Top 5 Jewellery Trends for 2015

TREND 1
Necklaces as Headgears
A wide range of multi-functional jewellery is catching up as a trend. A delicate neckpiece can be worn stylishly as tiara or a maangtikka. Similarly, a maangtika can be adorned as a striking pendant.

TREND 2
Delicate Bracelets replaced by Haathphools
Haathphools have been around for decades now, however will see a key comeback this 2015. This traditional piece of jewellery comprises of a bracelet or a bangle linked elegantly to one or more finger rings.

TREND 3
Ornate Finger Rings
Knuckle Buster and Midi Rings, Stackable or Multiple Finger Rings, Full Index Finger and Thumb Finger Rings are all going to be. Rings are a special kind of jewellery piece, because they commemorate important time periods for those who wear them.

TREND 4
Marsala for the year 2015
This year's Pantone colour is a deep Marsala wine shade, inspired by an Italian wine, which can be incorporated effortlessly in white and rose gold. Gem stones such as Mozambican Rubies, Turmolines Garnets, Eudialyte and Rhodonite capture the shades of Marsala exquisitely. A wide range of stunning limited edition rings, earrings and pendants in shades of this hue will become popular.

TREND 5
Tanzinites will replace the popular Rubies and Emeralds
Along with the use of rubies, emeralds and classic diamonds jewelers use hues of blue in the form of precious gem stones and enameled metals. The classic blue gemstone is Tanzanite. There are a number of choices in the lighter blues, including topaz and aquamarine, which will be trending on in 2015 and the years to follow.

To learn more about diamond jewellery design courses visit Solitaire Diamond Institute.

Article Courtesy ~
Raksha
CAD Instructor, SDI

The Pearl with an Edge

Pearls have been coveted for thousands of years, which have a natural beauty. This beauty comes from nature itself; hence the pearl is referred to as “The Queen of the Sea”. In the year 1998, faceting of Pearls was introduced. Thus,the pure and natural beauty can now be accentuated through faceting.

This was started by Komatsu Diamond Industry, a Japanese diamond-cutting company with 20 years of experimentation, which resulted in these miniature marvels that has up to 200 facets.

About
A pearl consists of thousands of microscopic thin layers of mother of pearl. Layers of good quality will reflect light on the surface of the pearl and hereby create a beautiful luster.If the pearl has orient, the mother of pearl is of exceptional quality and the light will be reflected and glow from the very inside of the pearl and through all layers of nacre.

How it is done
The pearls are faceted by hand using diamond cutting, no coating or any other kind of treatment are added to the pearls. By faceting pearls we can accentuate the specific characteristics they have from nature and give them an exciting new expression.

Cut pearls can have between 100 and 200 facets, all of which are smaller and more numerous than the facets of a cut diamond.

Russian designer IlgizIlgiz Fazulzyanov for Poppies earrings in yellow gold with enameled poppies, diamonds and faceted pearl.

Ideal  Pearls for Faceting
The pearls selected for faceting must be high quality South Sea, Akoya, Tahitian black pearls or freshwater pearls. Such pearls must be perfectly round and have a thick layer of nacre.

Because only high quality pearls are selected for faceting and only skilled cutters can facet precisely, a faceted pearl may cost three or four times that of an uncut pearl. As such, inferior quality pearls cannot be enhanced by faceting. A poor quality pearl remains a poor quality pearl unsuitable for cutting.

Thus, faceted pearls an innovation from the diamond cutters!!

To learn more about diamond designing courses visit Solitaire Diamond Institute Bangalore.

Article by: Sheela Veeraganti
Jewellery Designing Student, SDI.

This Plant May Be the Best Diamond-Finding Tool You’ll Ever Have

(Image by TaiChesco | Shutterstock.com)

While money doesn’t grow on trees, diamonds might do. Literally. That seems to be the conclusion of a study conducted in Liberia by a scientist at Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, to be published in the June-July issue of the journal Economic Geology.

Stephen Haggerty, who specializes in diamond research, has found a new prickly, palm-like plant that seems to grow only on top of kimberlite pipes — columns of volcanic rock hundreds of meters across that extend deep into Earth, which are the source of most of today’s commercial diamonds.

The plant, identified as Pandanus candelabrum, could become a simple and efficient tool for diamond hunters in West Africa to uncovering potentially rich precious gems and semi-precious gemstones deposits.

The plant, identified as Pandanus candelabrum, could become a simple and efficient tool for diamond hunters in West Africa to uncovering potentially rich precious gems and semi-precious gemstones deposits, the paper claims.

Haggerty, who is also chief exploration officer of Youssef Diamond Mining Company (YDMC), with concessions in Liberia, believes the plant has adapted to kimberlite soils, which are rich in magnesium, potassium, and phosphorus.
The scientist, who has worked in the African nation off and on since the late 1970s, has in recent years focused his prospecting efforts in the northwest part of Liberia.

Two years ago he discovered a new kimberlite pipe 500 meters long and 50 meters wide.
Speaking to Science Magazine, Haggerty said the soil above that pipe has already yielded four diamonds: two in the 20-carat range, and two in the 1-carat range.

