Glittering Stones News,Diamonds news,Gems and jewelry news

India is the world’s largest manufacturer of diamonds, is taking steps to move insistently into the procurement of roughs by setting up its own syndicates. Over 120 years after De Beers, the global diamond group, set up its own middle selling organisation, India’s diamond city of Surat, which cuts and polishes nine out of 11 of the world’s diamonds, is seeking to assurance its own supply of the raw material. Surat Diamond Sourcing India has been recognized to source diamonds directly from mining firms across the globe.
For five decades Indian diamond industry players in have been buying roughs at sale at major global trading hubs such as Belgium and Israel. Antwerp, where 80 per cent of all rough diamonds and 50 per cent of all cut diamonds are handled, is where more than half of Surat’s diamonds are bought at auction while the rest are sourced from major diamond companies.
India has had strong links with De Beers, Alrosa, the Russian diamond producer, and BHP Billiton, the resources group, who all act as middlemen.
Four years after Diamond India Limited was set up to unify India’s 58 most important diamond and jewellery manufacturers and exporters, Surat Diamond Sourcing India has been set up as a consortium of 500 small, medium and large units out of the 4,500 in service in the city.
With an initial capital of around $220m in its reach, the company has decided to source rough stones directly from mines in Africa, Russia, Canada and Australia. While larger manufacturers and dealers have put $230,000 each into the kitty, smaller companies have invested around $115,000.
India currently controls around 85 per cent of global volumes and 70 per cent of value and it is hoped that the move will broaden India’s influence over the industry. But as India tries to assert its nationalistic authority on a world stage, it doesn’t look like there will be any significant power shift away from the big players.
India’s export share in the world market is estimated to double by 2015 from its current level of 20 per cent, as a result of high demand from China, Hong Kong and regions such as the Middle East, South East Africa, the US and Canada, which are home to huge records of the Indian diaspora.

Do you own some pieces of jewellery that you never put on? Possibly you have a necklace that was fashionable when you bought it but now looks dated. Or you might have inborn a brooch or bracelet that has great sentimental value but simply isn’t your style. And what about all those bits and pieces: single earrings and cufflinks that have lost their followers, a ring with a missing stone, or a damaged pendant?
Instead of continuing to hide them absent, or selling them for their scrap value, why not examine the possibility of having unworn pieces of jewellery expertly remodelled into attractive new pieces?
A professional jeweller who offers a jewellery remodelling service will usually be able to suggest a number of ways in which the precious metals or gemstones in a piece of jewellery could be altered or rearranged. Most will also do their best to integrate your own ideas into the new design.
Some ways in which old jewellery can be given a new lease of life contain:

• taking precious stones from an old-fashioned setting and putting them into a more recent setting
• breaking up a huge piece such as an ornate necklace or tiara to create several smaller pieces
• simplifying over choosy designs
• incorporating small ‘odd’ pieces into a new bigger piece
• building a new piece from melted down damaged gold, silver or platinum

When someone admires your ‘new’ jewellery it will be up to you to choose whether or not to tell them you’ve had it for years!

For the best results look for a jeweller whose work you like and who is skilled in remodelling all types of jewellery. If your jewellery includes diamonds or other precious gems it’s significant that you only entrust them to someone qualified to work with them.

A beautiful €1.5 million (£1.24 million) gold and diamond pendant was the star of the demonstrate in Paris this week, showing there is no exclusion to the fact that diamond prices are rising for 2010.

Artcurial of Paris put on an auction sale of luxury jewels and watches during the last week of July, but the results have only just been unrestricted to the public. The sale was hosted at the Hotel Marcel Dassault in Paris, France.

There was one item which totally stole the limelight; the dramatic gold pendant (pictured) embedded with a large pear cut diamond weighing a huge 55.34 carats.

The pendant itself is shaped from rose gold, and the diamond feature of the pendant rests in a perforated ‘basket‘ set of extra brilliant cut diamonds. The 43g weighted pendant hangs from a identical rose gold chain.

The luxurious and required after piece was accompanied by a certificate from the European Gemological Laboratory (EGL) which accounted for the authenticity and quality of the stone.

The special necklace starred at Artcurial with an probable sale value of €1,000,000-1,500,000 (£822,309 – £1,233,478).

With constant reminders that the 2010 jewellery markets is effectively fighting back against the economic downturn, this exceptional jewellery sale item proved no exemption, reaching a high total value of €1,147,336 (£943,722).

The Harry Oppenheimer Diamond Museum, in the heart of the Israeli diamond complex, is set to play crowd to the new And thou Shalt Breathe Life Into a Gem exhibition this September. The exhibition will feature jewellery, cameos and artefacts all stamped from gemstones based on the work of master carvers in Idar-Oberstein, Germany, and is the effect of cooperation with the Deutsches Edelsteinmuseum there. It is offered under the auspices of Dr. Harald Kindermann, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to the State of Israel.

Comprising around 150 items, And thou Shalt Breathe Life interested in a Gem is valued at approximately one million dollars. It includes animals, human figures, flowers, fruits and sweets from a wide variety of gemstones including: agate, carnelian, tourmaline, amethyst, quartz, rose quartz, chalcedony, onyx, ruby emeralds and sapphires.

Shmuel Schnitzer, Chairman of the Harry Oppenheimer Diamond Museum, said that this exhibition is part of the hard work of the Israeli Diamond Industry to broaden the areas of interest of the diamond community and the general public. He explains: “In this Carved gemstones are part of the crown jewels worldwide. They are most preferred items in prestigious jewellery shops and serve as an artistic expression for jewellers who wish to be regarded as artists of small sculpture.”

Students of the National Institute of Design (NID),is the only institute participating in the India International Jewellery Week (IIJW), presented a unique and innovative jewellery collection which left the viewers enthralled on the inaugural day Sunday.

The edgy and funky collection, called New Adorn, was put jointly by five students – Swati Agarwal, Chetan Sharma, Avantika Kumar, sanjeev Gupta and Gauri Pandey – of the Lifestyle Accessory Design department of the NID, which is a premier institute in the field of design education and research. “We always relate jewellery with precious and non-precious gems but the fact is that the beauty of the jewellery piece lies in the beauty of the material, whatever it may be. The whole focus of our collection was to make use of curious and different materials to make jewellery designs,” said Pandey.

Models sashayed the ramp in black outfits tiring uncommon and experimental designs for neck pieces, waist chains, rings and earrings among other pieces. Few models also sported jewellery pieces at seats which are not usually adorned. “We are have tried to make designs which are not characteristic. When we were working on the designs, we realised that there are so many other places in the body that you can decorate with a piece of jewellery. So we created designs by discovering new geographies of adorning the body,” Pandey added.

The students also strained on the fact that their designs are eco- and nature friendly. “We also tried to make the designs eco-friendly and close to the nature by using integrating used cans and cold drink bottle crowns since we felt that that will be the base of designs in the future,” said Agarwal, another student of the team.

The team also said that their collection revisited educational aspects of Indian traditions to explore alternative techniques and materials to lend a bold, alluring and exhuberant petition to their work. IIJW is India’s first jewellery week and will run till Thursday at the Hotel Grand Hyatt, Santa Cruz.

The extravaganza will showcase the collections of 30 designers, together with Farah Khan Ali, Varun D. Jani, Bina Goenka and Rhea Nasta. Well-known jewellery brands like Mirari, Gitanjali, Amrapali, Tanishq and Ganjam are also participating.