Happy Stories From our customers

We just received several carats of antique style French cut diamonds in several sizes. If you’re looking for a truly antique looking piece, these little beauties are for you! Check out the video.

The American Gem Trade Association Spectrum Awards is an annual natural colored gemstone and cultured pearl jewelry design competition, considered to be the most respected and prestigious creative award for the jewelry design industry. Launched in 1984, the awards honors, recognizes and promotes designers whose work uses natural colored gemstones and cultured pearls in finished fine jewelry design. What follows are some of the top award winners.

(above) Best of Show, Todd Reed - Palladium and 22k gold locket featuring blue moonstones, grey diamonds (24.51ctw.) blue sapphires (17.34 ctw.) and white diamonds opening to reveal a 76.03-ct. Moldavite Buddha.

(above) Best Use of Color, Deirdre Featherstone - Platinum earrings with removable opal enhancers (15.64 ctw.) accented with blue zircons (3.27 ctw.), tanzanites (3.53 ctw.) Paraiba tourmalines (0.40 ctw.)

(above) First Place Winner in Evening Wear, Ion Ionescu - Titled "Pillow for Dreaming," this palladium and black rhodium ring is topped with a 36-ct. carved labradorite accented with paraiba tourmalines

Remember, if there’s a piece that you see on our blog that inspires you, we can recreate it at a fraction of the cost!

Check out more of the winners here.

What can I say about my experience working with Joe and Beth?  One word – WOW!!!
Read G’s testimonial: 

Beth,
Ring arrived yesterday, and it is gorgeous!  Exactly as detailed and sitting high enough for my wedding band to fit snuggly against it.  I would recommend you, your establishment, and website to anyone who inquired.  Pleasure doing business with you and your team.

Kind regards,
R

We’ve talked about platinum at length over the last year. It still remains a much talked about metal, including the considerable attention it received at the 28th annual AGTA Spectrum Awards hosted by the American Gem Trade Association that celebrates outstanding design using colored gemstones. The 2012 AGTA Spectrum Awards™ competition was held in New York City on October 22-23. Take a look at some of the amazing highlights:

Platinum Honors™ 2012 Winners:

Best Use of Platinum and Color

Michael Endlich, Pave Fine Jewelry: Platinum ring featuring a 19.05 ct. cushion-cut Aquamarine with pave-set Diamonds (.41 ctw.).

Bridal Wear

James W. Currens, J.W. Currens Inc.: Platinum ring featuring a 16.80 ct. sugarloaf Ruby accented with Diamaonds (4.54 ctw.).

Day Wear

Leon Mege, Leon Mege, Inc.: Platinum Ring featuring a 16.76 ct. Paraiba Tourmaline cabachon accented with antique cushion-cut Diamonds and Diamond melee (3.10 ctw.).

Check out the rest of the winners here.

I don’t know about you but there’s something I love about quotes. They’re mini-lessons on life, love…and in this case jewelry!

Some asked me where the rubies grew,
And nothing I did say;
But with my finger pointed to
The lips of Julia.
~Robert Herrick

The difference between false memories and true ones is the same as for jewels:  it is always the false ones that look the most real, the most brilliant.  ~Salvador Dalí

Among Life’s precious jewels,
Genuine and rare,
The one that we call friendship
Has worth beyond compare.
~Author Unknown

For me the diamond dawns are set
In rings of beauty…
~John Townsend Trowbridge

The questions are diamonds you hold in the light.  Study a lifetime and you see different colors from the same jewel.  The same questions, asked again, bring you just the answers you need just the minute you need them.  ~Richard Bach, Running From Safety

Adversity is the diamond dust Heaven polishes its jewels with.  ~Thomas Carlyle

The story of Harold Ross, the New Yorker and me is a mere footnote to the story of our time, and we might as well face the truth that to researchers of the future, poking about among the ruins of time, we shall all be tiny glitters.  But then, so are diamonds.  ~James Thurber

The rarest things in the world, next to a spirit of discernment, are diamonds and pearls.  ~Jean de la Bruyere, translated from French

It was as though he had cut up the sky, melted down a flower garden, tossed in some jewels and made it into glass.  ~Hugh McKean, referring to Tiffany’s glass

Some men’s memory is like a box where a man should mingle his jewels with his old shoes.  ~George Savile

Gold cannot be pure, and people cannot be perfect.  ~Chinese Proverb

I would rather be adorned by beauty of character than jewels.  Jewels are the gift of fortune, while character comes from within.  ~Titus Maccius Plautus

Not on one strand are all life’s jewels strung.  ~William Morris

Many individuals have, like uncut diamonds, shining qualities beneath a rough exterior.  ~Juvenal

Manners must adorn knowledge and smooth its way in the world, without them it is like a great rough diamond, very well in a closet by way of curiosity, and also for its intrinsic value; but most prized when polished.  ~Lord Chesterfield

 

And, the video below is in HD so click on the higher resolution setting and watch full screen! (to watch in HD: 1. Click Play. 2. mouse over the “360p” and choose “1080P”. 3. Click the full screen button next to the Plus sign (+).)

By now, you know our love of moissanite, which is a lab-created diamond. Not only is it highly durable and brilliant, but eco-friendly. It’s one of our favorite gems to work with. This lab in Japan, using a similar process to the creation of moissanite, created the first perfectly spherical diamond. Read on:

A team of researchers at Ehime University in Japan say they have created the world’s first perfectly spherical diamond, according to a media report.

The state-run university’s Geodynamics Research Center said it has processed an artificially produced diamond, of a variety the center has named Hime, into a perfect four-carat sphere with a diameter of 7.5 millimeters.

The potential applications of the technology used to shape an artificial diamond into a perfect sphere are expected to be widespread, the researchers said in a report in The Daily Yomiuri.

In 2003, the research center synthesized a tiny grain of Hime diamond measuring less than 1 millimeter wide. The centre combined carbon atoms by subjecting them to 150,000 times the standard atmospheric pressure and temperatures of 2,300 C.

By last year, the research team had become able to create Hime diamonds up to 1 centimeter wide, they said.

Hime diamonds are far harder than naturally formed diamonds. They have a uniform degree of hardness throughout their structure, whereas this changes in different parts of a natural diamond, according to the centre.

From the Antwerp Facets Newsletter…