Dainty Diamonds of Rare Colors are Expected at Geneva Auction

Such big-name auctions as Sotheby's and Christie's that take place in Hong Kong, New York, Geneva and other places always have some special lots on offer. They are rare pieces of art among which are fancy colored diamonds. Tomorrow some of them – daffodil yellow and sky blue diamonds – are going to shine in Geneva.

Huge Graff Vivid Yellow Diamond weighing 100.09 carats is announced as a star of the event. It was cut by Laurence Graff , the London-based top jeweler. But this is not only the size that gives a stone a status of extremely rare, but a deep daffodil color that is full or life and charm. The experts say this cushion-shaped yellow giant is going to fetch from $15 to $25 million.

Koi Diamond: When Perfection Doesn't Matter

Diamond is always a symbol of purity, longevity, beauty and perfection. The last characteristic can't be applied to the Koi Diamond for sure. Yet in this case Koi's imperfection turns it into a unique, absolutely exclusive diamond.

The Koi Diamond was named after a Japanese Koi fish, an ornamental white-and-orange carp. This is a 32-carat diamond with unusual mix of colors: white that is spotted with big orange blotches, yellowish, blue and even black spots. The diamond was mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2003 of a larger size than it is now – 60 carat. In five years it was cut into a pear-shaped diamond in Antwerp where it is stored so far.

A unique stone demands special treatment that is why Tom Moses, the senior vice president of the Gemological Institute of America, invited Eddy Elzas, the famed Belgian colored diamond specialist, to give consultations on grading the Koi diamond.

Celebrated Yellow Diamond Engagement Ring — the One on Kelly Clarkson's Ring Finger

 

“Oh, I can't believe it's happening to me. Some people wait a lifetime, for a moment like this” the words from her own song fits the occasion just perfectly – Brandon Blackstock got down on his knee to propose Kelly.

Now Kelly Clarkson seems to swell the ranks of celebrated brides wearing fancy colored diamond engagement rings. Her sparkler is a yellow canary cushion shaped diamond surrounded by small colorless diamonds. Either being too happy or trying to satisfy curiosity of myriads of her fans, the singer took a close up picture of her beautiful ring and shared it on Twitter.

Some words about the bridegroom: Brandon Blackstock is the son of Kelly Clarkson manager, Narvel Blackstock. A couple dated for 10 months, the time sufficient for Brandon to realize that he has found the love of his life. To make a special ring for his chosen one, the groom-to-be designed it with Jonathan Arndt, a talented fine jewelry designer who also created a number of diamond jewelry pieces for http://cultured-diamond.blogspot.com/2011/02/carrie-underwood-dazzled-with-yellow.htmlCarrie Underwood, who by the way has yellow diamond engagement ring, too!

The singer is so happy with her ring that they are going to ask Jonathan Arndt again to make a ring for Brandon.

Yellow Diamonds To Cheer Up Your Spirits

Time flies, fashion and trends changes but there is one thing that unchangeable – love for diamonds. What is more, this love has not boundaries: from poor to rich, young and old, men and women all over the world – various categories of people are charmed by diamond luster. But now these are all shades of yellow that managed to win even the toughest heart – yes, the yellow diamonds rule today!

Canary yellow diamonds are in abundance in collections of such high-end jewelers as Cartier, Bulgari, and Van Cleef & Arpels. Fueled by celebrities and rarity, they seem to go far beyond the bounds of Paris. Over the past few years De Beers jewelers have noticed strong interest in fancy colored diamonds, in yellow in particular. Actually, the trend for colored gems was started about 50 years ago, when the iconic blond girl Marline Monroe used to dazzle with diamonds. But this was HeidiKlum who revived the interest for yellow diamonds after she had been spotted with yellow diamond engagement ring. Later she gave up the baton to Jennifer Lopez, Carrie Underwood, Rebecca Romijn and other stars. Hey, but apart from jewellery, yellow diamonds seem to penetrate every sphere of life including music (“Yellow diamonds in the light” by Rihanna) and perfumery (“Yellow Diamonds” by Versace).

