Israeli Diamond Institute Blog

When Dazzling Diamonds Are Downright Distracting

name.nospam@nospam.example.com (stonechicky) — Thu, 16 May 2013 06:20:00 -0300

Flat screen TV (Credit: Israel Diamond Institute)

Mounting polished diamonds onto just about any item is almost always a welcome addition. Whether they're used to detail a vehicle, a musical instrument, a weapon, or – yawn – a human body, they also draw attention to the object in question. But are there any circumstances under which the dazzle of diamonds would be considered unwanted attention? Yes, there most definitely are: the Supreme Rose Edition Prestige HD TV is one of those rare circumstances.

There's nothing wrong with diamond detailing on an electronic product. Witness the plethora of iPhones and tablets that have received the diamond treatment. But those stones are mounted on the perimeters and the backs of the mobile devices, so they can be seen by passersby while you hold the front of the phone towards your face. Fifty-five-inch television screens are not even carried around the house, much less in public, so no one can see their backsides; the only ones left to impress are your living room walls. That leaves the front of the TV screen for diamond detailing. And do you really want shimmering, glimmering gems catching your vision and distracting you from your favorite program?

I can understand some people spending $2 million on a television, if you are a true cinephile and demand only the best quality audio and video. But if it's diamonds you truly love, pass on the boob tube and spend your diamond dollars on an item that won't be competing for your attention, preferably something without flickering images.

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Sofia Vergara: Diamond Celebrity of the Week

name.nospam@nospam.example.com (stonechicky) — Thu, 16 May 2013 05:20:00 -0300

Sofia Vergara (Credit: Carrienelson1 | Dreamstime.com)

She may have begun her career as an actress on the Spanish-language station Univision, but for the last decade Colombian-born Sofia Vergara has been gracing television screens and movie theaters in feel-good comedies, including shows for which she has taken home Emmys, Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild awards. Last July Forbes named her the highest-earning woman on television in the United States, with an annual income of $19 million. Although Vergara was diagnosed with thyroid cancer over a decade ago and still takes medication to combat its debilitating effects, she has not let that affliction stop her from maintaining a successful career. Read more

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Broken Engagement: Return the Diamond Ring Or Not?

name.nospam@nospam.example.com (stonechicky) — Mon, 13 May 2013 10:46:00 -0300

Holding a large diamond (Credit: Israel Diamond Institute)

Boy meets girl, boy loves girl. Boy proposes marriage to girl with a large diamond engagement ring worth a small fortune. One year later, boy and girl break up. Is girl obligated to return the ring? The question is both legal and ethical, and it's definitely not theoretical. It happened most recently to Buffalo Bills football player and Superbowl champion Mario Williams and his former fiancé Erin Marzouki. The polished diamond in question weighs over 10 carats and was worth over three quarters of a million dollars.

Williams accuses Marzouki of only being in a relationship with him for the expensive presents – in common parlance, a "gold digger". But which one of them really sees their relationship as a business transaction? If Williams is arguing that the ring was given not as a no-strings-attached gift but rather in exchange for her hand in marriage, and should now be returned because they're not getting married anymore – isn't that an acknowledgement that he sees Marzouki's love as a commodity that can be purchased? And is that the kind of information you want people to know about you?

Whether she loves you no longer, or whether she never did to begin with, Mario - you might want to just cut your losses and keep that question to yourself.

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Paid To Wear Diamonds & Paid To Watch Diamonds

name.nospam@nospam.example.com (stonechicky) — Sat, 11 May 2013 07:35:00 -0300

A huge gold ring on the hand of a person examining diamonds (Credit: Israel Diamond Institute)

You would think that if an actor is being paid oodles of cash to wear expensive stones, they can be trusted to return the gems intact. And you would be wrong. At least, that's what British actress Carey Mulligan claims.

The star of Drive was draped in diamonds of the most expensive variety for the new 3-D film production of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic ode to the roaring twenties, The Great Gatsby. Even as she acted and the film was rolling, hired muscle was also on the set, intently eyeing her throughout her theatric performance. Presumably, the security guard was there to make sure she didn't decide to abandon her acting career and go on the lam, running right off the set with the diamonds.

And Mulligan isn't only a successful thespian in her own right – she's also married to Marcus Mumford, lead singer of the successful British folk-rock band Mumford & Sons. So she's clearly not hurting for cash. But with millions of dollars worth of pearls and polished diamond rings, earrings and bracelets, Tiffany's decided not to take any chances. Even ridiculously tiny ones. Yeesh.

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Manufacturing Diamond Jewelry On The Really Cheap

name.nospam@nospam.example.com (stonechicky) — Mon, 06 May 2013 13:31:00 -0300

Diamonds, close up (Credit: Israel Diamond Institute)

In the developed world in recent decades, manufacturing centers for polished diamond jewelry – in fact, manufacturing centers for just about every type of product – have been in a race to the bottom of the pay scale. When developing countries like India, where the minimum wage is much lower, began to compete with first-world nations, they found they could produce the same polished diamond necklaces for much lower labor costs. In Israel, some say that a previously untapped labor pool, ultra-Orthodox Jews, could be trained in the trade and help to bring some of the business back to Holy Land. Meanwhile, a French artist has figured out how to apply another even more exotic population to the task of crafting jewelry.

