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What's Hot In Bridal Jewelry

Wedding jewelry continues to be one of the priciest piece of today's wedding accessory, and brides are trying to keep costs reasonable as this year's wedding season approaches.

Brides spend an average of $300 to $500 on jewelry for themselves and their bridesmaids. Throw in bridal tiara and hair accessories such as hair combs, clips, and pins - and you can easily hit $1,000 or more.

Bridal jewelry need not cost hundreds of dollars to be spectacular. Like a wedding dress, it can be a source of over-thinking, frustration and bank-breaking when it's likely to be used once and to live on only in pictures. There are countless wonderful bridal-worthy jewelry finds out there for $50 or less in a variety of stores such as GlamForLess.com that cater to different pocketbooks.

There are jewelry sets for $50 and less (original prices or on sale for up to 50 percent off), some of which are more lovely than their much more expensive counterparts. Most jewelry collections have the trendy red carpet look and came in styles ranging from traditional elegance to more glamorous designs.

At GlamForLess.com, for instance, there were several gorgeous jewelry sets on sale for only $19.99, some of which had originally cost hundreds of dollars. All a bride really needs is some good taste, great make-up, a killer hairdo and the right accessories to be a hit on her wedding day.

Even leading bridal magazines have featured lines of affordable bridal jewelry and accessories to show brides that having lots of money isn't the only way to have lots of style. Looking like a star doesn't always mean paying like one. Spend less and have more fun!

Here is some of our favorite bridal jewelry:

Jewelry Sets
Today, jewelry sets for weddings utilize the bigger-is-better theme as well, dripping gemstones and setting off demure necklines. Dramatic cascading pendants show-off two, three, or more linked-stones, and even classic chokers are emboldened with up to six strands of pearls.

Chandelier Earrings
The look in bridal jewelry now is bold, and the hottest trend in the spotlight is the chandelier earring. The dangling pieces of jewelry boast diamonds, pearls, or even glass beads, evoking a glamorous, Art-Deco look. Long, thin, shoulder-skimming lines are also showing up on brides, a sleek counterpart to the bold chandelier.

Cuff Bracelets
Thick silver diamond cuff bracelets are currently flashing on the runways of fashion and the red carpet. Tiny rhinestones or beads add an air of daintiness to chunky designs of semi-precious stones. The look is wide and antique, with wedding walking down the aisle with family heirlooms on their wrists for an old-fashioned, sentimental air.


Don't despair if the bold look in wedding jewelry isn't your taste. The classic stand-bys of delicate pendants, classic diamond studs, and bare wrists are always in style, But for the up-to-the-minute wedding who wants to reflect the latest look, big is definitely beautiful.

By: Uche Unachukwu
Pr-inside.com; April 15, 2008

What's Hot In Bridal Jewelry

Wedding jewelry continues to be one of the priciest piece of today's wedding accessory, and brides are trying to keep costs reasonable as this year's wedding season approaches.

Brides spend an average of $300 to $500 on jewelry for themselves and their bridesmaids. Throw in bridal tiara and hair accessories such as hair combs, clips, and pins - and you can easily hit $1,000 or more.

Bridal jewelry need not cost hundreds of dollars to be spectacular. Like a wedding dress, it can be a source of over-thinking, frustration and bank-breaking when it's likely to be used once and to live on only in pictures. There are countless wonderful bridal-worthy jewelry finds out there for $50 or less in a variety of stores such as GlamForLess.com that cater to different pocketbooks.

There are jewelry sets for $50 and less (original prices or on sale for up to 50 percent off), some of which are more lovely than their much more expensive counterparts. Most jewelry collections have the trendy red carpet look and came in styles ranging from traditional elegance to more glamorous designs.

At GlamForLess.com, for instance, there were several gorgeous jewelry sets on sale for only $19.99, some of which had originally cost hundreds of dollars. All a bride really needs is some good taste, great make-up, a killer hairdo and the right accessories to be a hit on her wedding day.

Even leading bridal magazines have featured lines of affordable bridal jewelry and accessories to show brides that having lots of money isn't the only way to have lots of style. Looking like a star doesn't always mean paying like one. Spend less and have more fun!

Here is some of our favorite bridal jewelry:

Jewelry Sets
Today, jewelry sets for weddings utilize the bigger-is-better theme as well, dripping gemstones and setting off demure necklines. Dramatic cascading pendants show-off two, three, or more linked-stones, and even classic chokers are emboldened with up to six strands of pearls.

Chandelier Earrings
The look in bridal jewelry now is bold, and the hottest trend in the spotlight is the chandelier earring. The dangling pieces of jewelry boast diamonds, pearls, or even glass beads, evoking a glamorous, Art-Deco look. Long, thin, shoulder-skimming lines are also showing up on brides, a sleek counterpart to the bold chandelier.

Cuff Bracelets
Thick silver diamond cuff bracelets are currently flashing on the runways of fashion and the red carpet. Tiny rhinestones or beads add an air of daintiness to chunky designs of semi-precious stones. The look is wide and antique, with wedding walking down the aisle with family heirlooms on their wrists for an old-fashioned, sentimental air.


Don't despair if the bold look in wedding jewelry isn't your taste. The classic stand-bys of delicate pendants, classic diamond studs, and bare wrists are always in style, But for the up-to-the-minute wedding who wants to reflect the latest look, big is definitely beautiful.

By: Uche Unachukwu
Pr-inside.com; April 15, 2008

What's Hot In Bridal Jewelry

Wedding jewelry continues to be one of the priciest piece of today's wedding accessory, and brides are trying to keep costs reasonable as this year's wedding season approaches.

Brides spend an average of $300 to $500 on jewelry for themselves and their bridesmaids. Throw in bridal tiara and hair accessories such as hair combs, clips, and pins - and you can easily hit $1,000 or more.

Bridal jewelry need not cost hundreds of dollars to be spectacular. Like a wedding dress, it can be a source of over-thinking, frustration and bank-breaking when it's likely to be used once and to live on only in pictures. There are countless wonderful bridal-worthy jewelry finds out there for $50 or less in a variety of stores such as GlamForLess.com that cater to different pocketbooks.

There are jewelry sets for $50 and less (original prices or on sale for up to 50 percent off), some of which are more lovely than their much more expensive counterparts. Most jewelry collections have the trendy red carpet look and came in styles ranging from traditional elegance to more glamorous designs.

At GlamForLess.com, for instance, there were several gorgeous jewelry sets on sale for only $19.99, some of which had originally cost hundreds of dollars. All a bride really needs is some good taste, great make-up, a killer hairdo and the right accessories to be a hit on her wedding day.

Even leading bridal magazines have featured lines of affordable bridal jewelry and accessories to show brides that having lots of money isn't the only way to have lots of style. Looking like a star doesn't always mean paying like one. Spend less and have more fun!

Here is some of our favorite bridal jewelry:

Jewelry Sets
Today, jewelry sets for weddings utilize the bigger-is-better theme as well, dripping gemstones and setting off demure necklines. Dramatic cascading pendants show-off two, three, or more linked-stones, and even classic chokers are emboldened with up to six strands of pearls.

Chandelier Earrings
The look in bridal jewelry now is bold, and the hottest trend in the spotlight is the chandelier earring. The dangling pieces of jewelry boast diamonds, pearls, or even glass beads, evoking a glamorous, Art-Deco look. Long, thin, shoulder-skimming lines are also showing up on brides, a sleek counterpart to the bold chandelier.

Cuff Bracelets
Thick silver diamond cuff bracelets are currently flashing on the runways of fashion and the red carpet. Tiny rhinestones or beads add an air of daintiness to chunky designs of semi-precious stones. The look is wide and antique, with wedding walking down the aisle with family heirlooms on their wrists for an old-fashioned, sentimental air.


Don't despair if the bold look in wedding jewelry isn't your taste. The classic stand-bys of delicate pendants, classic diamond studs, and bare wrists are always in style, But for the up-to-the-minute wedding who wants to reflect the latest look, big is definitely beautiful.

