Diamonds & Engagement Rings News

Rumor has it that Justin Timberlake has been shopping for an engagement ring in sequence to asking Jessica Biel to marry him.

The very famous singer has been asking Jessica’s close friends to help him choose the perfect diamond band, making it obvious enough to know that he is planning to propose to Jessica.

One of Jessica’s good friends told the Chicago Sun Times Newspaper: “Justin has been ring shopping, and we’re talking serious, major Harry Winston-type shopping here.”

Justin has been surveying Jessica’s friends, trying to get some sort of idea as to what type of ring Jessica admires most. The only comment Jessica has ever made was when one of her friends was proposed to with a square-cut emerald engagement ring.

“It was huge!”

Friends of Justin state that he had decided to take the relationship to the next level, due to both of their very busy work schedules, which kept them apart so often.

As of last month, is was stated Justin was ready to marry Jessica on the privately owned island of Mustique, located in the West Indies.

“Justin is 27 and thinking about marriage and kids. For the first time in his life he is feeling settled and has definitely decided to pop the question to Jessica,” a source noted.

Diamond Prices have gone up yet again, pitching 12.3% in May. According to the IDEX Polished Diamond Price Index, the prices for the month of May have significantly exceeded prior months.

Large sized diamonds such as, three, four, or five carat stones have gone up to 47%, 64%, and 77%, topping the passed year by a great amount.

After having a stable market for about two months, prices soared on May 23rd and then again on may 27th.

There must be a major cause to such a great change to diamond prices and values. The U.S. own about half of the diamond jewelry produced in the entire world. When it happened to be that in the past the U.S. economy would slow down then the diamond demand also lessened making diamond prices diminish. This time the situation differs enormously. While the demand for diamonds was not as strong in the U.S. recently, the markets in all other countries around the world have been growing tremendously, demanding better quality and more diamond jewelry. At the same time, keeping diamond prices elevated.

Tiffany & Company is a perfect example of the drift of international markets. In the U.S. the sales of the company were doing poorly, while in all other countries, except for Japan, the demand for diamonds at Tiffany was very strong. The recent condition of the U.S. economy can be viewed as healthy for the industry rather than comparing it to global markets and viewing it poorly.   Â

A $5 million lawsuit was filed against Knoxville-based Jewelry Television by a Californian woman who claims that the network intentionally sold treated gemstones as if they were “extremely rare” and “all natural.”

Marliese Weed, who says that the shopping network engaged in “unfair and deceptive conduct”, filed the lawsuit on May 23rd. She believes it all started on January 2003 when Jewelry Television sold a gem identified as andesine-labradorite as being “all natural, among the most rare stones on the face of the Earth and the most collectible gemstone on the planet.” Weed had purchased more than$4,000 worth of stones only to realize that they were nothing more than what she calls, “mass-produced result of chemical face-lifts in gemological beauty parlors.” she says that the gems were bought from Mongolia, Mexico, and China for just pennies per carat and were sold for bizarre prices.

Other than weed, there were other complaints about the gemstones that were bought from Jewelry Television. Jewelry Television was disappointed at the customer and said that the woman filed a lawsuit without first taking advantage of their liberal return policies.

Jewelry Television had stated that the laboratories from which they bought their stones, had consistently confirmed that the gems were natural and untreated and this is what they relied on.

The company did admit to an incident that happened in January where gemstones were reported as being treated and that JTV told the customer about it right away. JTV states that they continuously told their customers about the stones that were treated as soon as they were discovered. JTV believes that the reasons the lawsuits were put against them were false and that they will be justified for it.

Jewelry Television was planning on building a new headquarter to add to their line, but this is now being put on hold due to their decline in business. Â

On Wednesday, at the spring auction of Christie’s in Hong Kong, a 101.27-carat colorless diamond was sold for 48.49 million Hong Kong dollars (6.22 million U.S. dollars).

The 101.27-carat stone is an F color, internally flawless VVS1 and is the largest stone of such a king ever sold at an auction in Asia. Nor has there been such a stone to appear on the HK auction in 18 years.

The chairman of jewelry at Christie’s, Francios Curiel, mentioned that the diamond was put on offer in Hong Kong because the auction house believed that Asia was becoming a lively market.

Christie said that there were eight other items which were priced well over two million U.S. dollars and this is something that is not often seen at the companies jewels auctions. Included was a 10.63-carat green diamond which reached a value of 27.21 million HK dollars, which is equal to 3.49 million U.S. dollars.

Vickie Sek, a Christie’s jewelry expert in Asia said, “It is the most successful jewel auctions we have ever had.”

Most of the people who bought these expensive stones were private collectors from Asia.

 Rihanna and Chris Brown buy each other pricey diamond necklaces worth $200,000. Although the two of them have been caught several times kissing, they remain hesitant about letting the public in on their romance.

The necklaces were bought at Jason Arasheben’s exclusive jewelry store in Beverly Hills. Of course the money to buy the necklaces was not a problem for the two of them.

Arasheben reports to the News of the World that while Chris was getting Rihanna a necklace with a heart theme, Rihanna got Chris a nice size diamond encrusted cross.

                       

It seems like Rihanna and Chris Brown have made it public enough to know there is something stirring between the two. Maybe its about time they announce their romantic involvement already?¼/p>