it and growing to like it. It can be incredibly satisfying and obviously can set you up financially, more solidly. Tell us.
David: Sure. I had to do the exact opposite direction of that track, by the way. I was completely in the world of economics and finance and then I’m coming into a jewelry company and I had to learn what it means to be part of a jewelry industry. To be part of that emotion that I that I mentioned before. But I’m guessing that this is a track that goes both ways.
Bridging Creativity and Industry Realities
We need to meet in the middle and your background is the exact opposite of mine, probably. You’re coming from design and craftsmanship and you want to have your say and your personality in what you make and that’s tremendous. But if you’re not willing to learn about what’s going on on the other side of that track, you’ll have a hard time sticking, because this is an industry.
Don’t ignore it, embrace it. It can be actually really fun also. You may not think that today but if you talk to a marketing team, they’re supposed to bring your story. The jewelry that you make is part of your story, you as a person is a part of that story as well, right? They will help you bring it out. If you understand that [with] the production team and the workshop team, there are deadlines.
The Importance of Accountability
So, it’s inevitable, whether you are the head of the workshop at Van Cleef or you’re the head of the workshop of James Allen-Blue Nile, who’s by the way is also in the room today, you need to meet deadlines, right? You need to understand that there’s a manager above you that you need to understand their expectations out of you.
That’s something that is tremendously important. Your education is not done when you get out of Pratt, just to be clear. You can learn a lot at Pratt. Just like my education wasn’t done when I got out of NYU. You need to learn [from] the people around you because they can help you. Because together you can get much further than you can get on your own.
That’s the beauty of our industry. Just like in every industry, but specifically I’ve seen it myself, this is an industry where you can find tremendous partners. Tremendous partners that will be willing to tolerate you as a designer who wants to only be about their pieces and be at their bench and work with copper and jewelry and gold and diamonds but will also be willing to teach you some of the things, as long as you show the willingness to do that. That’s why I use the word tolerating…
Emili: I think it’s perfect
The People Behind the Company
David: I think the unknown… You know, you can hear about a lot of things about big companies, etc… I work in a big company but every company is made of people. You can find, 100%, big companies, smaller companies, content creators, that will be just amazing and you’ll find the worst, as well. So be smart about what you choose, trust your guts about people because eventually whether it’s big or small or medium, people will make your career alongside you. People will connect you to others. People will force you to come to Pratt Institute on the rainy day in November when Black Friday is literally next week [laughter] and that’s okay.
Emili: Yes
David: Right? Mark owes me one. But my point is that, I implore you, for your own career, to find a little bit of passion for the people around you that you will need to compliment you and to compliment your work.
Emili: Jennifer Gandia is here. Thank you so much for being in an Uber for three hours or whatever it was. I mean oh my gosh.
Jennifer Gandia: I’ll tell you it was much easier to slip into class late when I was in college.
Emili: So true.
Jennifer: I never went to the front of the room.
Where Are the People? The Roles That Are Hard to Hire For
Emili: And I’m like come on up, come on up. Before we leave you David, what are the positions you have trouble finding people for at James Allen. What are the most uncompetitive positions?
David: Okay, so there’s the obvious one. Finding experienced jewelers and when we say experienced, you can be experienced at 16 years old. Experienced means good. That’s what we mean when we say experienced. We don’t mean age, we just mean good. You can be five years in the industry and you’re a tremendous setter because you just have an amazing talent for it, right.
I can give you an example of a nail technician that never touched a piece of jewelry in her life. When she joined us, within a year, she was one of the best setters in our workshop because she just had the hands for that. I just imagine if you were to get your nails done by her before that [laughter]. Experience doesn’t necessarily mean time, but being an amazing craftsman is hard to come by.
Most of the time, there will be a correlation between the time that you spent or the amount of items that you touched, the amount of jewelry that you fixed. Being a repair jeweler, by the way, is the most difficult thing because being a repair jeweler just means that you fix the – I’m going to stay polite today – problems that other created. That others before you in the workshop created, but you have the ability.