By: Uche Unachukwu
Pr-inside.com; April 15, 2008

What's Hot In Bridal Jewelry

Wedding jewelry continues to be one of the priciest piece of today's wedding accessory, and brides are trying to keep costs reasonable as this year's wedding season approaches.

Brides spend an average of $300 to $500 on jewelry for themselves and their bridesmaids. Throw in bridal tiara and hair accessories such as hair combs, clips, and pins - and you can easily hit $1,000 or more.

Bridal jewelry need not cost hundreds of dollars to be spectacular. Like a wedding dress, it can be a source of over-thinking, frustration and bank-breaking when it's likely to be used once and to live on only in pictures. There are countless wonderful bridal-worthy jewelry finds out there for $50 or less in a variety of stores such as GlamForLess.com that cater to different pocketbooks.

There are jewelry sets for $50 and less (original prices or on sale for up to 50 percent off), some of which are more lovely than their much more expensive counterparts. Most jewelry collections have the trendy red carpet look and came in styles ranging from traditional elegance to more glamorous designs.

At GlamForLess.com, for instance, there were several gorgeous jewelry sets on sale for only $19.99, some of which had originally cost hundreds of dollars. All a bride really needs is some good taste, great make-up, a killer hairdo and the right accessories to be a hit on her wedding day.

Even leading bridal magazines have featured lines of affordable bridal jewelry and accessories to show brides that having lots of money isn't the only way to have lots of style. Looking like a star doesn't always mean paying like one. Spend less and have more fun!

Here is some of our favorite bridal jewelry:

Jewelry Sets
Today, jewelry sets for weddings utilize the bigger-is-better theme as well, dripping gemstones and setting off demure necklines. Dramatic cascading pendants show-off two, three, or more linked-stones, and even classic chokers are emboldened with up to six strands of pearls.

Chandelier Earrings
The look in bridal jewelry now is bold, and the hottest trend in the spotlight is the chandelier earring. The dangling pieces of jewelry boast diamonds, pearls, or even glass beads, evoking a glamorous, Art-Deco look. Long, thin, shoulder-skimming lines are also showing up on brides, a sleek counterpart to the bold chandelier.

Cuff Bracelets
Thick silver diamond cuff bracelets are currently flashing on the runways of fashion and the red carpet. Tiny rhinestones or beads add an air of daintiness to chunky designs of semi-precious stones. The look is wide and antique, with wedding walking down the aisle with family heirlooms on their wrists for an old-fashioned, sentimental air.


Don't despair if the bold look in wedding jewelry isn't your taste. The classic stand-bys of delicate pendants, classic diamond studs, and bare wrists are always in style, But for the up-to-the-minute wedding who wants to reflect the latest look, big is definitely beautiful.

By: Uche Unachukwu
Pr-inside.com; April 15, 2008

What's Hot In Bridal Jewelry

Wedding jewelry continues to be one of the priciest piece of today's wedding accessory, and brides are trying to keep costs reasonable as this year's wedding season approaches.

Brides spend an average of $300 to $500 on jewelry for themselves and their bridesmaids. Throw in bridal tiara and hair accessories such as hair combs, clips, and pins - and you can easily hit $1,000 or more.

Bridal jewelry need not cost hundreds of dollars to be spectacular. Like a wedding dress, it can be a source of over-thinking, frustration and bank-breaking when it's likely to be used once and to live on only in pictures. There are countless wonderful bridal-worthy jewelry finds out there for $50 or less in a variety of stores such as GlamForLess.com that cater to different pocketbooks.

There are jewelry sets for $50 and less (original prices or on sale for up to 50 percent off), some of which are more lovely than their much more expensive counterparts. Most jewelry collections have the trendy red carpet look and came in styles ranging from traditional elegance to more glamorous designs.

At GlamForLess.com, for instance, there were several gorgeous jewelry sets on sale for only $19.99, some of which had originally cost hundreds of dollars. All a bride really needs is some good taste, great make-up, a killer hairdo and the right accessories to be a hit on her wedding day.

Even leading bridal magazines have featured lines of affordable bridal jewelry and accessories to show brides that having lots of money isn't the only way to have lots of style. Looking like a star doesn't always mean paying like one. Spend less and have more fun!

Here is some of our favorite bridal jewelry:

Jewelry Sets
Today, jewelry sets for weddings utilize the bigger-is-better theme as well, dripping gemstones and setting off demure necklines. Dramatic cascading pendants show-off two, three, or more linked-stones, and even classic chokers are emboldened with up to six strands of pearls.

Chandelier Earrings
The look in bridal jewelry now is bold, and the hottest trend in the spotlight is the chandelier earring. The dangling pieces of jewelry boast diamonds, pearls, or even glass beads, evoking a glamorous, Art-Deco look. Long, thin, shoulder-skimming lines are also showing up on brides, a sleek counterpart to the bold chandelier.

Cuff Bracelets
Thick silver diamond cuff bracelets are currently flashing on the runways of fashion and the red carpet. Tiny rhinestones or beads add an air of daintiness to chunky designs of semi-precious stones. The look is wide and antique, with wedding walking down the aisle with family heirlooms on their wrists for an old-fashioned, sentimental air.


Don't despair if the bold look in wedding jewelry isn't your taste. The classic stand-bys of delicate pendants, classic diamond studs, and bare wrists are always in style, But for the up-to-the-minute wedding who wants to reflect the latest look, big is definitely beautiful.

By: Uche Unachukwu
Pr-inside.com; April 15, 2008

Physics Explains Underexposure

One of the most ubiquitous problems in photography has been the mystery of underexposure, or, in layman's terms, "The picture, she is so dark."

Causing lost shadow details and muddy highlights, underexposure is the number two enemy of photographers, second only to abysmal wages and poor math skills.

During the twentieth century (that means the 1900s) several hypotheses had been advanced and shot down. Joerg Hilti, the Austrian jurist, had proposed in 1919 that photons slowed down whilst passing through the lens, and thus struck the film with too little force to make an impression. Einstein eventually put the kibosh on that theory, but it remained part of formal photographic education well past 1940.

In 2005 astronomers reported that dark matter, which was first synthesized by Fritz Zwicky in 1933, is far more prevalent than ever. The ever increasing and menacing dark matter has been proven (extremely proven, in fact) to be the cause of underexposure in the photographic fields. To put it simply, dark matter gets trapped between the lens and the film (or sensor) and then lodges in the receptor sites during exposure. This blocks some of the lighter and friendlier photons. The cause of dark photos had been found

These effects of dark matter have been overcome with digital sensors. In mass production since early 2007, dark-matter-protected sensors eliminate the dark matter underexposure conundrum.

The new CMOS and CCD sensors feature receptor sites that are too narrow and foreboding for dark matter to enter, leaving room for even the weakest photons, thus boosting the effective exposure to what it should have been all along. Film, still made by hobbyists in the hinterlands, cannot be adjusted to compensate for dark matter. This may may relegate film to the ash bin of history.

With digital capture in ascendancy, the dark problem is essentially solved. As one bride in Ohio or Illinois said, "My wedding pictures aren't as dark as I feared." And she was right!

Inside knowledge

I always wondered why my bridal customers would plan their wedding up to 18 months in advance, and want to talk over tiara and jewellery ideas long before the big day!!! Now that I'm a bride-to-be myself I have the inside knowledge... there's so much to do!I have to admit that I would class myself under the 'extremely organised perfectionist' category, whether it comes to my day-to-day life (from

Inside knowledge

I always wondered why my bridal customers would plan their wedding up to 18 months in advance, and want to talk over tiara and jewellery ideas long before the big day!!! Now that I'm a bride-to-be myself I have the inside knowledge... there's so much to do!I have to admit that I would class myself under the 'extremely organised perfectionist' category, whether it comes to my day-to-day life (from

Inside knowledge

I always wondered why my bridal customers would plan their wedding up to 18 months in advance, and want to talk over tiara and jewellery ideas long before the big day!!! Now that I'm a bride-to-be myself I have the inside knowledge... there's so much to do!I have to admit that I would class myself under the 'extremely organised perfectionist' category, whether it comes to my day-to-day life (from

Traditional wedding clothes since the Nguyen dynasty

While traditional clothes of Vietnam have always been very diverse depending on the era and occasion, it is known that after the Nguyen dynasty, women began to wear elaborate Áo dài for their weddings which were modelled on the Áo mệnh phụ (royal Áo dài) of Nguyen dynasty court ladies. The style of the Nguyen dynasty has remained popular and is still used for modern weddings. The difference of the Áo mệnh phụ from the typical Áo dài is the elaborateness of its design (usually embroidered with imperial symbols such as the phoenix) and the extravagant outer cloak. With this gown which is preferably in red or pink, the bride usually wears a Khăn đống headdress. The groom wears a simpler male equivalent, often in blue.

