Renowned jewelry designer to the stars, Simon G was asked by producers of The Ellen Show to design a ring for their 12 Days of Giveaways holiday special. The gorgeous diamond ring seen in the image above, features 14k white gold encrusted in black and white round brilliant cut diamonds in a signature Simon G striped design. It is valued at approximately $760 and is a limited design available exclusively to Ellen Degeneres’s audience members only. For those who missed today’s episode(Day 4 of 12 Days of Giveaways), watch the audience scream in excitement as she announces the gift in the clip below:
Firenze Jewels, Inc. is an authorized Simon G Retailer. If you were an audience member who attended The Ellen Show’s 12 Days of Giveaways holiday special and would like to redeem your gift certificate, please contact a Firenze Jewels jewelry specialist.
Attesting to a growing demand of rare gems being bought for investment purposes, a world record was smashed when one was sold for 45.4 million francs ($46 million) at auction in Geneva this week. Laurence Graff won the bid for a 24.78-carat rare pink emerald cut diamond surpassing initial expectations of $27 million to $38 million dollars. “This is the highest price ever bid for a jewel at auction,” said David Bennett, the head of Sotheby’s European and the Middle Eastern jewelry departments. “Everybody was surprised it went that high,” Mart van Drunen, a jeweler from Amsterdam, commented after the sale.
The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) has classified the diamond as “Fancy Intense Pink”. Sold by a private collector, this marks the first time the gem was put on the market in 60 years. “What makes it so immensely rare is the combination of its exceptional color and purity with the classic emerald-cut,” said chairman David Bennett. “It’s a style of cutting normally associated with white diamonds and one that is so highly sought-after when found in rare colors such as pink and blue,” he added.
Graff immediately renamed the gem the “The Graff Pink”. “It is the most fabulous diamond I’ve seen in the history of my career and I’m delighted to have bought it,” he said in a statement issued by Sotheby’s. The jewelry auction raised a record 103 million francs.
Congratulations to Prince William on his engagement to Kate Middleton! Honoring his late mother, The Prince recently announced the engagement ring he gave his new fiancé Kate Middleton was the same one Prince Charles once gave to Princess Diana. “I’d been carrying it around with me on my right side for about three weeks…” Prince William said in an interview with CNN. “I literally would not let it go. Everywhere I went I was keeping hold of it because I knew if this thing disappeared, I’d be in a lot of trouble. You hear a lot of horror stories about proposing and things go horribly wrong, but it went really, really well.”
The exquisite 18 carat diamond and blue sapphire engagement ring features an oval cut center surrounded by 14 brilliant cut white diamonds in a cluster setting. The sapphire alone is worth approximately $300,000 and the ring total is worth $500,000 retail. Sapphires are rarer than diamonds, but less expensive because the demand is lower. With blue sapphires all the rage once again, here’s a selection of our favorite diamond rings featuring an oval cut center that would make for a unique engagement ring:
In this behind the scenes video tour, fine jewelry designer Simon G describes how their heirloom quality pieces are created and the lengthy process in which they go through before reaching the hands of a customer. Starting off with just a rough sketch whether it is a ring, earring, bracelet or pendant, the idea is then followed by dozens of other sketches until a final design is approved. Bringing the sketch into a 3D format, a Computer Aided Design (CAD) model is used to examine every aspect of the design. During this phase is where countless hours are spent reviewing every detail ranging from the stones to the settings until a final consensus is reached.
As the piece transitions from an idea to reality, Simon G maintains 10 quality control stations, one after each phase of manufacturing. In order to achieve their signature look, they alloy their own metals, working in platinum and palladium or platinum and iridium for enhanced durability. When working with white gold, a piece is alloyed with palladium to enhance the longevity of the color and minimize the allergy to white gold. They find these methods are also ideal for intricate bead-work, filigree and engraving.
Once the ring is cast, and the diamonds are chosen, one of the most difficult parts of the job involves uniting the two together. All diamonds no matter how big or small are hand set under a microscope by a master jeweler. This ensures quality, security as well as that even the smallest of micro-pave diamonds brilliantly reflect the most amount of light. Simon G maintains a host of specialists within their specialists. Some diamond setters work on channel-settings only, others on pave-settings and others focus on the prongs.
