Welcome to the Jewelry District, a podcast by J.C.K. brought to you by IGII, the International Gemological Institute.

Today, Rob Bates and Victoria Gamalski talk holiday sales, gold price, the natural and lab-grown

diamond markets, the 2025 pantone color, and Year of the Snake symbolism.

Hey, everyone.

Welcome to the jewelry district.

This is Victoria Gamelski, editor-in-chief of JCPay and J-C-K Online.com, calling in from Los Angeles.

And I'm with...

Rob Bates, news director of J-C-K and J-CK Online.com, calling in from New York City.

And it's January 8th, and right now there's a very serious situation in Los Angeles with the wildfires. And you want to tell us a little bit about what it's like, Vic?

Yes, yes. Thank you. It is extremely serious and extremely devastating and apocalyptic, really, for this, the word, my friends and all the people

I've been texting with have been using all morning. It's like Armageddon. I'm in Van Nuys, which is in the

San Fernando Valley. If you landed at LAX and drew a line due north, you would pass right through my

neighborhood. The biggest fire, which erupted on Wednesday, yesterday, January 7th, actually, it may now be in

competition for the biggest fire with another fire that erupted near Pasadena, but the first fire

was in the Palisades. It's now consumed, according to this extremely helpful app I download

called Watch Duty, somewhere around 11,800 acres. The Palisades is one of the most affluent parts of Los Angeles.

If you're in Santa Monica on the beach and you follow the curve of the bay towards Malibu,

that passes the Palisades. It's basically this hilly, cany area that butts up right against

the ocean. Gorgeous homes, lots of beautiful businesses.

And from what I understand, just thousands of structures have been engulfed and completely

succumb to the flames, unconfirmed reports.

So I won't mention any specific businesses, but a few jewelers, from what I understand,

...