According to his bio, posted at FIU’s website, he is currently conducting wide-ranging research, which includes from field activities in Brazil, India, South Africa, and West Africa (finger printing “Blood Diamonds”), “to the cosmos, pre-solar diamonds (greater than 4.5 billion years old), and the enigmatic origin of black and porous carbonado-diamond.”

To learn more about diamond jewellery design courses visit Solitaire Diamond Institute.

Sourced from - Mining.com

Urban Mining

Pure Gold

Some cities are said to be paved with gold and this is taken literally by people known as "urban miners", who collect tiny fragments of gold and gemstone chips in dirt from the jewelry districts of cities all over the world.

Although gold and jewelry workers try their best to collect every scrap of material, by taking measures such as collecting fragments of gold from water used to wash hands, tiny pieces manage to escape and make their way into the city streets. Precious fragments may be washed down the drains by the rain, flushed down the toilet, or taken away in rubbish bins. Yet some rich pickings get into the cracks in the roads and pavements where they settle in the dirt.

In order to recover the gold and gemstone chips, several methods can be employed. Sewage sludge (the product that remains after sewage treatment) is processed in Nagano Prefecture of Japan. The Suwa Treatment Facility extracts gold from molten fly ash. The yield is said to be higher than that of the Hishikari Mine in Japan. This could be due to the amount of precision equipment manufacturers in the area. In the USA, scientists from Arizona State University surveyed sewage sludge samples from 32 different states and stated the possible value of the metals found in biosolids from a community of 1 million people to be up to US13 million per year.

                                                                                                                                  

Tiny Gold Flecks From Street Sludge

Tiny Gold Flecks From Street Sludge

A more crude operation takes place in cities such as Bangkok, Baghdad and Kolkata, where in the early hours of the day, people gather sludge from the drains, sewers and canals of jewelry districts and either use a panning technique to painstakingly extract the gold themselves or sell the sludge to others. Some of the urban entrepreneurs who do this are impoverished people from rural villages. In some cases, they are able to collect enough gold to return to their homes with a brighter future.
Precious metals can also be extracted from scrap such as IT products. Such valuable materials are extracted from discarded electrical appliances, such as computer and mobile phone circuit boards, that are found in rubbish dumps outside cities in Japan. It is said that a ton of recycled mobile phones can produce more gold than the average ton of ore from a gold mine. The gold and other metals can be separated, melted down and then sold to jewelers. Gold is used in circuit boards because of its electrical conductivity.

Belgian recycling facility worker, Thierry Van Kerckoven is a buyer of scrap in Antwerp, where his company, Umicore, extracts 16 different metals from waste, including rhodium and gold. In addition to precious metals, increasing scarcity of rare earths has caused their value to rise. The recycling of metals would enable countries without their own supply of rare earths freedom from relying on imports from countries such as China. One problem with the recycling of metals is the low numbers of old mobile phones that are currently being handed in to recycling facilities despite the fact that people purchase new mobile phones often.

Extracting gold from sewage sludge or circuit boards may    

The Diamond District of Manhattan, New York

be worthwhile, but is a little labor intensive. An easier way for the average man on the street to try urban mining is to follow the example of New Yorker andfreelance diamond setter, Raffi Stephanian, who collects precious metals and even cut and polished gemstones from the streets of Manhattan's diamond trading district. Mr Stephanian claims to have collected $819 worth of gold in just six days. He uses tweezers, a butter knife, a bowl and a strainer to harvest the dirt and then sift through it.

The next time you walk the streets of your home town, throw away an old mobile phone, or even flush the toilet, spare a thought for the precious materials that you may be passing by!

To learn more about diamond designing courses visit Solitaire Diamond Institute Bangalore.

Sourced from:Gemselect.com 
Compiled by: Sanchitha

Red Coral - Red Alert !!

        Red coral (sometimes called precious coral) is widely used throughout the world for jewelry, and in beauty products.  The original species of red coral (Corallium rubrum) is found across the Mediterranean Sea and in some parts of the Atlantic. The human “appetite” for this stunning coral, which dates as far back as ancient Greece and Egypt, when red coral was considered to have sacred properties, has unfortunately led to the destruction of many red coral colonies, and there are concerns about the sustainability of coral harvesting. Red coral is a rocky bottom species and is so slow growing, its excessive exploitation is cause for great concern. 

§  Trawling is still used in some parts of the world to harvest coral. It is one of the most destructive forms of exploitation as it clear cuts the seafloor thereby destroying vital marine habitats. 

§ Ocean acidification, which is occurring at a faster rate as climate change continues to wreak havoc on our planet, is also posing a dangerous threat to all corals. The acidification of the sea occurs when seawater absorbs CO2, and  lowers the pH of the ocean, making it harder for coral reefs, and many other marine organisms (including crustaceans and some types of plankton) to build their calcium carbonate skeletons.

Antique Carved Coral Bacchus Brooch

There are many things that we as consumers should be aware of when we make choices in our lives, not just about seafood, but about jewelry and beauty products, and it’s important to know how everything ties together.

Jewellery of Queen Farida of egypt

Coral Tiara By Phillip Brothers

Article By: Lata Sanghvi

Jewellery Design Student,

Solitaire Diamond Institute