April 2008 Archives
NY Football Giants Unveil Super Bowl Ring
The Giants today unveiled the design of their Super Bowl ring, which will be made by Tiffany & Co. and will feature white gold, diamonds and three Super Bowl trophies, one for each of the Giants’ victories in the title game.
The Super Bowl ring will feature white gold, diamonds and three Super Bowl trophies
The design was created after several meetings that included team president John Mara, chairman Steve Tisch, general manager Jerry Reese, head coach Tom Coughlin and a four-player committee of Eli Manning, Michael Strahan, Amani Toomer and Shaun O’Hara and representatives from Tiffany. The players had great participation in the design process.
The ring’s top is covered in diamonds and features three Super Bowl trophies accented with marquise diamonds signifying the team’s Super Bowl XXI, XXV and XLII victories, along with the team’s “NY” logo in bead set round diamonds. “World Champions” is emblazoned in raised letters on the top and bottom bezel, with channel set diamonds on left and right bezel.
The NFL shield; player name, along with player number in raised letters appear on one shank; and the final score (NYG 17 NE 14), “Super Bowl XLII,” date (02.03.08) and ‘AZ’ appear on the other shank.
Beautiful!
Now let's hope our other NY teams; Rangers, Mets, Yankees can reprise this in 2008.
The Diamond Mouse That Roared!
Diamond Intelligence Briefs reports today that Diamond manufacturer and distributor Lazare Kaplan International (LKI) has unveiled a diamond-encrusted figurine in the shape of a rat, which will be auctioned off in Malaysia for a starting price of $20,000.
The piece, called The Mouse, is the world’s largest diamond mouse, weighing 12.36 carats. Its body and face feature 563 round diamonds produced by LKI while the ears, feet and tail’s end are set with round pink diamonds. Aside from diamonds, the piece, which can serve as a display piece as well as a brooch, is made from 18k yellow gold with a silver base.
Until The Mouse is auctioned off, it will be on display at DeGem boutiques in Malaysia along with LKI’s other diamond novelties, the Million-Dollar Ice-Cream Cone and the Ideal Evening Bag, worth nearly $50,000.
Pass the cheese!
Diamond Engagement Rings On The Internet: Blue Nile & Tiffany.
CNBC reports that Merrill Lynch analyst Lorraine Maikis has cut her stock ratings for Tiffany and Co. and Blue Nile from "neutral" to "sell."
This revised rating comes amidst an unstable economic environment, where rising food and gas prices, the credit crunch and a weak housing market, and high Platinum and Gold prices are forcing consumers to cut back on big-ticket luxury items such as jewelry.
In addition to Maikis, Oppenheimer analyst Roxanne Meyer downgraded Tiffany from "outperform" to "perform," despite the fact that the company reported strong fourth-quarter financials and raised its 2008 earnings guidance.
Tiffany reported a 7 percent increase in same-store U.S. sales for fiscal year 2007, yet remains "cautious" on the U.S. market, according to the company's latest earnings report. Overall, the company's U.S. retail sales rose 4 percent in 2007, and Tiffany opened three new stores while closing one in Maui, Hawaii, in the fourth quarter.
Diamonds and Ruby Trophy Ring: It's a Player!
Few of us have the talent/ability to become a Professional sports athlete and so we use our imagination and live vicariously through our hometown teams. All of us have at one time or another fantasized about making that winning shot or play to win a championship and get that Ticker Tape parade down Main Street. One of the rewards is getting that Championship Ring-Bling!!!
The Boston Red Sox, 2007 World Series Champions received their rings yesterday. The new bling - made by the ring kings at Jostens - features a pair of Red Sox, on the top, each one containing four specially cut rubies for a combined weight of 2.14 carats.
There are 14 princess-cut diamonds in a diamond-shaped bed below the Sox, and 28 more round-cut diamonds running around the top of the ring.
Eight players - David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, Jason Varitek, Curt Schilling, Tim Wakefield, Doug Mirabelli, Mike Timlin, and Kevin Youkilis - received rings that featured the Sox’ “B” and two World Series trophies on the side because they were on the team in both 2004 and 2007. The rings for the rest of the team feature just one trophy.
On the other side of the ring are the words “7th Word Series Championship,” with a replica of Fenway Park underneath and the words “4-0 Sweep.”
The rings have been appraised at $20,000 and the Sox Team Officials are expected to hand out about 50 of them to players, coaches and staff.
Jostens also made all three of the New England Patriots Super Bowl rings, and are ready to design a ring for the Boston Celtics should they win the NBA Championship this year.
For the rest of us? Dream On!
Spring Is Finally Here!!!!
Spring is finally here and everything is coming into full bloom!
Spring time means more engagements!
More engagements means more sales of fabulous diamond engagement rings!!
From us to you, we wish you all the best!
Diamonds For The Rich, Famous, and Infamous.
A New York luxury car dealer has commissioned one of the most outrageous and expensive car accessories yet.
It's a one-of-a-kind Spirit of Ecstasy bonnet ornament made of diamonds and Platinum and mounted on a very expensive surface coating.
This Roll-Royce "Spirit of Ecstacy" bonnet ornament is encrusted with $200 000
worth of diamonds.
The ornament was designed by jeweler Jean Kemanjian for Manhattan Motorcars as "a tribute to the car itself."
It's covered in diamonds, laid out in a pavé surface similar to bathroom tiles - except that this is the most expensive surface coating in the world.
150 carats of top-quality, super-white diamonds and some fancy intense yellow diamonds on the wings were used.
