Laurence Graff Is A Favorite Jeweler

Laurence Graff designs gorgeous high jewelry, pieces so tasteful and wearable, we wish we could afford them! Let’s do an eye candy roundup featuring a few items from the jeweler’s lovely Laurence Graff Signature Collection that could easily be more than just runway showpieces. Graff combines a classic style with an element of edge that is sooo attractive.

Click on the links above to learn the nitty-gritty details, such as diamond carat weights and prices of the featured individual pieces. Today I’m not covering it, because the pieces are the same price, namely unaffordable to average wage earners. It’s only a matter of degrees -- i.e., the number of yikes for each article! We ordinary folk can admire, yet would consider saving up to buy them ludicrous!

Here’s what we average Janes and Joes who love jewelry can do. Appreciate the craftsmanship, take note of the styles that make our hearts flutter, then find commercial-grade stones in 14k gold that we can save up to buy. Also consider lab-grown diamonds. They are chemically and optically as real as mined diamonds! Purchase a few classic pieces to wear time and again. We don’t need a collection, only a capsule of classic, wearable  jewels that won’t go out of style. Another idea is to only buy the smaller pieces our eyes can see: rings, bracelets, or earrings (when in the bathroom washing our hands, we always look in the mirror). Necklaces are heavier pieces that require more gold, so they are more expensive than rings, earrings, or bangles, often in that order. On a budget, perhaps a matching ring and earrings will suffice? Start with them!

IMHO, saving up for 14k gold is smarter than settling for gold-plated jewelry. With daily wear, gold-plated jewelry wears out in a short time. Gold-plated jewelry typically lasts from 6 months to 2 years, and the longest is about 5 years with daily use. Designer costume jewelry is also a huge waste of money. If shopping for value, save up for a capsule  (not a collection!) of real solid 14k gold jewelry. 18k gold is 75% pure gold, softer, and costs about $200 more per piece than 14k gold, which is 58.3%–58.5% pure gold and harder. Although getting 18k - 22k gold jewelry from a high earner is never disappointing, we want to get the most durable pieces to fit our budgets: pieces we can wear daily that don’t need babying! After splurging on jewelry wear it! 

Cocktail rings and delicate pieces that stay in a box are for rich people, not for SAVVY SHOPPERS who want to get the most bang for their bucks. Wear a splurge every day because you love it!

Without a doubt, Laurence Graff will always be one of my favorite designers. His jewelry is so beautiful it’s inspiring! Click the 1st link below if you want to see more of his jewelry.

Due to algorithms, after writing about Graff jewelry, these gorgeous rings began following me around the internet. Wow, I love them all. Fairy godmother!!*ੈ✩‧₊˚

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Understanding Fine Jewelry Prices

Understanding Fine Jewelry Prices

Standard retail fine jewelry stores apply 200% - 300% markups on real gold, platinum, or sterling silver jewelry to cover their overhead costs, like space leases, sales commissions, and marketing. 

Kuvera Jewelers 

In contrast, weight-based jewelers price their jewelry on the literal gram or pennyweight (dwt) of the precious metal plus a transparent labor fee, rather than a fixed retail sticker price. This practice is deeply rooted in Indian, Middle Eastern, and Asian bullion jewelry cultures, where gold is both (1) a wearable asset and (2) a direct measure of value.

Unlike Western luxury or fashion brands that charge a"brand tax,” of 300% plus, traditional weight-based pricing follows a transparent formula that is spelled out for consumers: 

Net Weight in Grams of Metal x Real-time Market Price + Labor.

Direct-to-consumer (DTC or D2C) is a business model in which a brand sells its products directly to the buyer, bypassing third-party wholesalers, distributors, or traditional retailers. Magnolia on the right →

A growing tier of direct-to consumer (DTC) brands and traditional weight-based jewelers bypass the middleman to keep markups to a minimum, ensuring a customer's money goes toward the price of the metal and real craftsmanship rather than for a luxury name.

6 Notable Weight-Based Jewelry Retailers include:

Bijouterie Minted

1) Menè - The retailer is famous for its “radically transparent pricing.” It sells 24k gold and platinum by carat weight. "Every product page has a live calculator showing the exact breakdown of the daily precious metal value + the cost of design or labor."

2) Bijouterie Minted: Based in Montréal, Bijouterie Minted scales solid 14k–22k gold jewelry purely by weight tied to its live market rates. The shop ships a complimentary digital scale with a customer's order so we can verify the weight at home.