Finding the Right Fit in the Workshop
So those are the most difficult things, craftsmen, jewelers, setters. An amazing polisher is not the same as an entry-level polisher, definitely not, so those are the objectives in the workshop environment. But the truth is that every job is hard to come by, because every company will have a personality. Maybe even a team within the company will have a certain personality and you need to find people that fit you and you fit them and you’ll complement each other. It’s people meeting people at the end of the day. So, every job is hard to come by because you’ll need to find a team and someone that will be willing to tolerate your personality also.
Revitalizing Craftsmanship in Jewelry
Emili: Totally, also thank you. Mary, where do you see the white spaces in your workshop environment? What are you looking for and what is it kind of hard for you to find?
Mary: I feel like I could just go home because David is covering everything that I would like to share. I feel like we might have different sizes of workshops but I think the pain points are probably the same. Definitely jewelers, setters and polishers.
I think there’s been a really nice shift in the recent past to encourage people into trades and back into craft. Because it is it’s going to become a dying craft if we don’t bring new energy and new hands and new ideas and new innovations into it. I would also like to reiterate that it’s not necessarily the length of time you’ve been at the bench. I’ve met bench jewelers who’ve been on the bench for 40 years and I have jewelers who, even when I had my own store, who walked in right out of college and immediately they just had this innate ability to understand what they were doing at the bench. It’s like art/science/engineering/architecture, you have to have such a really broad understanding, but definitely, and I think industrywide, craftspeople.
Societal Shifts and Career Paths
Emili: Why do you think Mary, that that’s been flagging, as something that people study?
Mary: I feel…
Emili: Technology?
Mary: I think in terms of craftspeople… When society changes, and certainly when I left school in Ireland and it’s similar in a lot of cultures in around the same timeline, [they] push the opportunity for education, college and more traditional pursuits because there was security. A lot of countries were going through recessions.
My dad is a carpenter and in Ireland, in his generation, nobody went to college. [My parents] really pushed for me to go because I had the opportunity. Job security is a big thing. As a craftsperson, and especially in Ireland, your only real option if you wanted to create your own work was to have your own store or workshop. It’s the insecurity of income that can be difficult to navigate. To David’s point, you have to have an understanding of how business operates as well. Even if it’s not your jam, but you have to learn it, you have to understand it. I think here in the States as well, the big push was towards academia outside of the creative part of academics.
The Next Generation
Emili: [Audience], how many of you all work on the bench and are training to be bench jewelers? Just a couple. What does everybody else study within jewelry? More like theory?
Patricia Medeja: We are a design and making program. All of our students should raise their hands.
Emili: I was hoping everybody would raise their hand and I’d go “well here’s the next generation” but it didn’t work out.
Mary: We need you.
Emili: You’re very needed! I think that’s what all the panelists are saying. Is that fabricators, people who know how to stone set. This is a needed skill and it can equal a really satisfying and incredible career, right?
The Type of Person for the Bench
But then David you said on the phone with me, not everyone can sit at the bench for 40 years, it takes certain type of professional, a certain type of person.
David: I think there’s no one in this room that is thinking that they could do that. I can guarantee you that there are a few of you that will love that. Statistically, this will happen. Some of you will just love that work, love that job. However, there is so much you can learn just by doing it for two years.
Emili: Yeah.
David: Being in an environment with deadlines, an environment where you need to learn. I’m assuming some of you don’t even know the difference between marketing and merchandising and advertising. I didn’t know, I didn’t know, it’s not clear if I know today! But my point is, joining a company, joining the industry before you start making strides on your own, if this is your calling.
If you don’t know anything and you make strides on your own, you didn’t choose to make the strides on your own. You just went for it because you knew nothing else or you thought there was nothing else out there. If you join a company even for a year, two, three years, doesn’t matter, whatever you feel like. First of all, you may discover that what you wanted all along was to be in the industry, but not necessarily designing.
Finding Your Path in Jewelry
Maybe you wanted to be in the industry but not necessarily at the bench, not necessarily doing CAD design. If you do CAD design for 3 years, maybe you’re like, I don’t like this anymore but I do love the industry and I love the storytelling of jewelry and this is what actually matters to me is how do we tell a story around jewelry. Allow yourself to choose where you want to go. Don’t be like me when you stumble onto something. I was lucky to stumble into this industry as I said before but you don’t have to stumble into your career.
