Shopping-Adviser

Not Insured?

We hear sad and tragic stories every week from our clients about a broken, lost or stolen diamond and come to find that they have not been insured.  Proper insurance is the only way to protect yourself from not being able to replace your special diamond with the same quality and size you have.

Many consumers are under the impression that diamonds can not break and therefore do not need to be insured.  Or that they are automatically covered under renters or homeowners insurance if lost or stolen.  Both of these statements are false.  A diamond can break and unless the diamond is specifically listed on your insurance policy or you have separate coverage in the form of a rider on your renters or homeowner’s policy the ring would not be covered in the event of breakage, loss or theft. 

Making sure that you purchase a certified diamond and having the proper description and photos on the appraisal are also key elements when having your diamond insured.  Without the proper carat weight, color, clarity, depth and table percentages and millimeter measurements as well as a report on the fluorescence of the diamond the type of diamond that your insurance company will agree to replace could be vastly different from your original stone. 

At Diamond Source of Virginia we always encourage our clients to price compare their homeowner’s coverage with and independent insurance company.  Two such companies that we have recommended to our clients in the past for exceptional coverage and honest business practices are Jewelers Mutual and Chubb Group of Insurance Companies.

The biggest mistake that consumers make is either having too much insurance or not having any at all.  The more you know about insurance the more informed you will be in making the right insurance decision for the future.

Upgrading your diamond

As the De Beers advertising campaign states, “A Diamond is forever”, that does not necessarily mean it is forever on your finger.  The beautiful and well intentioned diamond you were given upon your engagement may have sentimental value but there is nothing wrong with upgrading to something larger, a different shape or adding side stones to your current diamond somewhere down the road. 

My first piece of advice is to go shopping.  Go to as many local jewelry stores as you can and try on a variety of rings.  My experience, after being in the diamond business for four years, is that many women think they want a particular shape of diamond based on what they have seen in magazines and on television but in reality what looks good on their particular hand could be totally different.  The biggest challenge in shopping is that most jewelry stores only carry rings in a certain size.  There might be fifteen rings to look at but the majority of them are a finger size six.  This is ok if you have a smaller finger size but can be very frustrating if you have a larger finger.  It is so important that you are able to try the ring on and know that the ring will be comfortable to wear all the time. 

Once you have determined the shape of the diamond you are interested in do some research into color and clarity.  For a round shaped diamond starting with at least I color and SI1 clarity is perfectly fine.  For a fancy shaped diamond I would suggest at least H color and VS2 clarity.  Above all make sure that you are looking at certified diamonds.  Most jewelry stores will tell you that the diamonds in their cases are certified but in fact they only have paper work from the store not from the GIA or AGS.  Ask to see the certifications and if they say you can only have that information when you purchase the diamond run out of the store quickly.  The diamonds could be any color, clarity and carat weight that they say and you would have no idea what you are actually buying. 

A big question is what to do with your current diamond.  Clients call us everyday wanting to sell their diamonds and there is really no good outlet for that kind of sale.  I would encourage anyone to either incorporate their diamond into the new ring as a side stone or turn it into a new piece of jewelry in the form of a pendant or earring.

Jewelry is meant to be worn and enjoyed.  Keeping a piece of jewelry in its current mounting, that you feel is outdated, so in turn you never wear it, is such a waste.   Using the diamond in another way preserves the sentimental value and gives you a new piece to enjoy and cherish. 

To read more about diamonds and the diamond buying process please visit Diamond Source of Virginia at http://www.diamondsourceva.com/

Charming Jewelry

I was helping my college age daughter clean out her room this past weekend in an effort to get her organized for the packing extravaganza that was going to take place this week in preparation for her return to college.  She left today : (   I love to go through every nook and cranny and weed out items that are not longer wanted or used.  I am not by nature a saver.  In going through her jewelry we came upon her charm bracelet.  A delicate gold chain with about 20 charms hanging around it.  We gave each of the girls a bracelet for Christmas one year when they were probably 6 or 7.  Each birthday, holiday or special vacation we would try to find an appropriate charm to add to the bracelet. They were small charms and the girls have since out grown them but love them just the same.  It was such fun to look at each charm and talk about the significance or special memory behind them. 

