(PRESS RELEASE) MJSA, the commerce alliance devoted to skilled excellence in jewellery making and design, and Columbia Gem Home, a famend U.S. provider of responsibly sourced coloured gems, are partnering on a reside on-line public sale Nov. 1-7 to learn the Navajo Nation Neighborhood. The public sale will function the custom-designed jewellery entered into this yr’s MJSA Accountable Design Problem (which Columbia Gem Home sponsors), and all funds raised will go towards Navajo Nation replenishment following the hardships it skilled through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Held yearly, the Problem has historically requested taking part designers to render a bit of {custom} jewellery based mostly on a fictional state of affairs and that includes choose gems offered by Columbia Gem Home. All entries are showcased on MJSA.org and opened to on-line voting in October; the winner is introduced within the December MJSA Journal, the alliance’s month-to-month commerce publication.
This yr’s Problem story centered on a marriage present for a Native American lady devoted to points affecting Indigenous folks worldwide. It additionally had a brand new twist: Reasonably than simply submitting renderings for the web voting, the designers additionally created the items to then be auctioned. The taking part designers are:
- Jennifer Dewey of J Dewey Designs in Ridgway, Colorado, whose pin was impressed by the totems that determine a lot into Native American tradition.
- Betty Padilla of Santa Clara, New Mexico. A Navajo, she submitted a sterling necklace with a crescent-shaped “naja” pendant that includes a hogan, the normal Navajo house.
- Helen Chantler of Reflective Jewellery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, whose pendant contains a bear and a hummingbird—a symbolic marriage of energy and pleasure.
- Dana Bronfman of New York Metropolis, whose pendant arranges the gems in a kaleidoscopic sample that, she says, is appreciative of Navajo tradition.
- Dominique Larson of DAL Artwork LLC in Chicago, whose necklace incorporates the gems in a approach that alludes to the 4 mountains of the Navajo land and arrowheads.
- Donna Distefano Thomas of Donna Distefano Ltd. in New York Metropolis, who created a necklace with a dangling pendant impressed by the geometric shapes present in Navajo woven blankets.
Columbia Gem Home will preview completed items, designer spotlights, and host Instagram LIVE occasions with among the designers main as much as the public sale, starting Monday, November 1st. To seek out extra info, you possibly can go to www.columbiagemhouse.com and MJSA.org.
Columbia Gem Home President Eric Braunwart mentioned, “After years of working collectively, I’ve turn out to be each personally and professionally invested in our Navajo Nation companions, and the group as a complete. When Covid-19 first hit, we wished to assist any approach we may and was thrilled when MJSA was fascinated about extending the Accountable Design Competitors right into a fundraising public sale for Navajo Nation. That is the primary of many we see sooner or later.”
“We had been delighted when Columbia Gem Home generously provided to donate the stones for this yr’s problem in order that the designers may deliver their designs to life and the ensuing items could possibly be auctioned off to lift cash for the Navajo Nation,” says Shawna Kulpa, MJSA’s editorial director. “As an trade, it’s vital that we proceed discovering methods to present again to the communities the place we supply so a lot of our supplies.”
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The public sale web page could be discovered at columbiagemhouse.com/pages/navajo-relief-auction.
For extra details about the MJSA Accountable Design Problem, go to MJSA.org.
