Jewellery News

It was straight out of a scene from Agatha Christie and that indeed was the theme at Stephen Webster’s designer jewellery store, Garrard, one of the world’s oldest jewellery houses. It was an enactment of Murder She Wrote and there were celebrities galore attending the event. The event was to launch his new collection named – you guessed it – Murder She Wrote. It was suitably launched with blood, gore, fingerprints and clues.

His jewellery is stunning and it is different, to say the least. The last collection he launched was called The Seven Deadly Sins so you can infer what kind of jewellery he designs. And celebrities like Christina Aguilera, Madonna and Elton John just love it and lap it up. And Stephen Webster doesn’t really think he is a bad boy and that’s why his designs border on the macabre. Instead he likes to see himself as a bit of a rebel – though he is in his fifties – and he says he likes living on the edge. Of course, he also loves being in the limelight, just like many of the people who love his jewellery. Everything about him seems so much larger than life and that reflects in many of his designs, especially the rings which very often have rocks that make them stand out on any finger.

Today, Garrard has over 200 outlets all over the world and they all attract the rich and the famous. The stores are a great success and Stephen’s eye for innovative design and shock value seems to put a premium price on the jewellery. Or maybe people sometimes like a hint of a dark side in jewellery design. There’s nothing dark about the source of his materials, however. Stephen Webster travels to the source to make sure that all his gems and gold have no history of child labour or ill treatment of the miners. He says his inspiration for the designs comes from the gems themselves, from the darker side of nature as well as from music.

You’re in luck! If you are thinking of popping that question to the woman in your life and you’re dreading the time and effort it’s going to take you to make a decision about which ring to get her, Tiffany’s is here to help. They launched it last year but recently, there’s been a major update to the app which makes it much more convenient and easy to use.

Here’s what the Tiffany’s app can do. It’s called the Tiffany’s Engagement Ring Finder by the way. It has been designed to help you select a ring from their collection using your smartphone. Now is that easy or not? With this app, you can create your own Facebook page and put up all the rings that you have selected so you can get friends’ and family’s opinion. With the app, you can view the ring from so many angles so you know exactly how it’s going to look. This means, you can take a good look at all the diamond ring designs before you decide to buy. And all this, in the comfort of your own home.

The new app will be available to users in the middle of July. So if you are thinking of proposing and want to rid yourself of the hassles of choosing a ring, maybe you should hold your horses and pop the question after that date.

There have been record sales of diamond rings especially at the New York auction of Christie’s last week. Suddenly, there seems to be a renewed interest in the auction of jewellery and in this one, diamond rings were the ones that seemed to draw the most bids. In fact, two of them were sold for over £60,000. In all, the auction pulled in sales of nearly £7 million.

There were two rings that were the stars of the auction. The first was a diamond ring with an over-46 carat diamond in the centre and with two one-carat diamonds which were pear-shaped on either side. The ring was set in platinum. The second was also a diamond and platinum ring and the diamond in the centre was over 10 carats and this too was flanked by two small pear-shaped diamonds.

The other diamond rings that were sold were a colourless 10 carat diamond ring and a yellow diamond ring where the stone was an emerald cut one, surrounded by two diamonds which were trillion cut. Also sold were a pair of yellow diamond earrings where the stones were square cut and set in platinum and gold. This auction seems to have heralded in a great season for Christie’s.

The reality show actors are taking their lives on screen into real life and it looks like the duo Kirk Norcross and Lauren Pope are thinking of tying the knot. The couple was seen looking at rings for a long time at a jewellery store and speculation is rife as to whether they were looking for engagement rings or wedding rings. The show has not been aired for a while now so anything to do with the actors makes a lot of news.

The reality show follows the lives of people in Essex and in the show, Kirk’s girlfriend is Lauren so when they were actually out looking for rings, it looked like the line between the show and real life had gotten very blurred indeed. But then, the show says that they are following people and their everyday lives so maybe this is as real as it gets.

Kirk and Lauren met when he hired her at his father’s club to be the DJ and their relationship has often been described as being tempestuous. It had broken off when he threw her out of his life, breaking off things between them publicly at a bar. It looks like they have gone past that however and they are back together, maybe stronger than ever. So Lauren has moved back in with Kirk and people feel there will soon be a wedding. Their togetherness is really very strong – they even had nose jobs done together recently. That didn’t stop them from looking at those diamond rings, though!

Very valuable pieces of jewellery including a number of diamond rings were stolen from the Leatherhead area last weekend and there has been no trace of the thieves thus far. Apparently, there were five men spotted driving around the area in a Ford Fiesta and the police are still wondering how the thieves managed to gain entry into the house where this jewellery was kept. They are appealing to people, from passers by who might have seen anything to pawn shops, stores and auction houses to come forward with any information they might have concerning the robbery or the stolen goods.

The diamond rings alone were valued at thousands of pounds and among the ones that were stolen, there was one that was shaped like a panther and one that had a ruby set in it. The most expensive diamond ring stolen was valued at £140,000 and it was a platinum ring set with a 5-carat diamond.

The other items that were stolen were a gold Rolex watch, a Cartier chain with a pendant, diamond earrings and platinum chandelier diamond earrings. Also taken were silver and gold coins that had been packed in red boxes. The police are hoping they will be able to unearth some clues soon that will help them to recover the jewellery.

India has not been a potential diamond market though most of the diamonds pass through this country to be cut and polished. However, recent trends have seen a surge in demand for diamond jewellery and the new diamond brands with innovative and young designs are raking it in.

India has for long been a gold market but with the population becoming younger, there seems to be a change in old habits and attitudes, Today’s couples are looking at platinum when it comes to engagement rings and of course, diamonds. Economists feel that in a couple of years, India could well be buying up 10% of the world’s diamonds. Today, the diamond demand in India is pegged at over £12 million and it looks like one can safely predict a lot of growth.

