As President of the JAA and in my other capacities within the jewellery trade, I feel that it is important for me to pause for a moment and reflect on the future of our industry. In particular, I think about the young minds cultivating their skills and talents either as students or apprentices at benches in educational institutions or businesses around the country. Although many trade members have found success…

Amanda Hunter, Project Manager at the Jewellers Association of Australia (JAA), and several JAA State Branches representatives recently participated in a meeting organised by SCentre Group to discuss the challenges shopping centres are currently facing in providing security to the stores enclosed within their premises. Securing places of mass gatherings such as shopping centres can be problematic due to their ease of access by the public and vehicles. Such ease…

On June 26 2017, the Bill introducing GST integrity measures on precious metals was given Royal Assent by the Australian Parliament and has now been enforced.Earlier in the year, a document released by the Commissioner of Taxation on the 22 February 2017 titled ‘Goods and services tax: What is excluded from being second-hand goods by paragraph (b) of the definition of that term in Division 195 of the A New…

The Jewellers Association of Australia (JAA) is pleased to announce a media partnership with marie claire for the 2017 JAA Australasian Jewellery Awards (Awards). This comes after marie claire’s successful media partnership with the 2010 JAA Australian Jewellery Awards. With the number of entries and calibre of the pieces received for the 2017 Awards, particularly in the precious metal, colour and diamond categories, a move towards a media partner focused…

Our featured JAA member supplier and esteemed 2017 JAA Jewellery Awards sponsor, Chemgold is committed to excellence in the precious metals sector. 'Our range of products and services includes casting, refining, fabricated alloys, mounts and a comprehensive 10,000+ design catalogue. Chemgold offers a complete one stop for CAD/CAM supporting our customers at every stage – from designing, printing, casting, moulds, finishing and setting. We offer the smoothest CAD surface in…

Francisca Rendic has always been in love with jewellery as it fascinated her since early childhood. “I have always loved and wore jewellery all my life” she says, “I have always looked for interesting jewellery everywhere I have travelled”. Miss Rendic is trained in Architecture and attained Masters in Jewellery Design at the College of Fine Arts at The University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney. “I am trained as…