Previous to the Nguyen dynasty, it is likely that women simply wore fancy, elaborate versions of Áo tứ thân.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Vietnamese Wedding Video

Phew!

What a week! We have booked our wedding for next year! Aboard a cruise ship - so we'll be married by the captain at sea. If anyone out there is trying to book this type of wedding you'll know how difficult it is to research, and then at the end to get the cabins you want, the ship you want and the destination as well! I'm thinking of adding a page to my website about it as there doesn't seem to be enough info out there! We are so grateful to Dawn, our agent who made the whole thing possible! Thank you!!!
I have designed our wedding stationery (with some help from my fiance) and will be making the invitations this week, as guests will have to know way in advance to make sure they get cabins! So far we have 14 guests booked, and thats before we send out the invites! We hope to have more - it should be great day and we hope very memorable.
Well, enough about ours, I have to get back on track with everyone else's now! I have a lot of weddings happening during May so lots of orders of service, placecards and table plans to do.
BBL :o)

Look Who I Found When I Came Home!

It was Ben and Charlene, hanging out in in the front yard.

Just kidding. This is actually my vacation home in Norway.

Nope, this is an engagement session we did in San Francisco in March.

Here are a few more images.

Vietnamese Traditional Wedding

Vietnamese traditional wedding strictly follows a procedure that has existed for hundreds of years. It reflects the traditional idea of propriety and conjugal life.

In the past, especially among the upper classes, a marriage was arranged not by the couple themselves but by their families based on each side’s economic and social status. The purpose of marriage was not only the settlement of the couple’s life but also the establishment of an alliance between two families. Even today when young people can freely choose their partners, the first step towards marriage is always obtaining formal permission from the two families. Therefore the organization and preparation of a wedding is an important affair in which every family member must contribute (the family here is the extended family consisting of the nuclear family and all the relatives from the father’s side).

A traditional wedding has six stages: nap thai (also called cham ngo in casual speech. The groom’s family visits the bride’s family to formally request permission for him to marry her. The groom has to present his future wife with betel leaves and betel-nuts, the symbol of the unbreakable bond of marriage, as a proof of his sincerity), van danh (also called an hoi.The couple are formally introduced to each other and to their future spouse’s family. This is also a time for two families especially the parents to get to know each other), nap cat (the groom’s family informs the wedding plan for the bride’s family to decide), thinh ky (the bride’s family announces their final decisions about the wedding), nap te (representative of the bride’s family bring what necessary for the bride in the wedding and some gifts to the bride’s family at the appointed time and date), than nghenh (this is the chief part. Wedding rituals are performed before the ancestral altars of two families.

The couple then officially become husband and wife). In the past, omitting any of these stages was a grievous violation of propriety that scandalized the families involved but nowadays only three most important stages (nap thai, van danh, than nghenh) are kept to save time and money.

Traditional Vietnamese wedding rituals and customs are a mixture of native and Chinese cultures and are strongly influenced by Confucian morality. Their purposes are to ensure the conjugal happiness for the couple and to form close relations between two families. The groom comes to the bride’s house with an elder of his family who has had a happy family life to pay homage to the ancestors of the bride’s family and to pay respect to her parents.

Then the bride is taken before the ancestral altar of her husband’s family where she will be “introduced” to her husband’s ancestors’ spirits as the new family member. After that, the couple will share a cup of rice wine and a small dish of steamed sticky rice as a promise to share happiness as well as hardship. After the ceremony is over, there is usually a wedding party with the presence of members of both families and some family friends to celebrate the union of not only the couple but also the two families.

References:
Phan Ke Binh, “The Customs of Vietnam”, Van Hoc Publisher
Huu Ngoc and Lady Borton, “Wedding Customs”, The Gioi Publisher

Order of ceremony

Welcome (Bride’s representative)

Present the gifts (Groom’s representative)

Accept the gifts & open gifts (Bride’s parent)

Incense offering (Father of the Bride)

Present the bride (Mother of the Bride)

Candle lighting (Groom and Bride fathers)

Pay respect to ancestors (Bride and Groom stand at the altar and bow to the ancestors)

Wedding ceremony (Myly Nguyen – Authorised Marriage Celebrant)

* Vows and Ring Ceremony

* Signing of the Register
Congratulations and Jewellery (dowry) for the bride
Tea Ceremony (Groom & Bride serve wine to the parents)
Blessing from relatives and friends

Vietnamese Wedding Today

Today, a lot of Vietnamese couples have their wedding ceremony done in Temples or Churches which is very much similar to American and Western style, including exchanging vows and wedding rings. However, they still maintain Vietnamese traditional ceremony in the bride's home before heading to temples or churches.

A wedding banquet is scheduled in the evening at a hotel or a big restaurant. It is always a delight feast that all relatives, friends, and neighbors are invited. A music band is usually hired to play live songs.

At the banquet, the groom, bride, and their family are once again introduced to the guests and everyone will drink a toast. Dinner will be served at the tables.

During the reception, the groom, bride, and their parents will stop by each table to say thank to their guests. The guest in return, will give envelopes containing wedding cards and money gifts to the newly wedded couples along with their blessing. A lot of weddings nowadays are followed by a dancing party, which is opened by the groom and the bride's first dance. The party does not recess until very late at night. The newly wedded couples then leave for their honey moon.

Vietnamese Wedding Reception

If you are invited to a Vietnamese wedding reception at a Chinese restaurant, here are a few tips to enhance your experience.

• Arrival time: The 10-course banquet (and it’s always 10 courses, fewer and you risk seeming cheap, more and you’re pompous) starts two hours after the time announced on the invitation. This is the prime manifestation of the Vietnamese "rubber clock." All Vietnamese know this. If the invitation says 6 pm, they show up at 7:45. It's the pale-faced American guests, who are always punctual, that will arrive at 5:59 to an empty restaurant, and will sit there wondering if those Vietnamese are holding out on them and having a pre-reception party somewhere.

• The audio experience: In all the dozens of Vietnamese wedding receptions I have been to in the past decade, only two had used classical musicians. The rest used pop/dance bands—and bad ones. The rule of thumb is: the worse they are, the louder they play—to mask their mistakes, no doubt. Coming home with your ears ringing is a ritual. So bring your ear plugs. As a matter of fact, bring a whole box of disposable ones. You’ll make a tidy profit at your table.

• The gifts: Vietnamese only give cash gifts (in the form of checks). It’s the one good thing about the Vietnamese wedding. It saves the guests the trouble of having to shop for presents, and the bride and groom the trouble of returning 9 of the 10 electric fans they will get. Now how those presents are presented is another matter. During a break in the ear-piercing music, the bride and groom, their parents, and entourage will visit each table. The parents or their representative will introduce the bride and groom, and one elected person at the table will stand up and give a little speech, bestowing best wishes on the couple. This person is usually the oldest person at the table, so unless you’re eager to give speeches, act young. This is also the perfect time to lie about your age. After this speech, guests at the table will hand over the wedding cards (with the checks inside) to one of the attendants in the entourage. The current rule of thumb for the gift amount is at least $50 per person in the guest party, more if you’re related or really close to the couple. This is one reason the Vietnamese wedding is almost always a positive cash-flow investment for the happy couple.

