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Thursday, July 11th: Introducing
the 'Me' ring! Based on
customer feedback asking for more non-bridal
jewelry, we are happy to introduce a ring
that, while substantial enough to be a
bridal quality piece, is designed to be
bought and worn as a reward for yourself
(new job, losing 10 lbs, whatever).
The Me ring uses a setting
technique known as 'BrightSetting' which requires a high level of setting skill
but, as the name, implies helps maximize the brilliance of the stones that are
set - this technique is found in many 1920's Cartier rings, and we are happy to
be able to set it in that fashion. The Me ring holds 10 x 1.7mm natural
diamonds (VS/G) for a total carat weight of about .20ctw. The diamonds are
spaced apart to cover the upper half of the ring for a size 5 ring. The Me
ring can be sized for a pinky ring, and is stackable.
This ring is a little different style and
feel than our more bridal pieces, and we are
pricing it at a very affordable $375 to make
it a gift you can purchase to reward yourself
with.
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Our 'Me' ring page
is here! If this type of ring is well received, we are planning on
doing a modern 'Me' ring, with the diamonds blocked tightly together and no
mill grain work - feel free to let us know your feedback on this ring on our
message boards!
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Our latest ring: The elegant 'Me' ring
with an antique/vintage look
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Tuesday, July 9th: New
User Poll! Based on your feedback from our recent poll, it is
clear that Takara diamonds are most desirable in white, blue and pink for those
who responded. Our focus will thus be on bringing you blue Takara's
hopefully within the next 6 months - the reason blue will be the next major
focus is economics. Blue diamonds (mined) sell for an average of
$120,000/ct, vs. a white diamond selling for on average $4500/ct. The
amount of effort to produce a blue versus a white is negligible (a blue diamond
is a white with boron added to impart the blue color), so if we can produce and
sell a blue diamond for $4,000/ct, its a huge bargain ($4k vs. $120k). A
white for $4,000/ct. is not a bargain ($4k vs. $4.5k)...so if you are wondering
why we are not focused on white diamonds, there is the answer :-)
Thank you for those who
responded. Our next poll is to try and ascertain if we should work on
producing short video clips/tutorials for our new website. This would be
done to address the common questions that we often get, and would allow you to
simply click and watch the tutorials instead of reading the web page for the
answer. Our new user poll is here!
*EGL grading reports
back for 11 Takara man-made diamonds.
We
are pleased to have finally received a large number of Takara lab diamonds back
from the EGL, with their respective girdle engraving, fancy colored diamond
report and appraisal. We have started the process of posting them, and
will continue until all have been posted tomorrow. You can view some of
the reports via clicking on the links for the respective diamond at our
loose Takara page located here.
*New website
progress: We have been hard at work on producing the new
and improved website. This website will use Microsoft's .NET technology,
allowing us to ensure the site is viewable for those using Macintosh, Netscape
browser, or behind corporate firewalls (all of these seem to create problems for
our Flash Menu system). We hope to have the site switched over by the end
of next week, and it will continue to be a work in progress over the next few
months as we add additional features such as the aforementioned video
tutorials. If you are wondering why we have not had as many updates to our
current website as we typically do, its because the new site is taking most of
our IT support time currently.
*Matching
wedding bands!!!! We have received a number of requests
to produce matching wedding bands for some of our popular rings such as the
Athena, the Trellis, the Artemis, etc. and this will now be Darryl's top
priority starting next week. Additionally, we have implemented a policy
that all new rings we create going forward, must be created as a matched wedding
set instead of as a loose engagement ring. As one customer put it,
"everyone and their mother can sell you an engagement ring, but nobody has
a matching wedding set". We hope to alleviate that problem, and
should start rolling these new bands out over the next month.
**End of
introductory pricing for Takara diamonds approaching: The
introductory pricing for Takara lab diamonds will be ending on Friday, the 19th
of July. Currently, as noted we have been selling Takara's for
$2200/ct. That discount will be removed for the over 1.0ct sizes, and the
price raised for the under 1.0ct diamonds, making Takara lab diamond pricing a
consistent $2750/ct (regardless of carat size!)
going forward. Our accountants informed us that we lost money in May,
breaking our profitability streak this year, and the pricing on the Takara's
during the intro period was a major reason why.
