Liz Taylor is going to have a Wopper of an Auction!!

Sometimes, We at Windy City Diamonds find interesting information on jewelry that we like to share with our friends. On December 3rd, there will be an auction of Elizabeth Taylors jewelry, including the Famous Taylor-Burton Diamond ring.

This gorgeous 33.19 carat emerald cut diamond is D color, the rarest white color available for a diamond and is VS1 clarity. This ring given to Liz Taylor by Richard Burton is estimated to sell for between $2,500,000-$3,500,000! So how many would you like??!! I know, you can stop drooling now, and check out a few more of her beautiful pieces of jewelry that is going up for auction.

Elizabeth Taylor's "The Mike Todd Tiara," is estimated at a mere $60,000-$80,000. How would you like to wear this Tiara for your wedding??

Elizabeth Taylor's "The Prince of Wales Brooch," is estimated to sell for between $400,000 - $600,000. Once upon a time everyone that was anyone had a brooch on when they went out Fancy. Today, we find that people are beginning to enjoy a nice brooch (pin) again, just for fun.

Liz Taylor's "La Peregrina" is an early 16th century pearl, ruby and diamond necklace made by Cartier. This necklace was a gift from Richard Burton and is estimated to fetch between $2,000,000 - $3,000,000!
Please check out other blogs from Windy City Diamonds for more fun and useful information!!

November's Beautiful Birthstone

Have you ever seen Imperial Topaz, the birthstone for November?

This is not the color that most of us think about with the November birthstone, rather, we all think about the alternate which has become much more popular in that last few years, Citrine, which is sometimes referred to as Golden Topaz, and is the Ayurvedic Birthstone for November.

Ok, here's the traditional stuff that some of us find interesting.Topaz is rated 8 out of 10 on the hardness scale, so it's really quite a nice colored stone to put into jewelry.

Golden topaz is given on the 4th, 19th or 23rd anniversary and is associated with the values of strength, wisdom, and courage.
Topaz golden color was believed by the Egyptians to be the glow cast by the sun god Ra.An amulet made out of Topaz was worn by the Egyptians to protect them from injuries.The Greeks believed it brought strength and made the wearer invisible, while the Romans thought Topaz had powers to improve eyesight. The name Citrine comes from an old French word, “citrin”, meaning lemon. Citrine, like all forms of quartz, was believed to have magical powers and was worn as a talisman against evil thoughts and snake venom. Citrine was considered to have medicinal properties and was commonly used as a cure for kidney and urinary ailments.

Topaz crystals can reach incredible size of several hundred pounds.
A 1680 carat, colorless topaz known as the “Braganza Diamond” is set in the Portuguese Crown Jewels and was originally thought to be a diamond.

Here at Windy City Diamonds we look for the unusual pieces to make into interesting jewelry as is this fine example that is currently exhibited in our specialty jewelry showcase.

This is a very unusual, 25.33 carat Heart Shaped Citrine that we set into a 14k White Gold pendant surrounded by 61 matched brilliant cut diamonds to create the brilliant contrast that is seen in this magnificent piece of jewelry.

Tales from the Hood

Windy City Diamonds is known as an engagement ring store. At Windy City Diamonds we are also known for our ability to custom manufacture most any type of jewelry, yet sometimes we are surprized with the requests that we recieve in our store. Last week we had a man come in to our store, looking around, not for an engagement ring or a wedding band, but for something a bit more unusual. After a few minutes of searching, and not seeing what he was looking for, he approached one of the women on our sales staff and asked "Do you sell Hand cuffs?" She looked at him and said, excuse me? "Do you sell hand cuffs" he replied. I'm sorry sir, we generally carry engagement rings and wedding bands, but we don't carry hand cuffs here. Well, after hearing this conversation, some of the other staff began to smirk a little. I must say, I thought that our sales lady acted very professionally, but she too thought that this was a very odd request in a jewelry store. This client then asked to speak with the manager and was directed in the direction of another male sales associate in the store. He walked over and asked again if we sell hand cuffs?

After a bit of discussion between our salesman and our client, we realized that he wanted minature hand cuffs, designed to hold his pony tail, just like the one that Snoop Dogg has!! This conversation turned out to be quite funny, and we're now making hand cuffs for his hair!

We do have fun here, and we try to help with each and every request!!

