Jewellery News

She was playing polo in the Dawn Fraser Baths in Balmain, Australia when she jumped up to save a goal and saw her precious diamond engagement ring go flying. Her heart sank because this was no ordinary swimming pool. It was Australia’s oldest swimming pool, built in the early 1880s and it is a heritage tidal salt water swimming pool so the chances of finding something as small as an engagement ring were very small.

Joanne Norman’s husband used to be a soldier in the Special Forces and he had been based in Afghanistan. He had saved right through his posting there to be able to buy her the engagement ring and her heart sank when she realised what had happened. She knew that the pool was an ocean pool and so the bottom would be full of silt and that the danger of the ring going out into the ocean during high tide was a possibility. Though they searched for quite a while, they had to give up when it began to get dark.

Then they found a diver online and that is when their luck turned. Other divers had been called in but there was no sign of the diamond engagement ring. Brad was a scuba diver and a metal detector and he turned over every bit of silt at the bottom of the pool till he found the ring. There was so much emotion when he surfaced with it. Brad owns a metal detector and though business isn’t too much, he has helped people find a number of lost articles.

When he accidentally threw out his wife’s engagement ring into the garbage, little did Brian McGuinn from Florida, USA realise how tough things were going to get for him. However, he had to go through this extreme measure because it had been his fault that this loss occurred and it was up to him to get it back if he could to keep his wife happy.

It was an accident, actually and it all began when his wife went in to shower and handed her engagement ring to her husband, no doubt confident that he would put it someplace safe. That was not to be because when she handed him the ring, he had a garbage bag in his other hand. He had been on his way to empty the trash and that’s what he did – only he threw the ring too into the trash can by mistake. It took him a while to realise just what he had done and he was horrified but by the time that happened, the trash had been collected and it was gone. So what else could he do but to go to the landfill where the trash would have been emptied and try to find it?

Brian says that he loves his wife so much, he really couldn’t think of anything but digging through all that garbage in the landfill to try and find the ring. He knew come what may, he had to have that diamond engagement ring back on her finger. He says it was awful but he finally found it and now it is back where it belongs. Of course, his wife Anne is going to make sure he is never in charge of that ring again.

The world watched as Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries tied the knot. They were right there on the TV screen every step of the way right through the preparations, right through the wedding ceremony, right through the reception. It looked like a match made in heaven with the whole world watching. And then came the shocking news – they were splitting up after seventy-two days!

As news about the impending divorce flashed across the world, what everyone wanted to know was who would get the enormous diamond engagement ring worth with its 20 carat diamond. Would Kris ask for it back? Or would he be magnanimous and let her keep it? Finally the news leaked out that she was going to buy it off Kris because she loves diamonds and couldn’t bear to give it up. Now, news has filtered out that the very same ring was seen on Kim’s finger in pictures of way back 2007 when she bought the huge sparkler for herself. So was it all just a big charade? Did Kris just pick up the ring from Kim and then put it back on her finger?

There is speculation that the whole thing was set up by E! So was it just a melodrama acted out on the TV screen to satisfy the voyeuristic tendencies of millions of viewers? And what about the huge sponsorship deals that went into the wedding? Were they all fake too? Some viewers felt that the whole wedding was very staged and over-acted in parts. So maybe they are right after all. Maybe that is all it was and the divorce hopes to keep the whole piece of news very much in the public eye even today.

For ever so long, it was the solitaire ring that was the most popular when it came to a diamond engagement ring. Then, of course, there was the gold wedding band where many women started preferring the eternity diamond ring. However, the solitaire diamond engagement ring didn’t undergo much of a change till recently. Today, there are diamonds with other gemstones and there are diamonds used in a hundred different ways – all of them meant to be unique and eye-catching. The times they are a-changing and having a diamond ring that everyone notices seems to be the order of the day.

