DIAMONDS are a girl’s best friend but in these credit crunch times you may not believe you can afford that little piece of luxury for the one you love.
You’d be wrong.
On Sunday, May 10, 106 diamond rings, bracelets and loose stones will go under the hammer at a diamond auction in Liverpool with guide prices from as little as ten per cent of their recommended retail price (RRP).
The liquidation sale takes place at the John Lennon Airport – Crowne Plaza Hotel. Sutton Kersh are the auctioneers for the event and will be accepting bids on behalf of I Bid Diamonds on the catalogue that has a total RRP of in excess of £520,000.
Lot 22, a solitaire diamond ring with a total carat weight of 4.66 carries the highest RRP at £38,900 and is guided at just £6,600. Lot 76, an illusion diamond solitaire cluster ring has the lowest guide of £100 and a RRP of £410.
All of the diamond jewellery is genuine and carries the necessary certification. An independent valuer will be at the auction to provide professional advice to potential bidders.
A preview event will take place at the hotel on the morning of the auction from 9:30am where the jewellery can be viewed first hand before bidding commences at 12noon.
All bidders must register with Sutton Kersh either online at www.suttonkersh.co.uk, by telephone on 0151 207 6315 or on the morning of the auction from 9:30am at the hotel before qualifying as eligible to bid.
James Kersh, director of auctions at Sutton Kersh says: “A property auction house diversifying into diamond sales amidst a recession may appear a strange business decision. We recognise that our auctioneering skills are transferable and so we are teaming up with professionals to maximise our business potential.
“With 106 other lots I am confident there is something on sale for everyone. In thecurrent economic climate people are searching for deals and that is exactly what we are offering; genuine, quality goods at more affordable prices.”
Every calendar month has a gem attached to it that represents the character of a person born in that month: your birthstone. These gems are supposed to have a certain qualities that reflect the wearer and bring them good fortune or luck in love or positive health. Since “birth gems” or stones have been around for centuries, being established in many traditions, including Ayurvedic Indian healing practices, many people may not know the origin behind gem therapy and simply wear it order to enjoy admiring their special stone.
Gem therapy, often called crystal therapy, has long been known to help the entire person instead of focusing on the specific symptoms (something most complementary and alternative medicine, CAM, strives to do). Besides being a staple of Indian culture, gem therapy was also found in ancient Chinese medicine as well as shamanism practiced by many Native Americans. By aiming to create a balance between mind, body, and spirit, gem therapy is not as farfetched as other healing techniques and you never know, that emerald and diamond ring on your finger could be working on you right now without your knowledge.
Each human body is a separate unique being, with different energy sources that need to be harnessed and realigned in order to work correctly. Building a harmony within the energy of your body using crystals is just like painting the walls in your bedroom a soft blue to create peace and allow good restful sleep. When illness or disease creep up and block the energies in the body from collaborating, an outside source needs to be invited into the body so it can heal from within.
According to the ancient texts of gem therapy, crystals can be used on specific points on the body where energy is concentrated (like the pressure points associated with acupressure, or the chakras heard about in Yoga). Or, just the act of wearing a stone--a round stone is best--can bring its energies into your body because the stones themselves hold many different energies because they were formed over time under the Earth.
What are these energies you ask? The ancient texts also explain the differences between each colored stone. My birthstone, the ruby, is said to improve emotional stability (like pain from a recent heartache or old emotions that were suppressed) and is also helpful for keeping the spleen and heart in good condition. Ruby is also a good form of relief from hypertension. Emeralds, and other green-colored gems, are often used to support the immune system and blue gems (like sapphires) can restore vitality and mental abilities, as well as clear your mind and strengthen weakened nerves and bones. Since diamonds are a girl’s best friend, it serves women well to know that diamonds are helpful in keeping you truthful, keeping you on the right path, bringing purity to the heart, and strengthening all other matters of the heart along with inspiring creativity and imagination. No wonder the “brilliant” diamond is a coveted charm of the engaged, symbolizing marriage and fidelity.
I mentioned earlier that round stones are best for wearing in order to transmit their powers and if you are looking for an extra boost of balance in your life, look for therapeutic-grade gemstones or crystals and find one that is rounded to allow a greater flow of energy from the stone and wear around the neck for maximum effectiveness.
Throughout all of my research I found that the Gregorian calendar from the 1500s actually documented a small verse for each of the stones attributed to each month, although three of the twelve verses actually repeat. I was excited to see that my month was an authentic and unduplicated version, however the author is unknown:
The gleaming Ruby should adorn, All those who in July are born, For thus they'll be exempt and free, From lover's doubts and anxiety.
Next time you get a gift of jewelry from a family member, loved one, or friend, take a second to appreciate the healing values associated with the stone and make sure to thank them twice!
