Posts tagged technical innovations award

Point 84: Technical Innovator Award: Auris Jewellery

Comments Off on Point 84: Technical Innovator Award: Auris Jewellery read Awards & Recognition, Conference, Events, Features, Issue 84

by Kendra Jane B., The Point Co-Editor

Auris Jewelry was a first time vendor on this year exposition floor and as a new Gold company from Russia, it was great to see that they had entered the Magdustrial for an innovators award. What is even better as first time attendees and entrant is winning the technical award for this year.

Kendra Jane B: Can you introduce yourself and tell us what brought you to APP this year?

Auris Jewelry: Auris Jewelry’s core is three people. Myself and Vlad-1 are the owners of St Scalpelburg Piercing Boutique, with the intention of creating a new piercing jewelry line for its customers, and Vlad-2, who is a jeweler and owns a goldsmith manufacturer. Together we want to make this world more shiny. Where to start if not APP, the world’s biggest and best.

KJB: How long has Auris been a jewelry company?

AJ: We started looking for a jeweler to make our designs in 2014. We found Vlad-2 in 2015, so we can say we’ve done piercing since that time. But series models only started in 2016.

KJB: What was it like breaking into the gold market in Russia? Tell us about your company.

AJ: Besides the Advanced Journal of Surgical Pathology (AJSP), there is nothing high end in Russia. Only cheap gold designs from the ‘90s which are externally threaded, wrongly sized, and not even nickel free. Since 2013 St Scalpelburg has offered Russian people jewelry from BVLA, but long wait times and higher price points were very difficult in our market. We decided to build our own brand which can fulfill our customers’ demands in about one month and it works. As you can see, not only for our shop customers, but for other shops all over the world!

KJB: Why is it so important for piercers in your area to have access to high end jewelry?

AJ: Well, besides safety and quality, selling good jewelry is crucial for our industry. The more money we make, the more money we spend on advertising our professional industry ideas, and the bigger educational conferences we can hold, etc.

KJB: What inspired you to create the Magdustrial?

AJ: Well, the idea belongs to Vlad-2, our jeweler. He says that when you are focused on a specific area, you try to project onto this field everything  you  encounter—whether   those are rocks from a specific place or technological newcomings. One day Vlad got his hands on a pair of neodymium magnets, they were small enough to be feasible for applying to piercing and strong enough to keep tension. Some time after, he discussed the idea with Vlad-1 and me. We decided that it might be an  interesting idea to upgrade our existing chaindustrial with magnets instead of separate chains. The idea was so fresh and fascinating, so we started working on the design. You’ve all seen what it became!

 KJB: Tell us about the process of creating this piece?

AJ: It was pretty much the same as any other piece. Interactions, one by one, until we found a design suitable for magnets and it looked bright enough.

KJB: What are your future plans for your company?

AJ: Ohoho, there are tons! We’ve got a number of ideas for new jewelry styles we want to introduce to the public. We want to cover all countries where people work with high end, so we are pretty much on the road all this year.

Of course, we are quite a young company now, so we are establishing business processes first. But the biggest dream is to move all the manufacturing, employees, and facilities to a nice warm place like Thailand or Bali.

KJB: What is the piercing industry like in Russia compared to North America or European markets?

AJ: It is only just starting to grow. We have only 10–15 shops ordering high end titanium on a regular basis at the moment. The  general  public is still not ready to pay that much for a piercing; although we did a huge educational job by mass-advertising with St Scalpelburg the past five years and now people are starting to  believe that they can sell high end  jewelry  and  earn money from it.

I would say it is pretty similar to South America at the moment, but we are growing fast.

KJB: Can you tell us a bit about your involvement with the RuAPP and the conference you just had?

AJ: Of course! Auris Jewelry, along with Industrial Strength Russia, became corporate and administrative sponsors of the first and second RuAPP conference in Moscow. The first was held in January, second in August and this time we involved foreign speakers and attendees. Thanks a lot to APP who generously sponsored Brian Skellie and Cody Vaughn coming to RuAPP! The conference had 105 attendees which shows us that piercers in Russia are eager to learn and make Russian piercing all it can be!

Regarding involvement, RuAPP, Auris Jewelry, St Scalpelburg and the Russian piercing industry in general are mixed into one because we (Vlad Bodmodov and I) are doing all these activities at the same time.

KJB: Can we hope to see you next year?

AJ: You kidding? We would love to be there again! Next time we will be better prepared.

KJB: What is one piece of advice you would have for aspiring jewelry makers?

AJ: I’ve got a little bit different type of answer for that. After APP and RuAPP we went to Brazilian GEP where we met RARO jewelry who had their debut at the Conference. Lukas, their designer, told us that our jewelry along with Charly Pastrana’s Sacred Symbols, has become an inspiration for them.

I was so happy to know that we inspired those people to create a neat product! For me, inspiring people is one of the best things in the world.

Therefore, if I wanted to give advice to people who want to make jewelry themselves… well, do what you want to wear for yourself and don’t copy. When it comes from your heart you can easily see the difference. That’s why I love what Charly from Sacred Symbols does. The rest just takes time.

