By Jennifer Heebner, Editor in Chief
As a longtime fine-jewelry journalist, I know firsthand how significant the annual AGTA Spectrum & Cutting Edge Awards are for news and trend coverage. The winning pieces provide lots of content to write about, but so do the hundreds of entries that don’t secure awards. Here’s a closer look at how that happens.
Favorites
While the winning pieces are sure to be written up in many national and international trade publications and included on their social media feeds, there are plenty of editor favorites that are also recognized.
From my own experience covering Spectrum over the past 20-plus years, I always wrote one article about the winners and then wrote at least one separate article about my personal favorites (see here and here) and/or category specifics from Editor’s Day. Spectrum judges scrutinize pieces for criteria that sometimes editors don’t, such as “Have I see this before?” As a seasoned market editor, that is the first thing I think of when I look at a piece of jewelry because my trade audience of retailers is always looking for what’s new.
Piece Stories
There are also numerous stories among specific pieces within the awards. For example, two winning items from the 2023 Awards have incredible backstories. One is Pala International, Inc.’s “Captain Mayer’s Revenge” skull pendant necklace, which took 2nd Place in the Men’s Wear division. It was such a unique piece that I reached out to Carl Larson of the company to get more information. The story of its creation became its own little article for AGTA.
The same instance occurred for Mary van der Aa’s platinum and Garnet necklace, which took the Best Use of Platinum and Color Award in 2023. Van der Aa and her peer, Todd Wacks of Tucson Todd’s, had been sourcing the gemstones over 10 years, finally setting them in an incredible necklace featuring a QR code so viewers can read about the origin of each gem.
With upwards of 400 entries in the Awards, some trends are bound to surface. Last year, blue and green gems and Garnet and Tourmaline were among them. GemGuide reported on these, and Becky Stone from Diamonds in the Library reported on the prevalence of Opals. Plus, social media viewers of @agta_gems on Instagram and the feeds of @thirdcoastgems, @bijouxreview, @darshangress, and other media personalities who were in Dallas for Editor’s Day were able to follow along with those in attendance and see the items they highlighted.
Interviews
There were plenty of interviews on Editor’s Day! The AGTA CEO John W. Ford, Sr., recorded a television interview with a local station, I recorded myself speaking about pieces I love from the Awards that didn’t take a title but were spectacular nonetheless, and David Brough of Jewellery Outlook in the UK recorded a number of interviews for his Instagram account @jewelleryoutlook.
Sales
So, this is not a type of media coverage, but I feel like it needs to be mentioned! There are plenty of Award pieces that sell! Afshin Hackman of Intercolor USA has told me this several times, that their gemstones that receive awards sell because of the award, and Shelly Sergent of Somewhere in the Rainbow has also purchased award-winning pieces for its collection. There are also pieces that are desired for sale—such as a client of stylist Darshan Gress, who attended the 2023 Editor’s Day—but don’t sell because the winners want to keep their pieces for themselves.
So, there are plenty of ways to get exposure and ultimately sell your piece, even if Spectrum Awards entrants don’t win an official prize. If you’re thinking about entering (click here to do so), the deadline is Oct. 9, 2024.
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