I have always loved charm bracelets and don't feel that they have ever gone out of style.  They are timeless and represent our lives as we evolve and grow old.  My grandmother had wonderful charm bracelets and my mother still wears hers with the addition of the charms she inherited from my grandmother. 

I am in the diamond business and a client came in the other day with an engagement ring and wedding band that were his grandmothers.  He wanted to do something with them and present them as a gift to his wife for an anniversary. The rings certainly held great emotional significance to this client but were small and due to the age, they were his grandmother’s rings, the cut was not what it should be on the round diamonds and they did not have any sparkle, fire or brilliance.  We very kindly suggested that maybe he should consider another alternative versus simply resetting them in a piece of jewelry that his wife may or may not ever wear.  We suggested starting a charm bracelet and adding the rings to it in there original form.  That way they would be preserved and the bracelet could be added to in the future.  He was thrilled with the idea and thanked us for all of our help.

Taking a sentimental piece of jewelry that would, under normal circumstances, just sit in a jewelry box and turning it into something that can be worn and enjoyed as well as being a conversation piece I think is a wonderful gift.

Go to http://jewelry.about.com/cs/charmbracelets/tp/charm.htm for great charm bracelet options

Building A Jewelry Wardrobe

Building A Jewelry Wardrobe

It is my opinion that jewelry is no longer viewed as an indulgence.  Whether you are buying an investment piece or something fun, faux and trendy it makes a statement about your personal style as well as your mood.  You do not have to be stuck wearing the same pieces everyday and changing your jewelry does not have to cost you a fortune.  There are some wonderful pieces out there that look just like the real thing at a fraction of the cost. 

Building a jewelry wardrode is a process and reflects not only your style but can be characterized by the times.  Here are some tips and suggestions to creating your own stash of goodies.

Every woman should have at least two watches.  One for everyday that is durable and large enough to read that can be worn with a suit or with jeans.  Leather straps, which now come is a bevy of  fun colors are always classic but keep in mind that they will need to be replaced in time with wear.  Metal bands will last longer and can get slightly wet if necessary.  A simple dress watch is also a nice piece to own.  Something elegant for evening, possibly with some diamonds around the face to dress it up further. 

Diamonds are no longer reserved just for evening wear.  Everyone should own a pair of diamond stud earrings and enjoy them during the day no matter what you are wearing or your age.  If the real thing is not an option most fine department stores sell wonderful fakes in all shapes and sizes.  Stick to the realistic one to one and a half carat range set in white gold.  No one, I promise, will ever know the difference unless you tell them they are not real. 

Diamond chandelier earrings are also still popular for the evening.  Not too big though, just long enough to catch the light and shimmer in a flattering way.

Brooches go in and out of style but to own one or two can really make for a versatile piece of jewelry and can dress up any suite or outer wear.  You can also get creative and wear them in your hair, clipped to a multiple strand of pearls or pin one on your plain handbag to dress it up. 

Do not wear too much jewelry at one time.  It is ok to layer on the bracelets or wear multiple long necklaces at once but please don’t do them at the same time.  You will look as though you are six years old again and are again playing dress up. 

If you have been given a piece of heirloom jewelry from a family member or good friend, enjoy it, wear it.  Don’t keep it hidden away in a safe place.  Everything is in right now so you can’t go wrong with the style and hopefully it will bring back fond memories. 

While classic fine jewelry is always a good investment and will remain timeless today’s retailers offer a wide variety of choices at every price point.  Experiment, enjoy and let go of your creative side.  Shop On!!!!!

Weekend Getaway Tips

There is nothing more relaxing that a nice weekend getaway with your family, especially this time of year with the warm weather.  Whether you are headed to the beach or the mountains packing should be simple and practical.