Monday, July 8: Takara
lab diamonds in the movies! We are in discussions right now to
supply a movie producer with a Takara lab diamond ring for use in an upcoming
movie that will be filmed in both NYC and Italy. Assuming that it goes as
planned, we'll have some clips of the ring from the movie available on our site
towards the end of August. This should be a fun opportunity to allow you
to see some of our products being used in main-stream media.
*Average
selling prices for fancy colored diamonds: Related to Takara
diamonds, we've gotten some feedback from the industry on what mined fancy
colored diamonds normally sell for, and we wanted to share that to allow you to
be more informed about colored diamond pricing.
Fancy Intense Yellow diamonds, VS
quality and in the 1ct size range, typically sold for roughly $8250 -
$11,250. Prices were higher for rounds especially, due to the loss of
weight during the cutting of rounds. We could not find prices for Asscher
or Flanders cuts, which are proving to be the most popular cuts for our Takara
Fancy Yellow Lab diamonds.
Fancy Intense Blue Diamonds, SI quality
and in the 1/2ct size range, typically sold for $55,000 - $85,000. Blue
diamonds, as you may have seen in our recent user poll, where the most requested
color behind whites for our Takara lab diamonds, and we have taken very active
note of your requests for blue Takara diamonds.
*Currently
sold out of Ultrasonic Cleaners: We have sold all of our
Ultrasonic cleaners. More are on the way, but for now, we will not be able
to ship these in our usual 'within 48 hours' fashion. The web page has
also been updated to note that we are now sold out. Feedback on these
units has been extremely good, and we appreciate hearing from all those who
wrote back to let us know how well it was working for them!
Friday, June 28: Working
on revamped website! We are currently laying out the
infrastructure for a totally new website, and will shortly have a user poll to
help garner feedback on what you would like to see in the new website (i.e.
video clips of rings, ability to design a ring on the website, etc.). Our
company has grown quite a bit over the past year, and so the current site is
starting to show its age. As part of this, we'll also be moving our
website onto an even more powerful dedicated server, and into a local data
center (instead of in Washington D.C.) that is also the host for Starbucks and
Boeing among others. Macintosh users and customers behind high-security
corporate firewalls, we have heard your feedback and will be dropping the flash
menu in the new site and utilizing a new .asp menu system that will ensure there
are no more menu issues for certain configurations. As part of the new
site, we are also looking at what products to continue carrying or discontinue
and what we should most focus on - your feedback on the message boards or on our
upcoming user polls will play a big part in these type of long-term decisions.
*Additional
jewelry items coming: We'll shortly have a new ring available
that we are simply calling the 'Me' ring - its designed to be a purchase for
oneself as a reward for yourself....whether for getting a new job promotion,
losing 5 pounds, birthday gift for yourself or simply for being you. This
will consist of 10 VS natural diamonds, brightset (think channel set but as the
name implies, more sparkly) for about .20ct total weight, and can be either a
pinky ring or regular ring depending on what size you specify. They are
stackable as well. Where this ring will really shine is in the price - we
are shooting to go high volume, low profit on this one to offer it as an
extremely affordable reward to yourself. More details to come on this one.
*Asha� H&A
4 and 5cts. back in stock: We've completed another 25 Asha�
H&A's in the 4 and 5ct sizes, and they are available on our loose rounds
inventory page here.
Wednesday, June 26: Welcome
our first authorized US Asha� Distributor! We are pleased to
announce the start of our allowing US jewelry stores to start carrying the Asha�
diamond simulant, and our first authorized distributor is Creative Goldsmiths of
Bethesda, MD. They are a high-end jewelry retailer, and count among their
clientele Frank Sinatra and former President Ronald Reagan among others.
Their website, complete with driving directions, contact info, etc. is available
at www.GoldCreations.com.