After the piece is complete, it makes its way through quality control and polished by hand once again. It is then laser engraved with a unique serial number and a Simon G. signature. “I’m extremely picky” says Simon G. Before the pieces are finally shipped out, they are examined under a 15X microscope at an additional 2 quality control stations. While the process may seem lengthy and tedious, this all ensures the highest quality hand-crafted piece is delivered with its own unique look and feel.
The Wittlesbach-Graff Diamond was finally unveiled at the American Museum of Natural History. In a category known as Type IIb, this type of diamond is believed to make up less than half of one percent of all diamonds found in nature, putting the Wittlesbach-Graff alongside very rare company such as the 70.21-carat Idol’s Eye and the 45.52-carat Hope Diamond. These types of stones get their distinctive blue hue from the absence of nitrogen and presence of boron. They are also semiconductors, which is another unusual trait.
Did anyone catch Sunday’s episode of Brothers and Sisters? Luc (Giles Marini) proposed to Sarah (Rachel Griffiths) with an exquisite Simon G engagement ring (model LP1239)! Concerned about the distance between her and Luc, Sarah has become convinced that Luc was cheating on her. However, when Luc returns home, he proved his devotion to their relationship when he pulled out this stunning diamond engagement ring and proposed seen here: Product #2160 http://www.firenzejewels.com/simon-g-diamond-antique-style-platinum-engagement-ring-setting_2160.html
View the unexpected moment in the video clip below:
This Thursday October 28th, the exquisite and rare blue 31.06 carat Wittlesbach-Graff Diamond is set to be displayed to the public at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Admired for its size, color and remarkable history, the original Fancy Deep Grayish Blue diamond with VS2 clarity included past owners such as King Philip IV of Spain who used the gemstone as part of a dowry for his teenage daughter, Margaret Teresa, in 1664. Since then, it has gone through the hands of several royal families and millionaires before being sold to a private owner in 1964. The diamond resurfaced once again in 2008 where billionaire diamond dealer, Lawrence Graff purchased the stone during a record smashing auction for approximately $23.4 million. For diamonds and gemstones, this was the highest price paid at auction for one at the time.
Experts theorized for a long time whether the diamond was cut from the same stone as the Hope Diamond. Recent examinations however, have suggested this is unlikely. The original Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond was 35.56 carats after being cut and polished. However, in January 2010, Graff decided to re-cut the gem to enhance the stone’s color and clarity, resulting in a 4.45 carat loss as well as a cloud of heavy public criticism. “That stone has a pedigree that is incomparable,” Daniela Mascetti, a senior global specialist in jewelry at Sotheby’s said to the New York Times “The Wittlesback blue, you knew how it came into existence and in a rather exciting way…It is a shame to have altered what has been preserved for so many years.”
Graff responded to criticism by comparing his restoration to what is occasionally done in the art world. “If you discovered a Leonardo da Vinci with a tear in it and covered in mud, you would want to repair it. We have similarly cleaned up the diamond and repaired damage caused over the years,” Graff told BBC News in January 2010. “I decided that to create beauty, or acts of beauty, is not a sin,” Graff said. “All we did was remove the blemishes and now it’s true perfection.”, he added.
The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) evaluated the diamond after being re-cut and graded the clarity as Internally Flawless or IF(improved from Very Slightly Included or VS1) and color as Fancy Deep Blue(amended from Fancy Deep Grayish Blue). The diamond is “the largest Flawless or Internally Flawless, Fancy Deep Blue, Natural Color we have graded to date.”, says a G.I.A. spokesperson. The stone will be displayed at the American Museum of Natural History Harry Frank Guggenheim Hall of Minerals, through January 2, 2011.
Here’s a video of the diamond making an appearance on the TODAY show.
Anticipating trends is what the fashion industry is all about. It comes as no surprise that jewelry designer powerhouse Le Vian just weighed in on their predictions with a 2011 Jewelry Trend Forecast report. Renowned for their collection of sumptuous chocolate diamonds, the designer included wardrobe staples in their list such as earth tones and sheer metallics along with snakes, equestrian and wild animal themes. Among their predictions were also carved gems and vibrant stones of pink, blue and purples hues. They predict rhodium plated jewelry to continue to dominate the industry as well. What are your thoughts on some of the designer jewelry pieces below?
Bracelets