It is easy to claim that most travelers pack too much, but I am not so sure that is always the case.  True, nobody wants to lug a giant suit case with them but you also do not want to get caught in an unfamiliar area without the essentials and have to spend valuable vacation time shopping for the basics that should have been included in the first place. 

I have listed a few of my favorite tips that I hope you will find helpful.

If you have to pack your toilet items and cannot carry them with you, put them in separate zip lock bags.  This way if they leak they won’t ruin your clothes.

Go through your daily routine of getting ready and either write the things down as you use them or pack them after you use them as to not forget anything.  Be especially mindful of medications as these are more difficult to replace away from home.  Packing a small bag of medicine for headaches, stomach aches, poison ivy, allergies, etc is always a good idea especially if you have children. 

Pack clothes that are prone to wrinkles in plastic bags.  Dry cleaner bags work especially well.  Also, if you roll up sweaters instead of folding them, you’ll avoid the wrinkles that way too. 

Use the plastic bags that your newspaper comes in to put your shoes in.  They are see through so you can find which pair of shoes you are looking for and it also protects your other items from getting dirty.

Pack one or two extra plastic garbage bags.  They come in very handy to use as laundry bags or for wet bathing suits that were used at the last minute before leaving.

The list can go on and on but those are a few of my favorites.  Pack your favorite items to wear that you always feel comfortable in and remember that shopping should be a part of every getaway trip.  You never know what wonderful things you will find.  Enjoy, relax and be happy.

Landing Your Dream Ring

Women’s Guide to Getting Their Dream Diamond Engagement Ring

How can women get their dream diamond engagement ring when it is the boyfriend making the purchase and wanting it to be a surprise?  To find the answer you need to understand your man’s thought process.  After all, he is shopping for a diamond, the symbol of his love for you.

The man shopping for an engagement diamond has three primary shopping priorities:

1) They want to make a good investment
2) They want to make you happy
3) They fear disappointing you or worse yet, rejection

On all three points, men act out of fear of making a mistake.  Their pride and desire to surprise their girlfriend typically prohibit them from asking the woman’s advice.  As men so often do, they try to apply logic to what is a very emotional decision.

Most men attack diamond shopping the same as any other problem they face.  They research the subject, gather all the facts (often in a spreadsheet), and then make a logical decision.  They assume you will have the same priorities they have so they focus on what will be a good investment.  They seek a high quality diamond fearing that anything less will as somehow imply some lower level of love.

The man’s first stop is often the jewelry store in the closest shopping mall.  They walk in the door and realize they just entered a world foreign to them.  They look at rings in the display cases and see more zeros in the price tag than they have seen since they bought their car.  Their heart starts pounding as they realize they have to spend thousands of dollars on a tiny little rock they know nothing about, then give it away to someone else or worse yet, face rejection. 

Now their legs are shaking so they decide they need to do more research and do it in a friendlier environment.  They head home, turn on the computer, and start searching online for clues on how to survive the diamond buying process.  Their goal is to find a pretty ring their girlfriend will like and have a few dollars left in their pocket.  They feel more comfortable with the discussions of the four C’s (color, clarity, carat weight and cut) where they can match up those letter grades with their budget to find some possible options.  However, with a little knowledge comes the sinking feeling that there is a whole lot more for them to learn in order to protect themselves from making an expensive mistake.  They become even more determined not to make a mistake so they spend the next weeks and months gathering ever fact and opinion they can find on diamond buying.  It is almost like trying to get a drink from a fire hydrant.  There is just too much to drink in.

It is at this stage of the shopping process men sometimes forget the reason they started on this adventure in the first place.  They can lose sight of the fact that their primary goal is to make their girlfriend happy.

If you are a woman, by now you are probably getting the picture.  However, you are asking yourself, what should I do to help ensure the diamond of my dreams and the proposal moment as romantic as I hope?

Here are some suggestions that can help make your dreams come true:

1) Do some shopping yourself so you can tell your boyfriend what shape of diamond you like best on your finger.  Do not leave it up to him to guess wrong.

