Luxury jewellery and goods in auction

EXPENSIVE jewellery made by the designer of Madonna and Guy Ritchie's wedding rings is to go under the hammer at a Scunthorpe firm.

Town-based auctioneers CJM Asset Management will to put an extraordinary cache of designer jewellery, sculptures, furnishings and luxury goods up for sale following the bankruptcy of the two partners at a collapsed York-based property firm.

The jewellery includes a number of pieces by Stephen Webster, arguably Britain's foremost jewellery designer of the moment, who made the wedding rings for Madonna and Guy Ritchie.

Items ranging from wristwatches costing up to £30,000 and jewellery by the most exclusive modern designers to limited edition fountain pens which retailed for thousands of pounds are to be sold off in the auction at Oaklands Hotel, Laceby, on Tuesday evening.

It has been estimated the retail value of the 180 lots being put under the hammer is close to £250,000.

There will be three Rolexes, including an 18 carat white gold ladies' watch with diamonds for numerals.

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Source: thisisscunthorpe.co.uk

White Gold & Black Pearl Pendant

White gold orbit pendant set with diamonds and a black pearl.

Most of Ofiesh's work incorporates moving elements. With the flick of a hinge, a ring becomes a pendant. Or among the artist's patented Orbit Collection, a band of brilliant diamonds set in platinum spins around a simple gold bead or an elegant ring.

All of the artist's work is designed, forged, and formed by hand. Since Ofiesh is a self-taught goldsmith, he uses tools in non-traditional ways, and his methods are often unconventional by jewelry standards. He is as creative in his approach to design as he is open-minded about how to make things work.

Ofiesh took workshops along the way with noted metal workers Heikki Seppa and Ronald Pearson. He also studied gem-setting at the Revere Academy in the mid 1980s. But mostly he continued to work on his own moving from silver to gold, refining techniques, and developing his interest in jewelry that moves.

Ofiesh travels around the country exhibiting at prestigious craft shows such as the American Craft Enterprises fairs in Baltimore, San Francisco and St. Paul. Over the years he has received numerous awards at these shows.

Unable to land a prep school teaching job, Ofiesh, an English literature graduate from the University of Virginia, traveled to the small town of Chatham, Virginia, in 1973 to try to sell some of the silver jewelry he made as a hobby. He made $400 in one weekend, and that small commercial success sparked the beginnings of a 30-year career as a jewelry designer.

Gem industry gets set to shine again

Long considered two counties yet to fulfill their economic potential, eastern Taiwan's Hualien and Taitung are ready to shine at the Eastern Taiwan Gems and Jades Exhibition. Hosted by the National Taitung Living Art Center from Oct. 10 to 20, the event features more than 1,000 pieces of precious stones and jewelry. Three famed gemstones found in eastern Taiwan, hornblende (commonly known as Taiwan jade), blue chalcedony and red coral are the highlights of the fair--a joint effort between the government and industry aimed at kick-starting the island's dormant jewelry industry and generating local employment opportunities. According to Hsieh Jing-lin, chairman of the ROC Gems and Jades Association and co-host of the exhibition, in the 1960s and 1970s, Taiwan hornblende held a 90-percent share of the global jade market. "Back then, Hualien's Fengtian Village was a mining town best known for the precious stone and the county boasted more than 1,000 gemstone factories," he said. But toward the end of 1970, Hualien's jade industry went into steep decline as local deposits of hornblende were exhausted. "Over the years, many people believed that untapped veins of the stone could be found in the county's mountainous regions," Hsieh said. "Exploration was never carried out because at that time, Taiwan did not possess the know-how to prospect for these deposits," he added. A native of Taitung, Hsieh considers Taiwan's blue chalcedony--distributed over ranges in Hualien and his hometown--to be the world's most beautiful "natural" specimen of the quartz. "Unlike blues from abroad, Taiwan's stones do not need heat treatment to improve their color," he said. "They naturally possess a pure luster and clarity, which make them the darlings of Japanese collectors." The gem dealer said the region's old mining towns, if tastefully transformed into tourist attractions, could breathe added life into eastern Taiwan's precious stone enterprises. "People would be interested in trekking along winding paths through mines where gemstones exposed can be seen," Hsieh suggested. But gemstones are not the only source of potential riches for the nation's jewelry industry. Red coral, long treasured as a symbol of dignity and felicity in traditional Chinese culture, is another possibility. Jeng Ming-shiou, research fellow at the Academia Sinica's Research Center for Biodiversity, pointed out that red coral, or Corallium rubrum, which grows along the east coast of Taiwan, could generate huge revenues if properly harvested and designed. The biologist explained that the organism's durable and intensely colored red or pink skeleton makes it a highly sought-after material in jewelry manufacture. "The Japanese discovered the coral in Taiwan's surrounding seas more than 100 years ago," Jeng said. "The animals live at depths from 100 to 2,000 meters and thrive especially on ocean bottoms bordering undersea volcanoes." A seasoned scuba diver, Jeng said although reports of red coral being found near Taitung's Green Island and Orchid Island surface from time to time, so far, he and his fellow researchers have never seen the species for themselves. This is because the organisms live at depths that divers can only reach with great difficulty. Fishing boats usually employ specially designed nets to bring the coral to the surface, he added. Acknowledging the significance of conserving the rare coral species, Jeng said research is yet to be carried out on how to collect it in an environmentally friendly manner. "It is vital that we strike a balance between economic development and ecological protection," he said. "Only three countries in the world produce red coral jewelry," noted Hsiao Hsin-tsai, chairman of the Taiwan Jewelry Industry Association. "They are Taiwan, Italy and Japan. Our country's techniques for designing pieces made out of the material surpass all others." Involved in the trade for more than four decades, Hsiao said he envisioned the creation of a "gemstone village" in Taitung 30 years ago. The businessman, who runs jewelry companies in Beijing and Guangzhou, said he has been contemplating the relocation of his factory to Taitung since joining a trip organized by the center to explore the shimmering opportunities associated with the resurrection of eastern Taiwan's precious stone enterprises. "If possible, I hope the relocation of my factory can take place next year," Hsiao said. "But the big problem is that the counties do not have enough qualified gemstone craftsmen or jewelry designers at present." To address the lack of professionals in the industry, the center collaborated with the Council of Labor Affairs' Bureau of Employment and Vocational Training to launch a gemstone design workshop in Hualien's Fengbin Township eight months ago. The goal was to instruct local residents, mainly aboriginals, in the requisite skills so they could participate in the born-again industry. Wu Yi-sheng, a gemstone artisan who is facilitating the program, said he has taught students in elementary and junior high schools about gem and jade designs for 20 years. "Few people wanted to enter this trade because it is a solitary walk of life," he explained. "Another reason for the profession's lack of appeal is that related manufacturing activities in the field have been dormant for decades." While instructing the Hualien workshop students how to evaluate, grade, cut, chisel and polish precious stones, Wu remarked that it takes at least three years to train a qualified gemstone designer. "A good jewelry craftsman needs patience and a good eye. Without these, he could ruin a choice gem or jade," he said. "Today, with the government sponsoring and subsidizing the project, it is less difficult to recruit trainees."