3) Magnolia Jewelers: Focuses entirely on pure metals and avoids gemstones. Pieces are "priced by weight with a clear and transparent manufacturing premium.”

4) Kuvera Jewelry: Offers solid 24K gold rings, bands, and chains with pricing directly tied to the metal mass.

Quince

5) Quince Fine Jewelry: Known for offering high-quality, ethically sourced and recycled 14k gold and lab-grown diamond jewelry at transparent factory-direct prices (in addition to its gold-plated stock, so pay close attention to which one you’re ordering).

Mejui

6) Mejui is another DTC fine jewelry brand that focuses on sustainable, accessible luxury using recycled 14k gold and sterling silver with ethically sourced natural and lab-grown gemstones at fair markups. Again, avoid ordering from its gold-plated silver line a/k/a gold vermeil, if seeking 14k gold fine jewelry.

The following section comes from various sources, gathered not from my personal experience, but by a Google search. I haven't bought jewelry on the Asian market but I know owning real gold jewelry is important to wealthy Asian families. By tradition, an Indian bride’s jewelry is part of her dowry. Investors and serious expert jewelry buyers might buy jewelry from Asian jewelers including these:

Consider the details below in quotation ...

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Indian Jewelers & Bullion

Indian jewelers focus heavily on 22-karat yellow gold, intricate temple designs, bridal sets, and gold as an investment.

Joyalukkas: A premier international brand with a strong presence in the US, offering a wide range of traditional 22K gold and diamond collections.
Aabhushan Jewelers: Known for carrying extensive Indian 22K gold jewelry, certified diamonds, and silver items.
Local Hubs: In the New York and Manhattan area, shoppers frequently look to Jackson Heights in Queens or specialized districts for authentic regional craftsmanship.

Middle Eastern Jewelers & Bullion

Middle Eastern jewelry traditions emphasize rich 21K and 24K gold, heavy solid gold cuffs, custom nameplates, and bullion coins.

Yasini Jewelers: Specializes in high-karat gold including 18K, 21K, 22K, and 24K jewelry, bullion, and custom Arabic nameplates.
Taj Gold & Diamond Jewelers: Focuses on authentic 21K and 22K gold jewelry imported from Dubai, featuring traditional and modern Middle Eastern and South Asian styles.
Baladna Jewelers: Offers 18K to 24K gold pieces alongside domestic and international gold bullion and custom 3D designs.

Asian & East Asian Jewelers

East Asian and broader Asian markets emphasize high-purity 24K (999.9) gold pieces, jade, and intricate cultural motifs.

Chinatown Districts: Local storefronts in Manhattan and Queens feature specialized Chinese and East Asian jewelers dealing in 24K solid gold pieces, bangles, and jade artifacts.

Queen of Hearts Jewelry

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Readers, I hope you have a better understanding of how fine jewelry is priced by jewelers, and this enlightenment helps you get good value for the money.

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Pretty Rings At Harry Winston

Photo: Harry Winston

Fortunately, I'm not tempted to buy luxury handbags, shoes, or apparal despite appreciating the style and/or craftsmanship of many of the top designers. My luxury of choice has always been jewelry. So how does THAT make me fortunate? Well, luxury jewelry is so far beyond the means of a regular wage earner like me that I have no illusions of bringing pieces home! I can browse knowing  -- what I’m ogling over -- would put far too many zeros on my credit card, sending me deep into debt. I might covet, yet there is no temptation to buy. I know who I am, and it isn’t a high roller with deep pockets for beautiful yet ultimately impractical things.

That said, aren’t the 3 Harry Winston rings👆, a canary diamond with white diamonds, an emerald with diamonds, and a sapphire with diamonds, gorgeous! Yes, siree, Bob!

If you love gemstones and admire jewelry design, you love seeing high-end jewelry for inspiration. First a dreamer, then a realist is my motto. Take it in, then find something similar ... the design, the vibe, the size, within your budget. You can follow the same practice if you love designer bags, shoes, apparel, or art, whatever your hot button temptation is. I mean, we don’t have to deprive ourselves of enjoying the apex of quality by ignoring it. Try your temptation on if you get the chance, then search for something more budget-friendly that gives you the same effect as a big-ticket item. No need to go without completely. Deprivation is not a virtue!