Emili: You can choose.
David: You can choose it, but to choose you need to have education and education is more than, I know we’re within Pratt, but it’s more than just school. Education is throughout your entire life. I learn every day from the people around me. From the people on this panel today, I will learn something. I think that’s the case. The more you know, the more you learn, the more you choose your path. That’s something that I encourage. Go in the places that you believe will be uncomfortable for you. They don’t have to be, because it’s people that make you uncomfortable, not places.
Emili: That’s a good point. Thank you so much.
Insights from Trade Reporters
Emili: Brecken, you and I have a very unique view of the industry as trade reporters. I’m not a trade reporter anymore but I was and you were too. You still are. You are also a gemologist. What do you hear and what do you understand about the jewelry industry and kind of what it’s lacking career-wise or sub-question where do you see people being really satisfied and happy? What roles?
Brecken: Oh, that’s a great question. From what I hear, sorry to jump on you guys, but it is in the maker space. I’ll be curious though if that’s trending in a different direction. For the past two years, I’ve been at a summer conference here in New York where there were people talking about jewelry making classes. They had seen an increase in people signing up for them. As well as an increase in like making tools from one of the biggest suppliers for the schools and not even college level. There are more high schoolers that are getting into it and high schoolers that are trying to focus on that. I’m hoping that we’re seeing a trend in the other direction but we’ll see.
As for the greatest satisfaction, that’s really interesting. I want to throw some love to my gem people because I think that one of the reasons I was so attracted when I was at my first publication National Jeweler was it was a more all-encompassing look. So, I got a lot of exposure to a lot of different levels of the supply chain which was is excellent.
Passion for Colored Stones
One of the reasons I loved colored stones so much was because – I mean this in the best way – but the people are so nerdy. They can talk about colored stone treatments for hours and there are whole conferences just about a stone treatment or the research that’s being done on the ground. I find that that sector is just – I mean you have to be passionate to study a handful of stones for months on end and then turning out these research papers in GIA’s G&G. I just love that sector so much, so love those people.
Emili: I mean, I feel like gemology careers can be incredibly satisfying, right? It is that merging of science and beauty that I think is not present in most careers on the planet.
Brecken: Yeah, 100%. You can sit around and talk about “you know this stone should be priced more than this stone because it has these factors” so specifically. Then sometimes a stone just speaks to a person and it’s just beautiful and there’s that magic that comes with it too. Combined with when you get farther into the supply chain and you start understanding what it takes for these stones to be mined and how many hands it has to go through, you really start to appreciate it in a such a different way, I think. Even beyond seeing it set in a beautiful piece of jewelry. Totally.
Career Paths with a Gemology Diploma
Emili: Brecken, what can you do with a gemology diploma?
Brecken: Oh my gosh, so much. Our biggest readership is for jewelry appraisers, independent appraisers, which I think is so interesting. You can also work at a gem lab of course, you can be a wholesaler, you can work at an auction house, there’s lots beyond even just the big ones. Consider a smaller house, they tend to get a lot of really interesting pieces still that don’t have the historical provenance but they do a lot of really cool sales, really often. I get the impression that you would get a lot more hands-on with the pieces themselves because the auction market is fascinating when it comes to the gem and jewelry world. There really so much to do.
Emili: Thank you so much.
Spotting Gaps in the Market
Jennifer, thank you so much for being here. Before you came, everyone introduced themselves and said what they did. Can you do that for me?
Jennifer: Thank you all for having me. I’m very sorry that I was late. My name is Jennifer Gandia and I am a co-owner of Greenwich St. Jewelers. We are a second-generation fine jewelry retailer. We have a store located in Tribeca and we also have a website and e-com business.
Emili: Incredibly influential store, Greenwich St. Jewelers.
Jennifer: Thank you, so that’s who I am and what I do.
Emili: Yeah, and then tell us tell us where you’re seeing sort of the white spaces in the market for people looking for jobs within the industry. Retail is obviously your specialty but I know that you are knowledgeable about all facets.
