To date the Miriam J line has been sold through elite specialty boutiques since its conception and release four years ago. With changing shopping trends and high demands Miriam J will now be available online to meet the increasing needs of her growing clientele.

In celebration of the new launch of www.miriamj.com Miriam J Splane held an exclusive fashion show and garden party on May 22nd. This VIP event included a choreographed runway show of the Spring/Summer 2011 line. This invitation only event included a garden party soiree held prior to the runway show.

Miriam J designs appeal to the fashion conscious woman who enjoys Paloma’s Galife Ring quality to enhance her own personal style. With a focus on timeless designs, a feminine flare and comfort, each piece adds versatility to any wardrobe. Miriam said, “I celebrate the glamour of women. I elevate the feminine; it is my joy to add sophisticated softness to the lives of my clients.”

All of Miriam J’s fashions are produced in a limited quantity here in the United States. Miriam J prides herself on the quality of the fabric and the construction of every piece she designs.

Now Miriam J has partnered with Pixeled Business Systems, Inc., to create an easy to use environment for those clients who prefer to buy through the internet. This concept ensures that women everywhere will now have the opportunity to own a piece of Miriam J’s.

SOURCE Pixeled Business Tiffany 1837 Bead bracelet, Inc.

After winning the regular-season title, the Lady Mocs went O-2 in the tournament and Tiffany Money Clips the first team eliminated Thursday at Jim Frost Stadium.

“You know whether we had won or lost, you start thinking about what you’re going to do and how you’re going to try to be better next year,” Reed said Saturday. “I think one of the things with this team, the expectations were so high. I guess I placed them on them myself. It’s probably my fault for doing that, because I thought we had a really good team.

“Of course you never factor in that you’re going to have a bump in the road somewhere, and then it happens.”

After watching Elon win the tournament title on their home field, the Lady Mocs could have a chance to gain a measure of redemption on the same field next season.

Laura Herron, UTC associate athletic director and senior administrator for women’s athletics, Tiffany CuffLinks Friday that UTC was bidding to host the SoCon softball and tennis tournaments for 2011, 2012 and 2013. The tournament sites will be selected by the member schools.

Herron said the softball facilities and staff at Warner Park are a key asset in their bid to host one or more of the upcoming softball tournaments.

“The city and the ground crew are just exeptional,” she said. “We always get a lot of praise in how they have the fields ready to go no matter what the weather is.

“And the extra fields are definitely a step up for us. A lot of other schools just have one softball field, whereas we can play as many as five games at the same time at Warner Park.”

Among difficulties faced by Reed and UTC this season were losing pitcher and first baseman Michelle Fuzzard to a knee injury and having senior outfielder Laci Upchurch leave the team early in the season. Without those bats in the lineup, more pressure was on the rest of the team to make up for the lost offense.

“That three spot with losing Michelle was huge,” junior leadoff hitter Lyndsey Stiles said. “She is the best No. 3 hitter I’ve ever seen. She’s clutch. I’ve never seen somebody hit so many doubles our sophomore year.

“I think we knew it was going to hurt us, but I don’t think we really knew how much we really did Tiffany Key Rings her until the end.”

There were some bright spots that UTC can build on for next year. After a slow start, junior Nikki Waters pitched well late in her first season after transferring from Southern Illinois. With the return of Fuzzard, Waters and relief pitcher Kandice Irwin, UTC will enter next season with a solid pitching staff despite the loss of Brooke Loudermilk to graduation.

Offensively, third baseman Tiffany Baker will enter her senior season already holding the UTC career and single-season home run records. She’ll need some help around her, having Fuzzard back in then lineup should provide more power next season.

If the tournament returns to Chattanoooga in 2011, Reed already has decided he will try to find ways of keeping his team together. He said he is considering housing his team in a hotel for the tournament or at least having the Lady Mocs travel to and from Warner Park in buses as a way to keep them focused.