We hope that our expanding to allow Asha� to be carried here will be helpful for
those who live in the greater DC/MD/Northern VA area.
*Additional CI
diamonds: We are also awaiting the return of two more Princess
cut Clarity Improved diamonds from EGL, with the following specs (clarity is our
guess, will be finalized with the EGL grading report):
Princess 1,64 D SI1 at $5986, with full EGL certificate
Princess 1,50 E VS2 at $5400, with full EGL certificate
*Additional Asha�
feedback: Thank you to one of our newest Asha� customers for their
feedback and permission in advance to post!
"I just got the delivery of my
Asha� Diamond. It is 'MAGNIFIQUE'. It is
the most beautiful stone (under the light) that I have ever seen. I was
in Amsterdam last year to price a one carrat diamond it was $10,000.
not as beautiful as this one. I am thrilled !!!!!"
Tuesday, June 25: Welcome
our Canadian Asha� Distributor, and new source for custom Asha� jewelry! We
are pleased to announce that Jose Jewellery (with two ll's is the Canadian
spelling) will be our distributor for both Asha� and our new preferred source for
working with you on custom jewelry creations! It has become clear over the
past few months that we do not have the resources to do both production work for
our website offerings and do individual custom pieces, so it has worked out well
to partner with Jose Jewellery who specializes in custom work. They are
located just north of the US-Canada border, and we hope the strong US exchange
rate will help provide our American customers with a bit more buying power for
their custom work. They are currently adding three more in-house
goldsmith's to their staff, and are able to complete up to three custom jewelry
designs on any given day.
Additionally, because they are a brick
and mortar establishment, they can offer our British Columbia customers a place
to pop in and view the Asha� and Takara's in person. We'll be putting up a
separate page with more details, but for now, if you are interested in doing a
custom jewelry item with them, you may contact them via their toll free phone
(US or Canada) at 866-477-5353. Their
website is under construction, but you may get a peek at
www.josejewellery.com
*Sold out of
2.0ct Asha� princess cuts! Our Athena ring has sold faster than
we expected, and since it has a 2ct center princess, we are now out of stock on
2ct princess cuts for approximately another month while we make more.
*Clarity
Improved diamonds finally nearing completion: We have been
working with the inventor of the new HPHT clarity improved diamonds to produce
them in true H&A round cuts, and, after a long delay, are finally nearing
their availability. As an example, we will have the following diamond
available for sale next week:
1.70ct, H&A round
brilliant. E color, SI1 or VS2 clarity (currently at EGL for diamond
grading report) = $6850
Flanders CI diamonds were a bust - they
will not let us do our own cutting with their rough, and they tried 5 times and
failed, so we have given up on that. We'll have two more princess cuts as
well as additional H&A rounds as we can.
*Nice Asha�
feedback! We are happy to be able to share a very nice email we
received from a new Asha� customer, who allowed us to share their experience with
you:
"I received my [Asha�] ring today. I am truly astonished with the beauty of my new "diamond." I have to admit that when my moissanite stone chipped
(after only 6 months!) I was not disappointed because I knew that I'd be replacing the moissanite with Asha�. After seeing the stone with my own eyes, I can see why the website is called "better than diamond," because it is in my opinion! ...Needless to say, I couldn't be happier with my ring!! Thank you, thank you. Now I'm off to clean my other
jewelry with my new ultrasonic
cleaner!"
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Wednesday, June 19: Artemis
Ring (semi-mount) now available! We are pleased to announce the
availability of one of our most elegant and stylish baguette rings, the
Artemis. Utilizing 4 hand-matched, VS quality (G/H) natural diamond
baguettes for a total carat weight of .35-.36ctw, the Artemis is ideal for those
who want a low-set ring for a center princess, emerald or Asscher. We will
soon have photos of the Artemis holding a Takara Asscher, which is a very
striking combination, for now we simply show it in its unmounted state as per
our new "assemble your ring" effort. Our Artemis page is
here.
