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RAPAPORT... MJSA scheduled its second Jeweler’s Bench Conference & Trade Fair for September 13 and 14 at the Providence Airport Sheraton, just a few minutes’ drive from Rhode Island’s T.F. Green Airport. The conference serves designers, custom designers and jewelry makers who work at a bench, as well as those bench jewelers who run service, repair, custom, and repurposing businesses. Along with two days of education, the trade fair includes suppliers offering tools and supplies; CAD/CAM software and machines; laser welders and engravers; finishing supplies and systems; components, gemstones, and chain; business services and software and subcontracting services. “This year, we’ve divided the education conference into two distinct days, one for jewelers looking to improve their business and marketing skills, and a second day for designers and bench jewelers who want to sharpen their bench skills,” said David W. Cochran, MJSA's president and CEO. Sessions that are focused on improving business operations were designed by the MJSA Education Foundation, which hosts the program on September 13, followed the next day by bench work classes that were developed by Metalwerx, a Waltham, Massachusetts–based school and community studio for jewelry makers and metal artists.
Business program speakers include Ann Cahoon, the owner of Flying Marquis Studio in the greater Boston area; Joel McFadden, an award-winning custom designer and owner of Joel McFadden Designs in Red Bank, New Jersey; Marlene Richey, who ran an award-winning jewelry design firm and retail jewelry gallery and is the author of the award-winning book "Profiting by Design: A Jewelry Maker’s Guide to Business Success" (MJSA Press), and Peggy Jo Donahue, the director of the MJSA Education Foundation, who also manages MJSA’s social networking sites. Bench program speakers include Sessin Durgham, an award-winning designer and member of the technical support team at Rio Grande in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Daniel Grandi, the owner of RaceCar Jewelry Co., a full-service investment casting and finishing shop in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and David Baird, a jewelry maker and lapidary expert who has sold his work nationally and teaches classes and workshops around New England.
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