High-end, bridal boost metal's retail sales in 2007
New York—Despite platinum's rising price, which averaged $1,304 per ounce last year—36 percent more than in 2006—retail sales and manufacturing volumes of platinum jewelry in 2007 remained fairly resilient, boosted primarily by the high-end and bridal sectors, according to Johnson Matthey's annual platinum report for 2008.
Global demand for new metal in the jewelry industry actually dipped slightly in 2007, the metals consultancy said, falling 55,000 ounces to a total of 1.59 million ounces, yet demand from both the trade and consumers alike stayed strong for the majority of the year.
Platinum jewelry demand in Europe increased by 7.7 percent to a total of 210,000 ounces in 2007, and net demand for new metal from the Chinese jewelry sector increased by 20,000 ounces to a total of 780,000 ounces.
China remains the largest market for platinum jewelry, according to Johnson Matthey, with Chinese manufacturers buying 2.6 percent more of the metal compared with other markets. In the last year especially, platinum demand in China was particularly supported by the production of novelty platinum items and memorabilia manufactured in preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
In North America, however, where the economic slowdown has been accompanied not only by higher platinum prices but also by pressure on local manufacturing from imported jewelry, purchases of platinum by jewelry manufacturers declined by 5,000 ounces in 2007 to a total of 240,000 ounces.
Looking forward, Johnson Matthey expects platinum prices to remain volatile, though the high prices haven't yet been felt in the jewelry industry this year (for reasonably priced platinum wedding bands, check out Design Bands). The outlook for jewelry demand in 2008 is more dependent on price than previously, Johnson Matthey said in the report, but the high-end and bridal sectors will remain insulated from price changes.
While perhaps the biggest story regarding platinum for 2007 was supply—which fell by 4 percent in 2007—Johnson Matthey said there is still the possibility that supply for 2008 will increase. Among the biggest issues concerning supply in the last year were strikes and wage negotiations at mines in South Africa, plus a Lonmin smelter shutdown in the country, and general issues concerning improved safety and the acquisition of skilled staff.
National Jeweler Network; May 20, 2008
20 May 2008
Platinum demand remains resilient despite price
13 May 2008
Things Women Need To Know About Wedding Fashion
For The Bride
1. Waist emphasis: After a tumultuous affair with the trapeze dress, America is ready to re-embrace the waist. At the Spring 2008 Fashion Week, designers showed nipped in waists, often accented with wide belts. Look for wedding dresses to follow suit, with a reinvigoration of the obi belt and contrasting color sashes.
2. Trumpet Skirt: As it skims over the body before flaring out near the knee, the trumpet skirt naturally shows off your best curves, especially your waist
3. Jewelry as Part of the Dress: While previous years' fads included heavy jewelry, in the year 2008 wedding trends, jewelries are now commonly worn on the dresses themselves.
4. Lower necklines: Show off the neck and shoulders
5. Back Detail: It's what your wedding guests see during the ceremony, so show it off with intricate details or a low v-back.
6. Vintage inspiration: From dresses to rings, brides are revisiting the past for style inspiration. For wedding gowns, that means delicate fabrics like chiffon and tiers of tulle, along with bygone embellishments such as beaded straps, keyhole halters, and lace sleeves.
7. Silver: The bride who wears a metallic silver wedding dress is sure to stand out and be remembered. If you're more traditional, incorporate the silver wedding trend in other ways like wedding bands and other jewelry accessories.
Bridesmaids
8. Yellow: Yellow was all over the Spring 2008 runways, which is great news for brides. This ideal wedding color is fresh, energetic and summery.
For an evening wedding, pair lemon yellow with chocolate brown. Or, choose a brighter yellow paired with silvery gray. Yellow brings feelings of warmth and happiness. When used alone, yellow makes an impact, when used as an accent; it compliments many other colors very nicely. Pale yellows are great for spring weddings, lemon yellows give a citrus punch to summer weddings and deep mustards are beautiful for fall and winter weddings.
9. Silver / Pewter: Silvers and metallics are taking the place of standard black. Steel gray will replace chocolate brown as the accent color. I absolutely love this soft yet deep hue teamed with butter yellow, bright aqua, rich eggplant, or pale pink. It's so versatile!