Tuesday, June 18: An
Asha� Radiant under the Brilliancescope! Wanted to follow up our
announcement about the Asha� radiants with a Bscope report. The rectangular
scales are still under development by GemEx systems, but based on the the
current rating, this Asha� radiant has scored better than any cut we have yet to
test! Loose radiant page is here.
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Grading report for a 2.10ct Asha�
radiant
under the BrillianceScope
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Monday, June 17:
Asha�
Radiants are here! After a brief delay due to a
diamond coater machine breakdown, we now have the Asha� radiants in
stock.
We'll be taking more photos shortly (once we get some more
sunshine) but for
now, they are available for sale on our Loose Radiant page
located
here.
*Takara
Flanders feedback: We
are very pleased to be able to share
feedback from a customer regarding our
Takara lab diamonds in the Flanders
cut:
"OH MY GOD, it's beautiful!!! The pictures online don't do them ANY justice!
... the 'diamond fire' takes on a whole new look in the yellow stone - just
amazing"
Our loose
Takara page with
current inventory is here.
Wednesday, June 12:
Tutorial on the elusive 'Asscher cut':
We've
gotten a lot of enquiries from people noting that they had
never heard of
the Asscher cut before, and hence we are happy to offer a bit of
background and information on the famous Asscher cut in our new
tutorial.
You may be surprised to learn that the Asscher cut was the
forerunner to the
modern Emerald cut, and that the Asscher cut, while at
one point very popular,
basically disappeared because it was so
uneconomical to produce. More
interesting details at our tutorial page,
located here.
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Wednesday, June 12:
Continued Corporate
growth: While we are a private company, we are pleased to show the
latest results from our accountants showing our year over year revenue growth
graph, as we believe this re-iterates the successful acceptance of our products
by our customers. Just as importantly, we have been profitable every month
this year (though just barely in March owing to some large expenditures related
to the Amorphous Diamond process), which is a huge improvement over last year
where we lost money most months due to R&D expenses. Revenue chart
from April 01 - April 02 is shown below: |
A golden Asscher Takara
diamond
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Tiffany Cathedral -
3mm on right, 4mm on
left 4
Tuesday, June 11:
4mm Tiffany Cathedral
Added, along with 'Customize your Ring' functionality. We're
happy to announce that one of our best selling rings, the Tiffany Cathedral, is
now available in a 4mm width as well. Further, we have implemented the
start of our new 'customize your ring' for all our Tiffany Cathedral Solitaire
rings by allowing you to pick your ring shank, your desired prong style, and if
you like, a Takara, |
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Asha�, or
SuperbCert center stone. Finally, we are now offering
our Tiffany Cathedral in 18k White gold, for the first
time ever to satisfy the large number of requests for
18k white gold. Our new Tiffany
Cathedral Page is here! |
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Monday, June 10:
Emerald-cut Asha�'s
completely sold out. We've
been suprised by the demand for our Asha� Emerald cuts, and are at this point
completely sold out. We will be doing another run, and hope to have those
ready by the end of July. We are also happy to note that several
independent jewelers contacted us to let us know that they were more impressed
with the Emerald cut Asha� than any simulant they had ever seen. |
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Takara
Flanders: Our intense yellow Takara flanders are really
lighting up people's eyes when they see them in person. We had posted this
photo on our Takara page, but thought it should be put front and center for a
bit for people to see what they look like. Photo's never seem to do the
actual lab diamond justice, but you get the overall idea: |
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Friday, June
7:
Multiple
new Takara's finished. We've
completed another week of cutting, resulting in a stunning 1.30ct Flanders, and
several golden H&A rounds from 1.05 to .73ct in size. All of these
will go to EGL next week to receive their diamond grading report, but if you are
interested in one, please let us know as several of them are already spoken for
before even being posted. Our loose Takara page is
here.
*Nice
email from Asha� princess customer! A customer was kind enough
to write her feedback and allow us to share it after receiving her princess Asha�
order - thank you to this customer for allowing us to post!