“I can tell you this, if they say Chattanooga is going to get it again for next year, Frank Reed’s going to start asking for help early,” Reed said. “We want to see if we can get some commitments to see if we can have a way to keep them together and feed them together and have more control.

“We do it all during the year (on road trips) already. It’s something that we’ve discount tiffany to do.”

Jewellery Arabia 2009 will be held under the patronage of His Royal Highness Prime Minister valentines gifts Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa at the Bahrain International Exhibition and Convention Centre (BIEC).

The event, organised by the Arabian Exhibition Management (AEM), runs until November 21.

More than 600 companies from 30 countries will take part, occupying a total floor area of 18,000 sqm.

Two temporary halls have also been commissioned to extend existing facilities at the BIEC for the fourth year in a row to meet the high demand for space.

Despite the current global economic climate, Jewellery Arabia 2009 has sold out to capacity, said officials.

There was no greater difficulty in selling the space this year than there was in 2008, said AEM publicity co-ordinator Joanne Blundell.

“We sold out the whole space very, very quickly. It was certainly no slower than last year and we still have a lot of companies on the waiting list,” she said.

“The Bahrain show has the best reputation in the Middle East region.

“There are other shows in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, but Bahrain’s is the biggest and is key rings as the best.”

Over 40,000 industry experts from Bahrain, the GCC and other parts of the world are expected to converge on the venue, which will feature everything from finished jewellery, watches, clocks and jewellery machinery to semi-precious and precious stones, metals and fine writing instruments.

The expo features pavilions from Brazil, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Thailand as well as local companies Bahrain Jewellery Centre, Asia Jewellers, Al Mahmood Pearls and Al Zain.

Ms Blundell said that the expo would cover the whole spectrum in relation to jewellery in the market.

“On one side you will have branded products from well-known names and non-branded, specially-designed stuff on the other,” she said.

Ms Blundell said that visitors could spend anything from “a few hundred dollars to millions” at the event.

Since its inception in 1992, Jewellery Arabia also provided international jewellery houses with direct access to important trade buyers and private collectors from around the Middle East region.

Middle East Watches, Jewellery and Pen Awards will also be held alongside the event for the fourth necklaces year.

It will be held at the Ritz-Carlton Bahrain Hotel and Spa tomorrow.

The awards are the culmination of an online public voting system and the analysis of an elite committee comprising watch, jewellery and pen collectors, connoisseurs and aficionados with no direct commercial ties to the industry.

Jewellery Arabia will be open free of charge to trade visitors on presentation of a professional business card, and to people over 16 years by invitation.

It will be open from 4pm to 10pm daily, with an exclusive ladies-only morning being held from 10am to 1pm on Wednesday.

Arabian Exhibition Management is a member of Allworld Exhibitions, a network of exhibition organisers with 35 offices worldwide.

“At private parties in Paris, London or New York,” people are pulling out the “big rocks,” says John M. Davis, a New York interior designer active on the charity fund-raising circuit. The trend is even more pronounced in the South, he notes. “In Nashville, [Tenn.], and Atlanta, the jewels will blind you.”

At Harry Winston Inc. jewelers, “Minimalism has really taken a back seat to opulence since 1994,” says Carol Brodie-Gelles, a spokeswoman for the firm, which reports a 50% growth in U.S. retail sales from 1994 to 1997.

The jewelry market is reacting to the same forces that are driving the fashion business: the booming stock market of recent years, an overall move toward more ostentatious accessorizing, and then there’s the Hollywood factor.

Fred Leighton, a New York-based jeweler who specializes in antique and estate jewelry, says business was “never better” than after “Titanic” star Kate Winslet wore an Edwardian 17-carat, pear-shaped diamond on an emerald and diamond chain to this year’s Academy Awards. “Kate Winslet was on camera every time she turned.”

Says Tom Julian, trend analyst at Fallon McElligott, a New York advertising firm, “Sharon Stone wore a jeweled dragonfly to close her Vera Wang dress. Linda Hamilton wore diamonds in her hair. Then you had Cher, who had diamonds in her tear ducts.” People are saying, “`I’m tired of basics. I want personality, I want individuality.’”

