Diamond industry banking veteran Paul De Wachter will take on the role in January 2026.
Seats Still Available at the Northwest Jewelry Conference
The period jewelry conference will take place next month in Seattle.
Seattle--There is still time to register for the Northwest Jewelry Conference, happening Aug. 11-13 in Seattle.
In its fifth year, the conference will host several education sessions at the Cedarbrook Lodge.
The first day, Friday, Aug. 11, will begin with a reception for attendees and session leaders to meet and mingle, and the manager of photography and visual communications for the GIA, Robert Weldon, will present a session aptly titled “Through the Eye of Robert Weldon” on how best to capture jewelry through photography.
There will be nine total sessions held on Saturday, Aug. 12 and Sunday, Aug. 13.
Two experts on Russian Imperial art will present “Featured House: Faberge – Jeweler to the Russian Tsars” on Sunday. Last year, conference participants selected Faberge as their jeweler of choice to be explored at the 2017 conference.
John Atzbach, owner of John Atzbach Antiques, and Karen Kettering, an art historian and past curator of Russian Art at the Hillwood Museum, will lead the session, which will include tips for spotting fakes.
President of the American Pearl Company Gina Latendresse will cover “American Natural Pearls in Period Jewelry,” covering Europeans’ harvesting of pearls in the American “New World” as early as the 1500s to the use of American pearls today, in her session on Saturday. On Sunday, she will present “Exotic Natural Pearls and Their Prices,” which will feature rare and unusual pearls.
Newark Museum Chief Curator Ulysses Grant Dietz will lead the “Made in Newark” session on Saturday, which will explore the New Jersey city’s little-known history as a gold hub. On Sunday, he will present “Pebbles to Precious, Platinum to Plastic,” charting the use of different materials as adornment through time.
The full educational line-up is available on NorthwestJewelryConference.com.
The conference offers special room rates at Cedarbook Lodge through July 21; those rates are also available for attendees looking to extend their stay beyond the conference. After July 21, rates are expected to increase.
For more information or to register, contact Ted Irwin at (425) 455-0985.
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