Wednesday,
January 6th: Snowed
out of our office on Tuesday!: We
wanted to let everyone know that due to a
snow storm in Seattle yesterday, our staff
was unable to make it to the office on
Tuesday. We are hopeful to return to
normal today, but are subject to the weather
conditions. We will have a regular
update later today regarding whether we are
snowed out for another day or not.
*Emails
may temporarily bounce!:
We made the move to our new email
server (which is hosted in Northern
Virginia), however, there is currently some
lag going on as the DNS changes can take up
to 24 hours to update around the world, and
therefore you may receive a "host not
found" return email when emailing
us. We apologize for the problems, but
the problem should correct itself by
tomorrow, and is an unfortunate part of how
the internet propagates name changes.
As a fall back, you may email to "[email protected]"
which was switched to the new server last
week (and thus all DNS servers already have
the updated info to direct it
properly).
Wednesday,
December 17th: Pink
and Blue Takaras are coming!: We
will be working with Chatham's synthetic
diamond division in order to bring you
smaller pink and blue Takaras starting in
January, 2004! As with all Takara
cultured diamonds, these are real, pure
diamond - just grown in a lab instead of
mined. Additionally, their color is
due to the same processes that occur in
nature, never irradiated, treated,
etc. Our first one, a .26ct round, is
now getting its diamond grading report,
however, the color was already graded as
"Fancy Vivid Purplish-Pink".
If you are curious to see how much the
natural equivalent diamond of this color
runs, visit our friends at www.IceStore.com
to get a feel for the value of natural pinks
and blues! This Takara and other pinks
and blues will be available on TakaraDiamonds.com
in January, though supplies will be very
limited.
.26ct
Fancy Vivid Purplish-Pink Takara (grown by
Chatham)
*Chinese
Akoya (Saltwater) pearls will be available
in January!: We've
been very pleased with the sales of our
various pearl offerings, and will be
expanding our inventory to begin offering
saltwater cultured pearls in January.
We will be importing strands of both white
and *natural* silver Akoyas for necklaces (A
and AA grade) as well as AAA grade
earrings!
*Additional
staff member joining BTD.com in
January!: With
our continued growth, we will have another
staff member joining us to help our
expansion, starting in January - we'll
announce more details next month.
**Last
but not least, Happy Holidays!!: We
will be continuing to process orders, but
this will be our last news update until
January so we can focus on wrapping up this
years work and having some time with our
families. We thank you for your
continued patronage as well as feedback, and
we look forward to a number of new exciting
offerings to be introduced in
2004.
Happy Holidays from everyone at BTD.com!
Monday,
December 15th: Akira
freshwater pearl bracelets now available!:
We've received a number of
requests to add bracelets to our pearl
jewelry options, and are pleased to make the
first of these available. We used our
premium Akira freshwater whites to create
both a single strand and double strand pearl
bracelet offerings. We also did a bit
of price comparing of our bracelet offerings
with some larger name competitors, which we
highly recommend you do as well, in order to
see the difference buying from a direct
pearl importer makes.
We have one
of each in stock for immediate
shipping. Best starting point for more
info and photos is our new pearl bracelet
index page here!
Akira single
strand bracelet, 7-7.5mm
*New
"Love Defies Gravity"
pendant: We're
pleased to offer a new and unique pendant
design which we have named the "Love
defies Gravity" pendant. We had a
hard time getting any photos, so we'll be
shooting more after the holidays, but this
is a very striking pendant in person.
The design is meant to give the illusion
that the center stone should be falling
right out of the pendant - most people would
think it is a tension mount that is keeping
it in place, but its actually due to a
"under-bezel girdle" which
securely holds the center stone. Its a
striking pendant because the design allows
most of the stone to freely show, and of
course gets lots of conversation due to the
illusion that it should be falling
out. We have approximately four of
these in stock - details are at the new
"Love defies Gravity" pendant page
here!
"Love
defies Gravity" pendant - pendant does
not set upright, hence the tilt for this
photo.
Better photos will be taken after the
holidays!
*Last
BTD auction for 2003 ends today!
Our last "photo-model"
jewelry auction ends today at 12PM
PST. This is for an elegant 1.50ctw
natural white diamond pave bangle in 18k
white gold. Current bid is $850 - if
you wish to bid or for more details, please
visit our message board thread here!
Wednesday,
December 10th: BTD
Email newsletter now available!:
We've had requests from customers
for the ability to receive our latest news
via email, so that they don't have to keep
checking our site for the latest jewelry
offerings, and we are pleased to make that
service now available.
The BTD
Newsletter is basically the latest news
updates posted here, except they are sent
you via email. Naturally, we keep your
email address private, and there is an
unsubscribe option at the bottom of every
newsletter. We will be sending the
newsletter in HTML format, so you do need to
sign up with an HTML compatible email
address.
Our signup
page for this option is here!
*Deadline
for ring purchases extended until Dec.
15th: With
our diamond setters working seven days a
week this month, we've managed to stay in
good shape as far as our order turnaround,
and are therefore extending the cutoff for
ordering rings for pre-Christmas delivery
until Dec. 15th. The one exception to
this is for 3 stone rings, for which the
cutoff will remain the originally announced
date of yesterday due to their significantly
higher manufacturing time.