Demographics play a role, too. As women age, they like bigger jewels, says Woodstock, Vt., gem expert and author Antoinette Matlins. “If you really want to make an impression, size is the best way to get attention. And the older the woman, the larger the size.” Over age 30, “a carat seems small.”

On Tuesday, July 28, New York antiques dealer David Killen bought a 6-ounce 18-karat gold and diamond necklace from another dealer as part of a multipiece jewelry consignment. A year ago, he notes, the 1960s moon-and-stars design would have sat in a case at his Upper East Side store for one or two months before selling. But last month, he made a call to one client, who said her friend was interested.

The necklace sold for $6,500 by Thursday and was worn to a lavish charity ball in the Hamptons that weekend. The client, he says, “now wants matching earrings.”

Attempting to cash in on — or at least fuel — demand for flashy pieces, jeweler Bulgari SpA recently brought out a collection of one-of-a-kind pieces that travel from store to store and average about $70,000 each.

The Italian jeweler has introduced other marketing gimmicks too: At its recently renovated Fifth Avenue store in New York, Bulgari opened a cafe and introduced a summer jazz series. Each Wednesday, the store filled up with uptown socialites and downtown artist types wooed with free drinks and surrounded by counters filled with luxury goods.

Cartier jewelers previewed its fall line not at the store but at a party in a chic New York restaurant. Understated elegance? Not this year. The models who preened on a platform under runway-style lights were sporting custom-made, one-of-a-kind pieces. They included a platinum and diamond parrot ring with a 10-carat sapphire and a hefty 54-carat watch, encircled by two diamond-encrusted dolphins each as thick as a finger. Prices? Not available upon request. In other words, if you have to ask…. (After much prodding, Cartier disclosed that the pieces cost $198,000 and $380,000, respectively.)

Jewelers have long created elaborate, unique pieces, but they were often used as gimmicks to interest buyers who would go on to buy less-expensive merchandise. What’s different now is that the fabulous show-stoppers are selling.

“We’ve been selling the craziest things,” says William Fuhrman, executive vice president of the North America division of Chopard & Cie S.A., a Swiss jeweler. The company says its average sale has risen to the $15,000 to $20,000 price range, from a $7,000 to $10,000 range, over the last year. One of Chopard’s bestsellers this year: a $60,000 diamond pave watch.

This is all relative, of course. Most people could never afford so-called high jewelry and the rich have always been able to buy fine gems. Still, jewelers say in recent years, the pieces that people buy are bigger — and more rare — than in the past.

“It’s not just `I want pearls’ anymore. It’s `I want black Tahitian pearls’ or `I want blue-colored diamonds,’” says John Block, head of worldwide jewelry sales for Sotheby’s Holdings Inc. auctioneer, which will sell the $10-million jewelry collection of socialite Betsey Cushing Whitney this fall.

Reflecting the increased interest in colored diamonds, the Gemological Institute of America recently created new, more detailed designations for them. Harry Winston reports a sharp increase in demand.

Auction houses Christie’s International PLC and Sotheby’s have been a big part of the boom in expensive-jewelry sales, muscling into territory formerly occupied solely by upscale retailers. Jewelry is now the second-highest revenue producer at Christie’s after 20th-century art, according to department head Francois Curiel. In the first half of this year, Christie’s says jewelry sales are up 13%, to $136.4 million from the year-earlier period. Some flashy sales: A big pink diamond sold in Hong Kong for $1.2 million and an 11.25-carat blue diamond brought $1.4 million in Geneva.

The blockbuster $50.3-million sale of the Duchess of Windsor’s jewels in 1987 started it all. Auction catalogs now treat jewelry houses such as Tiffany & Co. and Cartier much like artists, granting designers biographies and index listings. Across the board, demand is particularly strong for jewelry identified with a particular design house; it seems to offer a guarantee of a certain quality of stone and classic design.

