Archive for June, 2013
2013 Professional Development Seminar
View and listen to the 2013 Professional Development Seminar Introduction, “Sacred Cow, Purple Cow, Cash Cow,” by Andy Cooperman, Brigitte Martin and Harriete Estel Berman. The 2013 PDS took place at the SNAG conference in Toronto in May. Additional talks will be posted every week.
Guest Column by Marc Choyt
Why The Kimberley Certification Process For “Conflict Free Diamonds” Must Be Abandoned (Part Two of Two)
As outlined in my first post, the Kimberley Process Certification is failing to ensure the conflict-free status of the diamonds it certifies. I believe it was destined to fail because, in context to the blood diamond issue, there has not been, in the jewelry sector, significant or meaningful public accountability.
Educational Endowment Scholarships 2013
THE 2013 EDUCATIONAL ENDOWMENT SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS:
SNAG $2,000 Award
Michael O’Neill, graduate student at State University of New York, New Paltz
SNAG $1,500 Award
Alyssa Bogdan, undergraduate student at the College for Creative Studies
SNAG $1,000 Award
Jessica Todd, graduate student at Kent State University
Learn more about the Educational Endowment Scholarships
Letter from the President – June 2013
Over the next few years, I look forward to creating a healthy and proactive dialogue with you and I hope that you feel there is always an open flow of communication. I am interested in diversity within the membership and actively reaching out to you. I am asking each and every one of you to help me in this task. Talk, talk, talk, and talk about SNAG to everyone you know, encourage other jewelers and metalsmiths to join us in this fantastic organization, encourage your students to join, because they will be the future of this organization and our field.
Guest Column by Marc Choyt
Why The Kimberley Certification Process For “Conflict Free Diamonds” Must Be Abandoned (Part One of Two)
The Kimberley Process Certification is fatally flawed, providing cover for serious human rights violations while purporting to guarantee conflict-free status. Part One of a two-part series examines the problems.
The big family secret in the jewelry sector is that the Kimberley Process Certification (KP), which created a system to prevent blood diamonds from entering the supply chain, now certifies blood diamonds as “conflict free.”
Yet, jewelers continue to rely on this now discredited system as an assurance of ethical diamond sourcing. This is an unacceptable practice and its time for KP to be abandoned by jewelers and the public, now.