Jewellery News

All jewellery made of palladium will have to be hallmarked in the UK and from the 1st of January this year, that rule has come into effect if the jewellery contains anything more than one gram of palladium. Here in the UK, it has been possible to keep the standard of metals high thanks to this compulsory requirement of hallmarking.

For years now, silver, gold and platinum have been hallmarked and now it’s the turn of palladium which is gaining in popularity. It looks a lot like platinum but it is nowhere as expensive so hallmarking it removes the possibility of it being passed off for the more expensive metal. The hallmarking will have three things – the sponsor’s mark, the mark of how pure it is and the town mark.

One of the older American Idol winners, Carrie Underwood got engaged to her hockey boyfriend, Mike Fisher, in December and the size of the ring has been creating ripples of excitement all over. Estimated to be anything in the region of £0.5 million or maybe even more, what does she do but go top that with a Grammy award! Talk about striking it lucky!

The Grammy was awarded for her song ‘I told you so’ in which she collaborated with Randy Davis. Her tour starts in March and we wonder when the wedding date is going to be with her hectic schedules.

A platinum and diamond ring was stolen from a jeweller in Crowthorne and it was valued at over £3,000. The staff at the store said that two men walked in to look at jewellery, created some amount of confusion which distracted the staff and made off with the ring. One said he wanted to look at bracelets for a present for Valentine’s Day while the second said he wanted something to give his girlfriend as her birthday was coming up. Then he corrected himself and said he was thinking of getting engaged.

The staff was so confused that they didn’t realise when the two of them walked out without buying anything that they had taken the ring. They only realised it when they saw the empty ring pad where the platinum trilogy ring had been. Quite a change from burglars entering stores and robbing at gunpoint.

She and Alex Reid were married in a hurry in Las Vegas and she came home last Friday, trying hard to stay away from the inquisitive eyes of the press. However, the press got what it wanted – they got a glimpse of her brand new wedding ring – it was a diamond encrusted band. Apparently, they want to celebrate with a wedding reception now that they are back.

Katie Price is hoping to bring out yet another autobiography and she seems to have sold the rights to the forthcoming wedding ceremony for a huge amount. What we also heard was that Peter Andre was very upset because he heard that Katie had gone and got their daughter’s hair straightened. Maybe she did it because she’s also managed to entice ITV into covering the ceremony?

Maybe it’s because more people are aware today about how gold and diamonds are extracted and how much hardship and misery they very often bring to the countries that are rich in them, as well as the environmental hazards that mining for these cause. Could it be that information dissemination is so much quicker today that a lot more people are exposed to what really happens? Whatever the case may be, the trend towards ethical and eco-friendly jewellery has shown a marked increase.

There are couples today who are consciously choosing their engagement and wedding rings so they comply with environmental, ethical and human rights guidelines. So what is an environment friendly or ‘green’ ring? Instead of buying a wedding ring that means anything up to 20 tonnes of ore which goes to make it, the ring could be made of recycled gold or it could be antique gold or even a second hand ring. This would mean saving that much of mining. If the engagement ring has a diamond, you could make sure that it is an ethical diamond and not a blood diamond, which means it isn’t from a country where diamonds are used to start revolutions and massacre millions. Your jeweller will guide you in the right direction.

You could be a lucky winner in a competition run by the House of McCue and if you are, you could win a dream package at the Ashbourne Hotel which right now, is being renovated extensively. All you do is to get a form, fill it out with your details and write why you think you should win – in 200 words. Who knows – you might just get lucky and be the winner.

Let’s take a look at what the winner gets. At the Ashbourne Hotel – after its facelift, it’s going to look magnificent – you can have a civil ceremony followed by a reception and an evening party. And of course, you get the two gold wedding rings, choosing from over one hundred designs. The competition has the support of the Grimsby Telegraph.

Daniel Craig was spotted with a gold ring on his wedding ring finger and so was his long time girlfriend, film producer Satsuki Mitchell. With both of them wearing rings that obviously looked like wedding bands, can the public be blamed for thinking they had got secretly married? Especially when sources close to them brushed it off saying that it was a private matter.

They both put in an appearance for the Artists for Peace and Justice gathering and apparently the rings were also on display during the Help Haiti appeal. They are both private people so we are guessing it will be a while before they tell, even if they are married.

Ashley Cole was woken up at night with sounds of a disturbance. Apparently thieves were trying to force their way into the couple’s mansion through a window. So speculation is on as to what they hoped to make away with and the conclusion seems to be the diamond rings that Ashley gave Cheryl. The rings that she is supposed to have left behind when she went off on Los Angeles.

The rings are supposed to be valued at £310,000. She has two high-priced diamond rings – one is her engagement ring valued at £150,000 and the second diamond ring that is valued at £160,000 which Ashley gave her when the press started writing about his extra-marital affair. However, when rumours of more affairs started doing the rounds, Cheryl took the rings off and hasn’t been wearing them since.

It looks like it’s becoming a trend – this wearing a diamond ring on the engagement finger and then innocently denying being engaged, It could be two things that are happening. Either there are many who don’t care about the engagement ring finger being exclusively used for the engagement ring and the wedding ring. Or, it’s done with the express purpose of getting the media talking. When it comes to celebrities, the last could well be true because they just love being in the public eye at all times!

Take Hillary Duff, for instance. You know, the young singer and actress who was seen wearing a diamond ring on the left hand ring finger. When you see someone young and famous like her in Hawaii with a ring the obvious conclusion one draws is that she is engaged. However, apparently she isn’t. After the big to-do she made thinking she had lost her dog when all the time it was at home, pulling another trick like this is rather funny.

Nicole Ritchie and Joel Madden have been together for three years now and even though they didn’t get engaged or married right away but decided to have their babies instead, all the wait has perhaps done is to ensure that the diamond engagement ring is even bigger than one thought possible. Nicole has always liked her jewellery to be large and flashy and it looks like that has extended to her engagement ring as well.

The large diamond is securely set in platinum so it minimizes the chance of it falling out. It has a classic centre diamond which is brilliant cut but it has a modern design around it with a pavé design. It looks like there’s a wedding planned in summer.

The big name in music, Simon Cowell – now who doesn’t know of him? – seems to have finally fallen pretty hard if sources are to be believed. The rather caustic-tongued Simon seems to have forgotten that he had once said he would never get married and now seems to be quite wanting little Simons around him. After admitting that his current girlfriend, American Idol make-up artist Mezhgan Hussainy could be the one, he seems quite set to maybe walk up the aisle sometime in the near future.

Talk has been circulating ever since people noticed the expensive diamond bracelet and the diamond ring – a rock of a ring one might add, on her left hand ring finger. Add to that the fact that this is the first woman that he has been demonstrative with in public and you’ll see why everyone seems hopeful that there could be some exciting news in the offing. Though it seemed like Valentine’s Day would be a good time to announce the engagement if there was going to be one, thus far, there’s been no word.