Diamond Engagement Rings

Are Heather Locklear and Jack Wagner engaged? Well, we wouldn’t have guessed if Heather hadn’t been arrested for driving under the influence of drugs or drink. It happened in Santa Barbara and it was thanks to someone who saw her driving rather erratically who called the police. She was arrested and taken in for tests and it was found that what had affected her was not drink but prescription medication. She was let off after posting bail. And this arrest comes in the wake of a 4-week stint at an Arizona rehabilitation facility for depression and anxiety.

What was interesting about this arrest was the fact that when she was photographed, it was noticed that she had on an engagement ring – a diamond engagement ring. Obviously that was food for the rumour mills and now everyone’s wondering whether or not the couple are on the brink of marriage. There has been no word so far from either of them.

Heather has been nominated six times for the Golden Globe awards and has been a recognised TV star since her ‘Dynasty’ days. Jack has also been nominated for Emmy awards both for his role in ‘General Hospital’ as well as in the long-running American serial, The Bold and the Beautiful. He’s also a musician and his albums have done well in the popularity charts.

Jennifer Hudson, one of the finalists in the American Idol series a few years ago and Oscar wining star of Dream Girls had an engagement with a difference on her 27th birthday. This was the day she got engaged to her boyfriend David Otunga and was it a unique engagement!

In the first place, she wasn’t expecting it. So the proposal on her 27th birthday took her by surprise. They were on the beach and suddenly David gave her a purple shovel and asked her to dig into the sand. Purple, she says is her favourite colour. As she kept digging into the sand, she kept finding cards, each one with a message that related to the next. Till finally the one she found asked her to turn around because David had a gift for her. An engagement ring, of course!

Jennifer proudly displayed her diamond engagement ring for all to see at a recent TV show and it was obvious that she was ecstatic. She puts it down to him being such a beautiful guy – the reason why he is so? According to Jennifer, it’s because he’s an attorney from Harvard Law School!

Ever wondered how far your diamond travelled before it got to you? Diamonds are found in the earth or even in rivers or under the sea. When they are deep within the earth, they need to be mined and this can be very hard work, digging deep into the earth till they find these rough gemstones.

Most diamonds then make their way to Antwerp in Belgium as this city still reigns supreme when it comes to diamond trading. From here, it travels all the way to India where the stones are cut and polished, then back to Europe. When it comes to the rough diamonds, over 80% pass through Belgium and around 50% of the polished stones do too. So this really is the diamond hub of the world.

India has had a long legacy of diamond cutting and polishing, right from way back during the time of the maharajahs. Most of the work is done in three places: Gujarat, Mumbai or Jaipur. The exports last year were in the region of over £12 billion and it seems to be growing at about 20% yearly. There was a time when Antwerp was a cutting and polishing centre as well but more and more of this part of the diamond processing is moving to India.

So the next time you look at your diamond engagement ring, pause and ponder a moment as to the very long journey it has been on before it was set in a ring for your finger.

Whatever Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel do is news. Now when it concerns both of them and when they’re going to get engaged or married, it’s headline material. The trouble is, there are so many rumours floating around, there’s just no knowing what’s true and what’s not anymore.

Here’s the latest. Justin is said to have taken Jessica to Rome for a holiday and bought her a vintage diamond ring there. And where do you think this reportedly happened? In a tiny store in a little street where the jewellery is said to be mostly fine old vintage pieces. They can afford to have an unmarked store no doubt because they are so exclusive. According to the owner, the couple chose the ring as well as a vintage necklace and asked him to have it delivered to their hotel room. The diamond engagement ring is supposed to be a multi carat one.

You will no doubt remember the earlier rumours when it seemed that Justin was all set to pop the question and it was said he had bought Jessica a ring after having consulted with her friends as to what kind of a diamond engagement ring she would like. Nothing came of it so we’re not sure whether this rumour will go the way of all the others where this couple is concerned.

Share prices are tumbling. In the wake of the $700 billion bailout rejection in the US, everything in the financial markets the world over seems on the way down except – did you guess? – diamonds! And the news is that with a growing demand from markets in Russia, the Middle East and Asia, there is bound to be a big gap between demand and supply in the days to come.

In an interview yesterday, the CEO of the Harry Winston Diamond Corp said in New York that there was “…a lot more upside in diamond prices than the public market appreciates,” and he went on to say that diamonds weighing 3 carats have quadrupled in price in just 1 ½ years.

So Standard & Poor’s 500 Index could have tumbled down nearly 9% but diamonds prices continue to hold their head up. The Harry Winston Diamond Corp has a 40% stake in the Canadian Diavik mine. So they should know when they say that with having to dig deeper and deeper in existing mines, rough diamond supply is going to decrease unless some new exploration throws up a new find. Given things as they are, diamonds will be a very valued luxury item for quite a while yet. Diamonds are not just forever – it looks like they are going to be valuable forever!

