Royal Engagement

Another heirloom is added to the royal jewelry collective now that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have recently become engaged.

Prince Harry worked with Queen Elizabeth II’s trusted jeweler, Cleave and Company, to craft a brilliantly meaningful ring.

The center stone is sourced from Botswana, a place significant to the couple since they enjoyed a camping trip there just weeks after first meeting.  The ring carries a literal piece of the land as a beautiful reminder of the galvanized beginnings of their romance.

The two side stones were taken from Princess Diana’s jewelry collection which was left to Prince William and Harry upon her death.

Using life as inspiration for developing the ring, Prince Harry notes, “It’s incredibly special. And you know to be able to have this [the ring] which sort of links where you come from and Botswana which is important to us. It’s perfect.”

The three stone yellow gold ring is an instant classic and will surely influence many 2018 proposals just as Princess Diana’s velvety sapphire ring has done for nearly 40 years.

Congratulations to the Royal Couple!

Sources:

New York Times

ABC News

The Bonnie Ring

The Gangsters, Outlaws and Lawmen auction took place on June 24th in Boston, Massachusetts. The auction featured a ring crafted by the notorious American gangster, Clyde Chestnut Barrow. The piece was a gift to his sweetheart, Bonnie Elizabeth Parker, as a promise ring since the couple was never wed or able to do so during their intense two year courtship.  

Barrow and his brother Buck were both amateur craftsmen that made jewelry, leather-work, and woodwork during their time in Eastham Farm Prison in Texas. The “Bonnie Ring” was believed to have been made during Barrow’s time there from 1930 to 1932.

The three headed snake ring is most likely silver plated copper, and like most jewelry tells a story. The ring bears the hallmark of an arrow striking a music note, Barrow’s signature.  It’s well-known that the gangster had a passion for music, and the arrow is thought to be wordplay on his surname (B)arrow. The serpent is a Victorian symbol used to represent eternal love. The snake ring trend was popularized when Prince Albert gifted Queen Victoria an emerald set snake ring in 1840. We see that this fashion remained strong nearly a century later with the creation of “the Bonnie ring”.

Bonnie Parker lost this ring when the couple’s stolen 1933 Ford Model B was riddled by a hail of police gunfire in Sowers, Tx.  The couple fled on foot narrowly escaping arrest, leaving behind personal articles in the abandoned vehicle.  “The Bonnie Ring” was claimed by officer Schmid who led the ambush, and the ring remained with the Schmid family until this auction.

The “Bonnie Ring” sold for $25,000; much less than its predicted selling price of $40,000.

Though the ring is not comprised of precious material, it is lofty in its historical clout as a testament to the whirlwind lovestruck romance the two gangsters shared for one another and how they enamored America with their wild escapade that ultimately ended in their very romanticized demise.

Sources:

Jewellery Focus

Instore

The Hot Bid

My Engagement Experience

I have spent a significant amount of my career finding the perfect ring for others, when finally last June came my turn.  Unconventionally I set out ring shopping with my mother.  Josh was open to me styling my own ring since jewelry is something I’m incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about.

To start, the best advice I can give is talk to your friends then try on everything before making any kind of decision. Try on styles that you would never imagine trying on, try the big stone and a small stone, try different metals, try everything. By doing this you’ll positively know when you found the perfect ring.  By talking with friends they will tell you where and who they went to, what they liked and didn’t like about the process. This really helps you to know what to expect when going to different shops.

My adventure started out just like that. I asked around and conceived a list of places to look, then tried on EVERYTHING, even if it wasn’t my style.

In the end I decided on a local jeweler Bario Neal. I knew I wanted a three stone style with a yellow center.  Why did I choose yellow? Well, I knew I was going with a simple design so I wanted a way to give the ring a personal twist. Having worked extensively with jewelry, I have seen so many engagement rings and really wanted something of my own that I have not seen repeatedly.  Also the journey of the yellow diamond intrigued me, so I liked the idea of having a little bit of history on my finger.

Photo by Bario Neal

Happy with my sketch, I waited for the jeweler to receive in a choice between two yellow cushion cut Kalahari diamonds from their contact in Namibia.  In cooperation with De Beers, this Namibian source mined and manufactured these diamonds. So not only am I aware of the origin of my stone, I also know I was ethically supporting the diamond economy locally in Africa.  Having this much information about my ring really got me curious and I further delved into how the yellow diamond came about as a engagement choice historically.

I found that India has been the birthplace for some of the world’s most incredibly colored stones.  These stones were very much part of past Indian culture. In fact, different colored diamonds were used within India’s caste system in the sixth-century.  

Brahmins, the priests and rulers, had white to colorless diamonds.

Landowners and warriors were defined by brown diamonds.

The merchant class, yellow. The lower classes then had heavily included grayish to black diamonds.