Jewelry Photographs

I recently photographed the amazing jewelry of Keren Barukh of Oakland, California.

The similarity to portrait photography is that the subject (in this case jewelry) must be lit to bring up its distinctive features. And, distracting elements (in this case clothing, face and hair) must be lit so that they add to the photo, rather than distract or detract from the jewelry.

In this case, Jillian is not just the model, but also a client of mine.







Another model was Courtney

Hiking With Dad - Retrospective

My father, Felix Khuner(1906-1991)


I took this photo in, I am guessing, 1968. I took this with my first real camera, a Canonet QL-17, that my father had brought back from Japan in 1968.

We were hiking in a National Park - I think it was Mt. Lassen - and my father stepped in a creek with his right foot. He stopped to dry his shoe, and I got this shot.

I was a photojournalist forty years ago!

Vietnamese Wedding Traditions

On the morning of a wedding in Vietnam, the groom's mother visits the bride's family and offers them two gifts. The first is a special plant, that represents respect, and the second is pink chalk, which is the color of happiness.

On his wedding day, as the groom heads to collect his bride, he picks up friends and family along his way. They arrive at his future wife's house bearing wedding presents of jewelry, clothing and money.

from
http://www.worldweddingtraditions.com

Flowers Brides Often Choose

If you are newly engaged and planning wedding details such as silk wedding flowers and unique reception centerpieces then you must read this article. This can be a wonderful, exciting, and challenging time. Like brides to be, you will want everything to be perfect. When planning your wedding you will find it to be a major undertaking.

The process is like another full time job. Brides have many decisions to make. These can be big things to small things. Brides have a budget to consider or their family will. All of this with a time line to get everything done! For brides this is not an easy task. In this article I have simplified the process of selecting flowers. This includes choosing your bouquet style and choosing table centerpieces as well as gifts for the special family and friends.

I have found that brides are requesting more colorful and large bouquets. These range in styles from tussie mussies, to hand-tied bouquets. It is up to the individual taste and creativity the brides want.
Bouquet accessories have become more popular. These can range from clear and colored Swarovski crystal embellishments to semi-precious jewels. I have found more brides are requesting that designers incorporate special family keepsakes like fabrics, heirloom jewels, and other important things into the bridal bouquet.

Brides are choosing bridesmaid bouquets smaller than normal. They in turn are putting their money into their own bouquet. Some brides choose silk flowers as different flowers can be made in similar shades of the primary bridal color. Currently brides are taking the colors from the bridal bouquet and adding them into the reception. Some brides are choosing large party drinks in complementary colors. Or they may choose exotics like single orchids, single bird-of-paradise, and other interesting flowers in set in clear water.

There are more and more brides are giving the reception centerpieces to family and friends as gifts. Many will choose silk flowers because this way the people closest to you will have that keepsake for many years. Here are some flowers that brides are currently choosing for their bridal bouquet:

Miniature Calla Lilies. These come in a multitude of different colors. Orchids. These can range from the exotic to the trendy Hydrangeas. These are a beautiful choice in a few different colors. Roses. These flowers are always a great traditional standby. Lilies. These are less traditional than roses can be combined nicely with non-traditional florals. Gerber daisies. These come in bright colors but are usually only seasonal.

By Victor Epand

What Will You Be Doing on Your 95th Birthday?

Will you be teaching a dance class?



My mom was teaching her regular Thursday class as the Senior Center (not at the Senior Edge, I guess?). Because her class was celebrating her 95th birthday, she asked me to come by and take a group photo.

They had a cake for her



Happy 95, Mom! - Like she'll ever read my blog.

My Mom at Eighteen

My Mom's High School Graduation Photo


I did not take this photo. I am guessing that the person who took this photo isn't around anymore. But look at the gift the photographer gave us.

Photographs are our gift - the photographer's and the subject's - to people in the future.

You may think you are just hiring a wedding photographer or some photographer to do your family portrait. In the best of all worlds, you choose a person who will create images that will tell your children and grandchildren who you were way back then. How did you feel? Who was close to you?

"Thankyou Mr./Miss photographer of 1931 who took this photo."

Choosing a Diamond

A Well-Proportioned Cut is Preferred to One That is Too Shallow or Too Deep

When choosing the diamond (or diamonds) you want for your engagement or wedding rings, there are a few factors you should keep in mind.

These are what jewelers call the 4 C’s of diamonds: Color, Cut, Clarity and Carat Weight.

The cut of the diamond refers not only to the shape of the diamond in your wedding ring, such as round, square or oval cut shapes, but to the depth of the diamond’s cut as well.

Diamonds of the same shape and carat weight can appear larger or smaller depending on the depth of the diamond’s cut.

Your diamond should reflect just the right amount of light to enhance its brilliance. Clarity refers to the number and placement of small natural defects within your wedding ring diamond. These natural defects are called inclusions. Inclusions keep the light from reflecting against the facets and can diminish the diamond’s brilliance. Where inclusions are located within your wedding ring diamond will determine to what degree the brilliance is affected.

Carat weight is the actual weight of the diamond, not its measured size.

D is Colorless - The Most Expensive Grade
Diamonds come in many different color hues and are graded from D to Z. The color differences are subtle and are graded in labs under specific conditions. When you choose a diamond, you may also want to consider getting a diamond certification, which is often required if you plan to insure your diamond.

A certified gemologist at an independent lab prepares a diamond certification, also called a diamond grading report. The report describes all of the physical characteristics of your diamond as well as the size and placement of any flaws. It is not an appraisal.

Why You Should Not Buy a Diamond Without Certification:

1. A diamond certificate gives you the exact details of the stone you are considering. Knowing the exact features of the diamond will allow you to do comparison-shopping before making the purchase.

2. With a diamond certificate, there are no worries about overpayment. A diamond’s certificate allows you to make an informed choice on the stone based on its true qualities. In case you sell your diamond at some time, you will have the necessary documents to authenticate its value. Selling diamond jewelry, for a fair price without a certificate, is nearly impossible.

3. You can insure your diamonds. To insure your diamond jewelry, the certificate will be required. Replica diamonds are abundant and appear to be authentic so proof is necessary in order to purchase insurance.

Choosing a Diamond

A Well-Proportioned Cut is Preferred to One That is Too Shallow or Too Deep

When choosing the diamond (or diamonds) you want for your engagement or wedding rings, there are a few factors you should keep in mind.

These are what jewelers call the 4 C’s of diamonds: Color, Cut, Clarity and Carat Weight.

The cut of the diamond refers not only to the shape of the diamond in your wedding ring, such as round, square or oval cut shapes, but to the depth of the diamond’s cut as well.

Diamonds of the same shape and carat weight can appear larger or smaller depending on the depth of the diamond’s cut.

Your diamond should reflect just the right amount of light to enhance its brilliance. Clarity refers to the number and placement of small natural defects within your wedding ring diamond. These natural defects are called inclusions. Inclusions keep the light from reflecting against the facets and can diminish the diamond’s brilliance. Where inclusions are located within your wedding ring diamond will determine to what degree the brilliance is affected.

Carat weight is the actual weight of the diamond, not its measured size.

D is Colorless - The Most Expensive Grade
Diamonds come in many different color hues and are graded from D to Z. The color differences are subtle and are graded in labs under specific conditions. When you choose a diamond, you may also want to consider getting a diamond certification, which is often required if you plan to insure your diamond.

A certified gemologist at an independent lab prepares a diamond certification, also called a diamond grading report. The report describes all of the physical characteristics of your diamond as well as the size and placement of any flaws. It is not an appraisal.

Why You Should Not Buy a Diamond Without Certification:

1. A diamond certificate gives you the exact details of the stone you are considering. Knowing the exact features of the diamond will allow you to do comparison-shopping before making the purchase.

2. With a diamond certificate, there are no worries about overpayment. A diamond’s certificate allows you to make an informed choice on the stone based on its true qualities. In case you sell your diamond at some time, you will have the necessary documents to authenticate its value. Selling diamond jewelry, for a fair price without a certificate, is nearly impossible.

