Glittering Stones News,Diamonds news,Gems and jewelry news

A new initiative is creature undertaken to revive the local jewellery industry, which is almost on the verge of collapse. The initiative collaboration among Development Dimensions Limited a jewellery manufacturing firm and the College of Arts and Social Sciences at the KNUST, involves setting up a multi-million Ghana cedi Centre with the primary objective of conducting research and training jewelers to aid the manufacture of jewellery for both the local and export markets.

The US$500,000 Centre, which concerned a monetary support of US$225,000 from the Export Development and Investment Fund (EDIF), is below the Industrial Art Department of the University and is the first of its kind in the country.

It currently has two units comprising the teaching unit, which offers a six-month certificate course to be awarded by KNUST, and a production unit which is accidentally for the manufacture of jewellery for both local and export markets. It offers courses such as Gem Stones Setting, Casting, Soldering, Alloying Technologies and Finishing. The rest are, Workshop Practice for Jewelers, Science and Chemistry, Basic Drawing and Design for Jewelers, Entrepreneurship and Sales and Communication Skills.

It is ironical that in a country like Mauritius, where mineral wealth in relative terms is nowhere near Ghana’s, jewellery and processed diamonds are the third-most important export produce group after textiles, clothing and fish products.
The country, which is Africa’s second-largest manufacturer of gold, increased production from a year earlier by 3.5% to 1.46 million ounces during the first half of 2010. But very small of this production is refined into jewellery and ornaments for exports of higher value.

Bangalore-based jewellery designer Ria Joseph specializes in creating unique designs, which leave an everlasting impression. Her forte lies in creating recent silver jewellery with semi-precious stones. On a normal day, Ria Joseph begins her morning by teaching a demanding class of power yoga, before grabbing a saw blade with her gloved hands to manufacture jewellery- right from the melting and mixing to the molding and casting processes. Ria always wanted to do something in the creative field and her love for jewellery is what encouraged her to pursue jewellery manufacturing and design course at the Indian Institute of Jewellery (IIJ), Mumbai.
Ria creates modified and affordable silver jewellery with semi-precious stones that has a suggestion of indo-western influence. Her inspirations come from nature and its a mixture of forms. Since modern jewellery is just as fashionable as contemporary designs, she offers her clients both. Her business line is all about classic pieces while the fashion design line has jewellery that can be worn for parties and weddings. While the business collection goes heavy on semi-precious stones, the couture line liberally uses gold and silver.

She also offers session and custom design services, handcrafting inspiring one-of-a-kind items to meet her clients’ specific needs, she says “I also customize jewellery and it’s a different knowledge as the outcome is always something interesting. Ria supplies her jewellery to four other cities and she still showcases her collections at exhibitions, “My jewellery is supplied to stores in Hyderabad, Delhi, Bombay and Calcutta. I design according to period and trends and there’s always something new.

A Birmingham, UK-based designer has created a pair of gold and diamond high heeled shoes, wonderful for a flashy night out on the town. The shoes are finished of solid gold or platinum and are encrusted with 2,200 brilliant cut diamonds totaling 30 carats.

The timeless Borgezie Diamond Stilettos were designed by Christopher Michael Shellis and were handcrafted by a team of goldsmiths and stone setters who work at the House of  Borgezie.

The patent awaiting shoe design features a stamen fluted heel, which draws its inspiration from the elegant stamens of a lily. According to the House of Borgezie website, a pair of diamond stilettos retails from £100,000 or $155,000 and comes with a 1,000 year assurance.

The gold shoes have been examined and hallmarked by the Birmingham Assay Office.