Hubert Duprat realized that caddisfly larvae will create their nests out of whatever solid objects can be found in the vicinity, so he put precious metals and gems in their immediate vicinity. Using their silky spit, the insects create magical pieces that rival anything made by name-brand designers of the human species. No word yet on if Duprat rewards the caddisflies with royalties, or if he gives them good dental plans, to help keep that expensive expectorate flowing.

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Queen Maxima: Celebrity of the Week

name.nospam@nospam.example.com (stonechicky) — Mon, 06 May 2013 12:50:00 -0300

Queen Maxima of the Netherlands (Credit: Holger Motzkau 2010)

She was born Maxima Zorreguieta Cerruti, and until only a week ago she was known as Princess of Orange-Nassau and Mrs. Van Amsberg. But today the world over she is called by her new title, Her Majesty Queen Maxima of the Netherlands. Born and raised in Argentina, she married Holland's then-Prince Willem-Alexander in 2002, but she had already won the hearts of the Dutch people a year earlier when she announced their engagement on television - in perfect Dutch. In the Netherlands, she advocates for immigrants' integration into society, and at the international level, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon appointed her Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development. Read more

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Diamonds Under the Grate Under the Soles of Her Shoes

name.nospam@nospam.example.com (stonechicky) — Thu, 02 May 2013 14:43:00 -0300

Walking by (Credit: Israel Diamond Institute)

At many amusement parks around the world you can find glass-and-steel cages the size of telephone booths in which passersby are encouraged to stick a relatively small amount of money for the opportunity to control a tiny mechanical crane and attempt to retrieve something much more valuable, like a large bill. These machines are almost like the mythical money-growing tree, just rotated 180 degrees so you have to dig down to get the dough, not climb up. Too bad life isn't really like that. But for one man, it is - every single day!

Eight years ago, Eliel Santos walked by a man in downtown Manhattan just as he accidentally dropped his keys down a grate. Using string and a sticky mouse trap, Santos reunited the stranger with his keys and was offered $50 for his troubles. Realizing that in some ways New York City sidewalks are a lot like those crane cages, he began to fish for valuable objects on dry land in a professional capacity, sometimes making over $1000 a day when he picks up wedding rings and other precious gems. His priciest catch: an 18-karat gold and polished diamond bracelet he hooked in Harlem, exchanged for $1,800 at a local pawn shop.

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Diamond Metamorphosis Transforms Hair & Heart

name.nospam@nospam.example.com (stonechicky) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:16:00 -0300

Diamond science in action (Credit: Israel Diamond Institute)

Nowadays so many different objects have been transformed into diamonds, and diamonds are being used for so many different functions. But in the sea of stories about diamond shape-shifting, one sticks out and really gets me in the gut. We're already blogged about firms that convert any carbon-based matter – including animals and even people that have passed on – into polished diamonds. But now an American jewelry company, SKY and LIVI, is encouraging customers to have just a part of their bodies transformed into gems. Not while they're still attached, of course!

The idea is for women who have been struck with various forms of cancer which require chemotherapy – which invariably lead to one's hair falling out – to save their precious manes, not permitting them to come to symbolize their ill-health and weakness, but to turn them back into emblems of beauty and preserve them. To honor his own mother, a breast cancer survivor herself, True Blood star Ryan Kwanten donated locks of his own hair to turn into a blue diamond pendant, which will be auctioned off for charity - and promote the concept. I hope that one day cancer will be stamped out for good; but as long as it still exists, I hope this empowering idea catches on.

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Channel Disney Heroines With Diamond Jewelry

name.nospam@nospam.example.com (stonechicky) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:51:00 -0300

Assorted diamonds (Credit: Israel Diamond Institute)

Jewelry, at its best, hypnotizes its wearers and all who gaze upon it – at least fleetingly - to another place in our minds, an imaginary place of magic. And if there is one person responsible for the creation of more magical lands than any other in our lifetimes, it is Walt Disney. So the merging of these two worlds – the creation of real jewelry thematically based upon the cartoon heroines of the Disne y pantheon – means manifesting the stuff of dreams in real life. Dreamweaving is no simple sorcery, and the results of such an amalgam can easily fall short of our expectations.

But American jewelers Gemvara seem to have achieved that lofty goal, forging ten polished diamond rings based on Disney's leading ladies, from the classic stories of Cinderella and Rapunzel to the modern tales of Jasmine and Mulan. The rings run from between $1000 to $5000 and include engravings on the inside of each band with words of wisdom from the movies they're inspired by. My personal favorite is Snow White – which one do you like best?

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Nicole Kidman: Diamond Celebrity of the Week

name.nospam@nospam.example.com (stonechicky) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:11:00 -0300

Nicole Kidman (Credit: Denis Makarenko | Dreamstime.com)

Nicole Kidman might grab fewer headlines now that she's no longer married to Hollywood's leading male actor Tom Cruise, but to country music star Keith Urban instead. But the Hawaii-born Australian beauty stands on her own merit: with three decades of acting experience behind her, she's earned three nominations for the Best Actress Oscar, and won it for her performance in 2002's The Hours. From Rabbit Hole to Moulin Rouge and from Dogville to The Others, she has demonstrated her impressive acting range. Kidman has the courage to take on acting roles that challenge and viewer and his views. Read more

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