The range of yellow shades is impressive: from pale yellowish, to lemony yellow and deep orange. Alongside the hues, yellows also varies in price. Lighter gems can sell cheaper while vivid yellow will demand a fortune for the right to possess it. Yellow diamonds of deep shades can have additional hues such as green, pink or blue, but this only makes a stone unique and thought-after, consequently more costly. While the price for pale yellow may start from $6.500 it sky rockets to $40.000 and higher once there is a vivid gem. The highest price paid for yellow diamond at auction is $12.4 million given for the sun-drop diamond last November. Should we expect for a new wave of price increasing.

No Tricking, Only Treating on Halloween This Year!

Another Halloween is just around the corner full of sweets and orange with pumpkins. This is an unusual holiday with festive atmosphere, frightful costumes where some aim to scare while other to amuse, and of course 'trick or treat' game. Well, you can also get advantage of the game, too, which seems to always bring desired result only during this day – trick your loved one and make him treat you with an orange diamond to fit the occasion.

Diamonds of exotic colors are getting popular nowadays, especially with the color to correspond the occasion it is presented for. For example, blue diamond jewelry is a great option to mark such event as birth of a son, you can give it to your wife and she will never forget this occasion. Or red diamond ring that symbolize lust and passion can be a perfect present for wedding anniversary. So not hard to guess whey orange diamond would be a lovely present to Halloween.

Diamonds are long-lasting if not ever-lasting gems, so it means you will wear them not simply once a year when celebrating the day of All Saints, but for any occasion to complement your look. But as far as this is a holiday associated with pumpkin, yellow and orange diamonds are a perfect choice. However, these are not the gems of a low cost. Colored diamonds are rare and more expensive with yellow and orange included, but there is always a way out for budget-minded customers: lab created diamonds.

Whatever the diamonds is it can always melt your loved one's heart. Created diamonds are supposed to be minimum 20% less expensive than natural stones, but with fancy colored gems the price may differ greatly. So, if you decided to present your honey with a gem but is hesitating about its affordability, take a look at lab grown gems. You can either opt for an already made jewelry or buy loose gems in order to implement your wildest fantasies in life and then encrust it with diamonds. Pumpkin pendant is a nice gift idea and the thing you won't see every day, so why not to pamper a person you love with an exquisite present without exceeding the limits of your budget?

Deep Yellow Diamond to Open The Season at Christie's

Normally the majority of diamonds are colorless, of crystal purity, the one you usually see in wedding rings. But still there are the exceptions, which usually cost a pretty large sum of money: colored diamonds. Depending on the impurity that is found in diamond's structure, the gem acquires a certain color, in case of yellow diamond described below this is nitrogen that replaces the atoms of carbon.

A yellow pear-shaped 33-carat diamond is going to open the global jewelry auction season at Christie's at the October 18 in New York. There is a peculiar feature about this gem, the thing is it is of extremely saturated color, the one you can see in only one in 10 million diamonds. Though there will be more than 340 items at the auction, according to GIA (the Gemological Institute of America) this one is going to fetch the largest sum, about $8 million. While one can consider this price to be high, for real collectors of fine jewelry the price is not the case to stop them from purchasing a rare thing. It is clear, and such auctions as Christie's just prove this, that the demand for fine, unique jewelry is very strong. This is one of the reasons why colored man made diamonds are gaining popularity now. They can be of very deep colors but still less expensive. The only flaw of lab grown diamonds is that they can't be grown of very large size, for example as large as this 33-carat beauty. Hope this is only a matter of time.

Carrie Underwood Dazzled With Yellow Diamonds Again

Keeping in the theme of yellow diamonds and a country singer Carrie Underwood, there is one more fact that stands for Carrie's passion for yellow gems. To complement her stunning yellow diamond engagement ring at 2011 Golden Globe nominations, a singer adorned her hairdo with “One of a Kind Yellow Diamond Leaf” by Johnathon Arndt. The jewel consisted of 10 carats of white and fancy yellow diamonds mounted in 18 K white gold. Brilliant she was wearing such a hairpin, as well as her gorgeous bare-shoulder dress with a train.

What is more, a celebrity completed her yellow jaw-dropping ensemble with a pair of chandelier earrings from a renowned jewelry designer. The earrings are from Johnathon Arndt's new collection 2011. These are white diamond earrings set in white gold — a tiny drop to dilute her yellow outfit.