Take for example, a huge diamond ring that had a ball made of pave diamonds to look like a disco ball. It was snapped up as an engagement ring and the person wearing it is no doubt happy that it looks like a very huge sparkler but doesn’t cost anything as much. There are many others who are getting rings designed so they look like huge cocktail rings but are worn everyday because they are engagement rings. And many of them cost very much less that a solitaire would cost. This could be because of the economic problems confronting many and it could be a way around to not spend so much money on the engagement ring and yet have a ring that looks great.

There was a case where someone who couldn’t afford a diamond engagement solitaire ring asked for a love knot and on that, they wanted pave diamonds so that it would have the look of a diamond ring. Then, the jeweller realised that he could make a range of rings like this to cater to this market. Suddenly, women are more open to the idea that they can look beyond a solitaire for an engagement ring. Engagement rings are getting to be more personal now and people have started designing their own rings with even messages inside.

£101 million is no mean winnings to scoff at and the lucky British couple who won it have been planning a great many things to do with that money. The winners are from Cambridgeshire and live in Wisbech. The Dawes were overwhelmed by their win and they have already begun planning how to spend that money.
One of the things they want to buy is a house in Chelsea, as close to the famous football ground as they can. They are obviously big fans. He is a shift supervisor and she is a volunteer in the Heart Foundation and they seem to have plans for all their friends with the money. Of course, one of the main buys will be a diamond engagement ring. They aren’t married simply because they couldn’t afford to. The couple also wants to buy a house in Portugal, go on a skiing holiday and holiday in Las Vegas.
What is admirable is that they want to make all their friends millionaires too and they are going to be doling out their money. There will be around fifteen to twenty people who are going to benefit. They are even buying a Rolls Royce for her father even though he can’t drive. They are also drawing up a list of charities to support.

It has all been played out in the public eye – the whirlwind romance in April, the proposal on live TV, the announcement that they are trying to have a baby and now, the choosing of the engagement ring. At least, that is what it looked like because the couple were spotted looking at some very expensive diamond engagement rings.

The store they went to was the Wessex Jewellery and Pawnbrokers store in Kent at Tunbridge Wells. It looked like he wanted to buy her a really big diamond to follow through with his proposal. The media even got photographs of him slipping a huge diamond ring onto her finger to see how it looked. She looked so happy and she was obviously sizing up the ring and how it looked on her finger. Maybe proposing to her in the middle of a live show wasn’t quite the thing to do but it looked like Alex Reid was making amends by letting her choose a gorgeous ring.

So did she wear the ring and walk out of the store? No, but it is likely that the ring had to be resized a bit and that’s why they didn’t walk out with it. In a recent interview, they had announced that they would only get married after a year as he is hoping that the divorce with Katie Price will come through soon. Chantelle too broke it off with Ray Wilding, the TV presenter and began dating Alex in April. They’ve both had high profile romances and it looks like this one is going to be as high profile too, with cameramen following the couple around – and they don’t seem to mind.

Eternity diamond rings have always been a favourite with some people but recent trends show that they are getting very popular with many people today. The thing is, they are diamond rings for any occasion – from an engagement to a wedding to anniversaries to diamond rings for no reason whatsoever. It also helps that the diamonds can be of any size – with so many of them, they will dazzle anyway and when they are smaller diamonds, they are a lot more affordable that one big diamond and this makes it attractive to many.

If you were to look around, you’ll find that eternity diamond rings are the choice of many when it comes to wedding rings – now, the eternal band of love has the sparkle of diamonds in it and that makes it so much more popular! While men still stay with the traditional gold band or maybe tungsten or platinum, women seem to prefer the eternity diamond ring – just the perfect match for a diamond engagement ring on any woman’s finger.

For comfort, especially when it comes to a wedding ring that is worn all the time, setting diamonds just for the visible half of the ring seems to be the trend. While it saves on the cost of the diamonds, it also means much more comfort as only the smoothness of the metal is felt on the inside of the hand. At the same time, the diamonds sparkle in a row giving the impression that it goes all the way around. Eternity rings can be made to symbolise dates or milestones with the number of diamonds so this makes it such a great, unique gift for a special occasion.