10. Bold colors: Jewel tones are back in style! If you love rich purples, bright greens, and shocking pinks, you'll be excited by 2008 wedding trends. But stay far away from the '80s. Today's couples should look to use jewel tones sparingly, mixing brights with cream or gray, or more muted versions of the same color.
11. A variety of dress styles: There's nothing wrong with wanting your bridal party to look coordinated, but because all your girls have unique shapes and styles. Why not pick a color and fabric and have them choose the rest?
Let your girls choose their jewelry. You can and should suggest the type of jewelry you'd like to see them wear (pearls, silver, or gold) but allow them to pick from their own closets when it comes to the particulars. Chances are, your pictures won't pick up the difference in their jewels, and they'll feel more comfortable in baubles they already know and love.
12. Metallic footwear: Rather than asking your girls to buy matching celadon green wedges, these days formal footwear is all about silver and gold - with just about any color and look you've picked for your maids.
Mother of the Bride/Groom
13. Consider the Wedding Party: Though you probably will want your dress to coordinate with the wedding party, it DOES NOT need to match.
14. Consult with the Bride: She is the one who knows best the style and formality of the wedding and can offer great insights.
15. Consult with Each Other: The mother of the bride should choose her dress first and then let the groom's mother know what she has selected.
16. Age-Appropriate Does Not Have To Mean Dowdy: There are many very fashion-forward options for the mother of the bride/groom.
Men's Wear
17. Three Major "Don't"s to Remember: Don't wear socks that are too short. They should come up over the calves so that no skin is exposed when you sit down and cross your legs. (Source: "The Wedding Book" by Mindy Weiss with Lisbeth Levine)
Don't wear a belt with formal clothing. Use Suspenders to hold up trousers. (Source: "The Wedding Book" by Mindy Weiss with Lisbeth Levine)
Don't over accessorize. You don't want to look overly flashy. (Source: "The Wedding Book" by Mindy Weiss with Lisbeth Levine)
Wedding Guests
18. Take Cues from the Invitation: Is it in flowing, engraved black script on a heavy cream paper with formal language? Odds are the wedding will be similarly formal.
Does it cheekily ask you to come see them get hitched? Wedding guests should look for a nice casual outfit. And of course, it may tell you directly on the invitation - black tie, casual attire etc.
19. Do Not Wear White: This rule has relaxed some, and you can get away with wearing a printed dress with a white background and some cream colored clothing.
20. The Black Factor: Black is a great choice for an evening wedding, but you should never wear black to a daytime wedding.
21. Don't Upstage the Bride: Avoid anything too sexy or revealing.
All of the dresses featured in the video portion of this story can be found at Saks Fifth Avenue.
By: Holly Quartaro, Fashion Stylist at Galleria Dallas
Originally published CBS11tv.om; May 7, 2008
28 April 2008
What's Hot In Bridal Jewelry
Wedding jewelry continues to be one of the priciest piece of today's wedding accessory, and brides are trying to keep costs reasonable as this year's wedding season approaches.
Brides spend an average of $300 to $500 on jewelry for themselves and their bridesmaids. Throw in bridal tiara and hair accessories such as hair combs, clips, and pins - and you can easily hit $1,000 or more.
Bridal jewelry need not cost hundreds of dollars to be spectacular. Like a wedding dress, it can be a source of over-thinking, frustration and bank-breaking when it's likely to be used once and to live on only in pictures. There are countless wonderful bridal-worthy jewelry finds out there for $50 or less in a variety of stores such as GlamForLess.com that cater to different pocketbooks.
There are jewelry sets for $50 and less (original prices or on sale for up to 50 percent off), some of which are more lovely than their much more expensive counterparts. Most jewelry collections have the trendy red carpet look and came in styles ranging from traditional elegance to more glamorous designs.
At GlamForLess.com, for instance, there were several gorgeous jewelry sets on sale for only $19.99, some of which had originally cost hundreds of dollars. All a bride really needs is some good taste, great make-up, a killer hairdo and the right accessories to be a hit on her wedding day.