Opal and Tourmaline, Octobers Birthstones

October has two traditional birthstones, the Opal, and Pink Tourmaline.
October’s traditional birthstone, the Opal, is thought to create hope, faith and confidence in its wearer. This beautifully radiant stone has been treasured and worn for centuries. In Elizabethan England, the opal was treasured both for their beauty and their presumed protective powers. The opal has been set into the crowns and necklaces worn by monarchs to ward off the evil spirits, to protect the eyesight, and even ground up and ingested to ward off nightmares!

Opals are famous for the “play of colors” that are seen in most opals. Many of these stones will flash different colors of the rainbow when moved. Red, Blue, White, Black, Yellow, Green, there is no end to the beauty of this spectacular stone.

Most opals are found in Australia, but there are deposits found in Brazil, Mexico, the Czech Republic, and even in Nevada. Opals may be worn in wide variety of jewelry including rings, pendants, bracelets and earrings. Opals reached their peak in popularity in the deco period of the 1920’s but their popularity has been waning in recent years and there has been a surge in purchasing the alternative birthstone for October, the beautiful Pink Tourmaline.

In Recent years, we at Windy City Diamonds have seen Pink Tourmaline gaining tremendously in popularity. Tourmaline has been prized for its association with balance, endurance and safety, and some people call it the “peace stone,” believing it to dispel fear and to make its wearer calm.

This beautiful example of Rubilite, a fine pink Tourmaline was custom designed by us at Windy City Diamonds, made in 18k White and 18k Rose gold to accent and enhance this gorgeous ring.

Tourmaline is found in a broad spectrum of colors and in the past has even been misidentified as Rubies, Emeralds and even Sapphires. In fact, there is a famous tourmaline, the size of a pigeon’s egg that belonged to the Russian Empress Catherine the Great, which was long thought to be a Ruby!

Windy City Diamonds has been making pink tourmaline jewelry for many years now and with the surge in pastel colors being worn today, this color blends beautifully to complete any outfit. As Tourmalines are a relatively hard gemstone, they will endure many years of enjoyment in your jewelry.

Sapphires - Septembers Birthstone

Sapphire is the birthstone for the month of September, and they are associated with the 5th, 23rd, and the 45th wedding anniversaries. I know this won't mean much to you, but they are 9.0 on the Mohs scale of hardness, 1 step below diamonds, making them the second hardest natural mineral.

Once upon a time, sapphires were believed to have great healing powers that would help the wearer with rheumatism, colic and even mental illness. Sapphires have also been associated with great wealth and many Hollywood royalty have been seen sporting Sapphire jewelry.

Joan Crawford received a 70 carat star sapphire ring from her second husband. When Richard Burton proposed to Elizabeth Taylor for the second time, he too presented her with a cabochon sapphire ring.

Lady Diana Spenser's engagement ring from Prince Charles was an 18 carat, deep blue, oval sapphire surrounded by 14 round brilliant cut diamonds. This same ring, as many of already know, was presented to Kate Middleton, now known as Princess Katherine, from Prince William.

Medium to Dark Blue is the most associated color for this birthstone, but if you were lucky enough to be born in the month of September, you may pick from any color in the sapphire family for your jewelry. Your choices may include blue, yellow, pink, green, brown, purple, white, orange or colorless, and there is even a rare variety known as color-change sapphire that shows different colors under different lighting conditionsSapphires in any color are a versatile stone that may be set into most any type of jewelry for your enjoyment.

At Windy City Diamonds, we have custom manufactured many styles of jewelry that have incorporated Sapphires. Sapphires are beautiful on their own, but when accented with diamonds, the excitement intesifies with these precious stones.

Here is an example of a spectacular 5.00 carat, cushion cut sapphire diamond ring that we made for one of our clients.

Again surrounded by beautiful round brilliant cut diamonds, this made a breath taking diamond and sapphire engagement ring. This is one lucky lady!
Best of all, sapphires are easy to care for, requiring no special treatment for cleaning.

Sustainable Weddings

This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending my Niece's wedding. My niece and her husband are extremely environmentally conscience, and they wanted to see how "green" friendly they could manage with their wedding, leaving as small a foot print as possible.

The first thing that they did was to use Vimeo to create an e-video for their save the date. Of course this was then disseminated to their friends and family via email, leaving no environmental footprint in their path, and they saved money as well. No paper, no printing, no postage.