So chocolate seems to be the flavour of the season when it comes to diamond rings, especially diamond engagement rings but just because it’s named that, what does it have to do with a dessert? Plenty when a retail jewellery store in Kendal and a chef from the Lindeth Howe Hotel get together, it would seem.

What they have concocted together is a dessert that, if it is sold, will make it to the Guinness Book of Records as the most expensive dessert in the world. Of course, it will mean that there has to be a buyer for it – a buyer who loves diamond rings and loves desserts too. A buyer who is romantic and rich. It looks like there are a number of people today who can fit the bill so obviously, there is hope that it will set a record. If a man is looking to propose in a unique way, then this could just be it – and it costs all of £22,000! The chocolate diamond weighs 2.62 carats and it is set in 18k rose gold. The ring will be sized to fit the lady’s finger once the dessert has been eaten.

And the dessert is a cake that made its appearance last week at the National Chocolate Week. It is made with chocolate and it combines four different Belgian types and the it has been flavoured with whisky, peach and orange. Layered with biscuit and jelly which is champagne flavoured, the cake is shaped like a Faberge Easter egg, with a finishing layer of gold leaf on dark chocolate and decorations of chocolate flowers. And of course, the wonderful chocolate diamond engagement ring will be baked inside it! It will be served with caviar and champagne and includes a night’s stay at the hotel with a meal and accompanying wine. A fitting dessert indeed for some lucky couple!

Is it a disadvantage wearing an engagement ring at the workplace? Many women seemed to think so and they felt that it affected their chances of promotion. The tough part is that many men think so too. When a woman wears a diamond engagement ring, it means that marriage and then children are imminent and that means that they could either quit or not give the job the attention it merits, according to majority of the male population.

A human resources consultancy company was astonished to say the least when a senior manager told him that he would never consider a newly engaged woman for promotion because she had just got engaged – and not just that, she had on a really huge rock. Did a huge diamond means that she would be much less likely to work hard? According to the manager, even if the woman continued to work, mentally, she wouldn’t quite be there. Such sweeping assumptions are a bit tough to stomach in this day and age when women are very conscious of and focussed on their careers, marriage or no marriage. However, for most men, being a wife and a mother meant that the woman would not be focussed on her work one hundred percent.

There’s a flip side to the picture as well. There were young women who found that with older women, once they got an engagement ring on their finger, the women bosses were a lot more relaxed. Did it mean that the engaged women would be less distracted in the office and less likely to look at office romances? Would this make them more conscientious while at work? All in all, women who wore the more ostentatious diamond rings were less likely to be taken seriously while the ones who wore conservative and less showy ones usually were. And for a newly engaged woman, employers very often asked them what their plans were – when the wedding would be and what their plans would be after they were married. Guess they have a right to know.

In Durban, Africa, a woman lost her diamond engagement ring on the beach front and was devastated at her loss. She reported it but there seemed little hope of finding it though the officers who run the centre near the Snake Park there looked for it for two days running. Unfortunately, all they knew about the woman was that her name was Sarah.

Then, the head of a centre called in 30 response members of the tactical team and they all went down on their knees determined to find the lost ring. And find it they did. Now that’s what is called commitment and going the extra mile – they didn’t need to do it but they did.

The only little hitch in this whole episode is that the lady cannot be found now because no one knows her last name. However, the news is out and they are hoping that the lady will come by – they will hand her the ring after she gives them the right description. What a wonderful ending to an otherwise sandy burial for that engagement ring.

Aussie cricketer Michael Clarke’s ex-fiancé gave back the diamond engagement ring that he had given her even as she struggled to get her life back on track again. The high profile break up had filled all the gossip magazines, especially after Lara Bingle’s nude photo shoot that paid her an exorbitant amount of money.

Lara says that she has sacked her celebrity manager and she is busy getting her life back together and she would like a quiet spell now. She did the right thing and gave the high priced engagement ring back to Michael instead of flushing it down the toilet. All she wants right now, according to her, is to be away from the limelight.