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If you don’t look like your dog or cat, now you can dress alike. At least when it comes to wearing matching jewelry.
According to an article published by The Israeli Diamond Industry in their Diamond News section, a British jeweler’s design has gone to the dogs. Literally!
Jari has the distinction of being the only company in Great Britain that designs jewelry for pets using the same precious metals and stones for canine or feline that their owners wear.
Every Jari piece is customized to provide the same styling and look of the owner’s piece, employing current fashion trends and elegance.
The jeweler is currently scouting Britain for the perfect cat or dog who will model the company’s jewelry line (e.g., £10,000 diamond studded collarettes), with the winner receiving a “12 month modeling contract worth up to a 4 figure sum plus portraits of their shoots for their modeling portfolio.” In addition to buying an exquisite work of art, owners have the opportunity to have a portrait of their bedecked pet taken by a renowned international photographer.
A flying thief made off with Julia Boaler’s diamond engagement ring three years ago. Recently, the stole gemstone was recovered, but the thief was no where to be found.
The news doesn’t get much stranger then this.
Julia Boaler was taking a shower in her home three years ago, deciding to leave the bathroom window open to let out some steam. Little did she know that more then hot air would leave her bathroom that day as her diamond engagement ring, valued at more than 5000 British Pounds (approximately US$8874), would disappear. As Julia recalls, she left the ring near the open window, a shiny and appealing target for some quick working thief.
Yes, a magpie made off with her ring, but that fact wasn’t known until recently. After accusing a window washer of making off with the ring and then tearing up the bathroom to search for her prized possession, Julia had given up hope that the ring would ever be found.
Now a mother with a toddler and still planning to be married, Julia received the surprise of her life recently when she asked her fiance, Justin, to do some gardening. Besides pulling out weeds and spreading grass seed, Justin decided to prune their big oak tree when he noticed it — an old magpie nest with a shiny object glimmering from inside.
It was Julia’s diamond engagement ring.
Magpies are noted for being attracted to shiny objects and one must have seen her diamond sparkler shining inside the bathroom when it swooped in, picked it up, and flew to the nest where it resided for the next three years.
As for the offender? No magpie has been seen since and police aren’t likely to get involved. Julia is simply glad to have her ring back thanks to Justin’s pruning skills.
One of the Worlds largest pieces of Diamond Rough ever recovered from a mine in Africa earlier this year made its public debut–and received its official name–during a press conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The stone, a massive 478-carat rock from the Letseng Mine in the African kingdom of Lesotho, is now known as “Leseli la Letseng,” which means, “she is the light of Letseng.”
“Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend”
Devotees of high fashion are getting a preview of what will be at the inaugural Coutts London Jewellery Week show when it launches this Wednesday.
Featuring some of the most exquisite designer pieces in the world, including a one million pound (US$1.972 million) diamond handbag created by Japanese designer Ginza Tanaka, the show was developed to allow up and coming as well as established talent to show their wares before the public.
The Tanaka handbag is bejeweled with more than 2000 diamonds and will be available for sale during the show week. The handbag comes with a diamond shoulder strap which can be detached and worn as either a necklace or a bracelet, while the 8-carat pear-shaped diamond centerpiece surrounded by a cluster of 81 smaller diamonds can be taken off and worn as a brooch.
Coutts London Jewellery Week begins on June 11th and runs through the 15th. A citywide event, visitors to London will be able to take in catwalk shows, satellite parties, educational seminars, sales, auctions, workshops, demonstrations, and more. In addition to Ginza Tanaka, other designers featured include Elizabeth Gage, Davril, Swarovski, Carolina Bucci, Studionorth, David M. Robinson, Guy & Max, and David Marshall London.
As for getting a glimpse at the Tanaka handbag, you’ll have to wait until the show starts to find out where you can view it. Show organizers are concerned about theft and are keeping that information under wraps for now.
I’m an information nerd. Even as a child, nothing thrilled me more than learning something new. From the smallest bit of trivia to the most involved research, I love digging in to a new subject and learning all that I can about it. This proclivity has led me to collect a bunch of degrees (I couldn’t choose just one subject to study) and it is also one of the many reasons (besides working in my pajamas) that writing is a perfect career for me.
As I start a new book, the possibilities of where to set it, what kind of careers my main characters should have and what time period it should take place in, stretch before me like a blank canvas begging to be painted. This is probably the most exciting time for me, because as I decide the facts of my character’s lives, I also decide what new and exciting subjects I’m going to be researching for the next few months.
In the case of A Christmas Wedding, my current release, I got to combine two really fun topics—horseracing and weddings. And believe me, if you want to learn a bunch of absolutely fascinating trivia that will wow them at the upcoming holiday parties, these two subjects are loaded with it.
So, with no further ado, here are ten things I learned while writing A Christmas Wedding:
10. The skeleton of the oldest known horse is estimated to be 45 million years old.
9. The reason the engagement ring and wedding band is worn on the fourth finger of the left hand is because the ancient Egyptians thought that the “vein of love” ran from this finger directly to the heart.
