Jeweler News

We’re firm believers in trying on a ring at our showroom in Scottsdale. All you have to do is make an appointment and you have our full attention. We’re located on Camelback Road and can be reached at (888) 724-8222.Conversely, we’ll make your online buying experience as personal as possible.

Interestingly this company provides a virtual ring wearing experience. Hmmm…still can’t beat our showroom, where the rings and the people are real!

On Oct. 3, Forevermark launched My Forevermark Fitting—a virtual try-on experience that features jewelry with Forevermark diamonds sparkling and moving with the wearer’s finger in real time.

Consumers—using a webcam and the special Forevermark cut-outs—can select from 12 pieces including ear studs, a contemporary princess-cut solitaire ring, and a rare pear-cut diamond pendant. Users will also be able to choose the carat weight of the diamond rings.

Forevermark worked in partnership with the creative agency AKQA and Holition, a company that specializes in augmented reality, to create the program.

Jewelry and hair have long gone together. Think Cleopatra or the Queens of England. Or closer to home, sparkling barrettes or gem-studded clip-ons. This designer goes one step further. Hair is part of the jewelry (again a concept that has been around since people placed a lock of hair in a pendant or locket.

PARIS — Curly wigs of orange, royal blue or butter yellow curls — as if in some mad movie — acted as nests for jewelry as the indefatigable and imaginative Delfina Delettrez introduced her latest collection: “Love Is in the Hair.”

(A piece from “Love Is in the Hair,” a new jewelry collection by Delfina Delettrez.)

The name was not just taken at random. The concept of the designer is to encase the hair of loved ones, as was done in the Victorian era, but in a heart-shaped in transparent resin rather than in a locket or brooch. Her daughter’s hair and a lock of the designer’s own tresses became wearable memory sticks, filled with fantasy.

“I wanted to return to the origin of jewels,” said the designer. “And I have always been obsessed with hair — especially men’s, when the larger the hair, the greater the power.”

Ms. Delettrez also played with rings, dangling a miniscule pink-silver purse on one finger, claiming, “It’s good for parties,” and creating an animalistic ring that slips over two fingers, leaving the leopard free to move his tail across the hand.

Source: New York Times

Delfina Delettrez Fendi

 

When we read about Sotheby’s and the like, we often figure the game players are high rollers with tons of dough. But this “little guy” just won a big gem at an online auction, reminding us all that gems as an investment are a possibility if you know what you’re doing:

Photo courtesy of Bid4Assets

A self-described “little guy” from Cortland, Ohio, who builds houses and dabbles in gems on the side, submitted the winning bid at this week’s bid4assets online auction, and is now the proud owner of a 43 ct. internally flawless yellow diamond.

While the company had predicted the price could climb as high as $20 million, the winner, Jerre Hentosh, scored with a $2.8 million bid.

The stone, once nicknamed the “Golden Eye,” originally belonged to Ohio businessman Paul Monea. Monea was later convicted of money laundering in a scheme to hide the proceeds of drug trafficking, according to court documents. Federal marshalls seized the stone and gave it to bid4assets, which auctioned it off Sept. 6-8.  (View the listing.)

Hentosh, whose name was first revealed by a local newspaper, tells JCK that he became interested in the stone after seeing it on the national news.

“I know a little bit more about diamonds than the average individual,” he says. “This one caught my eye so I figured I’d bid on it.”

Still, Hentosh never expected to win, and is “still in shock” from it. And while he’s not sure exactly what he will do with the gem in question, he is entertaining offers.

“I’m hoping someone calls me up and throws me out a nice number,” he says. “I already heard from a museum. This stone is so rare. I see Christie’s is auctioning off Liz Taylor’s jewelry. This stone is bigger than her 30-carat stone. It’s bigger than Kim Kardashian’s.”

And if he gets no buyers, there is always a fallback plan.

“My 45th anniversary is tomorrow,” he says. “My wife is thinking what a nice present that would be.”