As demand heats up, so do demands for quality. In 1997, Christie’s began publicly disclosing artificial enhancements made to gems — such as heat treatments used to lend stones more brilliance.

At Noa, a New York jeweler that conducts its appointment-only business from an airy SoHo loft, customers can lounge on a black leather couch and sip cappuccino or champagne while diamonds are magnified on a “Diamond Zoom Imaging System.” Potential clients now get a video of their stone which they can take home and view while mulling over a purchase.

Says Yaron Kaminski, president of Noa. “They are demanding a better well-made stone and they’re willing to spend more money for it.”

Part of the reason Bulgari and other jewelers are marketing so hard is to take advantage of the growing, and possibly short-lived, affluence and disposable income of 30- and 40-somethings. “The growth will last for about five to 10 years,” predicts a Bulgari spokesman. “Then it will start to shrink. It’s now or never.”

On April 19, 1893, Lawrence married Bertha Baldwin (1866-1930).5 They had one son, Walter Baldwin Lawrence (1895-1956).6 In 1894 Lawrence moved his business to 857 Broadway in New York City, where he was listed in the city directory under “jewelry” and residing at 4 West Ninety-fifth Street. he must have been quite well established in the field by this time, for he was among the guests at the twentieth annual banquet of the New York Jewelers’ Association held at Delmonicos on November 15, 1894. This event was attended by prominent jewelers and silver makers in the New York City region, including George W. Shiebler (1846-1920), George Krementz (1837-1918) from Krementz and Company (1869-present) in Newark, and George Frederick Kunz (1856-1932), the prominent gem expert at Tiffany and Company (1837-present) in New York City.7

In 1898 Lawrence opened his first jewelry salon at 41 Union Square.8 he called the business F. Walter Lawrence and remained at this location until he moved to 322 Fifth Avenue in 1905, according to the city directory. In 1915 he moved to the Harriman Building at 527 Fifth Avenue, Room 706. all of his jewelry and silverware is marked “F.W.L.,” “F. w. LAWRENCE,” Or “p. WALTER LAWRENCE.”

Lawrence often adapted the motifs and trends of the jewelry and silver being produced at the turn of the century. he mounted gemstones in collet settings (the stone is completely surrounded by the setting), a technique based on the arts and crafts style made popular in England by Charles Robert Ashbee (1863 -1942), and Arthur Joseph Gaskin (1862-1928) and his wife Georgie Gaskin (1866-1934). From Marcus and Company (1892-before 1950) in New York City, he borrowed the technique of pearling, which, in fact, had been perfected by Charles Osborne (1847-1920) when he was a silver designer for Tiffany and Company and later for the Whiting Manufacturing Company (1840-1926) in Providence, Rhode Island.

The first known piece of jewelry by Lawrence, the ring in Plate IV, which dates to 1901, utilizes both of the above techniques. It was specially designed for a client and bears the initials “MP” worked into the braidlike pattern on the back of the shank, along with the dates 1851 and 1901, on either side of the shank near the stone, suggesting the ring was a fiftieth birthday present. Six diamonds in collet settings serve as the “prongs” to hold the hessonite garnet in place. The gold mounting is decorated with pearling and designed in a spiral pattern that has been heavily chased to give the effect of octopus tentacles. An amethyst and diamond brooch from the same period (Pl. Ill) is designed along similar lines but is finished in a more dramatic manner with the upper part of the octopus-like tentacles ending in small halfround pearl-like elements and the far ends of the tentacles terminating in diamonds in collet settings.