Now comes the invitations. Again, turning to the internet, they produced a beautiful e-vite, along with a "response card" to maintain their goal of being completely sustainable in their approach. The invitations were beautiful, and I've found that there are a multitude of sites on the web that may be used for sending out these invitations via email, some free, some for a small fee, but this too saves on paper and postage, leaving no footprint.

I wondered how they were going to maintain this lofty goal of zero impact on the environment with their actual wedding, which did turn out to be a bit harder, but still, I was amazed at the extent to which they worked this out.

The arrived and left their wedding on bicycle, no pollution, no impact.
The wedding dress was made in a fashion that it could later be dyed and hemmed to wear in the future. This has a small impact on the environment, but no more than any other clothing that you would purchase normally.

The food that was served was all vegetarian, and delicious, but this didn't impress me as being sustainable, until I found out that all of the produce was grown locally, only organic produce, much of it by the chef him self, and used in preparation of all of the meals. No shipping, cartage, etc, no fuel used to transport, just good quality, organic (no pesticide) vegetables. They even served fruit smoothies made with locally grown organic apples. What a wonderful idea!!

The Flowers were all locally grown, in season flowers, which were beautiful, and again kept the environment footprint very small. In addition to this, the vases that were used were ball jars that will be re-used again and again as my niece loves to make canned fruits and vegetables.

Ok, so I guess you’re wondering how we can bring the jewelry into the idea of sustainability. Easy, the rings that were used were family heirlooms, re-worked to fit their taste!!

All in all, this was quite an impressive wedding and quite an impressive feat to accomplish such a small environmental footprint with 150 people at the wedding!

Our Friends from all walks of LIfe

It's truly a pleasure working with our friends and clients. We have clients from all walks of life and sometimes we are fortunate, and our friends share pictures of their special day, their wedding day with us. I would like to share one of these pictures with you today.

In some cultures, it is customary to have "Henna" parties. The bride and her bridal party will paint their hands with a temporary dye called henna, and often in very intricate patterns. I loved seeing the juxtaposition of the two hands, together with the traditional hand painting and the wedding bands that they chose to express their love and devotion to one another.

I thank them for sharing, and I hope that you too enjoy seeing how some of us have different traditions, that blend so beautifully with today's modern bride.

Wow!! What a wonderful engagment story

I recently received this wonderful email from a client of mine, months after I had worked with him, and I had to share it with everyone. One of the reasons that I love my job is that I have wonderful friends and clients, that appreciate the effort that we put into each and every piece of jewelry that we make, and everyone leaves happy!
___________________________________________________________

I'm sorry for the delay. This email is long overdue.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

I was in your shop on a rainy, cold February 26th. I took care of everything engagement-related that day: asked her father (a cop) if I could marry his daughter around 8a, had a wonderful ring shopping experience at Windy City Diamonds from 10a-1p, and asked her to marry me around 7p.

Here's how it went down:

She had to take care of her grandpa till about 5:30p, planning to get home around 6p. We had a dinner party to go to that night around 7p, so I planned on asking her beforehand. I got to her place about 5:45p. From the time I left my house, I was so nervous! As I sat on her living room couch waiting for her to get home, my heart was racing so fast. I was amazed at how something like this could make my body react in such a way. I set up a camera in a hidden location, and stuck the ring in my pocket. When I heard the garage door open, I nearly jumped with excitement. I turned the camera on, and sat back down, pretending to read a magazine. She came through the door, coat on, and water bottle in hand. I was so nervous and excited that I basically ran right at her, haha (She later said that she noticed how I sprinted to her so fast).

We hugged and kissed and all that good stuff. Then, I went into "remember when?" mode:

me (trying to cover up a shaky voice): "I was thinking today how we're going to Lindsay's for dinner tonight, just like the first night we kissed years ago."
her: "yeah.."
me: "Remember when I went in for the kill, you stopped me and said, 'before we do this, you know how crazy my life is, and how crazy my family is?'"
her: "haha, yeah"
me: "Well, after all this time, all I know is that I'm crazy about you."
her: "I'm crazy about you too!"
me: "and now I wanna know (dropping to one knee, displaying the ring), do you wanna get a little more crazy?"
her: *gasp* "HOLY CRAP!"
me: "Jamie, will you marry me?"
her: *shocked* *2 seconds = eternity*
me: "(um), will you marry me?"
her: "yes! YES!!!!!"

