2020 Prism_Vol2_MAY_063020_single pages_flip book

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU’

A GEM OF AN EXPERIENCE

I was off yet again “working” (because c’mon, is it really work?). For years, I was nothing more than a social media bystander with a severe case of FOMO while friends and colleagues waxed poetic about the anomaly that is Tucson, Arizona, and particularly, the AGTA Gem- Fair™.“It’s the best show!” they’d tell me. “Oh my gosh, you have to go! It’s so fun!” they’d say. But it wasn’t until the second half of 2019 that an invite came to me asking if I’d be willing to sign on as one of the AGTA’s “Gembassadors™” for the 2020 edition. Naturally I accepted.And finally, I’d get to see what all the hype was about. Look, I’m not going to lie, when every single person I know and trust tells me that something is super fun, I’m going into it with pretty high expectations. I mean, I was half expecting Cirque du Soleil performers in the streets and a midday back massage by Chris Hemsworth (I experienced neither, to my dismay), so on my first day in the city I felt kind of “meh” about it.To start, one of my pieces of luggage went missing, and to add to that my Lyft driver wore a t-shirt stating “Real Men Love Cats” and spoke to me about the positives of owning said felines on my entire 35-minute car trip to the hotel. I immediately became nervous, thinking that maybe Tucson just wasn’t the place for me—that I wouldn’t understand it like so many others do. But that fear was swept aside and immediately replaced by relief the moment I stepped foot onto the plush white carpet of the upper floor of the AGTA GemFair™ on opening day. It was there I first saw familiar faces I love so much: Paula Crevoshay, Lika Behar, Valerie Naifeh, and Martha Seely. It was also there I first met designers like Belle Brooke, Barbara Heinrich, and the women of Almut Belote. I immediately felt at home in this environment because I quickly realized that the fun part of Tucson had little to do with the city and its people, but had much more to do with the fact that I’d be around my people, and my people make the fun, wher- ever they are, and wherever they go. After cruising around the designer jewelry area on the top floor, I decided it

I officially started my jewelry career as a runner on Philadel- phia’s famed Jewelers’ Row back in 1996. I was 23 at the time and had no idea that taking a job that paid me ten bucks an hour

was going to lead to a lifelong career and a newfound love.A runner—for those who don’t live in cities with big jewelry districts like NewYork, L.A., Chicago, and yes, Philly—is sort of the “gopher” of a jewelry business; they’re often the person who runs to pick up castings or CAD files or pearl strands from the other businesses on the street and takes said work where it might need to go next. One of the places I’d get to visit was a lapidary on the 2nd floor of an old building on Sansom Street. I even remember the name of it: Cullman’s. It was one of my favorite places to go, because the owner, Steve, would always take time to show me something cool that he had got- ten in, whether it was a rare gem or a cool looking mineral, or bones of an animal he’d hunted himself. Cullman’s was the most interesting place I’d get to visit during that job as a runner, and the memories of going there stuck with me long after I moved to Atlanta to further my career. As a writer-slash-journalist who largely covers the watch and jewelry industries, the first two months of the year are always busy times for me. In mid-January I’d normally head off to the SIHH watch fair in Gene- va before flying straight to theVicenzaoro jewelry show inVicenza, Italy, which would have me away for a solid ten days.Then I’d come home for a day or two and maybe do one other pre-Basel watch press trip before heading off to cover a jewelry show that used to happen in Scottsdale.At that point I’d be away from my family for a solid three weeks, so by the time the AGTA show in Tucson would roll around at the beginning of February, I knew there was no way I could ask my already understand- ing (and occasionally frazzled) husband if he’d be willing to watch the kids while

Above Left: Barbara Palumbo, Adornmentality Opposite Page Top Down: Almut Belote and Cheryl Van Hook of Almut Belote Jewelry at AGTA GemFair™Tucson. Barbara Palumbo moderates a panel discussion at AGTA GemFair™Tucson 2020. AGTAGembas- sador™; Barbara Palumbo, features a stunning Garnet fromBridges Tsavorite during her Instagram Takeover of @agta_gems at AGTAGemFair™ Tucson.

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