Jennifer: Yeah, our store is interesting. Our company is interesting because we have a full shop in our store where we do employ jewelers and manufacture right in our space. As well as work with exterior manufacturers for some of our pieces. We also do service work which not a lot of jewelers do on premise any longer. So, repairs, restorations of antique pieces, restyling, full custom. Then we have the store itself where we sell wedding jewelry, as well as somewhere between, it’s always changing, but maybe 30 to 35 independent designer brands as well of as five of our own collections.
Roles for Gemologists Across Departments
There’s a lot happening in the in the building and we do employ gemologists. Some of our salespeople are gemologists, our Production Director is a gemologist. We have all these different departments. We have production which encompasses a team that is tasked with – we’ve got our director, obviously, that sits on top and guides everything – we do gem sourcing, there’s a Production Coordinator for example who’s coordinating all the work that’s coming in and out.
We’ve got our two jewelers, one is a Master Jeweler, one’s a bench jeweler. I concur with everything that was already said about working on the bench and having that innate talent can really get you far. Also working on the bench for a little while and then deciding to do something else. We’ve had people do that as well, go from the bench into production. Then we’ve got a full marketing department.
Finding Your Path Through Serendipity
I came from a marketing background. I went to FIT for marketing, did not plan to go into the family business at all. [The store] was started by our parents and kind of fell into it as well and I think there’s something to be said for those moments of serendipity where you do find yourself someplace that maybe you might not have chosen for yourself. I don’t think I would have chosen, I had no plans to.
I was not interested to go into jewelry, I wanted to be in a fashion career, I wanted the big New York fashion life. Then I did that and realized, oh wow, this actually isn’t that fulfilling and went to work with for my parents for a time during a difficult time. It was during 9/11 and really fell in love with all of the things that I didn’t understand about jewelry that I didn’t know yet.
Balancing Planning with Opportunity
So, I think that there’s an argument for both. For knowing what you want to do or at least having a plan. I certainly had a plan about getting into a certain industry and then here I am 20 years later. I really lead up the marketing and web departments so there’s work in social media in my company, there’s work in marketing, in digital, then we have a full robust sales team.
My sales team come from so many different walks of life and have gotten to sales different ways. Some of them started out as independent designers and realized how much they love working with people. Got their GG and now work with us where they can do custom at the counter with people. That’s also another job that doesn’t sound as sexy to some people but you know my sales people make really good money and they get to work with people and they get to work with beautiful jewelry.
Diverse Roles and Meaningful Impact in Jewelry
[They] have work on very many different aspects of jewelry within their role, like I said, from custom to restyling, taking heirloom pieces and working with things have a lot of sentiment. There’s nothing like making a client happy about an older piece of jewelry or something. It could be so simple that you’ve repaired something that they couldn’t wear that was their grandmothers or grandfathers. They’re just so grateful. That is just the best feeling in the world. Just to say that there’s so many roles within our industry that can touch a lot of different interests that you all might have and that might change. Your interests might change as you go along in life.
Emili: Thank you so much, that was a great answer, Jennifer. I feel like your team in particular is so tight. I know some of the people who work for you and they’ve worked for you for years, you and your sister Christina. What qualities, personal qualities do you look for when you’re hiring? I think that’s really important.
Jennifer: One of our internal tenets is that we embody luxury without pretention. We want people to feel very comfortable when they come into our store. The only way to really do that is for us to have a team that feels really comfortable with each other. Often times, and I think this was already mentioned, it’s a person-to-person connection. We’re looking for people who are enthusiastic and passionate about what they do; that are open and curious and willing to learn. People that enjoy working with others that are interested in working on a team. Our jewelers are a little more solitary and that’s okay. They can do that.
Emili: They chose that.
Culture Fit: Building the Right Team
Jennifer: It comes down to culture. There has to be a what we perceive as a culture fit and then matching that with skill. I think most companies, at least at our size, I don’t know how it is once you get to mid- and large-scale companies, but bringing someone in is almost like bringing someone into your home, into your family. That’s the team that’s going to help create that feeling when the client walks through the door. You can’t fake that. You can’t put that on. It really has to be built and nurtured from within.
Emili: Great answer, thank you so much. Mary, what’s something important that you could tell students planning to enter the industry, about the industry.