"...my
Asha� Princess cut stones arrived today. They are even more brilliant and more lovely than I had hoped for - the cut in stunning and so is the brilliance and the fire they both have... I compared the 3ct princess cut to my mother's natural diamond (costing $12,000!!) and the Asha� was more beautiful than hers is . I think she was a little disappointed at the difference - especially with the fact that my
Asha� actually looks better than her diamond..."
On a similar vein, we have not been
surprised to see that some
moissanite dealers are beginning to discontinue the moissanite princess because
of the coloration issues. From a moissanite site:
"Most other princess cut
[moissanite] stones available recently do not meet our color/quality standards & we will likely be discontinuing princess cut stones soon. Other sizes are available only by prepaid, special order & are NOT returnable. Please email for prices. These stones are likely to have a noticeable darker, and/or yellow or greenish tint."
Thursday, June 6:
Takara Lab Diamond ad campaign under
consideration. We've
gotten a lot of feedback from customers that we tend to be too focused on
R&D, and they would like to see us do more actual marketing and
branding...so, above you will see our first mock-up on an ad for our Takara
diamonds. Its not complete, but we thought it would be neat to give you a
preview and an opportunity to offer any feedback on our message boards!
*Helen
of Troy Pendants coming! Due
to the very high amount of orders for our Helen of Troy ring, we are excited to
announce that we will use that similar style (bezel set, wrapped with natural
round diamonds 360 degrees) to create a pendant for a .75ct H&A round (6mm),
as well as a .75ct princess (5mm) with approximately .20ctw natural side
diamonds. We'll incorporate our anti-tilt technology, and we are extremely
excited about these new pendants. We'll have more updates next week, and
hope to have them for sale within another three weeks from now. But that
is our latest design project, starting next week.
Note: The remaining news
from earlier this week has been moved to our archives (see link below) in order
to try and ensure the latest news page loads a bit faster for everyone!
Tuesday, June 4:
Improved Helen of Troy 2 being offered!:
As we worked on our first orders for the Helen of Troy ring, Darryl
took another crack at it and we believe he came up with an even better style for
it. Current orders will be offered the choice of either style, but we
wanted to share the improved style and see what people thought. Version 2
offers a thicker but tapered shank, and a more cathedral style shank.
Further, we've gone ahead and created a head for princess cuts, that can be
mounted either traditionally (square) or diamond shape style. More photos
at our Helen of Troy ring page here!
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*New
Aldora crown prong head being made!
We
have received a lot of requests to offer a prong head that would be both low
set, and also 'hug' the stone in order to show minimum metal, maximum
stone. To that end, we have created the Aldora crown prong head. We
have not made this head for all stone sizes, but
will offer it as a 'make it as we get orders for it'
type of prong head.
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If you are interested in this
head, please email us directly at [email protected]
while we continue to roll this new head out.
More photos are at our
still under construction 'Prong head index page' located
here.
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Our Aldora crown prong head.
Note: the little ball at the left bottom of the prong head is part of a clasp
used to hold the prong down for photos |
Saturday, June 1:
Personalize your viewing experience!:
As our website continues to grow, we are pleased to begin allowing
you to establish preferences for how you browse our site. The first of
many personalizations are now offered on our new "Customize BTD.com"
web page. This will allow us to greet you personally if you wish when
viewing our latest news, as well as offer you the option to automatically show
the "Latest News" page by default when you visit our site. The
default opening page is more geared to new visitors, so for repeat visitors, we
are pleased to offer you this option. We have also added the ability to
specify whether to play music while you browse, as well as designing the music
to play without interruption while you browse various pages. The new customization
page is here!
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*Continued
growth: We are pleased to announce that our site now has over
1,200
visitors (not hits, but individual visitors) per day, and of course want to
say thank you to our many valued customers who have made this growth
possible! To get an idea of our websites growth, we show you a graph
featuring monthly visitors since we switched to our current website last
October.