Even leading bridal magazines have featured lines of affordable bridal jewelry and accessories to show brides that having lots of money isn't the only way to have lots of style. Looking like a star doesn't always mean paying like one. Spend less and have more fun!
Here is some of our favorite bridal jewelry:
Jewelry Sets
Today, jewelry sets for weddings utilize the bigger-is-better theme as well, dripping gemstones and setting off demure necklines. Dramatic cascading pendants show-off two, three, or more linked-stones, and even classic chokers are emboldened with up to six strands of pearls.
Chandelier Earrings
The look in bridal jewelry now is bold, and the hottest trend in the spotlight is the chandelier earring. The dangling pieces of jewelry boast diamonds, pearls, or even glass beads, evoking a glamorous, Art-Deco look. Long, thin, shoulder-skimming lines are also showing up on brides, a sleek counterpart to the bold chandelier.
Cuff Bracelets
Thick silver diamond cuff bracelets are currently flashing on the runways of fashion and the red carpet. Tiny rhinestones or beads add an air of daintiness to chunky designs of semi-precious stones. The look is wide and antique, with wedding walking down the aisle with family heirlooms on their wrists for an old-fashioned, sentimental air.
Don't despair if the bold look in wedding jewelry isn't your taste. The classic stand-bys of delicate pendants, classic diamond studs, and bare wrists are always in style, But for the up-to-the-minute wedding who wants to reflect the latest look, big is definitely beautiful.
By: Uche Unachukwu
Pr-inside.com; April 15, 2008
17 April 2008
Useful Information About Diamonds
As poetry, this early seventeenth century quatrain lacks merit, but as a capsule summary of diamond fever, it has no equal:
Your wife and children sell, sell what you have,
Spare not your clothes, nay, make yourself a slave,
But money get, then to Currure make haste
There search the mines, a prize you’ll find at last.
The poem was written by a Portuguese business man who around 1610 went to mine diamonds in India, then the world’s main source for this gem. From among India’s many diamond deposits, he chose one at Currure. After spending an amount equal to 45,000 British pounds sterling in his search without finding a single stone, the prospector sold his clothes and belongings to keep the venture going.
Penniless, the Portuguese vowed that if by the end of his workers’ next pay day his luck hadn’t changed, he would poison himself. Luckily, a 437.40-carat rough was found on the very day he planned to take his life. To celebrate his deliverance, the miner wrote the poem quoted above and had it inscribed for posterity on a stone tablet.
What fired this all-or-nothing quest for diamonds?
The answer can be found in the annals of another European diamond hunter who went to India three decades later: French jeweler Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, who made the first of six journeys to India in 1641. Besides its many diamond mines, India boasted the greatest royal collections of pearls and precious stones every assembled. The merchant hoped to become as important a jeweler to the courts of India as he had the courts of Europe.
In his famous book, “Travels in India,” first published in 1676, Tavernier describes the many fabulous gems he bought, sold or was shown, reserving his highest praise for the diamond. “The diamond is the most precious of all stones, and it is the article of trade to which I am most devoted,” he wrote. Although his name is mostly linked with many famous fancy color diamonds, one of them the French Blue (later called the Hope Diamond), Tavernier preferred the finest white diamonds above all others.
Until he voyaged to Asia, Tavernier may have thought that his preference for colorless diamonds was purely European. But once in India, Persia and Borneo, where white diamonds enjoyed the same supremacy of regard, he quickly learned that his tastes were universal. Today, of course, the diamond is the backbone of jewelry sales throughout the world. Yet the fact that colorless (and near-colorless) diamonds have held their present-day standing for hundreds, possibly thousands, of years may come as a shock to those who attribute their preeminence solely to the machinations of the De Beers cartel.
Before Forever
Undoubtedly, the De Beers cartel, formed in 1888 as a response to the overabundance of South African diamonds, has contributed mightily to the diamond’s hegemony. Nonetheless, for its first 50 years, the cartel occupied itself with supply-side issues, focusing on market control and price stability. It wasn’t until 1939 that future De Beers Chairman Harry Oppenheimer, a staunch believer in the power of advertising, paid a historic visit to N.W. Ayer in New York to discuss a diamond campaign.