This could be due to more than just the age demographics – it could also be due to the fact that the economy is booming and there is a lot more disposable income when it comes to the younger generation. Urbanisation and the consumer bug have bitten a lot of people, it seems, all over the country and it seems to be reflected in the diamond jewellery sales. Even the rising process of gold and platinum do not seem to be a deterrent in the surge in sales.

Time was when you hunted for Easter eggs and all you got was just that – Easter eggs. We have come a long way, haven’t we? Today an Easter egg hunt can mean you find a lot more stuff – and expensive stuff at that! Like this Easter egg hunt that is being organised in a place in Florida in America where the prize is a thousand dollars as well as three diamond rings. That’s right – three of the eggs will have diamond rings inside them. What a dazzling Easter egg each one will be for sure!

This Easter egg hunt is being held by the Highlands County Humane Society and it will be held on their grounds in Sebring. It is to be a fundraiser for the society and it will be held on the 23rd of April. The hunt will begin at 7 in the evening and the entry is ten dollars per person. So the whole hunt will be held in the dark. There will be a number of prizes but the main ones are the cash prize and the diamond ring prizes.

There are eight thousand black eggs to be found and hidden inside them will be the prizes. They have called the cash prize egg the platinum egg, the diamond ring ones the diamond eggs and there will also be gold eggs where there is gold to be won. The other prizes will also be very good and the first three hundred will get a drink and a special bag. All those who wish to enter the hunt will have to bring their own egg containers as well as their own flashlights.

Demi Moore is an exception – that’s for sure. When asked what kept their marriage which has lasted for six years in spite of the difference in ages, they believe that it is because they would rather scribble post-it notes to each other than look for diamond ring gifts. Or so they told Piers Morgan at an interview recently.

Apparently, there are post-its all over their house and some have been there for over seven years – now that’s a long time. He’s 33 and she’s 48 and they still are very much in love so maybe these secrets do work for them. In fact, Ashton Kutcher recently posted one up which called her magical. Of course, he also joked that post-its were way more reasonable than diamond rings.

Demi feels that it is very hard to balance both work and marriage and it is little things like these that make sure that the relationship comes first. She also felt that it was important not to spend too much time apart. There was a time when she was the big star and he the cute young newcomer. However, Aston Kutcher has made a name for himself on the silver screen today while she picks and chooses a few roles. Together, they used to seem so different but not anymore, not now that the world has seen just how close they are.

The New York auction of the famous Christie’s was extremely good but one item did not fly off the auction table – a ten-carat diamond that has an unusual purple-pink colour. The estimated pre-auction price was somewhere between £7 and £9 million. The fancy diamond was the biggest attraction in this time’s auction.

However, diamonds of every other hue seem to have sold very well, whether they were white, blue, yellow or pink. The highest amount that was paid at the auction was for a 37 carat white colourless diamond. A vivid blue diamond which was over 3 carats and a vivid pink diamond which was 6.61 carats were also popular and sold quickly.

Other items worthy of mention were two sapphire rings – one over ten carats and the other over 40 carats. It is incredible how quickly sapphires are disappearing off the shelves after the royal engagement took place. These rings were a Kashmir art deco sapphire ring and a Burmese cushion cut sapphire and diamond ring. The sales seem to have been quite brisk and overall, it was a good auction. Maybe the organisers were a bit disappointed that their start diamond didn’t sell but they seem to be taking it in their stride and feeling good about the others that were sold.

Who would think that one of the largest retailer chains not just in the US but in the world would also stock engagement rings? Not just any engagement rings but rings with diamonds that could go up to almost 7 carats. Maybe there seems to be a fit somewhere because Costco is also the largest fine wine retailer in the world and wine, romance and diamond rings are such a great fit. This chain which opened in the early 80s in Washington has grown so quickly to become a leader in America and then it expanded its chain all over the world.

Costco is known the world over for its great deals. It has become famous for low priced bulk products and so is ideal for large families who can take advantage of volumes at much cheaper rates. You need to become a member to shop there and you get information about all their great deals. Who wouldn’t want to become a part of this chain? It’s got practically everything and when you realise that engagement rings can also be bought as you are pushing your trolley through the aisles makes it really versatile.

So where do the rings fit in? Costco has apparently always sold engagement rings and the best part is, there is a return policy. So if you buy a diamond ring and then find that you don’t like it – hard to imagine, but just in case – then you can go return it and get your money back. What’s more, in true Costco style, even the rings enjoy a discount. Yes, even the 6.77 carat diamond one. Now that is really great news for anyone. Imagine Costco’s competing with Tiffany’s when it comes to engagement rings.

Fortunately, a diamond is forever as a woman in Nebraska, America realised when she found four of her diamond rings in the ruins of a burned down building. Till a month ago, she was the operator of a hotel but the building burned down and in her hurry to get out of it, she left her four diamond rings in the hotel room.

The diamond rings had six diamonds and two of them were around 0.75 carat each. They were all highly valued so it was a wrench when she thought she had lost them. Then, after everything had dies down, her rings were found in the debris and she was so ecstatic, she cried. The people working to clear the site were sifting the debris through a screen when her rings were found. A cameo that belonged to her was also found and so was a purse but they were slightly damaged. The diamond rings, however, were in perfect condition ad she took them off to a jeweller who only polished them but told her they had suffered no damage at all.

The purse had been new – she had just bought it before the fire and when it was found, there was a dollar coin in it. The lady intends to keep that coin as a memento of the day the fire happened and of how fortunately she got back all of her rings. Helping the mining operators to find the valuable rings had been the lady’s nephew and she thanked all the boys who joined in the search and helped her find her rings.