3. You can insure your diamonds. To insure your diamond jewelry, the certificate will be required. Replica diamonds are abundant and appear to be authentic so proof is necessary in order to purchase insurance.

Wedding Gown I

Cleaning Synthetic Diamonds

Keep Your CZ Jewelry Sparkling Like Diamonds

Cleaning cubic zirconia jewelry is much easier than you think. So take advantage of these simple tips that will keep your cubic zircon jewelry sparkling and lustrous and enjoy them for years to come.

Like natural diamonds, cubic zirconia needs to be cared for and cleaned periodically to maintain their appearance. Many variables can dull their shine: body lotion, perfume, hairspray, perspiration, or just simply, normal everyday wear.

Lotion and soap film are some of the more difficult materials to remove. Just a little of any of these on your cubic stone will take away much of its visual appeal. So it’s vital to keep your cubic clean to maintain its sparkling diamond “look-a-like” appeal.

A convenient way to clean your cubic zircon jewelry is to use a small brush with soft bristles, along with warm to hot water, mixed with a mild liquid dishwashing detergent.

Brush your cubic jewelry softly to remove scum build-up. As cubic zirconium is quickly becoming more popular as a desirable substitute for diamond, it’s important to care for it properly. Jewelers can agree that cubic zirconium comes closer than any other material to matching the visual appeal of a natural diamond.

One of the most basic rules of jewelry care is to apply all lotions, make-up, hair spray, etc. first, before you put on your jewelry. To minimize scratches and other damage, store your jewelry either in a cloth pouch or in a separate compartment in your jewelry box.

Now that you know how easy it is to care for your cubic zirconium, be sure to clean your cubic zirconium jewelry regularly—depending on how often you wear it; if you wear it everyday, cleaning it once a week is sufficient.

Follow these simple tips on cleaning cubic zirconium and you can be certain your cubic jewelry will maintain its shine for years to come.

Cleaning Synthetic Diamonds

Keep Your CZ Jewelry Sparkling Like Diamonds

Cleaning cubic zirconia jewelry is much easier than you think. So take advantage of these simple tips that will keep your cubic zircon jewelry sparkling and lustrous and enjoy them for years to come.

Like natural diamonds, cubic zirconia needs to be cared for and cleaned periodically to maintain their appearance. Many variables can dull their shine: body lotion, perfume, hairspray, perspiration, or just simply, normal everyday wear.

Lotion and soap film are some of the more difficult materials to remove. Just a little of any of these on your cubic stone will take away much of its visual appeal. So it’s vital to keep your cubic clean to maintain its sparkling diamond “look-a-like” appeal.

A convenient way to clean your cubic zircon jewelry is to use a small brush with soft bristles, along with warm to hot water, mixed with a mild liquid dishwashing detergent.

Brush your cubic jewelry softly to remove scum build-up. As cubic zirconium is quickly becoming more popular as a desirable substitute for diamond, it’s important to care for it properly. Jewelers can agree that cubic zirconium comes closer than any other material to matching the visual appeal of a natural diamond.

One of the most basic rules of jewelry care is to apply all lotions, make-up, hair spray, etc. first, before you put on your jewelry. To minimize scratches and other damage, store your jewelry either in a cloth pouch or in a separate compartment in your jewelry box.

Now that you know how easy it is to care for your cubic zirconium, be sure to clean your cubic zirconium jewelry regularly—depending on how often you wear it; if you wear it everyday, cleaning it once a week is sufficient.

Follow these simple tips on cleaning cubic zirconium and you can be certain your cubic jewelry will maintain its shine for years to come.

I want to be Nadia Boulanger

I don't even know who Nadia Boulanger is, but I LOVE the name.

Sandals

My mom is a name dropper. She used to tell this story about my older brother's footwear, and how we were so ahead of the times:


"Remember when Jonathan wore sandals, and that was before everyone else was wearing sandals. He was the first. He did it before everyone else wore sandals."


An impressionable youth, six years younger than Jonathan, hearing my mom tell that story many times, I really believed what she was saying. And I felt pride. I would see a guy wearing sandals and I would think, "Oh, but my brother, my family, was the first." [I am not sure if I really think with commas, but using commas makes me feel important.]


This year my wife and I are working on this problem. I want to have conversations without my mentioning that I was the first to do something or that I or my family has a connection to a famous person.


We have come up with a technique: Whenever I mention some connection I have with a famous person, she or I say, "Sandals."


Don't we all know that Pride is a sin? Don't we all know that murder and Pride are not good? It ain't the latest self-help fad, buddy.


It's not that it's a sin, but that it is alienating, it breaks the connection that conversations are, ideally, supposed to create and strengthen. And, it alienates me from myself. When I mention my connection that elevates me, I am not as present. I am less my authentic self, and just a jerk compensating (failing to compensate) for my inadequacies.


Connecting with others feels good. It's the opposite of alienation. When I don't feel connected, name dropping makes it worse, not better.

Help me Stop NameDropping

Just to make sure we are all on the same page: name dropping is mentioning a well-known name in conversation. For example, "I remember when Barack, back when we called him Barry, and I were teenagers and used to get together on Sundays and look for typos in the NY Times."

Or, "Ah, the Prius. You know, back in '62, we were the first ones on the west coast to have a car that didn't use gasoline - it ran on orange peels and shredded clothing. We were the first."

In a word: Pride. The sin of pride. Trying to alleviate anxiety and alienation by self-aggrandizement. I am guilty, extremely guilty.

I don't like myself when I do it, yet it has been a staple of my life. I even namedrop in my own inner monologue (dialog?).

My wife Anne is the opposite. She is humble, self-effacing, a goddamn saint, if you ask me, and her modesty makes it easier to hang out with her - she's not trying to prove how special she is all the time.

In the past few months, we have been working together to stop my namedropping.

Will you help me too?

Much thanks.

ps: note to blogspot.com - Please update spellcheck. Barack is the correct spelling of our next president - ONE R.

Diamonds & Scams

When Buying Diamonds Be Aware of Frauds & Schemes

Most scams are minor, but there are some major ones that come up from time to time concerning the buying and selling of diamonds. With all of the potential for scams concerning diamonds, buying diamonds online seems unthinkable. However, you actually can purchase diamonds online without any problems, as long as you are careful.

Due to low overhead costs, online jewelers are able to offer you a lower price. However, you must be careful – sometimes a price that is too low is a sure indication of a potential scam.

One of the best things about purchasing online is the convenience in selection. Before shopping, learn as much as you can about diamonds – especially cut, color, clarity and carat weights - The 4 Cs of Diamonds.

Take Your Time & Save Money by Buying Diamonds Online
Don’t purchase the first diamond you see that interests you. Instead, look for similar diamonds for sale. Do some comparison-shopping to find the lowest and best prices. Once you have found the lowest price, start doing your research.

Investigate the seller’s credentials and qualifications, such as professional jewelry associations that they belong to. View and print the seller’s return, refund, and upgrade policies.

Also inquire about additional services, such as settings and mountings, sizing, and free shipping.

Do a search for customer reviews on this particular company around the web. Also check with the BBB Online to see if there have been any complaints. Ask for a diamond grading report from an independent laboratory such as GIA. You should see this before making a purchase.

Techniques To Make Any Stone Look Bigger Than It Truly Is:

Once you have the diamond you want, you can make it look better than it really is.

1. Consider buying a fancy shaped diamond. These diamonds usually look larger than ones of the same weight, especially elongated shapes such as the Marquise cut diamond.
2. Try a Pave Setting - this setting looks like a continuous surface of diamonds, but is really only made up of small diamond chips set along side each other, their surfaces nearly level with the setting. It’s illusory in that it makes you think the ring has a larger stone than it really does because of the reflection.
   
3. Another illusory setting is a Bezel Setting. The stone is embedded into the metal and a rim is formed to hold the diamond. White gold or platinum works best because these metals enhance the diamond making it appear to have a better quality.