Stay Curious and Embrace Opportunities
Mary: I think you can all hear from everyone’s answers that it’s so vast and so broad. I went into it thinking that I’m going to be a designer goldsmith and that’s me, I’m done. The more you learn about it and I would say don’t go into it blinkered, always remain open to opportunities because then nothing passes you by. It mightn’t be something that you’ve planned for but at least if you remain curious about the industry, you will continue to learn and grow and develop, even if it is as a designer. Right now, I think it’s a really exciting time to be in the industry because of new technologies. I’ve almost – I think I’ve forgotten the question because now I’m going, oh my God, I need them all to enter the industry! What do I need to impart on them?
David: Your answer was still good.
Emili: No, that was a great answer and that’s part of it, that’s a huge part of it. We had talked earlier about something that maybe you wouldn’t know about the jewelry industry unless you were in it.
Family Ties and Reputation in the Jewelry Industry
We talked about the example that it’s still kind of one of the last commerce categories that is very family-driven and that is peopled with so many family businesses. Jennifer’s in a family business. That as somebody moving around within the industry, you should know this. Mary, you and I talked about how your reputation travels, especially in the New York industry. And how important that is. Can you talk about that?
Mary: Yes, the industry, even globally, it is a huge industry, but it’s also very tight and very interconnected. Throughout your career, the best advice I can give is to always lead with integrity and respect because the industry is really founded on trust. Trust is a huge part of our industry and your reputation will follow you. I would say always be mindful, always treat people with respect and integrity. You’re extremely lucky in New York in that you have choice so if you end up doing business with people you don’t like, there are other options. In Ireland, there was one casting company and they were lovely to deal with
Emili: But if you messed it up…
Joining Industry Organizations and Building Community
Mary: There were no alternatives. And build on community. There are so many organizations that you can join and they’re there to support people in the industry. I’ll do a quick plug for WJA because we do –
Emili: Women’s Jewelry Association
Mary: Women’s Jewelry Association. It started as a women’s organization
Jennifer: Not only for women, though
Mary: Yeah, but it started as a women’s organization because we were not allowed join other clubs so we made our own. But we welcome everybody to become a member and students get free membership so if it’s something that you would like to try. I’m a big believer in anything you can get for free, but you will learn so much, you will meet so many interesting people and a lot of the events are free to attend. I know a lot of other organizations have like mix and mingle events and you’ll find your own tribe. You’ll find that community that fuels your desire and you’re aligned in your core values and beliefs and when you do that, the industry is just the most magical place to be in.
Emili: I think that’s so great and I know we all know, all of us, and Mark and I, that the sort of webs of interconnectivity, relationships that are built within this industry are personally so valuable and professionally valuable, as well. So, great, great point.
Advice for Newcomers to the Jewelry Industry
Emili: Brecken, what is something that’s important for newbies in the industry to know about the industry?
Brecken: I think I’m going to get a little inside baseball with this one. I think that something people don’t realize until they get in the industry and maybe even then is sort of the differences in supply chains between diamonds and colored stones. I promise this is coming to a point but when we talk about diamonds as we know you’ve got a handful of really big miners that can trace their diamonds from mine to market, so to speak.
But when we talk about colored stones, in reality 80 to 90% of color gemstones are mined by ASM miners. That is literally one person who is maybe in the middle of nowhere in Tanzania or Kenya with a pickaxe mining these stones. The reason I bring this up is because I assume that as you guys really get into the industry you will find that at most parts of the supply chain I would guess responsible sourcing is part of the conversation.
Following Trade News and Staying Informed
For whatever that means to people, I think it’s really important as you’re getting going, I’m a very big proponent and I’m biased, but I’m a very big proponent of staying in touch with the trade news and the trade publications. There are two free ones that are daily: National Jeweler and JCK. Sign up for them but follow along because I think the more you understand how it works from the earliest steps of the supply chain and where those stones are going, the easier it is for you to figure out what it means to you when you say responsible sourcing. Like what you want to be looking for, what you want to ask people about, and what you really want to fight for when it comes to what you’re including in your work later.
Practical First Steps: Building Your Professional Presence
Emili: Such a good answer, thank you. David, one epic piece of advice for this audience.
David: Okay, so everyone was allowed to give a regular piece of advice but mine needs to be epic.
