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Hope Diamond Knock Off

The Smithsonian Institution recently announced that it has licensed its renowned gem and jewelry collection to create a line of bracelets, brooches and other baubles with the TV shopping network QVC.

The jewelry line expected to launch this fall will be based on the National Gem and Mineral Collection at the National Museum of Natural History, which includes the famous Hope Diamond, The Wittelsbach Blue Diamond and Marie Antoinette earrings among 375,000 specimens. Curators will help oversee creation of the jewelry line.

"With all of our licensed products, everything is reviewed and approved by curators in advance," said Smithsonian spokeswoman Linda St. Thomas in a press release.

Curators also will record interviews for QVC to help introduce the collections and offer a glimpse behind the scenes at the museum in Washington, she said.

"We will create jewelry that is not only fashionable, but also serves to educate the public about the Smithsonian and the jewelry, gems and minerals found in its collections," said Carol LeBlanc, director of consumer products for the Smithsonian Enterprises business unit.

The QVC line will include primarily costume jewelry and semiprecious stones. Some of the earrings, rings, bracelets, pins and brooches will be based on designs of pieces in the museum, while others will simply be inspired by its collection, including the 45.5-carat, walnut-size Hope Diamond, long rumored to carry a curse. The line won't include real diamonds.
By: www.pakjewelry.net

Four secrets to bridal success

1. Build-it-yourself If the recession taught jewelers one thing, it was that they need to wean themselves off of the habit of over-stocking inventory that does not move. Enter the next generation of bridal ring-building programs, which let jewelers and customers get exactly what they want, minus the risk. "Some people might not believe in it...but I think it's a good add-on for your existing business," says Pat Javaheri, president of Los Angeles-based manufacturer Amden Jewelry. Five years ago, the 35-year-old company got into the business of crafting the orders that come from custom ring-building programs. Since then, the number of existing programs has increased by roughly 20 percent, Javaheri says. As is the case for all technology, the functionality and appearance of existing programs for the jewelry industry have improved at dizzying speeds.M. Geller, which launched version one of its Bridal Ring Builder in 2004, is now on the third version, says Louis Price, chief operating officer. Upgrades to the program include changes to the layout and color schemes, and simplified search functions, all with the aim of making the program as user-friendly as possible. "We all look at the competitive ball field," Price says in explaining why it was time for Bridal Ring Builder, part III. "We all look at the technology evolving in the competitive marketplace." 2. Fake it 'til you make it It's a stand-off: Retailers are hesitant to plunk down cash to fill their display cases with diamond engagement rings that are not sure sellers, and vendors have trouble securing the credit that enables them to supply entire showrooms on memo. One solution comes via the growing number of suppliers offering "brass-and-glass" inventory programs that allow retailers to purchase engagement ring replicas made of metal alloy and cubic zirconia at a fraction of the cost of rings made of diamonds and precious metal. If your initial reaction is "not in my store," you are not alone. "We have a lot of customers that when we introduced it, said 'This is not for me, I only sell the real thing,'" Gabriel and Co.'s Dominick Gabriel says of his company's Bridal Sample Program, launched in January 2008. Yet those same jewelers reconsidered after they saw how well the systems were working for other retailers, he says. Gabriel and Co. offers eight different assortments of its best-selling mountings, and also gives jewelers the option to handpick their own mixes. Bridal consumers do not complain about the look of the replicas--nor do they seem to mind the wait that comes with ordering either, as the majority of bridal is custom ordered anyway, Gabriel says.One word of advice Gabriel offers to retailers who carry the samples: carry about 10 to 20 real sets of popular engagement ring styles. "You know your market best and you need some live because you're always going to have the guy that wants to get engaged that day," he says.Overnight Mountings Vice President Matthew Roth also sees jewelers' acceptance of brass-and-glass-type programs growing. "It has been an easier hurdle to overcome because jewelers talk," Roth says. "Jewelers speak with jewelers. Jewelers hear from one another that the program is working."3. Something new for metal-heads While there are surely different views in the industry regarding which precious or contemporary metal is the most attractive, durable and stylish, the variety of metal options now available is a welcome development for consumers with an eye on their pocketbooks. For engaged couples that visit Nina Mohr of Nina Jewelry in Manchester Center, Vt., "18-karat white gold and platinum are still the best sellers," she says. But that doesn't mean those are the only metals Nina Jewelry sells. The retailer, like a number of Scott Kay retail partners, recently introduced the brand's new SK Cobalt line of men's wedding bands crafted from BioBlu 27, a white cobalt alloy.Buzz about another metal, palladium, has been subsiding since Palladium Alliance International (PAI) kicked off a trade campaign two years ago, but palladium remains a consideration for price-sensitive consumers seeking a natural white metal. At press time, palladium was trading at less than half the price of gold and a third of the price of platinum. Designer Scott Kay, like a number of manufacturers and retailers, laments the lack of an active industry marketing arm for palladium (PAI has been "dormant" in the United States for the past year, a spokesperson told National Jeweler in November), but says that palladium remains a big part of Scott Kay's bridal business, and the company continues to educate its retail partners on the metal's fine attributes.The brand is doing the same for SK Cobalt."When unconventional metals come into the U.S. market, we really want consumers to understand what they are," Kay says.That means providing retailers with training and point-of-sale materials, and marketing SK Cobalt direct to consumers via publications such as Brides and Bridal Guide.So far, Kay says, the response has been "tremendous," as demand for both attractive price points and contemporary metal jewelry remains strong."Intrinsic value doesn't drive the consumer so much as how it feels on their hand," he says.At retail, Scott Kay's palladium bands average about $600 to $700, while the SK Cobalt bands average about $250 to $300.4. Seize the celebrity endorsement Colored diamonds have been red-carpet regulars over the past few years, but more recently, diamonds with hue have been heading into happily-ever-after territory thanks to big-screen veterans and chart-topping songbirds alike. Jennifer Lopez famously kicked off the trend back in 2002, when actor Ben Affleck presented her with a pink diamond solitaire, says Robert May, executive director of the Natural Color Diamond Association (NCDIA). The engagement may have gone belly-up, but the allure of colored diamonds was set in stone-and in photos. This year, it lives on again, with a handful of celebrity brides-to-be-flashing colored diamond rings. Leading the list over the last few months is country crooner Carrie Underwood, who has been flashing a Johnathon Arndt-designed yellow diamond ring. Then there is Heroes star Kristen Bell, who's been showing off her 3-carat, natural fancy-colored brown diamond ring designed by Neil Lane. Finally, there's supermodel Naomi Campbell, reportedly sporting a Van Cleef and Arpels black diamond ring. While May says many retailers still do not carry colored diamonds, offering at least a small selection could tempt those customers who want the sort of ring that they won't see everywhere, right and left.
By www.pakjewelry.net