Carrie Underwood Gets Yellow Diamond Engagement Ring

The National Jeweler Network of the United States has recently published a story about a new fashionable yellow diamond ring. According to the news, it is a very precious engagement ring which was custom made for the engagement of the successful hockey player Mike Fisher of the Ottawa Senators team and a famous country singer Carrie Underwood.

The ring is decorated with a wonderful yellow diamond. Its design was invented by the Johnathon Arndt Gallery of Jewels. This institution got its fame when its owners and founding fathers, brothers Newman and Johnathon Arndt, entered into an alliance with the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music. Its masters are so highly appreciated that they have an honor of supplying jewels for the most fascinating international red-carpet events, such as the Oscars, the Grammys, etc. This jewelry company has been known as the one creating truly extraordinary pieces of art.

The Arndt jewelry company has been also known for their help to certain non-profit organizations for senior people and ill or deprived children, such as: Academy of Country Music Foundation, Dorough Lupus Foundation, Grammy MusiCares Foundation honoring Brian Wilson and James Taylor, Starlight Children's Foundation honoring Steven Spielberg, Society of Singers honoring Celine Dion and Sir Elton John, etc.

Jennifer Lopez and Her Love for Diamonds

American pop diva, actress and TV host Jennifer Lopez is the one who likes to show off her precious diamonds in limelight. One say her passion for dazzling colored gems started when Ben Affleck presented her a pink diamond engagement ring. Obviously, this was not the first diamond jewel J. Lo ever worn. The celebrity was pampered by all those Red Carpets events, which in time became very sought-after by public and were given the same status as fashion shows, where celebrities were considered to be models wearing chick dresses and fine jewelry.

It's hard to say what Jennifer's favourite color of diamonds is, but she definitely enjoys yellow ones. Wearing gorgeous black & gold decadent dress on the Golden Globe award in 2007, Jennifer Lopez complemented it with a big canary emerald-cut diamond ring priced at $2.000.000. She coupled it with a pair of crushed gold chandelier earrings with more than 10 carats of embedded yellow diamonds. She was absolutely adorable!

However, the jewelry worn for such events is usually rented. Known jewelry designers take an advantage of 'lending' diamonds to celebrities for the latter to advertise the gems and jewelers. But J. Lo still seems to have a wide collection of diamond jewelry at home, just to fit her multi color outfits. And of course there is a place for yellow diamonds. Her husband, Marc Antony, presented Jennifer an 8-carat canary yellow diamond ring after she gave birth to their twin babies. It is claimed a ring cost about $300.000 — a generous gift, don't you think?

Indeed, yellow diamonds can be of various shades from light lemon to deep brownish-yellow. They are awesome, so that Kate Winslet, who wore blue diamond while starring in “Titanic”, thus is usually taken as the lover of blues since that time, starts wearing yellows — she was seen in 50 carat yellow diamond bracelet and pear-shaped yellow diamond earrings. To make her look finished she put on 17 carat yellow-green diamond ring on her right finger.

Variants of Designs for Engagement Rings with Yellow Diamonds

Yellow diamonds are precious and exclusive stones, quite a “not-for-everybody” option which becomes more and more popular with well-off people today. And what is very pleasant, they are quite a rich material for jewelers. Recently, there has emerged a trend for making engagement rings with yellow diamonds. The possibilities for designers to create amazing and elegant jewelry with these stones, namely engagement rings, are truly limitless. Rings with yellow diamonds are bound to be original and extremely beautiful! You can not make a “common”, dull ring with a yellow diamond, indeed, because of the stone’s wonderful hue. Moreover, not every style suits these stones, and not every design can be appropriate for them. Those who want to have their engagement rings bestudded with yellow diamonds should be very careful when choosing their rings’ design. Exact hue and other characteristics of the stone should be considered in this case.

By the way, recently, many worldwide known celebrities have got interested in yellow diamonds. These stones have become really very fashionable, a “star trend”. Many celebrities jewelry styles include yellow diamonds, and particularly there exist some exclusive and precious celebrities engagement rings. You can choose to make a ring similar (though may be a pocket-friendly variant) to that of some famous couples.

