Be Careful of Where You Get Your Diamonds From

A jeweler from San Jose, California was arrested and charged for grand theft for passing off and selling cubic zirconium as real diamonds.

The jeweler, Gerald Mokma, sold more than $240,000 in fake jewelry to at least 20 people over a five year period out of his store Willow Estates Jewelry.

Investigations began to take place back in February when a local NBC station broadcasted a story concerning customers who suspected that they had been panhandled, finding out that, all along, they had been buying cubic zirconium instead of real diamonds.

Although no one had filed a report, detectives served search warrants at Mokma’s residence where the evidence they found suggested that there were additional victims.

A Chandelier Made From Diamonds?

It’s about that time again!

The Emmy’s are coming up and this year the theme is diamonds! So to celebrate this idea, interior designer Mark Boone has designed a three-tiered chandelier that is made of more than 3,000 diamonds! This amounts to over 1,000 carats and is only located in a room that is accessible to Emmy nominees and presenters.

Only the celebrities will be able to touch and feel the diamonds with white gloves provided by Hearts On Fire. As a matter of fact, the chandelier itself is named, “Hearts On Fire Diamond Chandelier.”

After the award program the chandelier will be up for sale.

Just When You Thought Engagement Rings Cost Enough!

Prepare to save up! The total amount of engagement ring spending will be a little over $6 billion by the end of this year in the United States. You can add on another $2 billion for the wedding rings (both for bride and groom).

It’s expected for this $8 billion to reach over $9 billion by 2013. This is a growth of over 13% over the next five years. As we all know, the engagement rings and wedding rings have diamonds (being the main cause of why they are so darn expensive!) with more than two-thirds of the of them being white gold.

You better hope the person you plan on marrying is well worth it!

Diamond Butterflies

On Thursday, New York opened up a diamond exhibition in the shape of a butterfly at the American Museum of Natural History.

The exhibition, called “The Butterfly of Peace” weighs a little less than 170 carats and is made up of 240 diamonds. The diamonds have a range between .10 of a carat all the way to 2 carats. The diamonds themselves have been collected for over a 12 year period by diamond trader, Alan Bronstein.

The show will end on Sept. 11 and will make visit other museums in Toronto and Chicago.