Diamonds & Scams

When Buying Diamonds Be Aware of Frauds & Schemes

Most scams are minor, but there are some major ones that come up from time to time concerning the buying and selling of diamonds. With all of the potential for scams concerning diamonds, buying diamonds online seems unthinkable. However, you actually can purchase diamonds online without any problems, as long as you are careful.

Due to low overhead costs, online jewelers are able to offer you a lower price. However, you must be careful – sometimes a price that is too low is a sure indication of a potential scam.

One of the best things about purchasing online is the convenience in selection. Before shopping, learn as much as you can about diamonds – especially cut, color, clarity and carat weights - The 4 Cs of Diamonds.

Take Your Time & Save Money by Buying Diamonds Online
Don’t purchase the first diamond you see that interests you. Instead, look for similar diamonds for sale. Do some comparison-shopping to find the lowest and best prices. Once you have found the lowest price, start doing your research.

Investigate the seller’s credentials and qualifications, such as professional jewelry associations that they belong to. View and print the seller’s return, refund, and upgrade policies.

Also inquire about additional services, such as settings and mountings, sizing, and free shipping.

Do a search for customer reviews on this particular company around the web. Also check with the BBB Online to see if there have been any complaints. Ask for a diamond grading report from an independent laboratory such as GIA. You should see this before making a purchase.

Techniques To Make Any Stone Look Bigger Than It Truly Is:

Once you have the diamond you want, you can make it look better than it really is.

1. Consider buying a fancy shaped diamond. These diamonds usually look larger than ones of the same weight, especially elongated shapes such as the Marquise cut diamond.
2. Try a Pave Setting - this setting looks like a continuous surface of diamonds, but is really only made up of small diamond chips set along side each other, their surfaces nearly level with the setting. It’s illusory in that it makes you think the ring has a larger stone than it really does because of the reflection.
   
3. Another illusory setting is a Bezel Setting. The stone is embedded into the metal and a rim is formed to hold the diamond. White gold or platinum works best because these metals enhance the diamond making it appear to have a better quality.

Useful Information About Diamonds

As poetry, this early seventeenth century quatrain lacks merit, but as a capsule summary of diamond fever, it has no equal:

Your wife and children sell, sell what you have,
Spare not your clothes, nay, make yourself a slave,
But money get, then to Currure make haste
There search the mines, a prize you’ll find at last.

The poem was written by a Portuguese business man who around 1610 went to mine diamonds in India, then the world’s main source for this gem. From among India’s many diamond deposits, he chose one at Currure. After spending an amount equal to 45,000 British pounds sterling in his search without finding a single stone, the prospector sold his clothes and belongings to keep the venture going.

Penniless, the Portuguese vowed that if by the end of his workers’ next pay day his luck hadn’t changed, he would poison himself. Luckily, a 437.40-carat rough was found on the very day he planned to take his life. To celebrate his deliverance, the miner wrote the poem quoted above and had it inscribed for posterity on a stone tablet.

What fired this all-or-nothing quest for diamonds?

The answer can be found in the annals of another European diamond hunter who went to India three decades later: French jeweler Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, who made the first of six journeys to India in 1641. Besides its many diamond mines, India boasted the greatest royal collections of pearls and precious stones every assembled. The merchant hoped to become as important a jeweler to the courts of India as he had the courts of Europe.

In his famous book, “Travels in India,” first published in 1676, Tavernier describes the many fabulous gems he bought, sold or was shown, reserving his highest praise for the diamond. “The diamond is the most precious of all stones, and it is the article of trade to which I am most devoted,” he wrote. Although his name is mostly linked with many famous fancy color diamonds, one of them the French Blue (later called the Hope Diamond), Tavernier preferred the finest white diamonds above all others.

Until he voyaged to Asia, Tavernier may have thought that his preference for colorless diamonds was purely European. But once in India, Persia and Borneo, where white diamonds enjoyed the same supremacy of regard, he quickly learned that his tastes were universal. Today, of course, the diamond is the backbone of jewelry sales throughout the world. Yet the fact that colorless (and near-colorless) diamonds have held their present-day standing for hundreds, possibly thousands, of years may come as a shock to those who attribute their preeminence solely to the machinations of the De Beers cartel.

Before Forever

Undoubtedly, the De Beers cartel, formed in 1888 as a response to the overabundance of South African diamonds, has contributed mightily to the diamond’s hegemony. Nonetheless, for its first 50 years, the cartel occupied itself with supply-side issues, focusing on market control and price stability. It wasn’t until 1939 that future De Beers Chairman Harry Oppenheimer, a staunch believer in the power of advertising, paid a historic visit to N.W. Ayer in New York to discuss a diamond campaign.

After World War II, De Beers began to pay serious attention to the demand side of the diamond market. Since the 1960s, it is safe to say that the jewelry industry has come to depend on the cartel more to stimulate demand than to regulate supply. Today, largely as a result of its multi-million dollar ad budgets, 40 cents of every dollar spent in jewelry stores by U.S. consumers is spent on diamonds, twice what is spent for all other gems combined. Given such dominance, it is hardly surprising that the popularity of diamonds is often seen as the byproduct of market manipulation. Take away the De Beers cartel, it is argued, and the diamond’s status will soon receded to that of just another gem.

A look at history and the diamond’s unique status suggests otherwise. At least 1,000 years before Tavernier’s arrival in India, the country’s sages considered colorless diamonds the pinnacle of gem perfection. Their reverence stemmed in large part from the white diamond’s “‘magical’ property of dividing white light into all the spectral colors,” writes precious stone dealer Benjamin Zucker in his

Connoisseur’s Guide to Gems and Jewelry.

The Indians’ esteem transcended aesthetics, Zucker writes. Indeed, when they developed what was probably the first color grading system for diamonds, they based it on the country’s ancient class structure. Until very recently, Indian society was comprised of four rigid hierarchical groups: Brahmins (rulers), Vaisyas (landowners), Sutras (merchants) and Kshatriyas (warriors). (A fifth group, the untouchables, had no rights.) Diamond color served as a badge of rank because each social group could only own diamonds with the color grade corresponding to it: colorless (D-G on the modern-day Gemological Institute of America color scale) for the Brahmins, lightly yellowish (H-K) for the Vaisya, noticeably yellowish (L-P) for the Sutra and brownish or blackish for the Kshatriya.

Unleashing Fire

What is most amazing about India’s reverence for colorless diamonds is that it precedes by at least a millennia the ability to facet these gems and unleash their brilliance and dispersion. Indian rulers simply wore unworked octahedronal roughs that were deemed of the finest purity and color. And since it was law that the finest roughs be offered to the rulers, the world outside India, says Zucker, saw relatively few top-grade diamonds until after 1000 A.D., despite active mining as far back as 78 B.C.

One can only imagine the reaction to the effulgence of light seen when somewhere around 1400, no one is sure whether in Asia or Europe, the point cut was discovered. By simply polishing the faces of an octahedronal rough, the diamond seemed to explode with brilliance.

A century or so later, cutters took two more giant steps toward realizing the incomparable light-handling capabilities of the diamond with the invention of both the table and rose cuts. But the jewelry world had to wait until around 1700 for the invention of the ultimate brandisher of light: the brilliant-cut diamond. Later known as, among other things, “old European cuts” and “old miners,” variously proportioned brilliants predominated in jewelry by 1750. Today the much refined modern brilliant cut remains the most popular diamond shape and the chief reminder to modern jewelry patrons of the diamond’s main aesthetic virtues: peerless purity and fire.

*The above information was originally published at the Modern Jeweler's website*

Useful Information About Diamonds

As poetry, this early seventeenth century quatrain lacks merit, but as a capsule summary of diamond fever, it has no equal:

Your wife and children sell, sell what you have,
Spare not your clothes, nay, make yourself a slave,
But money get, then to Currure make haste
There search the mines, a prize you’ll find at last.

The poem was written by a Portuguese business man who around 1610 went to mine diamonds in India, then the world’s main source for this gem. From among India’s many diamond deposits, he chose one at Currure. After spending an amount equal to 45,000 British pounds sterling in his search without finding a single stone, the prospector sold his clothes and belongings to keep the venture going.