This curvilinear style could be called the American version of art nouveau, a less exuberant expression of the whiplash line of French art nouveau. On the brooch in Plate II the chased gold mount in the pearling style is set with a star sapphire within a scrolling border. Two white opals are set at either end of the brooch, their bluish coloration picked up in the four Montana sapphires9 and their greenish tones in the demantoid garnets. For the next several years, Lawrence continued to work in this style, adapting it to form an interlacing design on a ring set with a cabochon emerald.10

By 1903 Lawrence was creating a new style of jewelry that incorporated baroque pearls from the Mississippi River (see Pl. V). He wrote in Town and Country that the neck ornament illustrated here is an example of “the apt use of these mal-formed pearls as sails on the little galley.”11 The sails on the four galleys on the side panels are made up of dogtooth hinge pearls, while the billowing sail on the galleon in the central plaque is a large baroque pearl.12 The nautical motif continues in the dolphins surrounding the central plaque and in the cattails and scallop shells on either side of the flanking panels and on the clasp. The gold has been hammered to give it the soft, handwrought appearance characteristic of most of Lawrences early jewelry.

Lawrence exhibited this neck ornament at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition of Art Craftsmanship at arts clubs in Syracuse and Rochester, New York, in 1903, along with jewelry incorporating Cyprian or Phoenician dass “taken from the tombs throughout Syria, where it has lain for centuries.”13 The fragments of ancient cups, bowls, and bottles had “a wonderful iridescence” from their long burial.14 The fragments were found in the ancient city of Jerusalem and imported into this country by Ayeez Kayat.15 Other objects in Ms exhibit were a vinaigrette of which the body was an ancient tear bottle; a buckle and a ring, each with an Egyptian head; a scarf pin with the head of Cleopatra; a sphinx brooch; an Egyptian boat; and a desert scene in a frame decorated with a caravan, pyramids, and palm and lotus trees. The background of the scene was formed from a slightly concave piece of glass so that, when held at different angles, it imitated the “sunset behind the Pyramids.”16

Louis Vuitton has shrunk its iconic brown trunk down to a jewelry box to hold such things as chokers from its first jewelry collection, which debuts today in its New York flagship. Vuitton is the star brand of the world’s largest luxury goods group, LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA.

Never mind that Vuitton’s history comprises 150 years in leather goods, not jewelry. The lack of heritage hasn’t deterred Vuitton or other fashion brands such as Italy’s Gucci, owned by French conglomerate Pinault-Printemps-Redoute SA, from launching jewelry lines in a fragmented market. “The powerful arrival of a fashion brand will animate the market,” said Yves Carcelle, chief executive of LVMH’s fashion and leather-goods division.

Just as branded items have taken over fashion in general, the jewelry sector is ripe for branded jewelry, whether from classic names such as Tiffany or Cie. Financiere Richemont SA’s Cartier, or from more fashion-forward labels like Gucci.

For luxury fashion houses in particular, the fine jewelry market — whose margins analysts put at more than 20% — seems like a golden opportunity compared with the overcrowded handbags market. Yet their lack of history in a sector boasting time-honored brands like Cartier and Roman jewelry house Bulgari SpA means more pressure to make designs stand out and find the sweet spot in pricing.

While analysts remain wary of extending a brand into far-flung product categories, jewelry is seen as a logical addition. “Many of the core values of the luxury brand in one product area — high quality, exclusivity and superlative design — can translate easily across to a luxury jewelry brand,” said James Lawson, director of luxury consultancy Ledbury Research.

Analysts at Bear Stearns in New York estimate that luxury brands make up only 15% of the market for fine jewelry, with the rest of the $125 billion jewelry and watch market dominated by unbranded jewelry makers and retailers. “As consumers try to find their way around a fragmented industry where guidance and trust are essential, we believe they will increasingly turn to branded product,” the analysts wrote in a September report on the jewelry and watch market. They anticipate growth in the sector to accelerate to 4% to 5% annually over the next few years, from a historical growth rate of 3%.

If it translates well, jewelry can become part of the core business of luxury fashion groups. Gucci jewelry sales came to 105 million euros ($128 million) in 2003, 7% of Gucci’s annual revenue, three years after it put its first designs in stores. According to Bear Stearns research, Gucci is already the seventh best-selling brand in jewelry and watches behind older brands like Cartier, Tiffany and Chopard.