Come October 15 and two large beautiful diamonds are going to be up for sale at Christie’s New York Sale. Called the Ponahalo Diamonds, they weigh 102.11 and 70.87 carats approximately and are among some of the finest diamonds in the world today.

The Ponahalo Diamond was found in a DeBeers mine and since it was a very special diamond, it was given a name, following a tradition of christening the ones that were the best. This one was 316.15 carats and the name meant ‘vision’ in the local dialect. This large rough diamond was cut up into four diamonds and these two that are on sale took 1 ½ years to shape.

Whatever is realised from the sale of these diamonds will go towards the Diamond Empowerment Fund.

The New York Sale also features a whole lot of jewellery that are outstanding like exquisitely designed diamond engagement rings, necklaces, brooches, etc. The estimated sale proceeds are in the region of around £18 million.

With the economy growing, one finds that it isn’t just the very rich who are buying diamonds and suddenly, this dazzling gem which has till now been seen as expensive, is now being viewed as being affordable by the Czechs. This is probably a result of growing consumer confidence as well and more and more of them are buying jewellery and expensive watches.

One Czech company that used to sell around 1000 diamond rings at the beginning of the century now sells that number in a month. What is being noticed is also the fact that young adults in their twenties are now walking in to buy a diamond engagement ring.

There was a time when the Czech Republic was known for its jewellery and its diamonds. With communism taking over the country, people moved into a more austere way of life and it isn’t till recently that attitudes began to change – and change fast. Not only are people buying more diamond engagement rings, they are buying jewellery as investment and there are so many media campaigns by leading jewellery houses to entice them along that path. Looks like the Czechs are on a diamond rediscovery road!

A 5 carat diamond is enough for most of us to stare open-mouthed with our eyes popping out of their sockets. Now imagine a 500 carat diamond. The first thought that comes to mind perhaps is, who will be the lucky one who will have this on her diamond engagement ring?

On the 8th of September, a white, almost flawless diamond weighing around 500 carats was found in the Letseng Mines in the South African kingdom of Lesotho. Experts in Antwerp say that the stone has a clarity and colour that are outstanding – well, all that remains is the cut and we’re sure that will be outstanding as well.

There have been several large diamonds that have been almost perfect found over the centuries. The largest of course is the Cullinan which is said to have been over 3000 carats before it was made into 100 stones. This new diamond which has an absolutely flawless D colour makes even the Kohinoor look small.

The Letseng Mines have so far been where the three largest diamonds in recent years have been found. The news continues to keep Lesotho in the forefront of diamond mining and production and the place where the best and the largest diamonds are found. The mine is situated really high up – over 10,000 feet and the mining group that works these mines are the Gem Diamonds group.

Former English football star and Match of the Day presenter, Gary Lineker looks all set to wed his 29 year old fiancée at the end of the year. Should we expect a December wedding? The envious might say it would be quite a fitting month considering it is almost a December-Spring wedding. He is, after all, a good eighteen years older than her.

Danielle Bux however, seems to be in seventh heaven as she showed off her sparkling diamond engagement ring. The couple have been together for about a year, after having been introduced to each other by a mutual friend who set them up on a blind date.

Dani used to be an air hostess with Virgin Air and she has a daughter by Adam Willis who used to play for Coventry City. Gary and his former wife divorced two years ago – they have four sons. Michelle was his childhood sweetheart and they still maintain a very amicable relationship. Gary is probably one of the few football legends to have gone through his entire career without a yellow or a red card. He was always known to be a thorough gentleman in a sport where this was not the norm. Today, he is known more as a presenter on TV.

It looks like a Christmas wedding is on the cards so here’s wishing them a lot of festive cheer and celebrations!

It’s true. There’s something about celebrities that make us want to know everything about them and an engagement is such a big part of people’s lives. We get a kind of vicarious pleasure when the media takes us into their personal lives – lives that maybe secretly we wish we had. And of course, the fact that their diamond rings are usually bigger and so much more expensive that we could ever hope to wear makes it just that much more enthralling.

Let’s take a look at some of the rings that probably made our eyes pop out of their sockets just looking at pictures! There was Paris Hilton’s 24 carat ring from her billionaire boyfriend though that did not lead to a wedding ring. And of course, Christina Aguilera’s 20 carat diamond engagement ring. More recently, there was Beyonce’s 18-carat ring. ( Gosh – how do they carry those rocks around?) Oh, let’s not forget the biggest one of them all – Elizabeth Taylor’s 30-carat diamond engagement ring – just one of her many!

Royalty has always been in the news for their jewellery. There was Princess Diana’s 18-carat ring and before that, Grace Kelly’s 12-carat ring.

It just goes to show that diamond engagement rings just have that certain something special to them. If we can’t have something that is huge, we’ll find someone who does and read all about it!