Emili: Yours, from what you’ve laid down here today, I expect epic.
David: I’m actually going to be super practical because I think the panel is amazing, but sometimes you can walk out of a panel like “okay, but what do I do now”. I want to give you something practical that I think summarizes quite a lot of what we said. The industry is super vast but at the end of the day there’s jobs in each location of that vastness. What I’m telling you is like go to LinkedIn, get yourself a nice picture and a nice profile and write about yourself. Have a little story about yourself. You already have a great story because you’re in this room and you went to Pratt.
Exploring Opportunities: Follow, Learn, and Apply
I don’t need to know much more to know that you have a great story to tell. Follow some of the companies in our industry from the biggest one to the smallest ones to the institutions. I call them the three letters. WJA is one of those amazing three letters and there’re great other three letters in our industry. Follow all of them. Apply to any job that they post unless you have a real reason to know that this is not a job for you. It could be something that is out of what you think is your path, because what I’m telling you is that the path that you have in your mind right now is a path you didn’t choose yet. You chose it because you don’t know more than what you have right now.
Learn more and if this is still your path, amazing! You’ll know how to thread it even better after you’ve learned something else. Go and learn something else. You can go into a supply chain department in our industry for any retailer big or small. We all need to take care of responsible sourcing. We need to understand industry players.
Hands-On Learning: The Value of Industry Travel
I just came back from India and Thailand and I learned so much in five days in India that I couldn’t learn in 5 years in New York. Go and be part of that trip. There was someone that was an entry-level merchant with us. Just imagine how much she learned during those 5 days in India. I had to wait 9 years to be able to get the budget to go to India, she was able to come with us.
Go in merchandising and learn how jewelry is priced and how it’s costed and how do we sell it. Which customer is targeted with what because this is it at the end of the day, not everyone buys the same things, in the same demographics, the same areas, the same geographies, the same context. Go and learn merchandising. Go and learn marketing. You all have a story within you. You may not know yet how to package that story. Working for a marketing department at a retailer will teach you how storytelling is done. Either in a way, if you’re in a good marketing department but also maybe in a bad way and you’ll learn from that as well if you join a not-so-great retailer. I don’t know where we stand by the way, just to be clear.
[Laughing]
My point is that there’s a lot of opportunities out there and there will be also opportunities out there. I’m going to share about an opportunity that will happen next year at James Allen. We intend to choose one designer that knows nothing but design next year. Someone local and we we’re going to give them all of the support from –
Hands-On Opportunities for Young Designers
Emili: Oh wait, slow down. This is a really, really cool thing. Okay, start at the beginning for this because this is something that people in this room might be really interested in applying for.
David: The opportunity I’m going to give you is not necessarily better than the other opportunities I just told you. This is something that in my opinion is probably already in your path, like if I get something like this, I feel great about it. It’s great, but everything else that I just said about LinkedIn, don’t dismiss it. This is just as important, could be just as important in the long run of your career. But next year, we’re going to choose a young designer that knows nothing but design. We’re going to support them with storytelling and marketing and manufacturing and sourcing and we’ll put the money behind the manufacturing and the sourcing and the diamonds and the jewelry.
Emili: One designer.
David: We’re going to try one designer and we’re going to make a capsule collection in partnership with James Allen with the manufacturing of James Allen, etc… We’re going to send it out to all of our customers in email and social media and that’s a great opportunity. I wish I was 21 years old right now to be able to apply for it. I would probably not get it; I wouldn’t be chosen for it because I’m not great at design.
When we make the decision of who is that designer that we intend to choose, that designer needs to understand who I am and who the people on the panel to select the designer will be. If you don’t know how to tell your story, you don’t know how to package it, you don’t know how to market yourself, which can be a scary word, you won’t be selected probably. Not because you’re not good or you’re not a good designer, it’s just because we won’t know that you’re a good designer and we won’t know that you’re not good, that you’re good.
Building Skills and Crafting Your Story
No matter what, skill sets are important. Besides craftsmanship, besides being who you are and being a wonderful designer, as I’m assuming some of you believe you are. You need to be able to tell your story and build your story. This can come from more and more experiences all around. If you worked in any of our companies or institutions here, then you would know more how to do it better. That’s the practical advice. Go to LinkedIn, look for opportunities that are outside of the path and do the best to understand what to do when the opportunities that are within your path. There’s not so many of them but there are a few of those as well.
