For generations, grooms-to-be have been faced with the daunting task of picking out the perfect engagement ring. Sometimes they got it right and sometimes they got it wrong. With the engagement ring being the second-highest-priced item of all the couple's wedding expenses (the venue is #1), grooms are now acknowledging that they could use a […]
Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you great, new songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the lyrics or title. Today, country star Russell Dickerson compares his love to a "band of solid gold" in 2020's "Love You Like I Used To," the lead single from his forthcoming album. When Dickerson delivers the […]
Diamonds and gold are strange bedfellows. They very rarely appear in the same rock, but when they do, their unlikely marriage can signal the presence of abundant riches. The unusual rock samples collected by University of Alberta researchers from an outcropping on the Arctic coast of Canada's Far North have close similarities to those found […]
Looking for a great holiday gift for the diamond lovers in your life? Check out the newly published Diamonds Across Time, a stunning 432-page coffee-table book that celebrates every aspect of history’s most coveted precious stone. Featuring 10 richly illustrated essays by world-renowned scholars who are united by their deep affection for diamonds, the book […]
A Maasai folktale imagines how tanzanite came to be. Once upon a time, the story goes, lightning struck the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro, scorching the land, and in the aftermath, a spectacular blue crystal was left shimmering in the ashes. In 1967, a Maasai tribesman named Jumanne Ngoma is credited with discovering the shockingly beautiful […]
During the thrilling season finale of Outback Opal Hunters, 21-year-old Sam Westra and his mentor Pete Cooke discovered a 45-carat double-faced black opal valued at AU$120,000 (about US$89,000). The "life-changing" find marked a 180-degree turn of fortune for the team that had suffered through a woeful three-month period of losing money in Australia's remote and […]
Ultra-rare fancy-colored diamonds in vivid shades of pink, blue, orange and red will headline Sotheby's Magnificent Jewels auction in New York on December 9. All eyes will be focused on Lot 75, a colorful ring set with a rectangular mixed-cut 5.03-carat fancy vivid pink diamond flanked by two cut-cornered triangular fancy intense blue diamonds weighing […]
While couples are spending less on elaborate weddings and honeymoons due to the pandemic, they are spending more than ever on the perfect diamond engagement ring — often upgrading in color, cut and clarity, rather than size. That was the key finding from the De Beers Group's latest Diamond Insight "Flash" Report, which has been […]
Imagine 640 African elephants balancing on the tip of a ballet shoe. That was the amount of pressure scientists needed to transform carbon into diamonds — at room temperature. The scientists defied nature by taking heat out of the equation of how diamonds are formed. “Natural diamonds are usually formed over billions of years, about […]
The golden-orange Imperial Topaz is the most highly prized variety of November's birthstone. Originally mined exclusively in Russia’s Ural Mountains during the 19th century, the intense orange crystals were so valuable that they earned the designation Imperial Topaz to honor the Russian czar. What's more, only royals were allowed to own it. Flash forward to […]