Archive for December, 2008

Napoleon Diamond Necklace

Wednesday, December 31st, 2008

One of the most spectacular all-diamond pieces of jewelry in the Smithsonian Insitution is the Napoleon necklace. Thought to have originally been owned by Catherine the Great of Russia, it was presented by the Emperor Napoleon of France to his second wife, Marie-Louise of Austria on the birth of their son in 1811. The silver [...]

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Sri Lankan Gemstones & Jewelry

Wednesday, December 31st, 2008

One of the world's most beautiful and exotic islands, Sri Lanka, (formerly Ceylon) lies just below the southern tip of India. This pear-shaped bit of tropical paradise, about the size of Sicily, is a tourist's delight offering British teahouses, rubber plantations, and gem mines.
Marco Polo wrote of his visit in 1292: "I want you [...]

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Diamond durability

Monday, December 29th, 2008

Diamonds are among the hardest substances on earth; in fact they use diamonds and diamond dust to cut diamonds. Other gemstones are hard as well, but not nearly as hard as a diamond. Diamonds and other gemstones are measured by the Mohs scale. It runs from 10 (hardest) down to 1 (softest). It is somewhat [...]

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Synthetic Diamonds

Monday, December 29th, 2008

The first synthetic diamonds were produced by General Electric in 1954. A synthetic diamond is basically a rock that has the durability, refractive index and hardness of a natural diamond – but it is made by man. A synthetic diamond should not be confused with stimulant diamonds, such as glass, cubic zirconia, or moissanite.
Although [...]

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How diamonds are made

Sunday, December 28th, 2008

Diamonds form between 75-120 miles below the earth's surface. According to geologists the first delivery of diamonds was somewhere around 2.5 billion years ago and the most recent was 45 million years ago. The carbon that makes diamonds comes from the melting of pre-existing rocks in the Earth's upper mantle. There is an abundance of [...]

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