I looked down at the ring and noticed that I had the center stone shifted off to the right, so I made a quick adjustment, haha. We embraced for a long time, called a bunch of family and friends, and finally went to our party. It was great! I'm glad I didn't wait.

__________________________________________________________
I'm fortunate that he came in, and I'm very happy that he took the time to share his story with me, which is why I felt compelled to share with you all as well. Enjoy your day!

How much should you spend on an Engagement Ring?

This summer, it’s estimated that more than 500,000 men in the United States will pop “the question”, which means that summer time is engagement ring time.

Many men will be wondering, how much should they save for an engagement ring? Traditionally, DeBeers Diamond Company suggested that a groom should plan on spending at least three months’ of his annual salary. Yet the question remains, how valid is this ideal of spending three month’s salary given the difficulties in the world economies today and closer to home, our still sluggish economy?

At a time when the unemployment rate is close to double digits and the household savings rate is in single digits, not everyone will feel comfortable spending 25 percent of their annual income on a ring.

Still, there is the ideal that 3 months salary is the target, but there are a few things to remember when making this decision. First, it’s not like an automobile that you will drive for a few years and then trade or sell for a newer model, nor is it even like a condominium or home that you may decide to sell and move for what ever personal reasons that you may have.

This is a purchase that will last a very long time, and will be enjoyed for a very long time. My wife still gets compliments on her engagement ring, and she has worn it every day since the day she put it on her finger, 34 years ago!! Remarkably, this is not an unusual response that I often hear from our friends and clients about their rings as well.

My personal opinion is that this is a purchase that is recognizing your stated love between two people and should be one of the happiest events/moments in your life. It should not be uncomfortable, or so stressful that you’re worried about how much you are spending on this ring; rather it should be purchased within your comfort zone, after setting your own personal goals as to what is important to you about this purchase. Believe me; she’s going to love what you do!!

What's old is new again!

One of the most traditional diamond cuts is again becomming popular. Take a look at the new 2 million dollar, let's repeat that, $2,000,000.00, 16.5 carat Emerald Cut diamond, that was recently given to Kim Kardashian by New Jersey Nets forward Kris Humphries. The 16.5 carat emerald cut diamond is flanked by 2.00 carat trapazoid cut diamonds, one on each side of the emerald cut.

The step cut design of the Emerald cut diamond is a true classic, reaching it's peak in popularity during the art deco period of time, which is why your grandmother may have sported an emerald cut diamond in ring. Kim's desire to have something that others don't have has actually enhanced a trend towards vintage and art deco styles of jewelry.

At Windy City Diamonds, we are distributors of a line of fine vintage fillagree jewelry by White House Brothers. White House Brothers has been crafting fine fillagree jewelry for over 100 years, with the finest in workmanship with the most amazing, timeless designs. http://www.whitehousebrothers.com/index_flash.php

Have Fun at the Beach, but be careful with your jewelry

While you're having fun this summer, swimming in your local pool, or playing down at the beach, please be aware of some dangerous pitfalls when taking care with your jewelry.

Most of us don't realize it, but because the water temperatures are lower than our body temperature, it cools down our body. This may cause your body to slightly shrink in size, meaning that your finger size will be smaller after a short period of time in the water. This is a perfect recipe for losing your beautiful rings in the water. Every year I hear of someone that lost their ring or other jewelry while playing in or near the ocean. This may be heart breaking so my recommendation is leave your jewelry at home.

Ok, so now you've been warned about not wearing your jewelry in by the beach, but is there anything else to be aware of?

The sand can act as an abrasive, and damage the finish on your jewelry as well as harming precious stones. So the bottom line is that it's not a good idea to bring your jewelry to the beach. Leave them behind and enjoy the day!

What about pools you may ask? Often, the chemicals that are used in pools may be harmful to precious metals and gemstones. The chlorine that is used in many pools can cause reactions that will permanently ruin your silver, gold and perhaps even your platinum jewelry. Pools are also cooler in temperature than your body temperature, so you'll have the same problem in a pool as at the beach with rings slipping off of your fingers.

Have fun in the water, and leave your jewelry worries at home!!

Diamond Prices rising world wide

Last week, London based diamond conglomerate De Beers, most widely known for their control over about 60% - 65% of the worlds rough diamonds, raised the price they charge to their dealers on rough diamonds by about 12%!

This threw the entire diamond and jewelry industry into a tizzy over what will happen with the prices of polished diamonds, and exactly what we expected to happen did.