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Thursday, May 30, PM
update: Asha�'s Hybrid Gem Structure now
officially 'patent pending': Our IP (Intellectual
Property) attorney informed us that the USPTO (US Patent and Trademark Office)
has confirmed receipt of our patent application for the Asha� hybrid gem structure,
officially making Asha� a 'patent-pending' product. With that, we are also
a bit more comfortable showing a little bit more about how the Amorphous Diamond
Treatment is done. Below is a photo of an Asha� pear undergoing the
Amorphous Diamond Treatment in the diamond coater. Enjoy!
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An Asha� pear undergoing the
Amorphous Diamond Treatment
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Thursday, May 30:
Sad news: While we normally look
forward to having new announcements to post as our company continues to grow,
this is one we don't like to make. One of our co-workers at our workshop
died on Memorial day while on a hiking trip with friends. Officials have
not confirmed that they have contacted all of his relatives, so we will likewise
not mention a name or other info at this point. The news release is here:
Seattle
PI: Hiker falls to his death
Our offices will be closed
half-day this coming Monday, June 3rd, to allow our employees to pay their last
respects. He will be greatly missed.
Wednesday, May 29:
Formal press release for our Takara lab diamonds:
With our pricing finalized, we formally announced our Takara lab
diamonds via press release today. You can view it at
www.cnet.com
with this link:
http://investor.cnet.com/investor/news/newsitem/0-9900-1028-9968915-0.html?tag=ats
*Two
more H&A Takara's completed: We have completed two more
H&A rounds, these are both pure yellow and are .88ct and .69ct. They
will both be headed to EGL tomorrow for grading, but pricing details are
available on our loose Takara page here.
*Aldora
settings pages being revamped: We are finally starting on
revamping all of the Aldora section to allow customers to customize their ring
(pick a shank, pick a head, pick a stone) and we'll be adding some new settings
at the same time. We'll begin rolling this out early next
week.
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*New
men's wedding band: Square wedding bands! We are happy to
add a new, very contemporary and masculine style wedding ring to our offerings,
namely the square wedding band. Online shopping and more photos available
on our Square Wedding Band page
here.
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The contemporary men's wedding band
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Tuesday, May 28:
Takara pricing revisited, one last time:
Several
customers emailed noting that with our discount on the 'over 1.0ct Takara's',
it made the per carat price cheaper than the under 1.0ct price. Since this
discrepancy has generated an alarming amount of emails, to make it
consistent, we will reprice the Takara's 'under 1.0ct' at $2200, the same
(after the discount) as the over 1.0ct. diamonds while the discount applies.
We have two Takaras pending sale right now, and with these both being
our first purchases for Takara's under 1.0ct, prices have been set as follows:
Over 1.0ct: $2750/ct
Under 1.0ct: $2200/ct.
We are offering the 20% discount
for now on Takara's over 1.0ct in size,
which effectively makes their rate also $2200/ct while this offer lasts.
We
will note upfront that we are pricing these very low in order to help seed
the market for our Takara lab diamonds, so expect future price changes to
be higher as we remove the 20% discount. We may also have to start
breaking down pricing individually per ct, per cut, and per clarity of Takara's,
but for now we are trying to keep pricing simple, again to help ease their
entry into the jewelry world.
*Brick
and mortar jewelers aren't always the experts: One potential
customer took a Takara this weekend to their local jeweler, and when telling
them about the Takara, the jeweler informed them flatly that "there
was no
such thing as a lab-grown diamond". When asked to test their Takara
lab
diamond on the diamond tester, and finding that it tested as diamond
(because it is), the salesperson responded that it "must be moissanite". So,
be aware that brick and mortar jewelers are often not the experts on
technological advances such as the lab-grown Takaras.
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*Finally, our first and much delayed EGL
appraisal on a radiant Takara:
Our first Takara to return from EGL-USA arrived
today, laser engraved and with a very nice
appraisal report which will accompany the
Takara when sold. Appraised "as-if" it were a
mined diamond, this Takara appraised for
$63,200. Appraised as a synthetic (lab-grown)
diamond, it was appraised at $11,250.00. The
report listed it as being done by "Universal
Grading Services", the exclusive graders for
EGL, so that's why it says UGS instead of EGL
directly.
