I have just completed the longest pearl necklace I have made in a long long time if ever! I used sensational newly arrived white pearls and sprinkles of gold, pink, bronze, apricot, cream and the occasional black.
Beautifully placed pearls to give a special texture and flow. With a 77 inch necklace you can wear it as a Double, Triple or looped through as a Y Style. So versatile!
An absolutely glorious oval cut diamond weighing 88 carat was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong just recently for a whopping $14 million. Only two similar sized ones at around the 50 carat mark have been auctioned before but not for this past 5 years. The Japanese purchaser called it “Manami Star” after his daughter and it is considered to be lucky, because the weight at 88! is a very highly regarded number in Asian countries.
88 is said to symbolize perfection and eternity and of course this stunning gem is particularly prized for it’s outstanding symmetry. It took several painstaking months of grinding and polishing to capture the perfect cut for this diamond. Can you imagine if your hand quivered for an instant and you ground one little section to the left or the right. Coming from a very long line spanning 100 years of diamond cutters, I know from family, that the slip of the wrist can dictate the quality of the cut of a diamond, my grand Aunt was one of the best diamond cutters until her death in the early 1960’s.
Yes extraordinary gems such as these are cut by someone outstandingly gifted in the industry. Knowing exactly how to start and to figure out exactly where to cut first is a huge responsibility. Then having the patience needed to see it through to it’s magnificent completion over months of careful planning and precision cutting. Phew! Beads of sweat are forming on my forehead just thinking about it
Diamonds are cut so that a light ray falling on the gem is reflected multiple times inside the diamond and therefore sends out light in all directions. Actually, diamonds don’t shine, they reflect.
I have just completed some very sweet white pearl necklaces. After getting on to a new supplier I just had to try making some simple but really elegant white pearl necklaces. The short one is a choker and sits beautifully on the neckline. It seems not only long white pearl and black and white pearl necklaces are the thing for 2019 but many gals are opting for the pearl choker right now. As for the long Pearl necklaces nothing can beat a graceful, flowing, white pearl necklace. These are 40 and 44 inch respectively.
A truly lovely sapphire and diamond coronet once owned by Queen Victoria was designed and made for her by her beloved husband Prince Albert and gifted to the queen in 1840 the year of their wedding. It now safely sits in the Victoria and Albert Museum on display for the world to admire, however this delicate piece of fine jewellery, may have been lost for ever.
After the premature death of Albert in 1862, Victoria went into mourning. When she next re-opened parliament, instead of wearing her stately crown, she wore the beautiful coronet. We can only imagine how this symbolic gesture of wearing a very personal piece must have meant to her and to anyone who knew of the meaning behind it.
Victoria later gifted the lovely piece to her family and it was then later owned by the Earl of Harwood’s family. A purchaser bought it in 2000 and tried taking it out of UK. Luckily the fortunate foreign owner was offered a princely sum for the love token and a cool $6 million saw to it that the coronet remained in Britain.