The price of polished diamonds jumped between 8% - 12% this week. If you happen to be in the market as we speak, looking for that special diamond, for your soon to be fiancé, don't be surprised if all of a sudden diamonds seem to be more expensive.

You may ask, what's the difference between rough diamonds and polished diamonds? Simply put, rough diamonds are diamonds in their natural form, as they have been pulled from the earth.

Polished diamonds are what we all treasure for their exquisite beauty in the way that diamonds have the unique ability to reflect light, after they have been polished into the beautiful diamonds that we see in our jewelry.

Buying a diamond... What's more important, color or clarity?

So you're ready to buy a diamond and you're wondering what is more important, color or clarity? Oh, you're going to love this answer,
It depends.. on what you may ask? It depends upon what your priorities are. You will need to decide, but when I'm asked which is more important, I usually advise to use your eyes. If you are looking at diamonds that are SI2 or better in clarity, most likely you will not be able to see the difference in clarity from a flawless diamond or a diamond that is Slightly Included, without using magnification.

On the other hand, Color is another story. If we are considering diamonds that are white in color, then the question is, can you SEE the difference? It is generally considered that most people will not begin to see a hint of yellow, and I mean just a hint, until you go down the scale to about I or J in color.

The rarest white color is D, and I often find that people equate color with brilliance. Color really has nothing to do with brilliance, but the purity of the D color ofter gives the feeling of being absolutely clear. What this means is that even if your eye cannot see the differences in the colors, your mind does recognize these differences.

So what do I recommend? Go with what you can see. You may get down the scale a little bit in clarity without visually recognizing these differences, but the colors, your mind recognizes pretty quickly.

Wedding Reception for Seth & Jenny Steward

Last evening I had the pleasure of attending the wedding reception for the new Mr. & Mrs. Seth and Jenny Steward.

Her beautiful engagement ring was complimented by the custom made wedding band that fits and matches perfectly! Jenny's dress was absolutely exquisite, I wish I had a picture to post here for you to see.

The reception was held at the Garfield Park Conservatory and it was simply beautiful. Surrounded by friends and family from all over the country, in the lush, floral setting of the conservatory, both inside and outside, was wonderful.

I want to extend my heartiest congratulations to the newly weds.

How Fine a clarity do I need in a diamond to be eye clean??

Today I had a client come in that was looking for a nice diamond. He wanted a diamond that would be a nice color and fine enough clarity that he would not see any internal inclusions within the diamond. He then proceeded to ask me if I had any diamonds that were either Flawless or VVS1 in clarity because someone in another store told them that sometimes you may see inclusions, with the naked eye, without magnification, in a diamond that has been independently certified as VVS2.

So what does this mean to you? VVS1 or VVS2 means very very slightly included, and this is further broken down into 2 catagories, 1 or 2. I know that these acronyms, like VVS, sound strange, but they are very explicit in their description of a diamond. These inclusions are generally so tiny that even magnified 10x, it may difficult for a trained eye to locate, so how is it possible for the un-aided, un-trained eye, to see these inclusions? Plain and Simple, it is not possible. The information that was given out was just wrong.

Here is a breakdown of the GIA scale that all diamond dealers follow world wide

In my experience, depending upon the size of the diamond that you're viewing, most people will say that even down to SI1 or SI2, the diamond will be "eye clean". Now it's up to you to decide what you are happy and content with when it comes to your diamond.

I hope this clears that up for all of you that are searching for diamonds.
Congratulations, you just passed your first class in Diamonds 101!

Help!! My ring is stuck, what do I do??

I know that you've always liked your rings to be tight, but now your fingers on the verge of turning blue and you don't know what to do to get your rings off. Of course you've already tried soap, but you found that it was slippery and not effective enough to remove your ring. Then you tried oil, which was too slippery to get a good grip on your ring, so this too failed.
So what's the solution?

Try spraying your hand with Windex! Windex has an oil base to it, and if you've put a towel down under your hand so that the windex isn't all over everything, you can easily grab your ring, and often it will slide right off! Amazing!

What do you do if the Windex trick doesn't work? The next option would be to raise your hand over your head for a few minutes, and if you can stand it,either hold a piece of ice in your hand, or put your hand in a bowl of ice water as well. This will decrease the blood flow, and as our hands get cold, they tend to shrink. This 3-prong approach of raised hand, ice and windex should do the trick!