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Saturday, May 25:
Discover Card now added to available payment
methods:
We've been approved to start offering our customers the
ability to pay via Discover Card. We'll update our checkout page
accordingly shortly, but are pleased to be able to offer yet another
payment method for those who prefer to use Discover!
*Loose
Takara page updated: We've updated the
loose Takara page
to reflect our final pricing and current inventory of immediately available
Takara's.
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Friday, May 24:
Takara Top Questions page added: We're
working
to fully address your common questions about the Takara lab-grown
diamonds, and have started the Takara Top Questions page as a direct
result. Currently, there are 6 Q&A's, but we'll add more as needed. The
Takara Top Questions page is
here!
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Thursday, May 23:
First Takara H&A completed!:
We've finally completed our first true H&A
Takara (lab-
grown diamond) round, a *.96ct* light golden
yellow.
Here's the pattern under the H&A scope.
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Takara *.96ct* lab grown
diamond under the H&A scope
showing its 'arrows'. |
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We've also finally settled on
pricing after evaluating costs involved.
Takara's of VS2 quality over 1.00ct will sell for $2750/ct. We are offering
a 20% introductory discount on stones over 1.00ct because those are
the sizes we are more focused on producing. Takara's below 1.0ct will
simply be $2200/ct.
We've also completed another
stunning golden Asscher Takara. This one
is a more golden amber color, and weighs in at 1.20cts. The .96ct H&A
Takara appears to be already spoken for but the 1.20 asscher is available.
We'll also be completing a
Flanders Takara tomorrow (tentatively spoken
for), as well as another radiant Takara. Details will be posted shortly!
*Introducing another Aldora setting, the Artemis ring!: We're
pleased to show another stunning setting, this one uses .35ct total
weight of VS/G natural diamond baguettes. We'll have online shopping
enabled shortly, but for now, here are some photos!
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Wednesday, May 22:
Lots of updates!: We will have a
number of
updates posting tonight, just have to get them all prepped up and on
the website. First item though, we have taken some photos of the
laboratory equipment employed in the creation of Asha�, and wanted to share the
first one of those. Below is the photo of the diamond coating machine that
is used for the amorphous diamond portion of the Asha�. |
5 Clean room with Asha� diamond coating
equipment. |
*Ultrasonic
Cleaner now available! We've brought back one of our top selling
items from a new manufacturer, namely our industrial-quality
ultrasonic-cleaners. This model features a dual-use functionality of being
able to both microscopically clean your jewelry *and* your eye-wear! It
features a 15oz capacity, and includes a set-and-forget auto-shutoff feature for
a default 5 minute cleaning. Now you can ensure you keep both your jewelry
and eye-glasses clean and clear. We have both US versions and
International (220v) versions available for shipping! Learn more at our
ultrasonic page here!
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*Illustrious
ring, wedding set and diamond wedding band now available in 14k white gold!
This was a highly requested item, and we've finally done the work to make these
available in white gold. You'll find the pricing on the white gold to be
very nice as we offer this for the first time. |
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Our
Illustrious
ring page is here and the Diamond
wedding band page is here.
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*Welcome
back the original Classic Tiffany ring! This was accidentally
omitted from our new ring index page, and many
customers caught on to our oversite faster than we did. Its back and
available, with the caveat - this is a very dainty ring (2.6mm wide) which can
be perfect if you want that true Tiffany look but some customers did not realize
how thin 2.6mm really is until they received their rings, and then wanted to
switch to a larger band. So, please be aware of its thin, dainty (but
strong - its die-struck!) styling! Our
Tiffany
Classic page is here!
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*New
user poll! Thank you to everyone for their feedback on the
recent poll, hopefully you have noted a lot more solitaires coming out recently,
and that is in direct response to this poll! Our newest poll asks you -
what is your favorite diamond color? Specifically, if we could produce
Takara diamonds in any color (including colorless) which would you be most
interested in? We can only produce yellow and gold right now, but we'd
love to get your feedback on your most desirable diamond color! Our new
poll is here!