Penniless, the Portuguese vowed that if by the end of his workers’ next pay day his luck hadn’t changed, he would poison himself. Luckily, a 437.40-carat rough was found on the very day he planned to take his life. To celebrate his deliverance, the miner wrote the poem quoted above and had it inscribed for posterity on a stone tablet.

What fired this all-or-nothing quest for diamonds?

The answer can be found in the annals of another European diamond hunter who went to India three decades later: French jeweler Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, who made the first of six journeys to India in 1641. Besides its many diamond mines, India boasted the greatest royal collections of pearls and precious stones every assembled. The merchant hoped to become as important a jeweler to the courts of India as he had the courts of Europe.

In his famous book, “Travels in India,” first published in 1676, Tavernier describes the many fabulous gems he bought, sold or was shown, reserving his highest praise for the diamond. “The diamond is the most precious of all stones, and it is the article of trade to which I am most devoted,” he wrote. Although his name is mostly linked with many famous fancy color diamonds, one of them the French Blue (later called the Hope Diamond), Tavernier preferred the finest white diamonds above all others.

Until he voyaged to Asia, Tavernier may have thought that his preference for colorless diamonds was purely European. But once in India, Persia and Borneo, where white diamonds enjoyed the same supremacy of regard, he quickly learned that his tastes were universal. Today, of course, the diamond is the backbone of jewelry sales throughout the world. Yet the fact that colorless (and near-colorless) diamonds have held their present-day standing for hundreds, possibly thousands, of years may come as a shock to those who attribute their preeminence solely to the machinations of the De Beers cartel.

Before Forever

Undoubtedly, the De Beers cartel, formed in 1888 as a response to the overabundance of South African diamonds, has contributed mightily to the diamond’s hegemony. Nonetheless, for its first 50 years, the cartel occupied itself with supply-side issues, focusing on market control and price stability. It wasn’t until 1939 that future De Beers Chairman Harry Oppenheimer, a staunch believer in the power of advertising, paid a historic visit to N.W. Ayer in New York to discuss a diamond campaign.

After World War II, De Beers began to pay serious attention to the demand side of the diamond market. Since the 1960s, it is safe to say that the jewelry industry has come to depend on the cartel more to stimulate demand than to regulate supply. Today, largely as a result of its multi-million dollar ad budgets, 40 cents of every dollar spent in jewelry stores by U.S. consumers is spent on diamonds, twice what is spent for all other gems combined. Given such dominance, it is hardly surprising that the popularity of diamonds is often seen as the byproduct of market manipulation. Take away the De Beers cartel, it is argued, and the diamond’s status will soon receded to that of just another gem.

A look at history and the diamond’s unique status suggests otherwise. At least 1,000 years before Tavernier’s arrival in India, the country’s sages considered colorless diamonds the pinnacle of gem perfection. Their reverence stemmed in large part from the white diamond’s “‘magical’ property of dividing white light into all the spectral colors,” writes precious stone dealer Benjamin Zucker in his

Connoisseur’s Guide to Gems and Jewelry.

The Indians’ esteem transcended aesthetics, Zucker writes. Indeed, when they developed what was probably the first color grading system for diamonds, they based it on the country’s ancient class structure. Until very recently, Indian society was comprised of four rigid hierarchical groups: Brahmins (rulers), Vaisyas (landowners), Sutras (merchants) and Kshatriyas (warriors). (A fifth group, the untouchables, had no rights.) Diamond color served as a badge of rank because each social group could only own diamonds with the color grade corresponding to it: colorless (D-G on the modern-day Gemological Institute of America color scale) for the Brahmins, lightly yellowish (H-K) for the Vaisya, noticeably yellowish (L-P) for the Sutra and brownish or blackish for the Kshatriya.

Unleashing Fire

What is most amazing about India’s reverence for colorless diamonds is that it precedes by at least a millennia the ability to facet these gems and unleash their brilliance and dispersion. Indian rulers simply wore unworked octahedronal roughs that were deemed of the finest purity and color. And since it was law that the finest roughs be offered to the rulers, the world outside India, says Zucker, saw relatively few top-grade diamonds until after 1000 A.D., despite active mining as far back as 78 B.C.

One can only imagine the reaction to the effulgence of light seen when somewhere around 1400, no one is sure whether in Asia or Europe, the point cut was discovered. By simply polishing the faces of an octahedronal rough, the diamond seemed to explode with brilliance.

A century or so later, cutters took two more giant steps toward realizing the incomparable light-handling capabilities of the diamond with the invention of both the table and rose cuts. But the jewelry world had to wait until around 1700 for the invention of the ultimate brandisher of light: the brilliant-cut diamond. Later known as, among other things, “old European cuts” and “old miners,” variously proportioned brilliants predominated in jewelry by 1750. Today the much refined modern brilliant cut remains the most popular diamond shape and the chief reminder to modern jewelry patrons of the diamond’s main aesthetic virtues: peerless purity and fire.

*The above information was originally published at the Modern Jeweler's website*

Useful Information About Diamonds

As poetry, this early seventeenth century quatrain lacks merit, but as a capsule summary of diamond fever, it has no equal:

Your wife and children sell, sell what you have,
Spare not your clothes, nay, make yourself a slave,
But money get, then to Currure make haste
There search the mines, a prize you’ll find at last.

The poem was written by a Portuguese business man who around 1610 went to mine diamonds in India, then the world’s main source for this gem. From among India’s many diamond deposits, he chose one at Currure. After spending an amount equal to 45,000 British pounds sterling in his search without finding a single stone, the prospector sold his clothes and belongings to keep the venture going.

Penniless, the Portuguese vowed that if by the end of his workers’ next pay day his luck hadn’t changed, he would poison himself. Luckily, a 437.40-carat rough was found on the very day he planned to take his life. To celebrate his deliverance, the miner wrote the poem quoted above and had it inscribed for posterity on a stone tablet.

What fired this all-or-nothing quest for diamonds?

The answer can be found in the annals of another European diamond hunter who went to India three decades later: French jeweler Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, who made the first of six journeys to India in 1641. Besides its many diamond mines, India boasted the greatest royal collections of pearls and precious stones every assembled. The merchant hoped to become as important a jeweler to the courts of India as he had the courts of Europe.

In his famous book, “Travels in India,” first published in 1676, Tavernier describes the many fabulous gems he bought, sold or was shown, reserving his highest praise for the diamond. “The diamond is the most precious of all stones, and it is the article of trade to which I am most devoted,” he wrote. Although his name is mostly linked with many famous fancy color diamonds, one of them the French Blue (later called the Hope Diamond), Tavernier preferred the finest white diamonds above all others.

Until he voyaged to Asia, Tavernier may have thought that his preference for colorless diamonds was purely European. But once in India, Persia and Borneo, where white diamonds enjoyed the same supremacy of regard, he quickly learned that his tastes were universal. Today, of course, the diamond is the backbone of jewelry sales throughout the world. Yet the fact that colorless (and near-colorless) diamonds have held their present-day standing for hundreds, possibly thousands, of years may come as a shock to those who attribute their preeminence solely to the machinations of the De Beers cartel.

Before Forever

Undoubtedly, the De Beers cartel, formed in 1888 as a response to the overabundance of South African diamonds, has contributed mightily to the diamond’s hegemony. Nonetheless, for its first 50 years, the cartel occupied itself with supply-side issues, focusing on market control and price stability. It wasn’t until 1939 that future De Beers Chairman Harry Oppenheimer, a staunch believer in the power of advertising, paid a historic visit to N.W. Ayer in New York to discuss a diamond campaign.

After World War II, De Beers began to pay serious attention to the demand side of the diamond market. Since the 1960s, it is safe to say that the jewelry industry has come to depend on the cartel more to stimulate demand than to regulate supply. Today, largely as a result of its multi-million dollar ad budgets, 40 cents of every dollar spent in jewelry stores by U.S. consumers is spent on diamonds, twice what is spent for all other gems combined. Given such dominance, it is hardly surprising that the popularity of diamonds is often seen as the byproduct of market manipulation. Take away the De Beers cartel, it is argued, and the diamond’s status will soon receded to that of just another gem.