Pretty rings at Macy’s, more affordable commercial-grade gemstones, including sapphires with diamonds, an emerald with diamonds, and canary diamonds with white diamonds.😊

Jewelry is a luxury buy, just like all other designer goods, so it is more of a want than a need, but we can justify owning a few pieces to add sparkle to outfits. If your splurge is a ring, you can enjoy looking at it all day long!

Finally, remember that lab-grown gemstones are physically, chemically, and optically identical to earth-grown gemstones, making large precious stones -- emeralds, rubies, sapphires, and diamonds -- far more affordable. 

Photo: Harry Winston

Harry Winston's rings look to be as thin as lower-cost vendors’ rings at Macy’s. The HW gemstones are better quality, but for the money, Harry Winston could make the bands of his lovely, yet extremely pricey, rings thicker. Don’t you agree?!?

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3 of the World's Most Durable Gemstones

Photo: Geology.in: Click to go to the website to learn more about garnets. Usually the Hessonite hue is more of a cinnamon orange.

Gemstone durability is a blend of 3 major characteristics: Hardness, toughness, and strength. Hardness is its resistance to scratches. Toughness stops breaking, cracking, and chipping. How tightly a gemstone's atoms are packed together determines its toughness. A gemstone's strength measures its resistance to shattering under pressure (i.e., how hard it is to crush).

Spessartite Garnet

If you're looking for everyday jewelry that will endure, the following 3 gemstones always top the lists of jewelry insiders. Two of the 3 gemstones are so under the public's radar, and thus less in demand, they are also good value for the money.

I. Jewelry experts consider garnet a wildly underrated gemstone. The jewel is a whole family of minerals that comes in a wide array of intense colors. With a 7.5 rating on Mohl’s Scale of Hardness, a garnet is hard enough for everyday rings. But that’s not the whole story; a garnet has no cleavage, giving it excellent toughness. A vivid green garnet, known as tsavorite, is far cheaper, cleaner, and tougher than emeralds, with none of an emerald’s fragility for chipping, cracking, or breaking. Unlike emeralds, garnets do not need oiling to hide industry-accepted inclusions. Rodolite (a combination of pink, red, and purple) exudes a raspberry hue. Spessartite is a fiery orange, and Demantoid sparkles more than diamonds.

Wikepedia

II. Another hard, tough, strong, and underrated gemstone is spinel, with an 8 in hardness. Spinel (MgAl2O4) grows in the same mines as rubies and, for centuries, was mistaken for a ruby (Al2O3). The only reason spinel is overlooked is that it lacks the marketing push of diamonds. Collectors understand the beauty, durability, and true value of spinel. Insiders predict that once the public catches on, the price of spinels will skyrocket. 

Photo: GIA

III. The last, most durable gemstone for everyday wear is the priciest of the 3 but worth considering as an alternative gemstone for engagement rings: Corundum has a 9 hardness rating. Rubies (red corundum is more expensive because red gemstones in nature are rarer). All other colors of corundum are sapphires. Corundum is a more durable gemstone than diamonds. They are often selected by royalty (Diana and Catherine of Wales, the York princesses) for their engagement rings, and jewelers buy them for their own family. I met a jeweler at Tiffany's who bought herself a 3.5-carat blue sapphire ring, and a jeweler at Effy who bought a sapphire ring for his daughter that will last forever!

Jewlery isn't cheap, so it pays to know which gemstones have the best combination of durability. 

💍💎💍💎

A blue spinel

Other gemstones insiders cite for durability include Alexandrite (a 9.5 in hardness), Moissanite (9.5), and Jade (6 - 7). The coveats with them are: Alexandrite is rare and thus super expensive. Moissanite is very affordable, but always lab-grown. Jade, the softest on the list, can be scratched if careless, so durable yet not to be banged around, set in rings.

Which of the durable gemstones appeals to you? I wish I owned blue and red spinels. Vietnam grows vivid blue ones.

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What Makes Green Diamonds?

From Instagram - The Aurora

After writing last Thursday's blog, I got curious about green diamonds. I don’t recall ever seeing one. This might be because they make up less than 0.1% of all fancy-colored diamonds on earth. After red, green diamonds are the 2nd rarest diamonds. Unlike most diamonds that get their colors from chemical impurities entering their atomic structure, green diamonds get their color from natural radiation. Over millions of years, alpha and beta rays emitted by radioactive minerals knock carbon atoms out of place in the crystal structure, changing how the stone absorbs light. In other words, radiation exposure creates carbon atom vacancies. This vacancy defect, also known as the GR1 center in a diamond, causes the green color.