In 1987, Michelle Rosen offered candy to David Zornitsky during their first lecture at a C.P.A. course in New York. It was no accident that she was sitting next to him. She had spotted him at registration and after exchanging glances, she recalled, “I just knew I was going to marry him.”
Ms. Rosen, who like Mr. Zornitsky was then 23, was well aware that such decisions were best made after lengthy dating, or at least an introduction. But she said she was convinced that, “He was my missing piece.”
It took more than 20 years for the couple to find a way to make those pieces fit.
Not that each had ever lacked interest in the other. When the two met, Mr. Zornitsky was attracted to the dark-haired woman with candy in her purse. Two weeks later, while on a trip, he took time to send Ms. Rosen a postcard. “I wanted to make sure she was thinking of me,” he said.
He had asked her to send him “brief notes” for the classes he would be missing. She took his request quite literally, buying a pair of men’s briefs and transcribing her notes onto them.
That was when he knew he was dealing with someone special.
Soon they were dating exclusively. “The passion was going at warp speed,” he recalled. “My friends were all envious. There was nothing more I could have wanted.”
Even so, he felt he was too young to settle down and suggested that they see other people.
A pained look appeared on her face. He said, “I remember walking away thinking: ‘You’re an idiot. This isn’t what you really want.’ But at that age you just keep walking.”
They went their separate ways. But not for long. They described a very 20-something cycle of being together and apart, with each taking turns breaking the other’s heart.
The pattern continued until 1991, when Ms. Rosen was working in the sports division of HBO, where she is now a national marketing director. She invited Mr. Zornitsky to Atlantic City for the network’s first pay-per-view boxing card. They walked the red carpet amid celebrities and paparazzi. “It was one of those moments where you are where everyone in the world wants to be,” she said.
“Michelle was radiant,” he said. “I couldn’t get enough of her.”
On the drive back from Atlantic City, he decided to introduce her to his parents. In his mind it was a straight line from there to marriage, but she had doubts about his intentions.
They began to bicker on route to his parents’ home in Spring Valley, N.Y. “She said ‘You have to prove to me that you’re serious,’ and I said ‘You’re crazy if you think I have to prove it,’ ” he recalled. He turned the car around, and headed toward New York City instead, ending another chapter in their relationship.
He decided he had made a terrible mistake, but it took him a year to admit it to her. In 1992, Ms. Rosen agreed to meet him for a drink. But after he told her how much he missed her, she pulled her left hand out of her pocket, revealing a diamond ring on her fourth finger.
“I had no idea that was coming,” he said of the news of her engagement. Sitting on bar stools, side by side, their eyes filled with tears.
“My animal instinct was to take the girl I loved and leave with her,” he said. He didn’t.
She appreciated Mr. Zornitsky’s restraint. “I had made a commitment to my fiancé.” Ms. Rosen, now 44, explained. But she also harbored a secret hope. “I envisioned David coming on his white horse to rescue me.”
Four years later, she separated from her first husband, but by that time Mr. Zornitsky was married and eagerly expecting the first of his two sons. In 2002, it was Mr. Zornitsky whose marriage was floundering; Ms. Rosen had married for a second time and had an infant son.
Through it all they remained friends and ruefully joked that they would be together when “we were 80 and sitting on a park bench in Florida,” she said.
That changed in 2005 after Ms. Rosen’s second marriage collapsed. She was “shell shocked” at the prospect of being a twice-divorced woman. “That’s not who I am, and I don’t know how I got here.” she said. “I never thought I would be Elizabeth Taylor.”
Mr. Zornitsky offered a sympathetic shoulder and courted her with buckets of chocolate kisses. “She was the girl who got away, and I was going to get her back,” he said. Mindful of the likely effect on their families, she slowly began to spend more time with him.
“I think she is still more beautiful than any other girl,” said Mr. Zornitsky, now 44 and the chief financial officer of Brownstone Asset Management, an investment firm in New York.
“I have loved David since I was 23,” Ms. Rosen said. “He makes me feel as lovely and youthful as I was in my 20s.” She added, gratefully, “Makes looking in the mirror” a lot easier.
On April 5, the couple was escorted by their three boys down an aisle lined with lollipop trees at Dylan’s Candy Bar in New York. The bride wore a borrowed dress made of candy wrappers that was designed for “Project Runway.” Rabbi Douglas Sagal then led them in their vows beneath a wedding canopy of giant Whirly Pops and candy-colored balloons.
Their 50 guests dined on peanut butter and jelly tarts and candy sushi (coconut rice, Swedish Fish and Fruit Roll-Ups) while the couple danced to “Sugar, Sugar.”
Julie Halpern, a friend of the couple, marveled at the trajectory of their relationship and their buoyant spirit. “Not all weddings have a lollipop rainbow,” she said as her 7-year-old daughter listened intently. “But they should.”