8. Each of the three races in the Triple Crown (The Kentucky Derby, The Preakness
and the Belmont Stakes) has a signature drink that is served by the thousands
while the race is going on (Mint Julep for the Derby, Black-eyed Susan for the
Preakness and Belmont Breeze for the Belmont Stakes).
7. White became the wedding dress color of choice in 1840, when Queen Victoria
wore it to marry Prince Albert.
6. The fastest Derby ever run was in 1973, by Secretariat, who broke the two-minute mark and blazed the mile and a quarter in 1:59.4. Remarkably, each quarter mile split was faster than the one preceding it. No other horse has broken the two minute barrier in the Derby.
5. The tradition of a wedding cake comes from ancient Rome, where revelers broke
a loaf of bread over a bride’s head for fertility’s sake.
4. In May 2006, Churchill Downs served custom-made mint juleps at a cost of
$1000 each at the Kentucky Derby. The mint juleps were served in gold-plated
cups with silver straws and were made from Woodford Reserve Bourbon, mint
imported from Ireland, Ice from the Bavarian Alps and sugar from Australia.
The proceeds were used to support charitable causes dedicated to retired race
horses.
3. For centuries the month of June was the most popular choice for weddings – but the original reason dates back to the 1400s. At that time, June was the month for the annual bath, which is exactly what it sounds like—the one time a year people
actually took a bath. Because the bride and groom were clean for the first time in a year, it was deemed the perfect time for a wedding.
2. Since 1926, a silver bowl, made by Louis Comfort Tiffany (founder of Tiffany and
Company) and donated by the Belmont family, has been given to the winning
owner. The bowl is supported by three horses—Herod, Eclipse, and Matchem,
representing the three foundation sires of the thoroughbred world.
1. The kiss that is given by the bride to the groom at the end of the wedding ceremony originates from the earliest times when the couple would actually make love for the first time in front of their entire village!
For custom work, Whiteflash.com is the lord of the online rings. Unlike many e-tailers, Whiteflash customizes nearly half its jewelry. Kevin Dolorico, a Web operations analyst in New York City, exchanged designs by e-mail with Whiteflash when he was shopping for an engagement ring last spring. Dolorico wanted a ring that combined the head from one standard setting with the shank of another. Whiteflash nestled a 1.34-carat diamond that was graded good but not flawless in Dolorico’s ideal setting. His fiancée, Janelle De Rivera, was dazzled, and he was pleased with the roughly $6,000 price. When he asked a gemologist to appraise the ring’s value, he was told that an equivalent piece from a local jeweler would cost about $9,000.
Whiteflash’s return policy for custom work is that you can’t bring it back unless there’s an error (exceptions apply to partly customized work). For loose stones and standard settings, Whiteflash offers a full refund ten days from receipt for any reason — including if you propose and she turns you down.
Whiteflash can tap a pool of about 50,000 stones, most of which are also available for sale at other online retailers, too. It says its prices for finished pieces are competitive with Blue Nile and many other e-tailers, though we’ve sometimes found that isn’t the case. Yet Whiteflash unquestionably trumps brick-and-mortar jewelers on price. Plus, it offers a trade-up program that Blue Nile and most other online rivals don’t match: Swap your rock for a higher-priced one at any time, paying the difference between your new diamond and your trade-in.
Buyer’s guide: Five measures of perfection You’ve heard of the traditional four “C”s to size up a diamond – carat, clarity, color and cut. Some of the best diamond-raters have added a fifth “C” to that list: cut grade. Use these measures to make sure you get the right diamond for your needs, especially when buying one sight unseen.
CARAT refers to a diamond’s weight, not its size. Fact: A carat is one-fifth of a gram. Tip: A lighter rock will likely fetch a lower price per carat, but that 0.9-carat diamond will sparkle more than a 1.0-carat example if the cutter trimmed its excess weight correctly. The lesson: Heavier isn’t always better.
CLARITY is the degree to which a diamond is free of flaws. Fact: Flaws cut a gem’s price. Tip: The naked eye would easily see the flaws in a stone with the GIA’s clarity code of I2. A non-gemologist using a magnifying lens would have difficulty seeing flaws in a diamond graded VVS1.
COLOR refers to a diamond’s transparency. Fact: As a rule, the more transparent the ice, the higher its price. Tip: Compromises on color may escape unnoticed. A nearly colorless stone will look the same to an untrained eye as a colorless stone (with a higher grade) but will cost less.
CUT refers to a diamond’s shape and style. Fact: A diamond’s shape (round or square, for example) and style (such as brilliant, with facets radiating outward) are factors that together make up the stone’s cut. Tip: Cut can make a diamond appear larger or smaller than its carat weight.
CUT GRADE (NEW) judges brilliance and sparkle, plus other factors. Fact: Cut grade is the most important indicator of a diamond’s wow effect. Fewer than 5% of diamonds on the market would earn high marks if given a cut grade. Tip: Stones with similar cut grades should be priced about the same.
White Flash offers exquisitely hand crafted wedding bands, engagement rings, anniversary jewelry, diamond earrings and uniquely custom designed pieces from our assortment of loose diamonds. Named “Lord of the Online Rings” by Kiplinger’s Magazine.
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