Describing itself as a “personal social membership” for jewelry fanatics, Gem X takes a deep dive into all method of jewellery-related topics, sharing insights with a world viewers of 1,000 plus. Members embrace designers, historians and collectors. There are additionally those that could also be unconnected to the trade however are captivated with jewelry and keen to realize data and entry to the internal sanctum of this typically closed-off world.
And thru its work, the membership has gained a popularity as a reputable jewelry authority. Its founders are handled like editors and invited on to panels. It even has a philanthropic programme, Gem X Students, which launched in 2021. “The world of jewelry is such an unimaginable treasure chest, stuffed with a tremendous solid of characters,” says Heidi Garnett, who co-founded Gem X with Lin Jamison in New York in 2017, after they met whereas learning on the Gemological Institute of America.
Quick ahead 5 years and Jamison was being referred to as on to reasonable a “meet the skilled” dialog on the European Advantageous Artwork Truthful (TEFAF) in New York. Then, at TEFAF in Maastricht, Garnett was requested to interview Natacha Vassiltchikov, worldwide deputy heritage director at Van Cleef & Arpels.
“With Gem X’s world profile, it’s well-known for connecting jewelry enthusiasts from everywhere in the world,” says Simone Stunz, TEFAF programming supervisor. “Now we have a private connection to Gem X because it repeatedly options members of TEFAF’s exhibitor neighborhood on Gemflix [Gem X’s series of jewellery-themed virtual conversations].”
Lin Jamison and Heidi Garnett © Gem X
The staff retains members engaged with a full calendar of occasions. Throughout the Queen’s platinum jubilee weekend in London, in June, the society organised a tour of “royal and aristocratic tiaras” at Sotheby’s, led by Kristian Spofforth, the public sale home’s head of jewelry and a Gem X member. The subsequent occasion takes place at Anabela Chan’s Knightsbridge flagship storeon Monday.
Then, in April, there’s a Gem X tour deliberate to Lisbon in partnership with jewelry historian Rui Galopim de Carvalho. “It’s our dream jewelry journey, from excursions of the Crown Jewels on the Palácio Nacional da Ajuda and the Lalique assortment on the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian to visits to vintage jewelry sellers and designers,” says Garnett.
It was Garnett’s transfer to London in 2019 that helped give Gem X transatlantic attraction and led to a rise in London-based members. Gemflix additionally attracted new members when the Covid lockdown arrived in early 2020.
“I found Gem X firstly of lockdown — it was my saviour,” says Valery Demure, who runs the Objet d’Emotion jewelry gallery in Marylebone, central London. “The primary webinar that I listened to was Christian Hemmerle [the fourth-generation German jeweller], then Francesca Cartier Brickell speaking about her e book The Cartiers.” In November, Demure hosted her second in-person occasion for members, at which journalist Melanie Grant interviewed designer Sharon Khazzam.
Valerie Genty, who runs the jewelry platform Ethos of London, turned a Gem X member in July 2021 after discovering the society on jewellery-related Instagram accounts. “The only real concentrate on jewelry pertains to my enterprise and this shared ardour {and professional} overlap attraction to me significantly,” she says. “I like the friendliness of the membership, and its extremely educated neighborhood of members.”
The organisation was initially impressed by e book golf equipment, the thought being that members take turns internet hosting occasions, every with a unique focus. This gave rise to the Gem X ‘Core’ of 16 members, together with Garnett and Jamison, who’re primarily based largely in London, New York and Los Angeles, and are integral to main and curating occasions. In Might, a US-based Core member organized a Gemflix speak by Nancy E Zinn, a curator on the Nationwide Museum of American Diplomacy in Washington, that centered on the diplomatic significance of the pins worn by former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright.
Gem X members at an occasion
London-based jeweller Dalia Daou, till just lately a Core member, explains: “The Core acts considerably like a board, bringing and brainstorming improvement concepts and contributing to the contacts, and arranging occasions and interviewing new members.”
On this approach, Gem X is to its largely feminine viewers what RedBar or Hodinkee are to male watch fanatics. Certainly, all three organisations began as ardour initiatives, nurturing fan-based communities by way of storytelling and in-person occasions. However that is the place the similarity ends. Hodinkee, for instance, has secured hundreds of thousands in enterprise capital funding, has a web-based store and even provides specialist watch insurance coverage. Garnett says she has no real interest in commercialising Gem X on this approach.
“I typically really feel we’re as a lot members as founders of the membership,” she says, including that it stays a ardour undertaking, fairly than a way of employment, for herself and Jamison. “I sit up for each occasion in the identical waythat I hope our members do. We don’t need to make any modifications that would take away from this expertise, both for us or them.”
Excursions to personal studios, together with previous visits to Judy Geib in Brooklyn or artist and goldsmith Pleasure Bonfield-Colombara in London, contain no fee or stress to purchase, simply an invite to be taught and respect. This “clear division between church and state”, as Garnett describes it, is what Gem X members worth most. Certainly, the $15,000 proceeds from Gemflix have been put in direction of awards for 5 students, together with Melbourne-based maker Ellin Geary and Yeena Yoon, who relies at London’s Goldsmith’s Centre. The seek for 2023 students is underneath approach.
Gem X has three membership ranges, beginning with a $10 month-to-month subscription that offers entry to the Gemflix archive. “We vet for a real enthusiasm and fervour for jewelry, not for data,” provides Garnett. For $100 yearly, Gem X membership permits full entry to the web site and invites to in-person occasions that include a reservation payment of $10-$25. Priced at $1,000 a yr, Gem X Limitless is the very best tier and consists of dinners, salon excursions and the chance to borrow gadgets from the Gem X assortment. This includes items from designers together with Castro Smith, Melanie Georgacopoulos, and Nicholas Lieou. The newest addition is a brooch by Ute Decker.
“Each considered one of these items started with a relationship with the jeweller and an appreciation for his or her craft,” Garnett says. It’s the widespread thread in all of Gem X’s actions, she believes.