*Asha
Radiants in H color will be available next
year: We've
had a number of customers expressing
interest in purchasing an Asha radiant in H
color. We had earlier discontinued the
radiant cut due to slow sales, but will be
doing a small run early next year to allow
those who wrote/posted requesting another
run to purchase.
*Number
of Asha cuts/sizes sold out: We've
sold out of a number of cuts including oval
and pear, as well as 1.5ct H&A rounds
and .55ct emeralds (used in our emerald 3
stone ring). We'll be replenishing the
supply of the H&A rounds, but the oval
and pear were one time offerings with no
plans to bring them back.
*Akira
freshwater pearl bracelets coming: There
will be several new bracelet offerings
coming for our Akira freshwater pearls (1
and 2 strand bracelets initially, 3 strands
in the future). These strands are
currently at Elliott Gemological
laboratories for appraisal, and we'll make
them available for sale later this week.
Monday,
December 8th: Amara
Shell Pearl Stud earrings now available!:
Amara stud earrings, in 14k
yellow gold, are now available. These
are ideal Holiday gifts, as they allow you
to give the beauty of South Sea Shell
pearls, but at a fraction of the
price. Details are available on our
new Amara Earring page here!
Our Amara stud
earrings!
Thursday,
December 4th: Price
increase coming Jan. 1 for Takara Cultured
Diamonds!:
We are going to be working much
more closely now with Gemesis corporation
going forward, and as part of that, we will
be sticking with their pricing plan, which
will be having a fairly significant price
increase come Jan. 1, 2004 (final pricing
has not been determined). So, if you
have been on the fence for purchasing a
Takara cultured diamond, now would be a good
time to decide.
We are
currently working on bringing out a number
of new ring designs for our Takara's, which
we'll hope to have a few ready in the next
few weeks. Our Takara Diamonds website
is here!
Wednesday,
December 3rd: Gemcare
Cleaners back in stock, plus new Refill!:
We are pleased to announce that
we have re-stocked our Gemcare Diamond and
Pearl cleaner, with 144 of them now
available. Possibly more exciting,
we've added the new Gemcare Diamond &
Pearl Refill concentrate pack to our
inventory. For those who already have
the Gemcare Diamond and Pearl cleaner, but
have used up the cleaning power of their
liquid, you can now purchase the refill pack
for $9.00, which includes US Postal
Shipping. Simply snip, pour into your
previous Gemcare container and add
water. Because you are supplying the
water, you save on both purchase price and
shipping cost! Details are on our
Gemcare products page here!
Gemcare's
Jewelry Cleaner Refill - save on both cost
and shipping!
Tuesday,
December 2nd: New
Auction from our photo model jewelry!:
We don't have very many photo
models left to auction off, but this one is
a stunner - this is the photo model from our
Timeless Eternity Ring. It holds 23,
2.4mm VS/G natural diamonds (well-cut
diamonds we might add), for a total of
1.15ctw. The diamonds are set in
platinum via common prong, and run 360
degrees around the ring. Minimum bid
is $895, and auction will end on Dec. 9th,
12PM PST. This ring is a size 6, but
appears to be a slightly snug 6....eternity
rings are not sizable, so don't bid unless
you are planning to put it on a finger that
is either a 5.75 or a size 6! Further
details are at our auction page here!
Our Timeless
Eternity ring, now in Auction!
*Sold
out of Asha 3.50ct H&A's: We
sold the last of our inventory for the 3.5ct
H&A Asha's today. As noted
earlier, we will no longer be producing
Asha's larger than 3ct in order to focus on
those sizes that sell in volume...so this is
the end of the era for the 3.5ct H&A's!
Monday,
December 1st: Holiday
Special - Joli Ring with .51ct SuperbCert
H&A diamond!:
We are planning to roll
out multiple rings housing all of our
remaining natural diamonds and Takara
Synthetic's. This is a direct result
of our experience that diamonds in rings
sell significantly faster than simply
selling loose diamonds.
With that,
we are pleased to introduce the first of
these - this is an 18k/Platinum Joli ring
housing a stunning .51ct E/VVS2 SuperbCert
natural H&A diamond. Because of
the bezel housing, it gives the impression
of being a 1ct range diamond center (6.5mm -
7mm), meaning you get a lot of visual bang
for your buck with this ring.
We are
offering it as a Christmas special - $2650
if purchased before Dec.15th, $2950 after
that. Details and photos are at our
Joli/SuperbCert page here!
Left:
Joli
ring
Right: H&A Arrows pattern from
center diamond
Wednesday,
Nov. 26th: Amara
Shell Pearl necklaces now available in
varying lengths!: Responding
to our customer's requests, we are pleased
to make our Amara Shell pearls necklaces
available in varying lengths - 16 inches, 18
inches, 22 inches and 32 inches. Price
naturally varies according to length, but
all sizes are available immediately via
online shopping! Our Amara Shell Pearl
index page is here!
*Happy
Thanksgiving (early) to our US
customers!: Our
offices will be closed this Thursday, Nov.
27th to celebrate the Thanksgiving
Holiday. We'll be back bright and
early Friday morning to officially kickoff
the Holiday Shopping Season! Best
wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving!
Our new
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