28 RETAILER HALL OF FAME 2017 The winner of the “People’s Choice” CASE Award was Christopher Rankin from Christian Caine Design located in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. Rankin’s “Milano” pendant is made of 14-karat rose gold and white diamonds of various weights on a 22-inch adjustable cable chain. Rankin designed the pendant in Matrix, a computer-aided design program. The piece was tumbled and hand-finished. The pendant retails for $4,980. Avalina LLC of White & Ivory in Leesburg, Virginia won a CASE Award for this 18-karat rose gold ring featuring a black Australian doublet opal, 0.53-carat marquise-shaped blue sapphire and 0.12 carats of round brilliant diamonds. The ring was handmade and hand-engraved and retails for $5,900. $5,001 TO $10,000 OVER $10,000 PEOPLE’S CHOICE Curtiss-Gal of The Gem Vault was a double CASE Award winner this year. In the over $10,000 category, she created this 14-karat white gold necklace featuring a 5.89 marquise-cut Paraiba tourmaline cabochon set east to west and surrounded with diamond pavé. It’s accented with additional pavé-set Paraiba tourmalines and diamonds. Curtiss-Gal cast the flower stations in the necklace and the rest of the design was hand-built. The necklace will retail for $40,000.