New Eco-Friendly Namaste Ring!

New eco-friendly jewelry item: Sterling Silver Namaste Ring

We have been working hard to make sure that all of our jewelry is now eco-friendly. All sterling silver is a minimum of 92% recycled fine silver and the gold varies depending on the karat; 14K gold is a minimum of 78% recycled, while 18K gold is 90% recycled gold. Click here if you are interested in reading more details about our eco-friendly jewelry, precious metalsand business practices.

And, we are announcing a new sterling silver Namaste Ring! This ring is a bit heavier than the stackable version of the Namaste ring and does not have the word 'Namaste' in English. Instead, the band has 'Namaste' in sanskrit on the ring spaced evenly 4 times.

The new sterling silver Namaste Ring is available in both an antiqued finish (where the letters are darkened) and a non-antique finish (both pictured above).

Click here to view the rest of our Namaste Jewelry Collection.

An Amazing Resource - new book: Rhino for Jewelry

I am the assistant teacher for the evening Rhino 3D for Jewelry course at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC (FIT). The teacher of the class, Dana Buscaglia, is an incredibly talented woman who knows the Rhino software inside and out, particularly from a jewelry making standpoint. She has been a jewelry professional, gaining hands-on knowledge for over 20 years, she is the president of the JDPN, the Jewelry Design Professionals Network and has worked with several of the top-name companies in the industry.

The point of providing all this information about Dana Buscaglia is to share with anyone who is interested that she has officially released the 2nd edition of her instructional manual: Rhino for Jewelry.

Rhino for Jewelry is the most comprehensive manual available for jewelry for the incredibly dynamic and flexible Rhino software from McNeel. If you have any desire to learn the software, this book is a step by step, easy to understand set of tutorials that will teach you everything you need to become knowledgeable and capable using Rhino. I have been working with these tutorials since I started learning Rhino a few years ago, and without them I don't believe there would even be a curriculum for Rhino at FIT.

Click to learn more about Rhino for Jewelry.

Payson to be interviewed on Inspirista Radio

I will have the distinct pleasure of being interviewed tomorrow by Jennifer Tuma-Young, a life-balance consultant and 'Inspirista'. An 'Inspirista', as defined on Jennifer's website is, "a woman who has a positive attitude, an inner glow, a contagious energy that makes you want to smile. An Inspirista takes challenges with strides, and doesn’t allow a failure to hold her back, or a risk to scare her off. An Inspirista turns failure into her own success." If you would like to read more about Jennifer, you can visit her website at www.inspirista.net, and if you would like to tune into the show, or catch the replay you can click here.

Payson & Co. Enters Greenwala Contest

The www.paysonjewelry.com and www.transformationaljewelry.com collections are made locally in New York City. They are cast using high percentages of recycled precious metals; sterling silver is a minimum of 92% recycled, while 14K gold is a minimum of 72% recycled (18K gold is close to 90% recycled). We use recycled packaging and take public transportation to conduct all business transactions. We support local, family owned companies with good environmental practices.

The PaysonJewelry.com collection is high-end, artisan and custom hand made jewelry. The TransformationalJewelry.com collection was created using words and symbols designed to uplift and inspire your life.

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Ethical Gold = Eco-friendly Gold

The BBC shared a story today about a jeweler in Paris who is 'pioneering' the concept of 'ethical gold' - gold which has been sourced from mines where workers are treated fairly, or which has been recycled. It's an interesting story and an interesting concept - part of which has been true for the jewelry industry for centuries. Because the metal has been so highly prized in so many cultures, jewelers have always practiced very careful 'recycling' processes for gold - capturing even the fine dust from filing. Payson Jewelry and Transformational Jewelry have taken it one step further...

All of the fine gold content (the part that makes up the 14K, 18K or 22K of gold jewelry) in www.paysonjewelry.com and www.transformationaljewelry.com jewelry comes from recycled gold. We use a local, family owned casting house in NYC (even taking the subway there, so no extra wasted fossil fuels), that get's their fine gold and fine silver (100% gold and 100% silver) from a US based company that purchased NO gold or silver from mines. They are one of the world's largest refining companies, and practice eco-friendly refining processes (according to their website). So, in the end, a minimum of 72% of 14K gold, and 90% of 18K gold in www.paysonjewelry.com and www.transformationaljewelry.com collections is recycled. And, our silver is guaranteed a minimum of 92.5% recycled.