Emili: If you make jewelry, please do not have a private Instagram account or no Instagram account. Walking around NYC Jewelry Week, occasionally I will chance upon a lovely, incredible collection that I can’t tag on social media and it doesn’t make sense in this day and age. That’s my one little tiny piece of advice. Mary, you’re going to have a more epic piece of advice for everybody.
The Importance of Asking Questions
Mary: Well, I kind of now want to apply for the James Allen design thing. That’s a tough one to follow. I would say again to the LinkedIn point, if you see a role, that’s really an employer’s wish list. If you’re not meeting all of the criteria, don’t dismiss it because you could be the perfect person for them. They can always teach you the skills on the job.
The other piece of advice I would say is immerse yourself in the industry whether if that’s through organizations. A lot of organizations are nonprofits and they’re always looking for people to volunteer on committees or to help out at events. They’re great ways to network and it is like an old business adage, network to get work, but it’s really how our industry operates. And just to your previous point about the industry seems very closed and it does. If you don’t have family in the industry, it can be a little harder to navigate but just don’t ever be afraid to knock on a door.
Lifelong Learning and Mentorship in Jewelry
Emili: Just ask questions.
Mary: It is the one industry where people, I have found anyway here, are so willing to help. They’re so willing to guide. They want to pass on their skills and their knowledge. Never stop learning. You have an amazing foundation here at Pratt, be a lifelong learner, stay curious about the industry, stay on top of trends. You have the most amazing resources; you have an encyclopedia in your pocket now which is
Emili: It’s amazing.
Mary: It’s great. Reach out to people. I’ve had people reach out to me on LinkedIn and I’ve met them for coffee because they’re earlier in their career and anyone in the industry is exceptionally supportive so don’t –
Emili: It’s a kind industry
Mary: It is. It can be exceptionally kind, exactly.
Emili: I agree, unlike maybe fashion, like I feel having covered both. Would you agree?
Jennifer: Yes.
Get to Know Yourself
Emili: Yeah, tell me Jennifer, what is your one piece of advice for this young audience.
Jennifer: There’s been so much good stuff covered. I think that spending time getting to know yourself is also really important. Knowing how you learn, how you work, do you like working with others, are you good in a group project. Are you a leader? Do you know that you’re a leader? Are you a follower? That’s a great thing to know about oneself, it’s not a negative.
Really having a sense of who you are is going to help you to also find environments that work for you. Because it’s not all about the employer and what they’re able to get from you. You have to know if that’s going to be a good match for you as well. To that end, if you do have the opportunity to interview for a role, my favorite interviews are when someone is like “yeah, I have a couple of questions” and either pull out their phone or pull out a pad and I see, oh yeah, they’ve got questions. I really love to see someone who is also qualifying us.
Connecting Through Industry Organizations
That’s one thing that I would say. I also just wanted to, I kind of missed my opportunity earlier, but I also want to put in a plug for Black in Jewelry Coalition, which is another incredible organization. It is a newer organization. Everyone is welcome. I sit on the Board of Advisers and they do have, I believe, a student membership which is quite affordable. It’s a broad reaching organization that really aims to help promote Black professionals in the jewelry, watch and gem industry. It’s just good to know that there are other organizations out there for you as well. Are there any other trade organizations that we can mention that people can join at this stage in their career?
Mary: A lot of them are exceptionally exclusive like the 24 Karat Club, you have to be nominated.
Jennifer: Yeah, no
Mary: I’ve never been inside the door, still waiting for that nomination. But BIJC are an amazing organization and they have just opened a school. That jewelry program out in Long Island, which is what we really need to have new talent from a young age be exposed to the industry and know that it’s an option.
Building Connections That Last
Jennifer: And don’t forget you’re actually very qualified to talk to younger people in your life or that you may be in community with about careers, studies in the Arts. I don’t know exactly what each one of you is studying or where you’ll end up but we all are responsible for sharing the message of what a next step could look like for someone younger in our lives.