A look at history and the diamond’s unique status suggests otherwise. At least 1,000 years before Tavernier’s arrival in India, the country’s sages considered colorless diamonds the pinnacle of gem perfection. Their reverence stemmed in large part from the white diamond’s “‘magical’ property of dividing white light into all the spectral colors,” writes precious stone dealer Benjamin Zucker in his

Connoisseur’s Guide to Gems and Jewelry.

The Indians’ esteem transcended aesthetics, Zucker writes. Indeed, when they developed what was probably the first color grading system for diamonds, they based it on the country’s ancient class structure. Until very recently, Indian society was comprised of four rigid hierarchical groups: Brahmins (rulers), Vaisyas (landowners), Sutras (merchants) and Kshatriyas (warriors). (A fifth group, the untouchables, had no rights.) Diamond color served as a badge of rank because each social group could only own diamonds with the color grade corresponding to it: colorless (D-G on the modern-day Gemological Institute of America color scale) for the Brahmins, lightly yellowish (H-K) for the Vaisya, noticeably yellowish (L-P) for the Sutra and brownish or blackish for the Kshatriya.

Unleashing Fire

What is most amazing about India’s reverence for colorless diamonds is that it precedes by at least a millennia the ability to facet these gems and unleash their brilliance and dispersion. Indian rulers simply wore unworked octahedronal roughs that were deemed of the finest purity and color. And since it was law that the finest roughs be offered to the rulers, the world outside India, says Zucker, saw relatively few top-grade diamonds until after 1000 A.D., despite active mining as far back as 78 B.C.

One can only imagine the reaction to the effulgence of light seen when somewhere around 1400, no one is sure whether in Asia or Europe, the point cut was discovered. By simply polishing the faces of an octahedronal rough, the diamond seemed to explode with brilliance.

A century or so later, cutters took two more giant steps toward realizing the incomparable light-handling capabilities of the diamond with the invention of both the table and rose cuts. But the jewelry world had to wait until around 1700 for the invention of the ultimate brandisher of light: the brilliant-cut diamond. Later known as, among other things, “old European cuts” and “old miners,” variously proportioned brilliants predominated in jewelry by 1750. Today the much refined modern brilliant cut remains the most popular diamond shape and the chief reminder to modern jewelry patrons of the diamond’s main aesthetic virtues: peerless purity and fire.

*The above information was originally published at the Modern Jeweler's website*

Useful Information About Diamonds

As poetry, this early seventeenth century quatrain lacks merit, but as a capsule summary of diamond fever, it has no equal:

Your wife and children sell, sell what you have,
Spare not your clothes, nay, make yourself a slave,
But money get, then to Currure make haste
There search the mines, a prize you’ll find at last.

The poem was written by a Portuguese business man who around 1610 went to mine diamonds in India, then the world’s main source for this gem. From among India’s many diamond deposits, he chose one at Currure. After spending an amount equal to 45,000 British pounds sterling in his search without finding a single stone, the prospector sold his clothes and belongings to keep the venture going.

Penniless, the Portuguese vowed that if by the end of his workers’ next pay day his luck hadn’t changed, he would poison himself. Luckily, a 437.40-carat rough was found on the very day he planned to take his life. To celebrate his deliverance, the miner wrote the poem quoted above and had it inscribed for posterity on a stone tablet.

What fired this all-or-nothing quest for diamonds?

The answer can be found in the annals of another European diamond hunter who went to India three decades later: French jeweler Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, who made the first of six journeys to India in 1641. Besides its many diamond mines, India boasted the greatest royal collections of pearls and precious stones every assembled. The merchant hoped to become as important a jeweler to the courts of India as he had the courts of Europe.

In his famous book, “Travels in India,” first published in 1676, Tavernier describes the many fabulous gems he bought, sold or was shown, reserving his highest praise for the diamond. “The diamond is the most precious of all stones, and it is the article of trade to which I am most devoted,” he wrote. Although his name is mostly linked with many famous fancy color diamonds, one of them the French Blue (later called the Hope Diamond), Tavernier preferred the finest white diamonds above all others.

Until he voyaged to Asia, Tavernier may have thought that his preference for colorless diamonds was purely European. But once in India, Persia and Borneo, where white diamonds enjoyed the same supremacy of regard, he quickly learned that his tastes were universal. Today, of course, the diamond is the backbone of jewelry sales throughout the world. Yet the fact that colorless (and near-colorless) diamonds have held their present-day standing for hundreds, possibly thousands, of years may come as a shock to those who attribute their preeminence solely to the machinations of the De Beers cartel.

Before Forever

Undoubtedly, the De Beers cartel, formed in 1888 as a response to the overabundance of South African diamonds, has contributed mightily to the diamond’s hegemony. Nonetheless, for its first 50 years, the cartel occupied itself with supply-side issues, focusing on market control and price stability. It wasn’t until 1939 that future De Beers Chairman Harry Oppenheimer, a staunch believer in the power of advertising, paid a historic visit to N.W. Ayer in New York to discuss a diamond campaign.

After World War II, De Beers began to pay serious attention to the demand side of the diamond market. Since the 1960s, it is safe to say that the jewelry industry has come to depend on the cartel more to stimulate demand than to regulate supply. Today, largely as a result of its multi-million dollar ad budgets, 40 cents of every dollar spent in jewelry stores by U.S. consumers is spent on diamonds, twice what is spent for all other gems combined. Given such dominance, it is hardly surprising that the popularity of diamonds is often seen as the byproduct of market manipulation. Take away the De Beers cartel, it is argued, and the diamond’s status will soon receded to that of just another gem.

A look at history and the diamond’s unique status suggests otherwise. At least 1,000 years before Tavernier’s arrival in India, the country’s sages considered colorless diamonds the pinnacle of gem perfection. Their reverence stemmed in large part from the white diamond’s “‘magical’ property of dividing white light into all the spectral colors,” writes precious stone dealer Benjamin Zucker in his

Connoisseur’s Guide to Gems and Jewelry.

The Indians’ esteem transcended aesthetics, Zucker writes. Indeed, when they developed what was probably the first color grading system for diamonds, they based it on the country’s ancient class structure. Until very recently, Indian society was comprised of four rigid hierarchical groups: Brahmins (rulers), Vaisyas (landowners), Sutras (merchants) and Kshatriyas (warriors). (A fifth group, the untouchables, had no rights.) Diamond color served as a badge of rank because each social group could only own diamonds with the color grade corresponding to it: colorless (D-G on the modern-day Gemological Institute of America color scale) for the Brahmins, lightly yellowish (H-K) for the Vaisya, noticeably yellowish (L-P) for the Sutra and brownish or blackish for the Kshatriya.

Unleashing Fire

What is most amazing about India’s reverence for colorless diamonds is that it precedes by at least a millennia the ability to facet these gems and unleash their brilliance and dispersion. Indian rulers simply wore unworked octahedronal roughs that were deemed of the finest purity and color. And since it was law that the finest roughs be offered to the rulers, the world outside India, says Zucker, saw relatively few top-grade diamonds until after 1000 A.D., despite active mining as far back as 78 B.C.

One can only imagine the reaction to the effulgence of light seen when somewhere around 1400, no one is sure whether in Asia or Europe, the point cut was discovered. By simply polishing the faces of an octahedronal rough, the diamond seemed to explode with brilliance.

A century or so later, cutters took two more giant steps toward realizing the incomparable light-handling capabilities of the diamond with the invention of both the table and rose cuts. But the jewelry world had to wait until around 1700 for the invention of the ultimate brandisher of light: the brilliant-cut diamond. Later known as, among other things, “old European cuts” and “old miners,” variously proportioned brilliants predominated in jewelry by 1750. Today the much refined modern brilliant cut remains the most popular diamond shape and the chief reminder to modern jewelry patrons of the diamond’s main aesthetic virtues: peerless purity and fire.

*The above information was originally published at the Modern Jeweler's website*