For example, the engagement ring made to the order of Paris Hilton (reported to be one of the most precious diamond ring costing $5 million) is a wonderful fancy style ring, perhaps the most famous engagement ring using yellow diamonds. This is a wonderful 24-carat yellow diamond ring.

Other yellow diamond engagement rings that may inspire you when choosing a ring design, include rings of the famous musician Seal and top model Heidi Klum, talented actor Dennis Quaid, successful producer Rodney Jenkins and another top model Veronica Varekova.

Yellow diamonds are brilliant and exotically beautiful, but due to that they are extremely demanding – they won’t reveal their full splendor at some “any-old-how” surroundings. For example, yellow diamonds require certain appropriate cut and shape in order to properly reveal the distinctive, intense hue of the gem. Improper cut leads to adding undesirable opaqueness and diminishing wonderful natural sparkle and shine of the stone. It is also important to know that it is quite hard to find two comparatively big yellow gems with an exactly matching coloration. The so-called fancy colored (yellow, blue, pink etc.) diamonds usually have very different intensity and shades of hue. So, it may be better to use only one yellow gem, or cut several small diamonds out of one big stone, rather than try to find several gems of exactly matching shades.

Big yellow colored diamonds are so attractive that they are practically never gathered more than one in a single ring. A big yellow gem becomes the focal point of the ring, and the maximum that it may be complemented with, is a spreading of smaller gems. And if we speak about settings, yellow diamond engagement rings look best when made of yellow gold. Very rich, darker yellow hue may look good together with red or pink gold. Light yellow hue may be enhanced and enriched with yellow gold either. There are settings where dark yellow diamonds look very estimable in white gold or platinum, but these metals are strictly contraindicated to very light yellow diamonds. Using them diffuses the gems’ color badly and makes them look as if they are just low-quality, impure colorless diamonds.

If we speak about design of settings for yellow diamond engagement rings, any design will do good if it enhances the natural beauty of a precious stone. So, it is better when a design is unusual, fancy, and original. The main task of such designs is separating the main gem from other details of the ring, and gathering maximum attention toward the yellow diamond. So, elevated designs are best for such occasion, because they separate the gem from other design accents, so that it is not mixed with other stones, if there are any.

The Tiffany Diamond and Not Only

It is a known fact that diamonds are crystal clear. But, due to some impurities diamonds may be blue, green, yellow, and of other exotic hues. For the last decade, the popularity of yellow diamonds has greatly increased. The famous Tiffany Diamond may serve as a good example of such enormous popularity. This huge, wonderfully beautiful diamond of rich golden yellow hue was mined in South Africa in 1887. It was of enormous size – 287 carats. Tiffany Jewelers purchased this gem stone from the diamond mining company at initial price of $18,000. The jewelers spent time to decide how to cut it, and at last it appeared to be a 90-facet cushion cut 128.54-carat diamond. This was a marvelous work that helped reveal the exceptional beauty of a natural stone.

For many years Tiffany has been displaying 'huge yellow' for the public observation throughout the world. The diamond has been shown in many countries. For example, during the 100 year jubilee of the Kimberly Mine, or the World's Fair in 1939. Then, in 1957, the jewelers mounted it into a diamond necklace especially for the Tiffany Ball. Later, it was loaned to Audrey Hepburn for her role in the film Breakfast at Tiffany's. In the 1960, the Tiffany Diamond was fashioned into an art piece, Bird on a Rock. Nowadays, the famous Tiffany Diamond is still in the possession of a renowned jeweler.

Although the Tiffany Diamond is unique due to its size and beauty, there are thousands of smaller yellow diamonds that are bought every month. For the last decade, yellow diamonds have become a fashionable trend with the Hollywood celebrities. For example, when Tom Cruise got engaged with Katie Holmes, he presented her a ring with yellow diamonds. Another star Elton John obtained a 25-carat yellow diamond ring several years ago, and it’s known to be his favorite. A lot of celebrities can be seen wearing yellow diamonds at the Academy Awards and the Red Carpet events. For the past few years, such divas as Cate Blanchett, Penelope Cruz, Mary Hart, Kathy Griffin and others have been noticed showing off their marvelous yellow diamonds.

But probably most unique piece of jewelry encrusted with yellow diamonds that has been purchased recently, is the watch owned by a pop star Usher. It is worth around a million dollar, and contains Usher’s portrait on its face, which is made of more than 1000 tiny yellow diamonds.