Drilling holes in beach stones to use for beads

When drilling beach stones, I would suggest you avoid the advice about buying the best drill bit you can find. When drilling stone, diamond bits wear out quickly, whether you buy the twisted ones (expensive) or the straight ones (far less expensive.) So go for the straight ones.

I'd suggest you go for the economy diamond cylinder drill packs from Rio. They come 25 in a pack and cost less than a buck each, compared to $2 or $4 each for twist bits. You can get through five or six stones with a single bit if the stones are not too hard.

Start your hole with a diamond ball burr, say 1 mm Hold the stone underwater with your hands in a small plastic bin, like Tupperware or glad disposable. Make a small, round divot in the stone.

Once you have a achieved a small divot, drill through the stone in with your cylinder diamond drill bit. Unless your stone is very small, avoid any bit less than 1 mm. The .75 mm bits have a tiny shaft and break often. The 1 mm bits have a reasonably strong shaft.

To make sure you don't drill through the bottom of your container, put a couple of pop sickle sticks under your stone. Hold the stone under water, on top of the pop sticks. Use clear water so you can see what you are doing. The top of the stone should be just barely under water. As you drill, a long tail of dust will drift off from your stone in the water. Press a little, pull back a little, and get a rhythm going. When you get 4/5ths of the way through, turn the stone over to see where the hole is going to come out. Mark it with a sharpie, knick that place with a ball bur and start drilling from the back. When the hole meets the other side, everything else becomes easy.

Widen the hole with successively larger (cheap) diamond drill bits, drilling under water. I find a 2.5 mm hole holds a nice rivet and makes a nice pendant.

www.pakjewelry.net

My opinions on a "Black Tie" wedding and other stuff...

As a preliminary matter, it is NEVER proper to write the required attire on the invitation itself. People will figure out what they are supposed to wear based on the formality of the invitation and by word of mouth. So whatever you choose to go with, you should be aware that it is an etiquette faux pas to write this on the invitation. If you feel you must include it, it's slightly more acceptable to write it on the reception card instead of on the invitation itself.Additionally, if you write "black tie" on the invitations, this means that black tie is required, not optional (meaning men MUST wear tuxes and women must wear long gowns). If you want black tie to be optional, you need to put "black tie optional" or "formal dress." (Some etiquette books will tell you that black tie optional is also incorrect, but I think most people know what it means). At a black tie optional or formal event, men can wear a dark suit in lieu of a tux. Women can wear long dresses or fancy cocktail dresses.Unless you run with a high society crowd who frequent black tie events, I would imagine your guests will be annoyed by a black tie mandate (especially if they think black tie is required). Most people don't have a tux lying around, so to attend a black tie event they would need to rent or buy one. This could cost anywhere from 75 to 200 dollars, depending on what you rent and where you rent from. Additionally, a lot of women may not have a long evening dress lying around, so they would need to purchase something as well (I can think of only two friends of mine who own formal wear, and both work in PR and attend gala events regularly). Add this to the cost of attending a wedding generally, and you might make attending your weddings fashion cost prohibitive to some of your guests. At the end of the day, do you care that 100% of your guests are in tuxes and evening gowns but twenty people you care about can't come because they couldn't afford to pay for airfare, hotel, gift, AND a tuxedo and/or gown? Unless it's for a family member or a very close friend, I'd generally decline an invite to a black tie event because the added expense is more than I am willing to spend for DH and I to attend a wedding. I don't own an evening gown, so if DH and I had to attend a black tie event next week it would cost us at least $75 for the tux rental and maybe another $200 for a dress for me, in addition to whatever we're already spending on a gift and travel.

On the registry question - if you're not having a website, then word of mouth is the way to spread the word. People attending must know SOMEONE involved in the wedding, whether it's you, your bridal party, or one of your families, so they will find someone to ask. If there are people being invited who don't know anyone they could ask, then why would they be invited??
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