Whew! So much has been going on that I’m just getting around to my second post on the JCK LUXURY jewelry trade show that happened in Las Vegas last month. To refresh your memory, here is Part I.
Since that post, gorgeous blogger Becky Stone of Diamonds in the Library included me in a post about her favorite finds at JCK. Becky is both a talented jewelry photographer and jewelry model (her nails are on point!), so I can’t resist sharing her photos. I swear, my barbed wire full-finger ring has never looked so good.
Photo by Becky Stone for Diamonds in the Library. Click for source.
She also took a nice close-up of my NYC Taxi and Passenger Maneater ring.
Photo by Becky Stone for Diamonds in the Library. Click for source.
If you missed Becky’s inadvertently high-larious Boomerang video of my Matilda sword necklace, you can check it out here.
Back to the show itself: As I wrote earlier, this was my first time exhibiting, but it wasn’t my first time attending JCK. That was in 2013, when I joined jewelry expert Cheryl Kremkow to give a talk on “The Next Generation Customer, Who Are They and How Do We Sell to Them.”
Me and Cheryl in 2013. I’m not asleep, honest. Click for original post.
The 2013 show was also the first time that jewelry designer Shamila Jiwa organized a cocktail hour for a bunch of wonderful wimmins — designers, journalists, press, sales reps, buyers, and bloggers who knew each other through social media — that we later nicknamed the Vegas Gems and then “geminists” per OG Gem Barbara Palumbo of Adornmentality. Now I usually find a couple of Gems at every major jewelry event I attend, but the Vegas event is always our biggest meet-up. In 2014, we went back to our original rendezvous spot, the Wynn, for another round of cocktails.
A few of the 2014 Vegas Gems. From left: designers Shamila Jiwa, Katrina Kelly, Erika Winters. Click for original post.
By 2015, we were ready to upgrade to a dinner at Jaleo at The Cosmopolitan …
From left: Me, Erika Winters, Shamila Jiwa, Brittany Siminitz, Barbara Palumbo, Peggy Jo Donahue, Cheryl Kremkow, Monica Stephenson.
… followed by a wild limo ride.
2015. Sitting, from left: Brittany Siminitz, Jessica Neiwert, some friendly fellas, Monica Stephenson. Lying down: Barbara Palumbo. My gold-shod foot in the right corner. Click for original post.
This year, the Gems flocked to my booth. Designer Katrina Kelly — famous for her “Wisdom Wand” pendants — checked out my virtual reality collaboration with CEEK VR and Richline during cocktail hour. (You can tell I really loved those 4 p.m. Moscow Mules.)
Toasting Katrina’s try-out of the virtual reality viewer.
Barbara Palumbo photographed a lot of my designs before we posed for our traditional duckface selfie. I don’t know why I look so skeptical in this one.
Quack quack with Barbara.
The dinner was moved to China Poblano at the Cosmopolitan. It was the only place that could accommodate our ever-expanding group. We’re always finding new Gems!
We had to take two shots of our long table.
In this photo, you can see the ridiculous dress I HAD to have for my first (exhibiting) show in Vegas.
From left: Shamila Jiwa, Eryn Patton, me, Monica Stephenson, Jessica Neiwart, Peggy Jo Donahue, Judi Powers, Erika Winters, Cheryl Kremkow.
Yes, I found a 1990s Nicole Miller dress with a casino-themed print on Etsy. Because I had to rush from my booth to the dinner, I didn’t get to take a full outfit picture until after I had gotten rumpled in the 109° heat.
What Wendy Wore in Las Vegas
Dress: Vintage Nicole Miller (acquired from Etsy in 2016)
Clutch: Sequoia, from Galeries Lafayette (2011)
Shoes: Prada (2011)
I failed on the photography front in another regard: I forgot to take a picture with the dress on before Jean from Ghost Tailor worked her magic on it. It had long sleeves and giant shoulder pads. Here’s a seller’s photo, but the original style looks much better on the mannequin than it did on me.
Click for source. This isn’t the particular dress that I bought.
I saw many of the Gems again the following night at the JCK Rocks the Beach pool party that I like so much. I don’t care who is performing. I’m a fan of the pool. (This year, Train played.)
I’m the pool’s biggest fan.
I’m normally strict about keeping jewelry out of pools, but if there was any time to make an exception to that rule, it’s at a jewelry trade show. That’s how my right-hand woman Eryn wound up going for a dip wearing my platinum full-finger ring.
Not her usual bathing-suit accessory.
I’m going to get to hang out again with a number of the Gems next week at the Women’s Jewelry Association’s Awards for Excellence. We need our own reality-show special: “Vegas Gems Take New York.”