Paris Hilton and Her Large Canary Diamond Ring

There was a time when yellow diamonds cost less than colorless due to some impurities that produce the appearance of yellow color shades in diamond, from light to brownish. However now, impurities make gems unique determining higher, sometimes ransom price for them. Colored diamonds became thought-after gems and are often used as a great means to outstand from the crowd. Celebrities are known fashionists who love to hunt for rare jewels in order to be photographed wearing them. Like Paris Hilton, a true diamond-purist, who is a lucky owner of a yellow diamond ring.

Billionaire Paris Latsis proved his love, and generosity, for diva even twice, presenting her two diamond engagement rings: 15-carat white diamond ring and 24-carat canary diamond ring, that cost him $2.1 million and $5 million respectively. White diamond engagement ring are rather traditional and are usually discussed only on account of their size and design. Colored diamonds draw greater attention both of the diamond lover and jewelry experts. Speaking about canary diamonds, they have a greater amount of nitrogen that causes the stone to display rich yellow color, associated with songbird's feathers.

'Canary diamonds' belong to the class of fancy colored diamond, which is next after fancy light diamonds. Such diamonds are normally priced between $70,000 and $120,000 per carat, however Paris Hilton's ring cost more than $200,000 per carat. Sometimes the price can be unpredictable if it concerns colored diamonds, but for celebrities it's just another challenge to face on their way to diamond possession.

Yellow Diamond Engagement Ring: Heidi Klum

What a wedding is without a diamond ring! There is a tradition, and nothing seems to change it, when a fiancé propose with a beautiful diamond ring. Most wedding rings are mounted with white or colorless diamonds of various size and cut. However there are people, mostly among celebrities, who want to stand out in a crowd regardless how much it would cost them. And they would rather spring for a fancy colored, yet more expensive diamond, rather than traditional white. Heidi Klum, a known German-American model, is a happy owner of such a ring — a yellow one.

To start with, the ceremony of proposal was rather unusual and unexpected: a rare man would climb a 14,000-feet glacier to build a quinzhee for his sweetheart and then declare his love to her there. Yeap, the whole event was awesome, at least for a couple as they used to recollect it every year, but a ring can's be omitted either. This is a large (about 12 carats) cushion-cut fancy yellow diamond ring. Though the setting is nothing special — prong set with a yellow pave — but it seems to be perfect for Heidi. An elongated shape compliments with her long fingers and proves that Seal spent much time creating this very ring design. Yes, this is Seal who designed the ring for his now-wife, the ring that is right for a model like Heidi.

The ring was made by Lorraine Schwartsz jeweler and cost around $1.5 million.

Cape diamonds

When you want to feel like a real professional on the field of diamond industry, you should operate some specific terms used in this sphere. Here is one of them - "cape diamonds". This term is used to identify diamond stones with yellow shade, which may vary from pale yellow to bright canary yellow colour. In this case the word "cape" goes after the name of occurrence of precious stones - the British Cape Colony with the center in Cape Town, South Africa. An English jeweler and author of the book "Precious Stones" (1884) Edwin Streeter devoted a whole chapter in his work to diamonds found in the British Cape Colony. As a result, these stones started to be nicknamed "Cape diamonds". In 1911 a word "cape" was used by another English writer and diamond expert to designate the stones wish yellowish cast. Thus, this term now is used for colour classification of diamonds.

In nature, the colour of these diamonds is caused by the presence of atoms of nitrogen in stone composition. The quantity of these atoms influence the intensity of the colour: from light fancy yellow to greenish-yellow or even bright yellow. Stones with bright yellow and brownish shades are very rare in nature. The quantity of nitrogen atoms is lower in such stones, moreover the atoms are arranged unevenly inside a gem. As they are rare, they considered to be more precious and as a result more pricey. If yellow is your favourite colour and when visiting jewelery store you always have your eyes glued to yellow diamonds - it can be a real problem: you want but you can't afford it. Yellow cultured diamonds can save the situation. First, you will find a wide range of tints of yellow; second, they look exactly the same as real diamonds as these gems are of the same composition; finally, the price is less. Now you can enjoy your favourite colour for affordable price.