Beyond using colored stones as an identifying tool, fancy colored diamonds were seen as a nuanced novelty.  They did not garner popularity until the discovery of the Australian Argyle Mine in the 1980’s.

Now we have coined trade terms such as Canary and Champagne as well as other tantalizing titles to describe a diamond's color.

A diamond's journey to discovery is an arduous one where nature incubates the stone into existence in a very specific way.  The mineral carbon under intense heat and pressure within the earth’s mantle is nature’s recipe for a diamond.  Once created that diamond is then carried to the earth’s surface by a release in pressure, often some sort of volcanic activity.

Colored diamonds are produced because of the presence of trace elements. In my yellow diamond’s case, nitrogen is the reason for color the stone. The amount of nitrogen determines the color intensity. I loved the softness of the yellow in my stone in contrast to the hard yellow color of the 18 karat metal I chose.  The stone had a delicate feel, giving off a nurturing sensitivity about the beginning of this new part of Josh and I’s relationship.  It fit exactly how I felt.

So on top of color I was intrigued by story that this particular diamond had to tell, it became unique to me as well as being aesthetically pleasing to my taste.

You can check out Bario Neal's Spring 2017 collection here as well as other fun jewels:

http://bario-neal.com/

Millennials and Diamonds, an Open Letter

Typically I just post about jewelry projects that interest me and try to keep my blog light and informative, but as a millennial working in the jewelry industry I am tired of being told what I want and what I should be looking for by the founding diamond companies. It’s getting too painful to ignore the broadening disconnect between iconic brands and the millennial customers they are trying to impress. It almost seems like “millennial” is a buzzword that no one really bothered to research.

I keep coming across campaigns catered to my age group, like parents talking over their children's heads, like they are not there, incapable of listening and understanding.  I see it, I hear you, and your are missing our thought process by miles.

The most recent campaign I have come across is Real is Rare, Real is a Diamond.  Released by Diamond Producers Association (DPA) trying to appeal to the millennial with a whimsical video of a carefree couple lost in the wanderlust of life.  The short video is comprised of flashes of incoherent images with a monologue detailing a topical description of their "real" relationship. DPA makes a desperate attempt to move away from the marketing archetype of diamonds = marriage, but it falls short. They are trying to loosen up and connect to millennials with a video that seems forced, insincere, and the diamonds weren't even the focal point. I lost interest in the strained story and actually ended up focusing more on the clothing in the video than the diamond necklaces that were being shown. In the end the same archaic message weakly came across, couples should solidify a relationship by gifting diamonds.

Another campaign I’ve seen recently is from De Beers. De Beers had the incredibly successful 1947 Ad campaign A Diamond is Forever by copy-writer Frances Gerety of N.W. Ayer & Son. At the time De Beers was top dog of the industry controlling the ebb and flow of diamond resources.  So of course they would be able to control the media for the diamond as well.  Now the diamond giant has been minimized due to bad press and in 2012 De Beers has shifted 85% of its ownership to another diamond company.

So now, with less clout than they had before, they tried to strike gold again with their 2015 campaign, Seize the Day.  The campaign failed to impress since it was more of the same boring concept, shoving engagement rings at the consumer so aggressively that they walk away. We live in a time where our worth is not determined by marriage, so why does the industry keep advertising that way?

Too be blunt, most of the diamonds I own I have bought myself with my hard earned money.  A treat I was proud to purchase for myself because I work with jewelry and like jewelry.  As for my longtime boyfriend, he does shower me with gifts whether it be jewelry or artwork, it does not matter, the gift was thoughtful and by no means defined our relationship.

A powerful Ad I think people would respond to would cater to the fact most millennial women buy themselves jewelry as a deserved treat.  The industry does realize that we are the bulk of the US diamond buying market, but they clearly still do not understand why.  They do not understand that we have satisfaction in working hard and earning something we desired.  It is completely gratifying to wear something you worked for. To go out with friends and say, “I worked overtime and absolutely owned my latest project, I treated myself to new earrings”.

Not at all to undermine the institution of marriage, I just went engagement ring shopping myself, but it needs to be realized engagement is not the cornerstone of the diamond market anymore, it’s a part of a whole view.  And if you keep only looking at one small facet of an idea, you are bound to miss a major amount of opportunity. I love diamonds, I love the industry, I love my job, but I am at a complete loss every time I see a new campaign catered to “the millennial”.

Treasures and Talismans Exhibition at the Cloisters

I had the pleasure to trek up to NYC see the Treasures and Talismans: Rings from the Griffon Collection exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park.  Stepping back in time to the medieval era where precious materials were not in excess and the lack of technology proves that the marvels on display are impeccable works for their time.  These rings were gaudy and rich with meaning as well as ceremony. These jewels were a representation of the individual and their personal experience whether it had to do with the acceptance of mortality in the form of Memento Mori (remember death) rings, Posey (poetry) rings, or to demonstrate marriage to the church (clergy status rings). We can see the importance of meditation and reflection in this era that is evident through the jewelry and other works of art from this time.