One last note, windex, having an oil base, will leave a residue of oil on your jewelry so be sure to clean it after you done this or you will very quickly have very dirty rings!

Check out my other blogs for good advice on how to clean your diamond rings.

Saved the best for last, in the immortal words shared in the movie, My Big Fat Greet Wedding....

Toula Portokalos: I woke up with this huge zit this morning.
Ian Miller: Where?
Toula Portokalos: [points to spot on face] There.
Ian Miller: I had a huge zit this morning!
Toula Portokalos: Really? Where?
Ian Miller: [points to his face] Well, it was there, but it's gone now.
Toula Portokalos: Why?
Ian Miller: I put some Windex on it.

Push Presents... What do I do?

You mean to tell me you don't know what a push present is? Traditionally, when we give a "push present", we're giving our wives a present to commemorate the birth of a child. Once upon a time, every husband showed up to the hospital with a pair of stud earrings, but times have changed. Many still buy stud earrings, or perhaps some other earrings, but more and more, I'm seeing people custom making pieces for their wives, and often these pieces of jewelry are engraved with special messages, the birth date of the child, perhaps the weight of the child, etc. What type of pieces you may ask? Lately we've been making custom pendants, with room to engrave your special message on the back.

This is an example of combining the birth stones, in this case a large oval cut purple Amethyst, with the gift. This particular pendant, made in 14k White gold, is designed so that they made remove the chain, and hide the bale in the back of the pendant, and then it may be worn as a pin.

This one combines a design, the lady bug, with the chosen decor that was used in their new daughters room, along with beauty and and style. Made in 14k Rose gold in the shape of a lady but, and on the back is engraved the date, weight, size and name of their daughter. What ever you do, a gift like this will always be appreciated, with this gift being one of the most cherished throughout your lives!

Help!! My white gold ring turned yellow.

Ok, Let me just put this out there... There is no such thing as white gold!OH,but you bought a white gold ring? Well, the reality is, pure gold is a bright yellow metal when you dig it out of the ground. We have to make white gold, and we do this by mixing metals, commonly known as alloying. In the case of 14 karat, this means that when you mix the gold and the alloy together, you end up with 58% of a yellow metal and 42% of a white metal (the alloy). So, if you think about it, when you make 14k white gold, you really have a whitish metal, not the pure white metal that you saw when you picked up your engagment ring or jewelry from your jeweler, but is this really the color that you want? Of course not, you want pure white, just like platinum, after all, that's what you bought. Most white gold engagement rings and jewelry have been Rhodium plated. Some people refer to this as dipping their jewelry, but this is really an electo-plate process that puts rhodium, a bright white metal in the platinum family, as a cladding over the gold engagement ring. Rhodium adheres beautifully to gold, but over time, it will wear off, and when it does, you may think that your ring turned yellow, or you may just think that it needs to be polished. Either way, when you have your engagement ring re-polished, your jeweler should add the rhodium plating back on to your ring and it will appear new again. It's an amazing transformation that resolves the question of your ring turning yellow, and I'm sure you'll love it!

Help! I've become allergic to my rings?

I'm often asked what someone can do when all of a sudden they've become allergic to their jewelry. I've heard complaints about rashes, itchy skin, etc, but is this really the problem? The culprit may not be a skin allergy, it may be a question of how to keep your ring clean!

I have found that if you do the following, you may be able to alleviate the problems that you are experiencing. First, one warning, this method works very well for diamond jewelry, but I don't recommend this for jewelry that has Emeralds, opals or pearls, as this may harm these types of stones, so please take note.

It may be possible that your ring is just very dirty underneath, and this may be what’s affecting your skin. I would try the following and see if this helps.

Take a glass of warm water, put a couple of drops of Dawn dish soap in the glass (not joy, Palmolive, Ivory, etc, only dawn) and let your ring soak for about 10 minutes. Dawn's advertised grease cutting agent seems to work quite well with diamond jewelry. Pull the stopper in the sink just in case you drop your ring on the next step. Take an old, soft toothbrush, and gently scrub the ring, inside, outside, bottom, underneath, etc, while holding it under the faucet, until you can visually see that everything appears clean.
Be sure to let your rings dry completely before putting them back on, and do not wear them at night, which gives any new gunk underneath a chance to dry so that it won’t react with your skin.
Try this for a few days and see if the problem doesn’t clear up!
So simple, yet very effective.