Source: JCK Online

This 1-minute video is a great visual example of why gem shows can be so amazing: up close and personal opportunities to “meet” some of the most amazing gems and jewelery in the industry. Prepare to be dazzled (except for the soundtrack, which is just plain annoying.)

It’s here. Well, it’s almost here. Fall, that is. This year, the colors for fashion and jewelry are a blend of “sensible and spirited.” Here’s more:

The season will contrast brighter-than-usual warm colors against versatile neutrals.

Here are the 10 Pantone colors for Fall 2011:

Fashion Color Trends Fall 2011 – from Pantone

Top row, left to right: Phlox (a deep purple), Orchid Hush (gray with orchid undertones), Deep Teal (a watery blueish green), Quarry (a cool medium gray), and Cedar (a midtone neutral green).

Bottom row, left to right: Nougat (a warm tan), Emberglow (bright warm orange), Bamboo (warm yellow with greenish undertone), Coffee Liqueur (rich creamy brown), and Honeysuckle (Pantone’s “color of the year” for 2011).

If you’re designing jewelry, here are two great ways to use this seasonal color information:

1) You may want to use the Fall fashion colors for 2011 in your jewelry designs.

2) Or you may prefer to use colors that will contrast / coordinate with this palette – since many of our customers’ new outfits will likely have these Pantone colors in them.

Source: Jewelry Business Blog

Even people not in the know, when it comes to the stock market, have heard how the price of gold continues to soar.

The price of gold per ounce hit a record $1,830 on Thursday, marking a steady climb in the months-long rapid escalation of the price of the metal. Jewelers across the country are reporting a noticeable increase in the amount of people coming in to sell their gold jewelry, which some are reluctant to refine.

“It’s turned into a feeding frenzy,” David Rotenberg, owner of David Craig Jewelers in Langhorne, Penn., said of buying gold. “It’s all we’re doing. People are lining up in the store.”

The economy’s hiccup earlier in August contributed to the increased number of consumers selling gold, Rotenberg said, and also to the types of gold jewelry they’re bringing in.

“They’re obviously digging deeper,” he said, “We went through a period, around 2008, where everything we were buying was scrap metal. Around 2010, people started coming in with nicer pieces of jewelry.”

Now he’s seeing scrap metal again, which leads him to believe that consumers are finding gold to sell that they haven’t considered before, including mementos.

Source: National Jeweler

So if you’ve been waiting to clean out that old jewelry box of yours, get to it sooner rather than later. The time is most definitely golden. Check out our page on how its done by a reputable jeweler such as ourselves.

Cadmium is a soft, bluish-white metal. It is used in nickel-cadmium batteries, pigments, metal plating/coatings and stabilizers in plastics. In children’s jewelry, cadmium is used to make the jewelry coating shiny in addition to adding weight and mass. However, cadmium is also a toxic heavy metal and a suspected carcinogen. It can also cause severe damage to the lungs, liver, kidneys and nervous system if swallowed or inhaled.

Illinois is the second state to ban the use of cadmium in children’s jewelry-making:

The law, which goes into effect July 1, limits the toxic metal to 75 parts per million (ppm) in any surface coating or accessible substrate of jewelry. It requires companies to measure the amount of cadmium that can “migrate” or leach out of a sample of jewelry over a two-hour period, when the sample is immersed in a solution that simulates digestive acid.

A similar cadmium ban was passed in January in Minnesota. However, the two laws differ in that Illinois specifies that children are “12 and under,” while Minnesota defines children as under six.

Three other states—California, Maryland, and Connecticut—have also passed laws banning cadmium in children’s jewelry, but those laws will not take effect until 2012, in the case of California and Maryland. Connecticut’s law takes effect in 2014.

Industry groups, including the MJSA, recently came together with the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to develop a standard for children’s jewelry.

That group produced a draft Safety Standard with recommendations on cadmium limits. If  adopted by the CPSC, the standard would likely supersede state cadmium laws and ultimately create a national standard.

