This is the opinion expressed by Dmitri Zverev, a Canadian jeweler, owning Euro Custom Design Jewellery Ltd.

Dmitri Zverev
He was born in 1960 in the Krasnodarsky Territory, then studied in Leningrad and worked in the Far East in positions related to cartography and graphic design. In 1996, he immigrated to Canada starting with jobs of unskilled labour. He worked as a jeweler repairing jewelry pieces and as a jewelry designer with various companies in Vancouver. In 2004-2006 Dmitri Zverev was employed by Spence Diamonds as their chief designer. In 2006, he opened his own business having established Euro Custom Design Jewellery Ltd. www.ecdjw.com. Currently, his occupation includes:
- jewelry design,
- sophisticated jewelry made to order,
- developing CNC machine-tools and methods of their application in jewelry modelling.
He takes part in the following exhibitions: JCK Las Vegas, Toronto, Vancouver, and Baselworld.
On several occasions, he was named the winner of the Passion Award Design Competition.
His gemmological education includes GIA and CIG diplomas.

What trends (currents, schools or systems) in modern design do you consider as dominating in the global jewelry market?

Diamond rings in white gold and platinum are the core of the modern jewelry market. They give the highest rate of sales in terms of money. A large share among them belongs to engagement rings. The reason is in the decades-long traditions practiced by the most advanced Western nations, where the bridegroom gives an engagement ring to his fiancée before the wedding demonstrating his intentions, while the fiancée gives her consent to his proposal by accepting the ring.  It is not customary to give an old ring received by inheritance to one’s sweetheart. The ring and the gem set in it should be new, not used before. As a rule, it takes one- or two-month salary of a young man to buy such a ring, and the ring is worth several thousand dollars. This has served to set up an enormous and endless market for selling diamonds. The U.S.A. alone consumes up to 60% of all gem-quality diamonds produced in the world. The design of these engagement rings in their majority is fairly simple and conservative and is virtually not subject in any way to changing fashion. Mainly, these are rings with one medium or large diamond in high setting. Along with engagement rings there are some other rather traditional rings worn by any woman. These are anniversary rings made as simple bands encircled with small diamonds and given to women by men to commemorate various anniversaries. Right hand rings are the rings worn on your right hand and made as wide ornamented bands encrusted with small diamonds.

What is your favorite line of business?

I have two lines of business. The first one includes designs and models performed for other jewelry firms. The second one covers manufacturing single exclusive jewelry items for my clients to their orders. These are mainly expensive diamond items.
 
Your tastes were evidently shaped up consciously (based on your family culture, education, studies, self-teaching and contemplation). Please tell about your creative way to Russian readers.

During all my life, I was engaged in professional plotting and drawing doing it with my own hands, and later I went in computer graphics. Then gradually, I switched over to jewelry design, which is now inseparable from the 3D computer modelling. I was engaged in it in a serious way already in Canada, where I had immigrated together with my family some time ago. As it is usually told in such cases, I started to work in Canada as a simple worker at a construction site, then at a factory and a food store. I changed a number of professions and specialties until was able to get back to my favorite occupation. To work as a simple jeweler at an enterprise or a small repair workshop is not an easy thing here due to the very high competition heated up by jewelers who came from China and Vietnam. This kind of work is very hard and underpaid. However, somehow I managed to force my way to the position of a chief designer at a large enterprise and later opened my own business. Currently, I have a beautiful studio in the very heart of Vancouver and a large network of customers. I take part in exhibitions and design contests.

What is your attitude to audacities in modern jewelry design (“gothic” aspects, gay culture, neo-Nazi themes and provocative jewelry)?

No matter how I treat this kind of design, it does exist and there is a certain demand for it, so one has to take this into consideration. These are very narrow and specialized aspects of the jewelry market aimed at their specific clientele and very different from each other. Thus among them, you may see a rather large stratum of design meant for bike clubs, delineating large details in silver and gold, including skulls, enormous chains and tiny bike parts. Another tack is represented by rock music fans. There are a great number of separately positioned cheap youth products like trinkets for sex and gay shops. One cannot say that this business is well developed, but there are jewelry workshops, which succeeded making such items.

Some people believe that design offered by famous jewelry houses (Cartier, Van Cleef, etc.) is hopelessly out-of-date and remains in the middle of the 20th century as variations of the Art Deco style. What is your opinion?

The first place on this list I would give to Tiffany and then to Cartier and others. I would not be right to make an unequivocal statement that their design is obsolete, as I have already said it earlier. Their diamond products are the core of all the jewelry business in the world. Of course, design is also changing, though slowly. However, this is not stipulated by fashion, but by new production technologies, which are in continuous development. The introduction of three-dimensional computer modelling has made jewelry items much more complicated and miniature.  Hand-made models are virtually gone. Modern casting machines and laser welding permit to manufacture more thin and fine parts.

How do you interpret the copyright problem in jewelry design? 

To my mind, there is no such problem at all. In the first place, it is virtually impossible to defend such rights in the court, since it is very difficult to prove unsanctioned copying. In the second place, the first-rate world-level designers, like Tiffany, are not much annoyed if their items are copied. On the contrary, they even use this to show their quality and superiority over the others comparing their own items with those forged.

Whom of Russian designers do you know personally?

I have not had enough opportunities to meet many Russian jewelry designers at the major exhibitions in Las Vegas and Basel. Best of all, I remember the jewelry produced by Yuvelirny Teatr from Moscow. They have rather impressive works.
 
Is any Russian designer or trademark (except Faberge) known in the West at least to experts? For instance, Yelena Opaleva, who won a contest organized by De Beers?

The most significant names of present jewelry designers may justifiably include the Zhilyaevs’ family firm.  Unfortunately, not so much is known about Yelena Opaleva, particularly in the United States and Canada, as well as about the De Beers designer contest.

This year, five Russian companies (Estet, Stela Exclusive, Kristall of Smolensk, the Moscow Experimental Jewelry Plant and Russkiye Samotsvety) are making efforts to generate their own brands in the premium segment. Do you think they will be able to compete with Cartier, Tiffany and Bvlgari in Russia, Europe, the Arab countries and China?

In Russia, they are just obliged to compete with famous world brands, since Russian customers differ from their Western counterparts in their taste, so only these companies alone should feel it, creating new brands and filling the Russian market.  Russian brands will not be able to break through to the markets in Europe and America under any circumstances. If we take for instance Geneva or Lausanne with their most prestigious stores in the world, terrible competition and incredible store maintenance costs, there is no even a single chance. The Emirates is a very promising market. There are a number of new enormous trade malls under construction, where it is so far possible to wedge in one’s stores. However, along with these particularities it should be kept in mind that the major part of jewelry goods in this market consists of yellow gold without stones, reflecting purely Eastern design with fine wickerwork. This is why the only way to get through to that market is to offer Western design, with diamonds, and to compete so far with eminent world brands. The opportunities to get through to China offering Russian jewelry are scarce, if none at all. Since more and more mass production lines are being transferred to China from all over the world, the Chinese have no difficulties at all to copy and reproduce any Western product for their domestic market.