After World War II, De Beers began to pay serious attention to the demand side of the diamond market. Since the 1960s, it is safe to say that the jewelry industry has come to depend on the cartel more to stimulate demand than to regulate supply. Today, largely as a result of its multi-million dollar ad budgets, 40 cents of every dollar spent in jewelry stores by U.S. consumers is spent on diamonds, twice what is spent for all other gems combined. Given such dominance, it is hardly surprising that the popularity of diamonds is often seen as the byproduct of market manipulation. Take away the De Beers cartel, it is argued, and the diamond’s status will soon receded to that of just another gem.
A look at history and the diamond’s unique status suggests otherwise. At least 1,000 years before Tavernier’s arrival in India, the country’s sages considered colorless diamonds the pinnacle of gem perfection. Their reverence stemmed in large part from the white diamond’s “‘magical’ property of dividing white light into all the spectral colors,” writes precious stone dealer Benjamin Zucker in his
Connoisseur’s Guide to Gems and Jewelry.
The Indians’ esteem transcended aesthetics, Zucker writes. Indeed, when they developed what was probably the first color grading system for diamonds, they based it on the country’s ancient class structure. Until very recently, Indian society was comprised of four rigid hierarchical groups: Brahmins (rulers), Vaisyas (landowners), Sutras (merchants) and Kshatriyas (warriors). (A fifth group, the untouchables, had no rights.) Diamond color served as a badge of rank because each social group could only own diamonds with the color grade corresponding to it: colorless (D-G on the modern-day Gemological Institute of America color scale) for the Brahmins, lightly yellowish (H-K) for the Vaisya, noticeably yellowish (L-P) for the Sutra and brownish or blackish for the Kshatriya.
Unleashing Fire
What is most amazing about India’s reverence for colorless diamonds is that it precedes by at least a millennia the ability to facet these gems and unleash their brilliance and dispersion. Indian rulers simply wore unworked octahedronal roughs that were deemed of the finest purity and color. And since it was law that the finest roughs be offered to the rulers, the world outside India, says Zucker, saw relatively few top-grade diamonds until after 1000 A.D., despite active mining as far back as 78 B.C.
One can only imagine the reaction to the effulgence of light seen when somewhere around 1400, no one is sure whether in Asia or Europe, the point cut was discovered. By simply polishing the faces of an octahedronal rough, the diamond seemed to explode with brilliance.
A century or so later, cutters took two more giant steps toward realizing the incomparable light-handling capabilities of the diamond with the invention of both the table and rose cuts. But the jewelry world had to wait until around 1700 for the invention of the ultimate brandisher of light: the brilliant-cut diamond. Later known as, among other things, “old European cuts” and “old miners,” variously proportioned brilliants predominated in jewelry by 1750. Today the much refined modern brilliant cut remains the most popular diamond shape and the chief reminder to modern jewelry patrons of the diamond’s main aesthetic virtues: peerless purity and fire.
*The above information was originally published at the Modern Jeweler's website*
25 March 2008
Men - Wear Your Jewelry Right !
Most people think that jewelry is the exclusive territory of women. However, if you look into history, men's jewelry has long been in circulation. Jewelry was used by men as a symbol of wealth, influence, and power. Ornate and extravagant crowns, earrings, necklaces, bracelets, and anklets denoted that the wearer was of great power and had a lot of riches. Even their clothes were embellished with precious stones. Their weapons were also made of precious metals. The fascination of men with jewelry can't be denied. Even until now, men are wearing jewelry in order to enhance their looks. But to be successful at it, the key is to wear your jewelry right.
Read Entire Story Here
24 March 2008
Consumers Eyeing an Investment in Gold
| |||||||||||
| |||||||||||
Read More Here
All That Glitters May be Gold
The 19th century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once had this to say about gold: "How did gold get to be the highest value? Because it is uncommon and useless and gleaming and gentle in its brilliance; it always gives itself."
I'm not quite sure what Nietzsche meant about gold giving itself, but the rest seems quite clear: Nietzsche was a fan of the yellow metal.
I'm old enough to remember the last bull market in gold during the 1970s. I worked in a bank then and I recall seeing people come in with their gold bullion to put in their safe deposit boxes. It seemed that everyone wanted gold.
Read More Here
