What a Gem

I met Zanny at the Fort Worth art festival, then spent months watching her set sapphires into molten gold on Instagram, and I had to know how she does it.

Zanny Cox is the goldsmith and weaver behind Estudio Zanny, working out of an artist studio in East Austin. Her work draws on her Mexican, Kickapoo, and Irish heritage and on a lifelong love of ancient history, so her pieces have the organic shapes and molten textures of something unearthed. She makes bespoke fine jewelry and talismans in solid gold and silver, often mixing the two, and she builds everything heavy enough to wear on a river float. Her great grandfather was a gem dealer, she still hammers on his anvil, and she works with stones and rough inherited from his collection. She has also spent six years teaching herself to set diamonds and sapphires directly into molten gold. In this episode we talk about how that molten setting works, why gold is so well behaved at the bench, what the Mohs scale means for everyday wear, and why heirloom jewelry belongs on your body, not in a box.

In this episode
00:04 Welcome to What A Gem
00:30 Lois's jewelry: a fabric necklace from the Craft Guild of Dallas and blue glass earrings
01:30 Meet Zanny, the story behind the name, and a studio in East Austin
02:59 A gem dealer great grandfather, an amethyst pendant, and learning at naptime
05:26 Why gold is well behaved, and her mixed metal chain
07:18 Ancient history as inspiration, and jewelry you can wear off a waterfall
09:42 Hammering near a gemstone: won't it scratch?
10:50 The Mohs scale, why opals stay out of her rings, and the molten setting
15:22 Where her stones come from, including a cutter in Utah
16:41 The Tucson Gem Show and why you need more than a week
18:55 Take a class and see jewelry differently
21:10 Canopy, first Saturday open studios, and the Austin art scene
23:29 The Austin Studio Tour, and why the city needs one big art show
24:47 Her first major juried show as an emerging artist
26:32 Art isn't meant to be experienced through a screen
28:30 Saving for heirloom pieces and remaking grandma's ring
31:01 Use the good dishes, wear the good jewelry
32:22 Working with fire in an Austin summer
34:38 The physical side of goldsmithing, from grain to anvil
36:25 Shop safety and the hidden hazards of making jewelry
38:11 Where to find Zanny
39:48 Thanks for listening

Find Zanny and Estudio Zanny:
Website: https://estudiozanny.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/estudiozanny

Follow What A Gem
New episodes every other week. If you enjoyed this one, follow the show so you never miss an episode, and leave a quick review to help other jewelry lovers find us.

Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/033EEG7wBiuaCEyJcmRMQO
Watch on YouTube: youtube.com/@PodcastWhatAGem
Instagram: instagram.com/PodcastWhatAGem
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Made to Be Worn

I kept seeing The Jewels Jar's pearls and claw earrings on Instagram, and I wanted to know how a mother in Dubai and a daughter in San Francisco are building a brand made to be worn every single day.

Tania Valrani spent five years as a software engineer before she quit to help her mom, Mamta Valrani, grow The Jewels Jar, the fashion jewelry brand Mamta started in Dubai in 2017. Mamta is a certified gemologist and a former abstract painter, and she still designs every piece herself, bringing that trained eye to romantic, vintage inspired jewelry built around pearls and the highest grade cubic zirconia. Tania leads the US side from San Francisco, where pieces sell online for $80 to $200. Everything is meant to leave the jewelry box, with extra thick plating and simple care habits that keep a piece looking good for years. In this episode we talk about what cubic zirconia is and why you should always get a diamond certified, how the same earrings are office wear in Dubai and wedding wear in the US, the hand chain trend, and what it takes to turn a company that sells jewelry into a jewelry brand.

In this episode

00:04 Welcome to What A Gem

00:30 Lois's jewelry stories, including a blue topaz necklace that came out of a lonely Christmas Eve and earrings from a shop on a bridge in Bath

02:22 Meet Tania and The Jewels Jar, the family brand her mom started in Dubai

02:50 Growing up surrounded by traditional Indian jewelry, and why it did not feel wearable to her

04:04 Stainless steel, sterling silver, plated brass, and how extra thick plating makes a piece last

05:29 Keep the perfume and lotion away: care advice for almost any jewelry

05:45 What cubic zirconia actually is, and why you should always get a diamond certified

07:14 The claw earrings, and the pearl line that made the brand take off

08:35 The Orchid Bloom earrings: office wear in Dubai, special occasion wear in the US

09:40 How shoppers in the US and the Middle East buy differently

10:30 Gifting, bridesmaids, and a customer who wore her pearl earrings down the aisle

11:05 Mamta's path from abstract painter to jewelry designer

11:53 Four collections a year and something new every month

13:00 Hand chains, explained

14:19 Where to buy, from thejewelsjar.com to the Abu Dhabi airport to Bloomingdale's

15:15 Why Tania left her corporate job to work with her mom

16:43 Star signs, younger sisters, and who shapes the designs

17:45 The dream: a tennis partnership at an accessible price point

18:41 Going from a company that sells jewelry to a jewelry brand

19:56 Where to find The Jewels Jar

20:24 The elevator pitch: soft, romantic, and made to be worn

21:53 A discount code for What A Gem listeners

22:21 Thanks for listening

Find Tania and The Jewels Jar:

Website: https://thejewelsjar.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejewelsjar

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thejewelsjar

Listener offer: use code WHATAGEM20 for 20 percent off your order at thejewelsjar.com

Follow What A Gem

New episodes every other week. If you enjoyed this one, follow the show so you never miss an episode, and leave a quick review to help other jewelry lovers find us.

Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/033EEG7wBiuaCEyJcmRMQO

Watch on YouTube: youtube.com/@PodcastWhatAGem

Instagram: instagram.com/PodcastWhatAGem

Facebook: facebook.com/profile.php?id=61576520276933

I met Christine at an art festival, looked into a case full of opals, and realized not one of them would ever exist again.

Christine Ryan makes one of a kind jewelry from natural Australian opals, and she is the first to tell you the stone refuses to cooperate. Opal does not cut to a standard. It does not mass produce. No two stones have ever carried the same arrangement of color. Christine melts her own silver, forges every piece by hand, and buys straight from Australian miners, and fifteen years ago she was not a jeweler at all. She thought jewelry was a box you checked, something you put on because you were supposed to, until her husband handed her a handcrafted ring on an ordinary Tuesday. In this episode we talk about why a vivid blue can outvalue a weak red, the softness myth that keeps people from wearing the stone they love, setting an opal with a hammer on camera, and why she turned the traditional hoop earring sideways so the art finally has room to show.

In this episode

00:04  Lois opens wearing her own opals, including a shadow box necklace she found in a small family owned shop in Australia more than twenty years ago

01:53  Why Christine works almost exclusively in opal, and the ring from her husband that started it

02:40  One customer, one ring design, and a different opal for every woman in her family

03:59  White, blue, and red opals, and the fireworks analogy that explains the difference

04:22  Why 95 percent of opal comes from Australia, and where Mexican fire opal fits in

06:15  October has the most exciting birthstone available and most people do not know it

06:29  The softness myth, the hardness scale, and why nobody worries about pearls

09:00  The real reason opal intimidates jewelers, and it is not fragility

10:10  Setting an opal with a hammer, on camera, on purpose

11:28  Silver, gold, and the copper bracelet that surprised her

14:38  What makes one opal more valuable than another, and why difference beats perfection

16:39  The party stone: confetti, glitter, and why you should take your opal into the sunshine

17:39  Balancing art festivals with bench time, and what she learns eavesdropping in her own booth

20:20  Does she ever struggle to part with a piece

21:40  Jewelry as an evolution rather than a starting point

23:05  YouTube university, one real class, and learning by trial and error

25:16  The Garden Party earrings and why turning the circle beats the traditional hoop

27:33  Where to find her work, plus the fall art show schedule

30:01  Fifteen years in and still having fun

Find Christine and Christine Ryan Designs:

Website: https://www.christine-ryan.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christine_ryan_designs

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/christineryandesigns

Fall art show schedule: listed on her website

Michele has always been drawn to the outdoors. What started as a childhood spent digging in the dirt became Sidhe Designs, a jewelry line where landscapes, trees, and tiny wandering figures are cut by hand from silver and mixed metals.

In this episode Lois and Michele talk about Sidhe Designs and the stories built into every piece. Michele shares how a tree bending in ninety mile an hour Colorado wind became a symbol of being rooted and flexible at the same time, and how a dragonfly came to represent transformation after a loss at the school where she taught.

Michele's life has been built around nature, curiosity, and the people who shaped her. That comes through in the mentors she credits, the students she now teaches, and her husband Dan, who is her partner in the business and the one who keeps the books and the finish work moving. She talks about reversible jewelry, the patience of hand piercing metal, and what it really takes to get into a juried art festival.

Blending traditional metalsmithing with an ancient Korean gold technique called keum boo, Sidhe Designs is known for sterling silver landscapes, hand cut nature scenes, and pieces that start conversations between strangers.

Find Michele and Sidhe Designs:

• Website: https://www.sidhedesigns.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidhedesigns

Cynthia Renée Marcusson has stood in the pitch black of a gem mine 165 million years deep, washed the dirt off a stone no human had ever seen, and then figured out how to turn it into something a woman would wear for the rest of her life.

She started as a gem mine geologist, wrote her undergraduate thesis inside a working mine in Southern California, and founded Cynthia Renée, Inc. in 1990 as one of a handful of colored gem wholesale companies owned and run by a single woman. Today she works directly with private collectors, many of them for decades, sourcing rare colored gems and designing bespoke pieces around the stories of the people who wear them.

In this episode she and Lois get into what actually happens underground, why she asks clients about the shape of their dining room table before she designs anything, and why she calls the rise of colored gemstones a renaissance rather than a trend. She shares the story behind a pair of tanzanite earrings built around a sunrise over the Serengeti, explains the difference between hardness and durability before you buy that emerald engagement ring, and warns you that the way you clap your hands may be quietly wrecking your jewelry.

@CynthiaReneeJewels www.cynthiarenee.com

Veda Kalro has always been drawn to stories. Three years ago, she took a leap of faith and turned that passion into Anamśa Designs; a brand born from emotion, heritage, and a love for timeless beauty.

In this episode Lois and Veda talk about Anamśa Designs and how it is created for those who believe jewelry should feel as timeless as the memories attached to it. Veda shares how both her and her mother contribute to the brand with their unique styles which keep the collections both rooted in tradition and feeling fresh.

Veda’s life has been built around connection, creativity, and understanding people deeply. This depth shines through both the jewelry she designs and the joy she gives and receives when interacting with her customers. She shares trends she sees and her love for bringing women happiness as they

Blending traditional Indian craftsmanship with a contemporary eye for design, the brand is known for its intricate Kundan, Polki, Meenakari, antique gold, and statement bridal pieces that feel both regal and deeply personal.

Instagram: @anamsa.designs