Not too long ago, In Detail magazine released an article about the effect of new Instagram-based digital PR and marketing strategies on jewellery retail. It's quite a good read.

For my second article in the "Dark Side of New Technology" series, I'm going to discuss the problems with online retail platforms like Etsy and Shapeways, and what can be done to improve them.

For these next few articles, I'm going to examine the negative side-effects of many of these innovations, and what we as jewellery businesses can do about it to protect ourselves. I shall call this new series “The Dark Side of New Technology”. This first article will be about the side effects of social media marketing’s continuous growth.

Austrian jeweller Boltenstern has collaborated with Cooksons to develop and release the first platinum and gold 3D printed jewellery collection, called Embrace.

A growing number of designer jewellery brands who are happily stepping into what was once the preserve of the contemporary art jeweller-- innovative choices of material and method. Here are a few of a growing list of premium and luxury brands which create jewellery using both innovative materials and innovative manufacturing processes:

As part of James Allen's recently launched but absolutely brilliant marketing push for millennial grooms, they teamed up with Buzzfeed to create the Engagement Ring Challenge, where both partners separately design an engagement ring using James Allen's online bespoke design tools, and then compare. The end results and reactions are cute, and only half predictable:

The Economist has recently written an excellent introductory briefing on the current state of 3D printing and how it will affect industry.

Previously we've talked about the different ways in which CAD is being used by jewellers to interact with their customers. Now I wanted to look at the ways in which jewellery CAD designers can offer their skills to the wider market.

The launch of luxury 3D printed product boutique website Bre and Co marks an interesting change in the perception of CAD and 3D printed products by consumers. In this article, I explore 4 different emerging business strategies for using CAD and 3D printing when marketing and presenting retail jewellery.

It seems even with old-fashioned fine jewellery techniques, innovation is still possible. With their new Merveilles collection, Swiss jeweller Boghossian has unveiled an entirely new diamond setting technique they call