Emili: Great point, thank you. Brecken, last question: what is your big piece of advice?
Brecken: Well, I hate to group too much with what they were saying but when I think back to what made the biggest difference to me at the start was the networking. That was maybe because it’s not my natural inclination to go to an event alone. I’m not a naturally extroverted person. But it did make the biggest difference to me in terms of putting my face in front of people and telling them about what I did and sort of building that trust for them to come to me with stories.
Discovering Stories Beyond the Press Release
I think when you talk about finding the stories, like what we should be writing about in the industry, it’s rarely the press releases that are sent out. Those are maybe a little bit more obvious or that other trade publications are going to be covering it. But the amount of stories that have come out of just conversations at a bar after a trade show are monumental. Just forcing myself into these things from an early start and I always think back to my first Tucson Gem Show.
I went to the first Tucson Gem Show three months into being in the industry and it was that situation of not knowing what I didn’t know so I didn’t even know what to talk to people about. I got one invite to an event with a cutter and I don’t know how he got my name, I went and we were having a conversation about a gemstone and I wrote an article about it during that interview. Two months later he said we’re going to Tanzania and Kenya in two months, I think you should come. I was like “yeah, okay” and that was such a pivotal moment for me in terms of growing myself as a journalist. To build on what they said, it really is an industry of relationships and building a trust and having your face out there. Go to as many events as you can.
The Intangible Magic of Jewelry
Emili: You want to add something Jennifer?
Jennifer: Go to stores, touch jewelry, put it on, look at the stones, go to Mejuri, go to Bloomingdale‘s, come to our store, walk into a Tiffany, look at the jewelry, touch it, feel it. Get a sense of what lights you up because that is the intangible thing about jewelry, is that there are going to be things that make your heart flutter and your stomach drop. Whether it’s for just being so rare or unique, or just because you are really fucking into it. Go learn what that is. There’re little stores on the Lower East Side you can go visit or in Chinatown. But if you think you want to get into jewelry, go out and play with jewelry. You’re certainly welcome to come into our store anytime.
The Timeless Value of Jewelry
Emili: One more little thing.
David: I’m gonna add exactly to that. I mentioned before that it can be sometimes easy, especially for someone like me but anyone working in in a company, to sometime lose track of the emotion that is embedded within the product we sell. One of the places I go to besides retailers, actually, I go to the museum. I live in the Upper East Side. My daughter loves to go to the MET, there’s the Egyptian section there. When you walk around, you see jewelry from 3,000 years ago. It gives me a sense of job security; jewelry’s been here for 3,000 years.
Emili: It’s not going away.
David: It’s not going away. You chose a great industry in that sense. There’s something about it; there’s a reason that what we find from people 3,000 years ago is their jewelry pieces.
Emili: Such a good point.
David: There’s a reason in Titanic the old lady is all about her necklace. I’m only half joking. So yes, go to stores, but there’s 3,000 years of jewelry that you can connect with that as well.
Emili: Awesome. Thank you so much for your smarts and for your passion for this industry and for sharing it with us and with these students. So appreciate it, thank you.
Key Takeaways and Final Insights
Mark: Thank you so much. We told you that we shot high with this panel and we’re so thrilled that they showed up. You guys were all fantastic and hopefully take what you learned today and go run with it.
You all touched on so many great points. The whole time I’m nodding, I’m nodding, I’m nodding because I too was bumped into this industry not by choice and thought I’d be out in a week. I was like “I’m out of here” then I went to my first industry event and everybody wanted to know me and everybody cared and I was like “oh, I like this world.” That was 20 years ago.
I love that we touched on emotion. That’s the secret sauce of this industry. Nobody cried when they inherited their grandmother’s cell phone. There’s something about a physical object with an emotional connection that’s just completely unique to jewelry, so that’s wonderful.
Networking is also like this. This industry is so kind, it’s so warm, it’s so welcoming and there’s endless opportunities for networking. Whether it’s through the Black in Jewelry Coalition or Women’s Jewelry Association or even the American Gem Society or American Gem Trade Association for colored stones. You’ll learn about these organizations as you go along. Doors are open, enthusiasm is welcomed. Thank you all so much and thank you all for joining us.
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