Team

JB Jones is the Co-Founder of NYC Jewelry Week where she oversees the company’s marketing, initiatives and educational programs. She is the co-host of the NYC Jewelry Week’s podcast ROUGH CUT, the leading jewelry podcast in the United States. In 2022, she co-created Box, a flexible design-focused exhibition space attached to The Jewelry Library in NYC. Box launched at NYC Jewelry Week 2022 with an exhibition curated by Helen Drutt. JB pens a monthly column on contemporary jewelry for the industry publication The Zing Report. Prior to launching NYCJW, she was the Director of Marketing at Reinstein Ross & RR Gallery and worked for NYC-based brands Anna Sui and Matta. Before entering the jewelry industry, she served as Creative Director of The Site UnScene, a platform supporting & exhibiting emerging street artists in Los Angeles. She has curated numerous jewelry and street art exhibitions, most notably PLACEMENT at RR Gallery with Bella Neyman in 2016 which marked the start of their partnership and JB’s entry into the jewelry world. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, WWD, Juxtapoz, Obey, Work Magazine, TimeOut and more. She currently resides in Brooklyn.

Bella Neyman is an independent curator and journalist specializing in contemporary jewelry. Since graduating with a Master’s Degree in Decorative Arts and Design History from the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum & Parsons, The New School for Design in 2008, she has worked for some of New York City’s leading design galleries. For the last three years, she was the Director of New York’s only contemporary jewelry gallery. In addition to this, in 2014, along with Ruta Reifen, Bella founded Platforma, a contemporary jewelry-focused initiative whose exhibitions have been on view in the U.S. and Europe. Bella’s articles have been published in The New York Times, American Craft, and the magazine Antiques. She is also a frequent contributor Modern magazine and Metalsmith. Bella is on the Board of Art Jewelry Forum. She resides with her family in Brooklyn.

Based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Chantel is a jewelry factotum. Over the past twenty years, she has consulted as a diamond buyer, studio manager, gemologist, appraiser, as well as in business operations and administration. She is a Graduate Gemologist and Registered MasterValuer. Her unique set of skills, honed in the studio jewelry world, is complemented by her formal training as a metalsmith. Chantel holds a BFA from NSCAD University and an MFA from MassArt where her studies focused on drawing parallels between crystal growth and the human condition. She maintains an active studio practice while championing projects that give international exposure to the Canadian art jewelry community.

Born in Guatemala City, Andrea Rosales-Balcarcel is an artist and jeweler currently based out of Pennsylvania. With a desire to pursue a career in the arts, Andrea attended Pratt Institute in 2012, for a BFA in Jewelry and a minor in Art History. She had the opportunity to work for David Yurman straight out of school, where she gained additional experience while working as a bench jeweler in their in-house shop, as well as a design assistant under the Head Design for the High, Fine, and BridalJewelry department. During and since her career at David Yurman, Andrea has continued to develop her own personal work as an artist. In the past 5 years, she has had the opportunity to participate in multiple international shows, including LOOT: Mad About Jewelry in New York City, in 2017, Artistar Jewels in Milan, 2018 as well as the 2019 Guan Tong-International Jewelry Art Exhibition in Beijing, China. Her ultimate goal and dream is to turn to education and become a bridge for future students from a similar background to pursue additional goals and dreams in the arts.

Ariana is a writer and researcher specializing in jewelry history and criticism. With a background in fashion merchandising, she is particularly interested in approaching jewelry from a fashion studies perspective. Ariana’s most recent publications include “The Importance of Being Jeweled: Patriotism and Adornment During the First World War” for The Journal of Dress History and “The Claudette Colbert Starfish,” published by the American Society of Jewelry Historians. Today, as she pursues a Master’s degree in Decorative Arts and Design History at the Bard Graduate Center, Ariana’s research focuses on design piracy within the American costume jewelry industry.

After graduating from Eugene Lang, the New School for Liberal Arts, Emilija spent two years in Lithuania volunteering for an NGO specializing in tutoring underserved children and taking geopolitical courses at Vilnius University. After returning to the states, she apprenticed as a jewelry photographer and worked as a sales associate at The Hat Shop where she eventually became the shop’s manager, working with the owner in production, design, promotion and sales. Emilija currently works for Alex Sepkus and is in charge of all the studio’s visual needs as well as social media. Her interests are expanding into communications and making her cats Tumblr famous.