This is the only one of its kind in the world.
KOOL!
Fabulous Diamond Necklace From Piaget Unveiled!
Piaget has just unveiled this Limelight diamond necklace, splattered with diamonds and set into a majestic 18 carat white gold setting.
There are 632 brilliant cut diamonds totaling approximately 25.08 carats and 43 pear cut diamonds of approximately 7.8 carats adorning this beautiful masterpiece!
The necklace is part of Piaget’s Limelight Paris-New York collection which highlights the contrast of both cities.
Bride Calls Off Wedding Because of Greedy Fiance.
So reports The Times of India today.
The story is here: Get LOST!
Pray For Rain and Pass That Diamond Engagement Ring!
Alvin's Jewelers in Sandusky Ohio recently announced its "Pray for Rain" promotion, which promises a refund of up to $5,000 on engagement rings for couples who have at least 3/4 an inch of rain or 10 inches of snow on their wedding day.
Chad Owens, district manager of Alvin's Jewelers at the Sandusky Mall, said he's already had at least 20 couples register.
"We've got the umbrellas up in every store, and we're hoping to have quite a few winners," he said.
Would you say this promotion is all wet?
Madonna's New Jewelry! April 2008
Madonna has turned to Chopard to create the custom diamond knuckle ring that reads “M-dolla” and the Happy Diamonds cross she wears on the cover of her new and much anticipated album “Hardy Candy.” Designed by Chopard co-president Caroline Gruosi-Scheufele herself, the ring features 258 brilliant cut white diamonds with the signature Chopard floating diamonds in the flourish of the letter M. This is the second partnership between Chopard and Madonna; their first was the pave diamond “Hung Up” necklace the Pop Queen wore onstage from her “Confessions on a Dance Floor” album.
High Price of Gold Can Make Your Mouth Worth Mucho Money!
The Associated Press reports that people are digging through drawers for old dental caps, fillings and bridgework they saved years ago and selling them at prices that would make the tooth fairy blush.
Instead of hanging on to the pieces as souvenirs, many are turning them over to pawnbrokers, coin shops and specialized firms that buy "dental gold," hoping to take a bite out of the metal's historic run to $1,000 an ounce.
"People are really cashing in. If a dentist passes away, their kids come in with a big pile of good teeth," said Scott Taber, owner of Taber Coins, a Shrewsbury, Mass., coin dealer that buys dental gold and then resells it to a gold smelter.
He said he used to see only a few customers a month selling gold teeth but now gets that many each week. "People are digging up the gold and starting to sell it," he said.
A gold crown typically uses about one-tenth of an ounce of 16-karat gold, which would fetch around $40 to $50 at today's prices, Taber said. Heavier pieces of dental gold can command prices of several hundred dollars, he said.
That deal sounds pretty good to people like Ann Davis, a 63-year-old retiree in Rock Island, Ill., who had gold caps and a bridge removed nearly 40 years ago and has held on to them ever since.
"You don't want to throw it away because it might be worth something," she said. "Now that gold's going up it's time to think about selling."
Gold prices have been surging since late last year as the weak dollar, record crude-oil prices and fears of a U.S. recession have enhanced its appeal as a haven for investors.
Gold set a record of $1,038.60 an ounce on March 17 and has since fallen to about $920, but experts say it could soon resume its upward climb. Several precious metals analysts have even predicted $2,000 gold ahead as a global commodities boom pushes the price of raw materials further into record territory.
Gold crowns, fillings and bridgework are usually made of 16-karat gold, an alloy that contains other metals such as silver, zinc and copper. That made gold dental work soft enough to shape but hard enough to form a biting surface.
But don't expect to get rich hawking gold fillings and crowns.
And replacing a gold crown isn't cheap. Newer porcelain and gold crowns can cost $500 to $3,000 apiece, and not all insurance companies will pay for the procedure.
Besides the financial benefit, Taber says people don't mind selling dental gold because it's far less emotional than parting with heirlooms like grandma's wedding ring or the family silverware.
"I haven't seen anybody with sentimental teeth," Taber said.
$MILE!! You may chomping on big Money!
These Tiny Diamonds are not for Engagement Rings.
What is a Nanodiamond?
Nanodiamonds are made by detonating two explosive compounds, TNT and RDX, and then collecting the resulting soot - which contains diamonds approximately 4nm in size. But to make the diamonds fluoresce they have to be exposed to a high-energy electron beam from a van de Graaff accelerator, then heated to 800°C - a very costly procedure.
Now comes a new, cheaper process invented by Taiwanese chemists that makes nanaodiamonds fluoresce by bombarding them with high energy helium ions. This results in structural defects to the point that they fluorecse when hit by a laser light.
The practical applications are important. Nanodiamonds could be used as light beacons in chemotherapy by being attached to cancer cells and tumors in the body so that these medicines are more accurately delivered to the target zone.
Image showing the internalization of green fluorescent diamonds by a cancer cell.
Courtesy of RSC.org and Fann et al.
Carbon based nanodiamonds are water soluble, have good biocompatibility, and cause little inflammation. Research is ongoing to determine toxicity and how long these nanodiamonds will remain in the body before dissipating. Answers to these questions are necessary before full-scale clinical trials can begin.
This Gal Will Need An Expensive Diamond Engagement Ring
Danielle Luminita, a model from Romania, is carried on the shoulders of two other models as she displays a diamond-studded thong during Viva La Eve by Triumph at the Singapore Fashion Festival April 3. The thong, valued at $121,106, is decorated with 518 diamonds totaling 30 carats.
The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind.