Click here to see more on the ethical gold from the BBC.

TP Entrepreneur

Mike Michalowicz, author of the wonderful book The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur (he's also becoming known as the TPEntrepreneur, you can follow him at twitter by using @TPEntrepreneur), included some SWAG we created for him in his VLOG this week. He also covers one of my long time favorite companies, Life Is Good. I think I got my first "Life Is Good" T-shirt in 1995 or 1996. I fell head over heels in love with them, their style and their messages. My favorite ball cap is one of theirs too.

So, if you want to see the Toilet Paper Entrepreneur video that talks about Transformational Jewelry, click here:

http://www.toiletpaperentrepreneur.com/blog/the-life-is-good-story-video

And, I highly recommend you check out The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur book. It's simple, quite brilliant, and very very helpful if you are an entrepreneur. If you're not, many of the concepts he includes can and will help your life in general if you apply them.

A customer shares her experience

A happy customer that purchased the beautiful Expect Miracles Bracelet emailed us today to let us know that she blogged about her experience with the Transformational Jewelry collection. Janet shares her thoughts on her personal 'jewelry history' and why the Expect Miracles Bracelet means so much to her. Janet is a fellow entrepreneur, with a great website called www.GirlsOnACruise.com. Click to read Janet's blog about the Expect Miracles Bracelet.

The *BIG* Jewelry show in Las Vegas

While we have yet to attend the *big* jewelry show in Las Vegas in June of each year, we have many associates, clients and vendors who go to exhibit and participate for a variety of reasons. While in the jewelry district of Manhattan (or Diamond District as some people know it) yesterday I was surrounded by men with guns and huge 18 wheel trucks that went on for several blocks. It took me a few minutes to realize what was going on...then it hit me. The 'Vegas' show. Yesterday, during business hours, tons of diamonds, precious gems, gold, platinum and silver were being loaded onto trucks here in NYC (and in LA, Chicago and other cities all over the country) to be driven, under heavy guard, to the show in Vegas. Here are a few images showing a tiny bit of what I could see. The angles aren't the best on the shots, but you can see the trucks all lined up, and you can see some of the armed guards - between each truck was a group of 10-20 men.

Finalist for Biz Grant and Need Your Votes

It is so exciting to announce that we are one of the 50 finalists in the Intuit Small Business Grant Contest. In order to participate in the final stage of the contest I had to create a video that told my story and submit it to Intuit where people can vote for it over the next 2 weeks (voting closes on May 31, 2009). It went live on their site on May 18 at 9:30am PST. Now, I need your votes!

Visit this link:

http://community.intuit.com/contests/asKDwGzr0qllvkab8P4pmk

When you are ready to vote, click on one of the words, "inspiring", "useful" or "funny" (you can actually vote once in each of the three categories), you will be prompted to create a user name and password (for security reasons), then you will be able to register your vote. The internet votes will count as 40% of the overall voting for the Grand Prize and 4 runner ups. Please take some time and vote! Thank you so much!!

Payson

Vital Juice - All the things that can make your life 'juicy'

From the company that brings you Daily Candy, comes the wellness newsletter for LA, New York and Nationally - Vital Juice - all the fitness, beauty, nutrition and wellness information you need to keep your life juicy and spiked with vitality. We found out about this newsletter a few weeks ago and have fallen in love with it, and we were fortunate enough to be included, alongside of some incredible company, in today's feature, Lucky Charms.

The ring featured, the Strength Rune Ring, is one of our favorites, and a favorite of our clients. An ancient rune, symbolizing strength and courage, graces the top, and the word 'strength' is inscribed on the back. Click for more information on the Strength Rune Ring, or click to read the 'Lucky Charms' post and see what VitalJuice had to say about the 'divine strength rune ring'. And, while you're there, be sure to sign up for the newlsetter - its funny, entertaining and educational - you'll be delighted!