A Life in the Industry: Kyle Roderick

      While I work as a jewelry journalist for FORBES.com, RAPAPORT, NouvelleBox and other influential media outlets, I also develop and launch social media campaigns about design-driven jewelry on my Instagram account @bijouxreview  As of April, 2021, @bijouxreview has over 93,100 followers. My dynamic Instagram campaigns increase recognition of brands and designers among the retail jewelry buyers, fashion editors, boutique owners and consumers who follow me. I further publicize my clients through feature articles I write for the publications mentioned above, as well as in speaking engagements at international jewelry trade shows such as the annual INHORGENTA in Munich and others.

 

 

Kyle with Pippa Small who featured in her book Bejeweled

 

 

      As a journalist, author and public relations campaigner and copywriter, I have been covering advances in sustainable jewelry, Fairtrade gold; ethical gemstone mining plus ethical jewelry fabrication since 2011. As the author and photo editor of BEJEWELED:  The World of Ethical Jewelry (Rizzoli, 2019), I created the first book that surveys sustainable, design-driven jewelry that is also beautiful, ergonomic and luxurious. The exposure that I gave to the fourteen designers in BEJEWELED continues to open new distribution channels for their jewelry, activate interest in their brands and support sell-through. NouvelleBox designer Alice Cicolini is one such example among many.  

 

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In this digital and disembodied world, feeling, wearing,

making and looking at beautiful jewelry amidst our uncertain times

makes each moment feel that much more precious.

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      My writing, images, videos and Instagram Lives reach a broad base of consumers and retail jewelry buyers. Every day, I communicate to the world why the intrinsic rarity, design, material and artisanal values of a certain jewelry collection, or a single piece, makes it covetable, collectable and enduring in value. I delight in showing and telling the many ways in which jewelry can enhance our quality of life, stand the test of time, become treasured heirlooms, and in some cases, increase in monetary value.

 

      Having studied gemology and worked as a textbook writer and photo editor at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), I have a strong background in gemstones, gemology, precious metals, jewelry design and the narrative of jewelry history. The history of jewelry is linked to the advent of symbolic thinking in humans as well as to the importance of pre-verbal communication and personal expression.

 

      Jewelry matters for many reasons, perhaps the most fundamental and unifying one is that jewelry is an intimate partner in your life, and in the lives of billions of others on this planet. We wear jewelry on our bodies, against our skin, and in the case of piercings, we wear jewelry inside our bodies. In this digital and disembodied world, feeling, wearing, making and looking at beautiful jewelry amidst our uncertain times makes each moment feel that much more precious.

 

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A piece of jewelry can act as an alchemically effective amulet that

positively transforms your life or as a talisman that guides and protects you.

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      I love jewelry and respect designers. I especially appreciate designers who are working to be as sustainable as possible in their choices of gemstones, precious metals and fabrication. I also love imaginative designers who are never enslaved by conventions. Designers who are concerned with material and technical innovations. Most of all I love designers who are primarily concerned with the creative effect of their jewels because they live to adorn people!  I love the great eras in jewelry history, all the way back to Greek or Roman antiquity and even Neolithic jewels. Yet I also love completely crazy mixtures of important gemstones, repurposed vintage and antique elements, mixtures of Persian turquoise with rock crystal amber and pink quartz, associations with colors that are audacious, odd, maybe on the wilder shores or conventional taste.  I can even appreciate bourgeois jewelry because I respect people’s right to be conservative.

 

 

FLASHING BACK "Birds, especially hyacinth makaws, make the best brooches, wouldn't you agree?"

 

 

 Our tactile, visual and emotional experiences of wearing jewelry intersect with some of our deepest personal identities, stories, symbols and intimacies. Jewelry makes those who wear it AND see it feel inspired by artistry, by colors, by the extra something of adornment. I am among those who believe in the abilities of gemstones and formerly living jewelry materials, such as abalone, pearls and bone, to protect, heal and enchant.  A piece of jewelry can act as a visually effective amulet that positively transforms your life, or as an alchemically effective talisman that Our tactile, visual and emotional experiences of wearing jewelry intersect with some of our deepest personal identities, stories, symbols and intimacies. Jewelry makes those who wear it AND see it feel inspired by artistry, by colors, by the extra something of adornment. I am among those who believe in the abilities of gemstones and formerly living jewelry materials, such as abalone, pearls and bone, to protect, heal and enchant.  A piece of jewelry can act as an alchemically effective amulet that positively transforms your life or as a talisman that guides and protects you. I look forward to seeing your jewelry and communicating its merits to the world.

 

--Kyle Roderick

Malibu, CA.

 

To read more of my writing, please click HERE