In the heart of bustling fashion capital Milan, time stands still in Italian jeweller Buccellati's workshop where father and son work side by side carving, engraving and polishing gems.
There are no state-of-the-art machines around, just the workers using traditional handcrafting techniques, some dating from the Renaissance period.
An artisan cuts out gold leaf shapes using a simple handsaw, while another pierces patterns into fine gold sheets by hand. One slip of the saw, and the work must be started again.
"At a time when men are going to the moon, you can still make jewelry with techniques that date back from the Renaissance," 79-year-old designer and company head Gianmaria Buccellati said. "A jewel is not just metal and stone, it is also about all the work that has been put in it."
Many Italian jewellers bet on innovative technologies to beat fierce competition from India, China and Turkey. But Buccellati, which traces its roots back to 1758 when an ancestor set up his atelier, prides itself on traditional techniques to make jewels with gold lace, embellished with detail.
Brooches of fruit or flowers boast precious stones while a cascade of diamonds adorns other pieces. With such detail, a signature Tulle ring can take four to six months to make, while a bracelet or a necklace up to two or three years.
Buccellati jewelry and silverware are considered a must-have in Milanese high society and have been snapped up by models, royal families and the Vatican.
The company tied in second place for most prestigious jewelry brand after Harry Winston in a recent survey by the Luxury Institute in the United States.
"There is culture, research behind each jewel. ... People who in a certain way have everything want to get somewhere not everybody is ... in terms of state of mind," said Maria Christina Buccellati, in charge of public relations. "We don't follow the trends or the markets. This is our production, this is our style."
A sector analyst, who did not want to be named, said at a recent Milan jewelry fair the family-controlled company, which has its own internal school, should refresh its designs and offer something more modern to wow young and sophisticated consumers.
Still leaders in design, Italian jewellers have lost ground to India, China and Turkey, which have lower labour costs and have worked to improve quality.
The sector, which has 5.4 per cent of the global market, has also seen sales fall on recession fears and soaring gold prices. In 2007, Italy saw volumes of jewelry sold abroad fall 2.5 per cent, but sales value rose because of the gold price.
Sector analysts say manufacturers of mass-market jewelry get hit hardest as their clients are price-conscious.
But high-end jewellers at the recent upmarket fair in Milan said making unique, expensive jewelry that customers would not be able to resist was a key to robust sales in turbulent times.
A Buccellati Eternelle ring costs 9,000-15,000 euros ($13,830-$23,040), but silverware is cheaper. The firm's most expensive item -- a gold and diamond necklace at its London store -- costs 1.6 million pounds ($3.22 million).
The company, which makes about 4,000 to 6,000 jewelry items a year, of which 90 per cent are unique, saw sales rise last year, Maria Christina said, declining to give specific figures. Sales in the United States rose 20 per cent.
"We don't base the value of the jewels on the raw material. For us, it's the workmanship," she said, adding Buccellati did not raise prices last year.
"There is not much gold in the pieces, it's more the value of the workmanship, the culture, the research. ... Of course, if we have some stones that cost more, it will increase a little bit but not substantially."
On April 4, history was made on the baseball diamond for Lakeland College as Lee "Lumberjack" Chepil took the mound for what would be a game that would never be forgotten. Even the fact that he had to borrow someone's glove - he forgot his own - wasn't going to ruin this day.
In a seven-inning, 18-0 win over Maranatha Baptist, Chepil retired all 21 batters he faced, while striking out eight and not allowing a single batter to reach base to put him in the record books as the only pitcher in Lakeland history to ever throw a perfect game.
"We have had four no-hitters before, but this was the first perfect game and it was just awesome," said head coach Chris Thousand. "He did exactly what he needed to do, and the defense did exactly what it needed to do."
"I was kind of relieved it was over," said Chepil. "Words just can't describe it." Following the final out of the game, the team stormed the field, according to Thousand.
Thousand also added that Chepil wasn't even aware that it was a perfect game until the end.
"I knew I was throwing a no-hitter, but I didn't realize it was a perfect game until the fifth or sixth inning," said Chepil. This is not Lee's first date with no-hit pitching, however. Chepil threw a no-hitter during his high school years, but this was his first perfect game.
"He still hasn't reached his full potential yet, which is amazing to say," said Thousand. According to Chepil, this season has been a little different from the start from a motivational standpoint.
"The last two years, I haven't really been successful and I haven't really lived up to my expectations," said Chepil.
"Now, the team says they expect nothing less from me [every time I pitch]," said Chepil, jokingly.
With this performance, Chepil earned the Northern Athletic Conference Player of the Week award for the week of March 30 through April 5. He was on fire the whole week as he posted a 1.08 era and struck out 12 batters during 8.1 innings in two appearances.
"He's one of the hardest workers on the team," said Thousand. "If he keeps working hard, he'll do just fine."