Congratulations to the Duke and Duchesse of Cambridge

Well, the Royal Wedding was a complete smash.Can you image having over 1 million people watching you share your vows?!? Not to mention the very short list of 600 guests that will join them for the reception, and oh, by the way, this was the kiss seen around the world...

I'm wondering if the very well advertised, 18k Yellow Welsh Gold wedding band will begin a new trend with brides to be? And of course I would expect to see a resurgence of engravings inside of wedding bands, as there is surely an engraving in the wedding band of the Duchesse of Cambridge. I always liked the engraving, and I still often speak of it with friends and clients. What's inside of your ring?
Just a few of the sayings that I've seen, from traditional to the unexpected and funny

All My Love... Yours Forever... his and her initials...

of course the date is included, but how about some of the funnier ones??

Put it back on... Huh?..... Boom Shaka Laka...

and back to the traditional,
With this ring I thee wed... Perhaps special words from the bible, etc.
The list goes on and on, but you get the idea. Make it yours, make it special, you will always remember it!

The Royal Wedding Ring

Many of us have been following the upcoming Royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, which will take place this week. There has been much speculation on what Kate's Royal wedding band will look like. What we believe is that it will most likely be made from a Welsh Gold nugget that has been under lock and key in the Royal Treasury for years. The Queen mother used a piece of this nugget for her wedding band as did other Royals, but it is said that the gold is nearly depleated. Welsh gold is quite rare, is mined from one of two mines located in Wales, and has a slight rosy color to the gold. Kate Middleton is expected to receive an 18k Welsh Gold ring that is called a Posey ring, a ring that has a traditional message engraved inside the ring. Although it's not uncommon to write a message inside of the wedding band, Kate's is expected to follow a tradition that has been repeated for centuries in the Royal family. Stay tuned for a view of the actual ring in the next few days.

How to stop your ring from flopping - Just like a princess

I'm often asked "How can I stop my ring from flopping over on my finger"? Well, apparently Kate Middleton had the same problem that you have, as reported by "Today" on line.

http://windsorknot.today.com/_news/2011/04/13/6463086-kate-gets-her-engagement-ring-made-smaller

So what can you do to stop what I call "the engagement ring flop"? Most engagement rings are top heavy and have a tendency to flop over to the side. ok, here's the technical reason for this... gravity wants to take the heaviest part of the ring, usually the top, and pull it down towards the ground. Bet you thought you'd hear a long winded explanation! The simple answer to fix it is exactly what Kate Middleton's jeweler recommended to her. They put small sizing balls in the bottom of the ring. These small balls, usually made in the same metal as the engagement ring, and permanently placed at about 5 o'clock and 7 o'clock, inside the ring, catch the inside of your finger,can barely be felt, and have a tendency to keep your ring upright on your finger. Problem solved!

Engagement ring trends continued

I've been thinking about what other trends would be good to share with my fiends and followers, so today I'm going to talk about the tiffany Novo style of setting.

Many people love the look of diamonds around the center, halo style, but there are also often diamonds that go down the shank of the ring as well. The style of setting that is used for these diamonds can make a difference to you whether you'll be losing the small diamonds, which often happens, or making them strong enough to last the test of time. The Novo style of setting is done with 4 prongs on every diamond, which is much safer than the very common shared-prong setting style.

Shared prong style puts 2 diamonds, side by side, sharing the same prongs, the novo style leaves the diamonds all to themselves. Engagement rings are meant to be worn and enjoyed for many years to come and none of us want to go through the hassle of repeatedly replacing these small diamonds. The latest trend towards 4 prongs on each diamond, novo style, is practical as well as beautiful. This is one that I highly recommend.

engagement ring trends

Often I have friends and clients that ask me what's "Hot" in engagement rings this year. Not an easy question to answer, but I still have lot's of people looking at "halo" style diamond rings, rings that have small diamonds all around the center diamond. This is a really pretty style, and it tends to make the center diamond appear larger. This begs the question that I hear often, is it true that bigger is better? Well, if it really is, then maybe the latest style of a double row of diamonds around the center makes the perfect engagement ring, but then you would think that I would have lots of requests for this, but that's not the case, I definitely see many more single rows of diamonds around the center than the double row that Tiffany's would like you to buy. That's it for this message, but I'll be back with more trendy idea's.