Needham Community Education

Jaime Polk grew up in the jewelry industry, building a successful career as a senior sales executive at brands like Scott Kay, Karl Lagerfeld Fine Jewelry and Triton. Three years ago, she decided to leave behind the corporate “power roles” that had defined her. Jaime’s love for jewelry was very much alive, but she had no idea what her new direction should be. As soon as she met Katherine, she felt that “click” and knew they had to join forces. Their first venture was a B2B consulting firm called 21C Jewelry Solutions. Over the next year, they found themselves gravitating more and more to working directly with customers as concierge jewelers, often repurposing and reimagining keepsake jewelry into fresh, new silhouettes. Word of mouth spread, and soon 21C Designs was born. Jaime and Katherine love the personal connection factor! Jaime starts each relationship getting to know her client, listening to his or her story and the joy and meaning their jewelry brings to them. Her ideal collaboration marries personality and creativity to imagine jewelry that expresses her client’s individuality. She finds herself coming full circle, drawing on her decades of expertise and deep industry connections to source exactly the right gems to create the perfect, unique design for each customer. “Work” has never been so much fun!

Katherine Rosenberg-Pineau hasalways loved designing jewelry, pursuing this exciting field with a passion since she was ten years old. In her early years, Katherine started on the bench, studying and practicing through high school and college at Boston University, where she pursued a degree in metalsmithing from the Program in Artistry. That solid foundation in bench skills has been invaluable as her career turned towards product development. After a stint in retail, where Katherine worked as a buyer and a general manager, gaining valuable insight into the issues and business of retail operations, she began a long and successful career in jewelry design and development. She has worked for some of the giants in the industry. Early in her career, she headed up gemstone design and development for Town and Country Fine Jewelry. For almost ten years, she led Hearts on Fire as their head designer. Launching their fine jewelry line, Katherine was instrumental in helping the company grow from a small specialty diamond vendor into a leading global jewelry brand. Most recently, she has been an industry leader at Leo Schachter overseeing all the design and development for their jewelry divisions and working with key strategic accounts. Founding 21C Designs is a culmination of a lifetime of experience and the exciting next step of her jewelry journey.