SYDNEY: Australia’s central bank said Thursday that blooming trade with China has overshadowed the value of India as an equally profitable market with better long-term prospects.
India accounts for about five percent of the world’s gross domestic product after a decade of financial reforms, the Reserve Bank of Australia said, adding that the industrialising country’s population was estimated to rise gradually.
“While much attention has been paid to the fact that China has become Australia’s largest trading partner, less awareness has been paid to the fact that India has also become an important destination for Australia’s exports,” a quarterly bulletin said. “In 2009, India ranked as Australia’s third largest export destination from being 15th in 1999, surpassing Australian’s more traditional destinations such as the United Kingdom and the United States.”
Gold, coal, education and copper were among Australia’s top exports to India, while the biggest imports contain electrical parts, information technology and pearls and gems, the RBA said.
Australia recorded a trade surplus with India of 15.5 billion dollars (14.5 billion US) in 2009, second only to its extra with long-standing partner Japan. The RBA said the population of India, distinct that of China and other Asian countries, was expected to grow steadily, with the United Nations projecting it would become the world’s most crowded nation in the next 20 years. “India’s long-term economic growth is likely to benefit from a working-age population that is estimated to grow until at least the middle of this century, unlike countries such as Japan, South Korea and China”.
Globally, the RBA said India’s share of trade had tripled in the past 20 years to 1.5 percent, underpinned by strong output of processed petroleum goods to the United Arab Emirates. “Prospects for enlargement over coming years have improved noticeably.
“Strong growth in India is also expected to see a deepening of the bilateral trade relationship between Australia and India.” The bank added that foreign ownership of Australian shares and bonds had also soared during the global financial disaster, with offshore investors now accounting for about 50 percent. It said foreign investors had been concerned by Australia’s financial stability backed by a strong banking sector.

Fashion trends may come and go, in jewelry as in clothing and hairstyles, but just as in persons arenas, there are some elements that never seem to go out of style. In fact, they get reinvented for a new audience. The ballet flat. The little black dress. Pearl jewelry is one such fashion evergreen that just goes on and on. Though, far from the stuffy chokers of society matrons or demure Grace Kelly single strands, pearls today are used in jewelry as fresh and fashion-forward as any dressmaking collection.
Rambaud of Paris has been adorning French women with beautiful jewelry while 1885. Today the company specializes in cultured pearls from Tahiti and other parts of the South Seas such as China and Japan.
An organic gem, courtesy of a friendly oyster:
For the unqualified, a cultured pearl is not artificial. It is simply a “farmed” report of a pearl created naturally by ocean mollusks such as oysters in certain parts of the world. These “wild” pearls are shaped when a grain of sand lodges in the flesh of the mollusk. The pearl is the result of the animal’s retort to the foreign object. A guard mechanism kicks-in and coats the particle with layer after layer of a substance called nacre, or mother-of-pearl, which eventually becomes thick enough to form a pearl. The result is just as logically beautiful as pearls found in the wild, and can be restricted as to color and shape depending on the conditions. As in the wild, some pearls are refined in salt water and others in freshwater, giving different properties to the pearls.
Pearls: Not just for Jackie O any longer
Rambaud offers almost a dozen different collections featuring these pearls, in a range of styles from traditional to rock-n-roll, for an
amazing variety of looks. If you think of pearls as being white, or cream, or the occasional grey, think again. The cultured pearls in Rambaud’s collected works come in a dazzling array of colors, including pink, gold, even chocolate.
The cultured pearl earrings on the website range in price from under 100 euros for a simple Tahitian freshwater pearl and silver pair to nearly 1000 euros for a fantastic set of 9mm grey-green pearls set off with .028 carats of diamonds. There is a wide collection, in between, so every set of ears can find lovely cultured pearl earrings at a price that sounds good to them.
If a cultured pearl necklace is more your thing, you can find an range of lengths and fashion-forward styles at Rambaud. Pearls are the stars, but these necklaces bring in motivating supporting characters. you’ll find original styles including long pendants with iridescent disks or pearls dangling from delicate silver chains, as in the “Tactiles” collection, or an Art Deco-inspired creation combining black and white pearls in “Les Annees Folles” collection.