2) If you sense this is going to be mostly a surprise gift, drop some subtle hints about what kind of mounting (solitaire, side stones, etc.) you want for your diamond.  If you do not know, hint you want something very simple so he does not make an expensive mistake.

3) If you have a strong preference for the type of metal in the ring (yellow gold, white gold, platinum), find a way to tell him.

4) If you have the type of relationship that supports it, get involved in the diamond buying process.  There are more couples shopping together for the engagement ring now than ever before and the result is often higher levels of happiness and lower levels of stress.

Many couples now shop together so the boyfriend knows what shape of diamond the girlfriend likes, knows what style of mounting she likes and then he takes that knowledge to buy the ring on his own timetable and make the presentation a surprise.

The bottom line is your man is trying, to the best of his ability, to do all the right things to make you happy.  You just need to be patient and try to appreciate the effort he is making on your behalf.  If you would like to see this diamond gift giving repeated, then by all means tell him how proud you are of his research show him how much you love that sparkling diamond on your finger.

Celebrity Engagement Rings

Whether it is the sparkle of a princess’s necklace or a beautiful bauble gleaming on the left hand of an actress society has long been fascinated with celebrity jewelry.  If offers the fans an intimate detail about their favorite stars. 

From the Traditional to the Antique and even Art Deco, there is as much variation among celebrity engagement rings and there is between the brides themselves.  Here are a few of the true show stoppers:

Tom Cruise presented his fiancé Katie Holmes, and now the mother of his baby daughter, with a 5.5 carat oval diamond in an Edwardian-style ring with over six carats of smaller diamonds outlining the oval and on the shank.  The late Princess Diana wore an 18 carat oval blue sapphire with fourteen diamonds surrounding it.

Catherine Zeta-Jones’ engagement ring from Michael Douglas was a spectacular 10 carat marquise diamond set horizontally.  And Reese Witherspoon’s 4.5 carat Asscher cut diamond is set in a beautiful 1920s art deco style mounting.

Most of these engagement rings are out of reach for most newly engaged couples but you can recreate these looks in many ways.  For example, in order to afford a larger center stone you could use 14 karat white gold for the mounting instead of the much more expensive platinum.  Another way to get that big look without a big price tag would be to pave tiny diamonds around the center stone.  It will make the center stone appear much larger and will also add to the sparkle of the ring.  Three stone rings are also very popular, and not just for anniversaries, and it creates a larger overall look.

My advice would be to look for quality in your diamond.  Many jewelry stores try to sell you what they have in inventory instead of getting in the size, shape and quality of stone you are looking for.  All diamonds look good under jewelry store lights.  Make sure to see the certification for the diamond not just the store paperwork and take a good look at it under the microscope.    Taking the diamond or ring to an independent appraiser is the best choice.  They do not own the diamond and therefore will give you an honest opinion of the stones quality. For more information on the diamond buying process please visit: http://www.diamondsourceva.com/ShoppingAdvice/diamonds-shopping-advice.asp

And finally, your love for each other should last a life time, the diamond can always be up graded : )

Clover Leaf Shaped Jewelry

As we say goodbye to February and welcome in March our thoughts go to the "luck of the Irish" and the traditional clover leaf that has been transformed into beautiful jewelry.  Van Cleef and Arpels created their popular clover chains in a variety of lengths and colors and Mouawad made the clover famous with the Heidi Klum Collection which features a diamond encrusted clover pendant.  And California jewelry designer Carl Blackburn was inspired to create chandelier clover and heart earrings with pave diamonds and had this to say about the power of the clover:  "Few symbols are more evocative for jewelry than the four leaf clover.  Luck, faith, hope, and love are all captured in this iconic symbol from Nature."

There is also an extremely unique cut of diamond called a "Lily" cut that forms the perfect four leaf clover shape.  Find out more about that beautiful cut at the link below. 

http://www.diamondsourceva.com/Education/Shape/diamonds-shape-lily-cut.asp

May the "luck of the Irish" be with you!