Hope to see you soon at Conferences all over the world and have you in the Auris Legion one day. Together we can wipe styleless jewelry from this world.

Point #60: Award Winner for Technical Innovation – Jason Pfohl – Gorilla Glass

Comments Off on Point #60: Award Winner for Technical Innovation – Jason Pfohl – Gorilla Glass read Awards & Recognition, Conference

By Jimmy Buddha

JIMMY: How did you ever come up with an original idea like o-ring grooves on the back of a single flare plug?
JASON: Most of my best ideas come from my customers. Piercers have been asking for this particular design for quite some time; I just had to get off my ass and start making them!

JIMMY: When you change designs from a functional or technical standpoint, is this usually based on feedback you get from piercers and customers?
JASON: Dude, I already answered that question. Pay attention.

JIMMY: How does your personal experience in body modification influence your work?
JASON: I had my flats punched by Zak Zito at 10mm and healed them with glass in under a month. That helped me to better understand the healing process and also in designing jewelry for conches, flats, and septums. Lobes are so much more flexible than cartilage, and the flares and wearing lengths are completely different.

JIMMY: Do you think there is much more room for “technical innovation” when it comes to jewelry, or are things tapped out? Where do we go from here?
JASON: I think there will always be room for technical innovation. Major breakthroughs such as internally threaded jewelry and surface anchors are landmark events in the modern piercing industry, but there are more subtle technical innovations in jewelry design happening all the time. Check out Morton Manley’s hoop variations, or Quetzalli’s soulful experiments. The jewelry companies and designers are more sophisticated now than at any time in our history.

JIMMY: Now that you are over 40, really old in other words, maybe you could take a minute to reflect…do you feel you have gained some wisdom and insight into why we are all in this industry?
JASON: I can’t speak for you, but I love making jewelry and working with glass…plus there are some great perks like getting to travel all over the world and hang out with my awesome friends.

JIMMY: Since you are in Oaxaca, Mexico full time, do you find it difficult to stay up to date and in touch with how the piercing scene changes and progresses? What do you do to stay current and relevant?
JASON: Luckily for the rest of the planet, Texas has never been the center of the universe. Plus the Internet has really transformed the piercing scene and created an amazing international on-line community that continues to grow. You should check it out! When I design jewelry I don’t follow existing trends, but make technical experiments with glass production techniques.

JIMMY: What other challenges do being set up in Mexico pose for you when it comes to manufacturing your jewelry?
JASON: My main challenges are importing raw materials and exporting finished goods.

JIMMY: I was lucky enough to have visited your new glass facility in Oaxaca recently and was very impressed. Will this allow Gorilla Glass to expand?
JASON: Gorilla Glass has been growing steadily every year since we started in 2002. We won’t slow down as long as there is more and more demand for our jewelry. Owning my own land and production studio is incredible. Thanks to all my customers for helping make that dream real! My newest project is a downtown art gallery to promote glass art in Mexico.

JIMMY: Should we expect to see a lot of new and exciting things from you?
JASON: Stop asking dumb questions.

JIMMY: You have put together an amazing team of workers in Mexico in your office and manufacturing. What are some of the challenges you face managing such a diverse group of individuals?
JASON: The diversity of people working with me has never presented a problem. Generally I try to find what an individual is good at and enjoys doing, and then give them responsibilities that match their strengths and background.

JIMMY: How did you get into glass?
JASON: In 1992 I was living in my van in California and made friends with a group of stoner surfer kids who introduced me to my first glass bong. That inspired me to enroll in a glass-blowing class at Santa Barbara City College. I was attracted to the heat and physicality of working with the material. Later on I met Dale Chihuly and he invited me to study at his famous glass school, Pilchuck. I ended up getting a job there and that’s when things got interesting.

JIMMY: Did you ever imagine that you would be making body jewelry in Mexico?
JASON: Gorilla Glass was born in Mexico City. I don’t think I imagined it. I focus on doing things.

JIMMY: As Gorilla Glass faces more competition from “cheap foreign-made glass,” specifically Indian and Chinese, what is your game plan to stay competitive?
JASON: There has been “cheap foreign-made glass” on the market for at least five years and I have never seen them as competition. My customer base is the best-of-the-best piercing shops that are proud to carry brand name jewelry. Plus we are constantly innovating with new designs and custom work, so we always have something fresh and different for our customers.

JIMMY: How does your company and its products differ from the “cheap foreign made” glass?
JASON: We are a quality company that has been around for ten years; we are passionate about what we do and we take care of our customers.

JIMMY: Knowing that I blazed the glass body jewelry trail in the mid 90s for you with Jimmy Buddha’s Glassware, do you think you would have been as successful as you have been with your jewelry had I not been there to open the door up for you, so to speak?
JASON: I never heard of Jimmy Buddha’s Glassware before…it must not have been very successful. That’s understandable; glass is a difficult material to work with and takes a lot of patience and skill. I’m glad you had better luck with organics, Jimmy!