Vuitton’s Mr. Carcelle said he thinks the jewelry line will make up “a few percent of our revenue” in the next few years, “but when the brand revenue is 3 billion euros, a few percent is not negligible.”

As the market for branded jewelry grows, customers are counting carats less. And jewelry is becoming more of an accessory because women are buying it for themselves, analysts say. “Before, jewelry was part of an investment — when you die, it becomes part of your heritage,” Gucci brand Chief Executive Giacomo Santucci said. “Now, jewelry is becoming more of a fashion accessory.”

“We don’t make engagement rings,” said Vuitton’s Mr. Carcelle, meaning that designer Marc Jacobs is focusing on design pieces, not sentimental jewelry.

Design in fashion jewelry is critical to identify the brands, but also to make up for a lack of heritage. “The lesson from watches, where fashion brands didn’t have any credibility in complicated watch movements, is that they should propose more fashionable items, and realize they have no history in the category,” says Claudia D’Arpizio, a partner at Bain & Co.’s Rome office specializing in luxury.

Using the brand’s icons is elementary. For instance, one of the three themes in Vuitton’s line is “clous,” the nails that pierce its trunks and leather goods. Four of the gold studs hold an enormous amethyst in place on a ring. Bear Stearns analysts praised the latest Gucci collection, which used well-known symbols like bamboo and the “GG” logo, for bearing a more obvious brand label than last year’s “elegant, sophisticated” designs.

As with other accessory lines, finding the right price range for fashion jewelry is key. According to Ms. D’Arpizio, the market for fine jewelry is growing most quickly for items priced between 700 euros and 5,000 euros. Anything more costly crosses the line from accessory to investment, while less expensive items aren’t perceived as exclusive enough to be true luxury goods.

Gucci’s Mr. Santucci says their bestseller is a “GG” logo ring for 1,000 euros, though a cheaper version exists in sterling silver for 250 euros. Vuitton, having sworn off anything lesser than gold and precious or semiprecious stones, will start its line at 550 euros for a pair of stud earrings. Goldman Sachs analyst Jacques-Franck Dossin says the entry-level price “bodes very well for potential client base and for margins.”

A summer enrichment program for students first through eighth grades has been an annual event at Shawnee State University and this year, “Kids on Campus” (formerly “Fun in the Sun”) is being planned early to offer session gift certificates for unique Christmas gifts.

Numerous activities are planned for the summer program with a full spectrum of programs involving academics, life skills, culture, art, crafts, sports and more. Sessions are geared for each of the age groups including cheerleading, dancing, sports, cooking and baking, Spanish, music lessons, crafts, sciences and much more.

Each course will be offered three times each day with Session 1 beginning at 9 a.m. Monday silver key rings, June 28 through Thursday, July 1. The teachers for all the classes are from local schools and SSU staff teaches the athletics.

“I feel like the county’s best teachers step forward to teach in the summer program,” said Ginnie Moore, director of University Outreach.

The summer program is sponsored by a 21st Century Learning Center grant. More than 40 different sessions are offered. Each four-day session with the holiday special is $30 if purchased before Jan. 31, 2010. The early bird fee is $35 if purchased before March 31; registration is $45 from April 1 to May 28, 2010; and a late registration fee is $60 from June 1 to June 24, 2010. Lunch will be provided for $20.00 for the entire four days.

“My son, Zane, and I have been involved in the summer enrichment program at Shawnee State for a number silver necklaces of years,” said Sandy Smith, program coordinator. “He and his friends look forward to the experience each year.”

Register now by purchasing gift certificates for a holiday special discount. The gift certificates may be purchased by phone, with your Discover, MasterCard or Visa at (740) 351-3274 or stop in at the office to purchase gift certificates in person. Office hours are Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call (740) 351-3274.For more information please contact: Sarabjit Jagirdar, Email:- htsyndication@hindustantimes.com.