It appears to be time for a reality check!

If any of you are signed up for Dr. Oz’s Transformation Nation emails, you may have already seen that headline.

I really had to laugh though…. I am not sure what is funnier, the idea of mental acuity tips or setting “realistic goals.”

It is officially crunch time.  We are in the last 4 weeks of prep before our most important annual trade show in Las Vegas. This is where all us jewelry trade insiders meet up and see who has the biggest, best, baddest ass new products and which fabulous stores will buy them.  It’s a pretty intense 6 days that takes all 365 days to prepare for.

Some years we just design line extensions for the show.  That is when we add on new pieces to an already existing collection selling in the marketplace.  And some years, we introduce an entirely new design direction.  The line extension years are not so risky, more of a necessity than anything.  But the whole new design direction years are killer.  It is always stressful making new samples; engineering jewelry is not glamorous, and not remotely a fast process.

This year….we came up with 50 completely new designs and several color combos of each for a total of….a LOT of new pieces in a metal we have never worked with in production before!  This may not sound like a big deal, but in tandem with coordinating all of the custom stones being cut for us across the globes, the delayed shipments of said stones, and the rest of the prep work that goes into planning for the show, we are freaking out!  Well, I am really freaking out.  Maybe the title of this post should be “Keep Calm and Carry On!”

Mental Acuity tip: remove head before it bursts into flames!

I want to wish all of my fellow jewelry colleagues smooth sailing to the finish line.  Good luck everyone!

Lots of love,

Jane

I know I’m a little late, but, welcome to the year of the Dragon.  This is my version.  I have a bad case of missing Paris!

That said, it’s not like we haven’t been busy over here while pining away for freshly made baguettes just out of the oven. We’ve actually been on Weight Watchers! I’ve been coming up with all kinds cooking tricks to stay focused and committed.  I’ll post some of my tasty experiments sans the butter, white flour & white sugar in the recipe section soon….OH BOY!  Are we having fun yet?…Maybe in another 10 lbs.

Dieting is one way to become one with the Dragon, but another is to turn your entire business upside down and inside out.  Yup, that’s what we are smack in the middle of over here.  It is so exciting and scary and well, I just hope it works!  I got really tired of being on the gold roller coaster, it was destroying my creativity.  Sorry for the buzz kill.  But—I’m heading into the land of silver….it’s a beautiful metal and much more affordable.  The goal is too make stylish jewelry with fabulous colored stones, totally wearable day into night and of the highest quality as to always become a family heirloom. Here’s a sneak peak at a few of our first Color Candy Silver rings.

The other EXTREMELY exciting news is we will be launching our new silver line, called JT Silver, at the Couture show in Las Vegas with the help of Sande Finkel’s brilliant marketing prowess and Jeff Koch’s ultra elegant sales style.  The booth is #514, Sande calls her booth The Collective because she has several International designers represented together.  More will be shared about this later on….stay tuned.

There is so much newness going on here, I barely touched the tip of this iceberg!  No fire breathing dragons here.  Stay cool, see you soon!

Jane

On Saturday, October 29th, New England got hit with a crazy, record-breaking storm. Here are some photos just as the storm was beginning and then the aftermath seen the following morning. I’ve never witnessed anything like this before!!

[these are the same trees as in the photo above, just seen from behind!]
[my boyfriend Rocky had to cut down all of the broken tree limbs]
[this is what we were left with!]