These rings were so personable in that they were specifically made for an occasion or thought since jewelry really was not widespread or a common thing to posses, so it held very high value to those lucky enough to have something commissioned.  

The medieval time span is interesting in that technologies were gained and lost due to poor documentation, disease, and constant feuding.  In fact, some jewelry on display were pieces left over and re-purposed from the Roman Empire, since the technology for carving cameos was lost, these became really prized pieces to own.  Through these artifacts we can really watch how people in the medieval times struggled to maintain information and technology.  It really puts into perspective the renaissance that follows as we see a boom in science and art as everything is well documented and shared compared to its medieval predecessor.

                                     

In the exhibit’s works we can see very specific stylization that points to the medieval time period. Such as the hand engraving of Posey rings where a hand written inscription was written on the inside of the band; often a poem or saying.  On the outside hand engraved designs were used as decoration. 

The more common engravings were hunting scenes.

                                             Or plant lattice work often called Giardinetti.

The cabochon stones, since the technology for faceting stones did not yet exist, smiths of this time smoothed out the stones surface and really had an emphasis on the color. 

Architectural construction, we can see the importance and value of the stones here as the goldsmith built almost steeple like structures that echoed the architecture of the churches at that time.  There was utilization of arches and buttress like foundations to hold the setting up high above the hand.

 

Interestingly enough, there was use of diamonds in this time period, though colored stones were much more prevalent.  Once again, the technology to cut a diamond did not exist so the raw stone was incorporated into geometric structures.

 

Another characteristic that really caught my eye was the pearl accents; the technology to set a pearl was non-existent to medieval gold-smiths, so they would use cold joining techniques.  We see two examples of setting on display, the first is sampling threading a drilled pearl onto a post and flatting the end securing the pearl like a bead. 

The second is a little cleverer in that a bezel is created to seat the pearl then a singular prong is used to hold it in place.

And very distinct to medieval jewelry are Memento Mori rings, a reflection and reminder of our mortality.  Often the pieces will open revealing further design. This is a common motif to not to keep the main feature of the ring in plain view.  

We see the same thought with the Posey rings where the message is written on the inside out of view.

If given the chance I highly recommend the trip out to see the Treasures and Talismans: Rings from the Griffon Collection.  The exhibition is on display through October 18^th in the Glass Gallery at the Cloisters.  I cannot express how amazing of an experience it was too see these works in a medieval setting versus that of a sterile museum space.  I have not seen an exhibit that breathtaking and enjoyable in a long time.  Truly a step out of time.

All pictures were taken by me at the Glass Gallery in the Cloisters

Diamonds are running low but prices continue to grow..

So I happened upon an interesting read while on LinkedIn: Here's the article

Lately colored stones have been taking center stage in the jewelry field, particularly since the prices of diamonds and gold continue to rise, and perhaps because a certain British princess rocking a gorgeously huge natural sapphire. And let's face it, it's much more cost effective to purchase a gemstone wedding set versus the grotesquely priced diamond counter-part.

I've always defended the high price of diamonds being justified in that I understood how unique and rare each well cut stone was.  It's also an easy price to defend when you know that the retail price is typically marked up 3X, and you know you don't have to pay that price if you know where to look.  However, lately I'm having a harder and harder time explaining away the price, especially when I see the speckled gray monstrosities that the big name chain jewelers are dishing out for an outrageous price.


The big mines that were spewing out the big, brilliant, beauties are depleting and there's no new miracle mine in sight.  What I have come to love as a jeweler, is the vintage pieces that come through, because you just don't see that size, color, or quality anymore.

What's alarming about this read is that organizations, like De Beers, think that jacking up the price is really going to sell the rarity of the stones.  Yes, good quality diamonds are rare, but not diamonds themselves.  The rare stones are the natural Emeralds and Tanzanites out there that are in the same danger of depletion, but there are no companies out there interested in the longevity of those stones since the market has been built around the diamond.

I'm interested to see how this plays out in the next coming years. I've already seen a great decline in the purchase of gold jewelry, people are going for the tougher, cheaper metals. What I am seeing in people is that if they are going to spend that huge of a chunk of change, that want that piece to last.  De Beers has famously coined the idea that diamonds are forever, but gold unfortunately does not.  I've already been approached several times about setting stones in metals like steel and tungsten. So what kind of jewelry alternatives will a future with overpriced materials bring in?

Blog post on article by Vinod Kuriyan on Gem Connect: Here's the original article

Photo Cred:

Princess Kate: link
Princess Diana's Ring: tumblr
Loose Diamonds: De Beers