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Sunday, May 19:
Another Aldora Ring - the Beveled Tiffany Solitaire: We are happy to announce another solitaire ring now available. This one
was largely based on your feedback for how to create an ideal Tiffany solitaire.
We designed it with euro-shank weighting for anti-spin comfort, beveled
(knife-edge) sides for a crisp, clean look, increased the width to 3.2mm, and
tapered the sides of the knife-edge to ensure it wouldn't cut into your fingers
when you are gripping with that hand. |
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The peg-head is
designed to allow the prongs to sit low and flush
with the ring - we'll be adding a very highly
requested tiffany style "hugging" prong head as an
option for this ring as well. This our first ring
that will be setup for complete customization -
we'll show the ring shank, then you may add the
prong of your choice, and finally the center stone
of your choice (if desired). Our
Beveled Tiffany Ring Page is here,
and feel free to leave your comments on this latest design on our
message
boards here!
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Friday, May 17:
First customer feedback on the Trellis Flanders
ring!: We are pleased to be able
to share a customer email
regarding our new Trellis Flanders ring - thank you to them for permission to
repost their kind email!
"I got my ring yesterday and it is gorgeous! It
surpassed my expectations! I was surprised by the depth/saturation of color and also the sparkle. I
have never had a simulated diamond before, and I
bought this one as my "travel" ring. But after seeing
it, I want to wear it all the time! I will definitely
buying again." |
*New
World Ring Sizing page: We have customers from all over the
world, and as such, we often get requests for what their equivalent US ring size
is. Thus, we are happy to add our World ring sizing page to allow you to
compare your current size (whether in UK, Japan, Italy or European size) and
convert it into US ring size. Our world ring sizing page is
here.
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Thursday, May 16:
Accepting American Express cards starting tomorrow! Due to popular request, we have gone ahead and arranged to expand our payment
options to include American Express. We'll update our checkout page to
reflect this later this evening - thank you to those customers who let us know
that this was their preferred payment option! |
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Wednesday, May 15:
Flanders Trellis ring ready for sale!
Online shopping has been added for our latest ring, the Trellis Flanders.
Designed to hold a 1.5ct Flanders, this ring has the typical features of
all our
rings - euro-shank, comfort fit, and plenty of metal. Our online shopping
page, with additional photos, is here. |
*EGL notifies us of appraised value of first Takara!
EGL informed us that the Takara radiant that they finished
grading, if it was a natural (i.e. if this same exact Takara diamond had been
dug out of the ground instead of being grown in the lab) would be $63,200 (not
a typo, that's $63,200). This is the 1.13ct. radiant we have for
sale at $3208. We'll have a complete appraisal report issued and
will also post that when we receive it back later this week/early next.
Note: hopefully this will at least show you the value of natural colored
diamonds as compared to white diamonds. Our tutorial on colored diamonds
vs. white is
here, and our Takara loose
diamond page is here.
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Tuesday, May 14, PM
update: First Takara lab diamond completes
grading at EGL (European Gemological Laboratories)! We
received word that our first Takara lab diamond has completed grading at
EGL. This was for a radiant Takara - color is "Fancy Vivid
Yellow-Orange", clarity VS2. We'll have the full paperwork back in a
few more days. Fancy Vivid is the most sought after color
for fancy colored diamonds, so we are pleased to have an independent lab confirm
the beautiful color saturation our Takara lab diamonds exhibit. We'll post
the grading report with the diamond when we receive the papers back. Our
loose Takara page is here.
Tuesday, May 14:
SuperbCert natural H&A Search Engine added! We
have incorporated a diamond search engine to allow you to easily peruse all the
available SuperbCert diamonds, including their Brilliancescope, Megascope, GIA
certificates, etc. We also guarantee our prices to match or beat any other
SuperbCert vendors!
*Lab
Photos taken: We recently had a photographer take some photos
of the Asha� being run in the Amporphous Diamond Treatment process, and hope to
have those photos up later this week.
*Trellis
Flanders ring! The first rings have been completed, we hope to
have that page with photos and pricing up tomorrow!
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