Source: JCK

We’ve highlighted Elizabeth Taylor’s fine jewelry in the past. Now, you could have the chance to see it firsthand, as the pieces are toured around the world. I’m sure Liz would be pleased!

New York–Auction house Christie’s has planned an international, three-month tour of highlights from the Elizabeth Taylor collection, including pieces of her jewelry, which will begin in September and include stops in Moscow, London, Los Angeles, Dubai, Paris and Hong Kong.

The tour will culminate in New York in early December with a ten-day, museum-quality exhibition of Taylor’s jewelry, fashion accessories, decorative arts and memorabilia, followed by four consecutive days of auctions.

Taylor’s jewelry will be auctioned Dec. 13 and 14 and include pieces from top design houses as well as the actress’s most elaborate custom-designed jewels.

A portion of the proceeds generated by exhibitions admissions, events and publications related to the sales will be donated to The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation (ETAF). Founded in 1991, ETAF provides funding to AIDS service organizations throughout the world to assist those living with HIV and AIDS.

Estimates and specifics of auction items will be available in early fall.

Source: National Jeweler

You just don’t see women wearing tiaras like they used to. Sure, there’s the occasional cardboard tiara worn by little girls at birthday parties, but maybe its time we bring back this epic fashion statement. If you have $12 million, that is.

Geneva–An auction world-record price for a tiara was set Tuesday, when a rare emerald and diamond tiara realized more than $12 million at Sotheby’s sale of magnificent and noble jewels here.

Previously estimated to garner between $5 million and $10 million, the tiara’s sale also represents a world auction record of an emerald jewelry piece.

“This evening’s results, across the board–in noble jewels, diamonds, colored gemstones, and pieces signed by the world’s greatest jewelers–show the extraordinary appetite among connoisseurs for rarity, quality and provenance,” David Bennett, chairman of Sotheby’s jewelry department for Europe and the Middle East, said.

The Sotheby’s sale realized a total of $89 million, with 90 percent sold by lot and 97 percent sold by value.

Included in the auction was the nearly $11 million sale of a 10-carat, rare fancy intense pink diamond ring (below) made for the third-highest price for a pink diamond at auction, as well as the ninth-highest price for a diamond at auction.

Christie’s sale of magnificent jewels in Geneva on May 18 realized a total of more than $78 million, with 84 percent sold by lot. This auction also set world-record prices in various categories.

“The jewelry sale in Geneva was marked by strong bidding,” Francois Curiel, president of Christie’s Switzerland, said. “Forty-two years after our first sale in Switzerland, Geneva remains a vital, specialized auction center in today’s global market.”

Read more at National Jeweler

When actress and Oscar winner Natalie Portman decided to wed Black Swan choreographer Benjamin Millepied, she insisted on a ring that fit her eco-friendly leanings. She also chose a platinum ring; the exceedingly “in” metal:

The latest A-list bride-to-be on the platinum program is Natalie Portman, whose engagement announcement left her fans with dropped jaws late last year. The low-profile actress has been spotted wearing a stunning vintage-inspired engagement ring in platinum while making the publicity rounds following her best-actress Oscar win for her role in Black Swan.

The film’s choreographer Benjamin Millepied, who is Portman’s fiancé and the man with whom she is also expecting her first child, was reportedly a very careful ring shopper. He made sure he chose a ring that is eco-friendly, in line with the values of the 29-year-old actress, who is also a vegan activist.

According to a report in InStyle, the handmade ring was designed by ballet dancer-turned jewelry designer Jamie Wolf and features an antique stone–an old round old mine-cut diamond- and recycled platinum. The pavé diamonds are certified as conflict-free

Wolf has also made jewelry for a list of Hollywood starlets that includes Jessica Biel, Julia Roberts and Anne Hathaway.

Platinum engagement ring - eco-friendly and vintage dazzling