According to Only National Diamonds, radiation from alpha particles usually only penetrates a few micrometers deep, leaving a shallow green "skin" on rough stones. Diamond cutters must plan and facet the gem with expert precision to evenly distribute this color throughout the stone. It may explain why we see more radiant cuts in this fancy colored gemstone. The radiant cut’s faceting maximizes light reflection, which intensifies and saturates the color of the stone, making it appear more vivid.

A very few green diamonds are also colored by more complex defects involving nitrogen, hydrogen, or nickel.

The world’s natural green diamonds come from South America and Africa. Nowadays, laboratory irradiation can also produce green diamonds. It’s challenging to tell natural-grown and lab-grown green diamonds apart. Both are real diamonds. It’s unlawful to sell lab-grown diamonds without transparency.

The scarcity of green diamonds makes them very pricey. Just like other colored gemstones, color is the most important of the fancy diamond Cs (followed by cut, carat, and clarity) in determining value. As their color becomes more saturated and vibrant, prices rise dramatically. Based on their GIA color intensity grade for a 1-carat stone, a Fancy Green color costs from $50,000 - $100,000; a Fancy Intense Green costs between $150,000 - $200,000, and a Fancy Vivid Green costs $300,000+.

Photo: Wikipedia
The Dresden Green Diamond

The Dresden Green, a 41-carat diamond originating from India’s Golconda mines, is the largest and most famous natural green diamond in the world. It is a chemically pure IIa diamond with VS1 clarity. Frederick Augustus II, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, paid 400,000 thalers for the diamond in 1741. Perhaps someone should have told Diespach, the court jeweler of Saxony, that fads come and go before, in 1768, he mounted the Dresden Green as an elaborate hat ornament surrounded by 411 white diamonds.😁 Today, it is on display in the Green Vault at Dresden Castle in Germany. The renowned green diamond survived the Seven Years’ War, the Napoleonic Wars, World Wars I and II, its confiscation by the Soviets, who returned it to Dresden in 1958, and the 2019 Dresden Museum heist of royal jewels. Thankfully, at the time of the theft, the Dresden Green was on loan to the Metropolitan Museum in Manhattan.

The Aurora Green (👆top image) is a 5.02 carat Fancy Vivid Green rectangular radiant cut diamond with VS2 clarity. The Aurora Green is surrounded by pink diamonds set in a ring. Found in Brazil, it sold for a wooping $16.8 million, the most expensive price ever paid for a green diamond, at Christie’s Hong Kong in 2016. Chow Tai Fook Jewellery bought it. Without fluorescence, its GIA-rated Fancy Green color is one of a kind!

Photo: Jewelry Point

Personally, I’d rather pay less money to get a bigger, more common white (clear) diamond. Other jewelry lovers may covet uniqueness over size. 

Ultra-rare fancy-colored diamonds are so wildly expensive that customers fork over a ton of moola for a tiny stone, so I wouldn’t buy, but visit them at Tiffany’s New York flagship store or the museums around the world that house them. First a dreamer, then a realist ... and perhaps an adventurous traveler is the way to get more bang for your buck!💚

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Michael Gabriels Lab Created Diamond Jewelry

Michael Gabriels lab-grown diamond ring

Diamonds over 2 carats increase in price exponentially, not linearly, because eye-clean, bigger diamonds are rarer and in demand. The jewelry industry uses the term magic sizes to describe the price jump at round numbers that occur at .05, 1.00, 2.00, 3.00 carats and up. If you buy a natural diamond ring slightly below the round numbers, for example, at 2.95 carats, you’ll pay less but get the same effect as a 3.00 carat diamond ring.

Nowadays, people who desire bigger carats are considering lab-grown diamonds for at least 50% less than the cost of natural diamonds of the same size and quality. Lab-grown diamonds are real diamonds. Just like natural-grown diamonds, lab-grown diamonds are pure carbon arranged in a crystal lattice. They have the exact same chemical, physical, and optical properties as natural diamonds. The difference between the two is their origins. Natural diamonds are created over billions of years in the earth, while lab-grown diamonds are created in weeks in a laboratory using advanced technology that mimics the natural geological process of diamond formation. 

Do you want to know how lab diamonds are created? Two methods are used: High Pressure High Temperature (HPHT), which mimics the Earth’s mantle, and Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD), which uses carbon-rich gas to grow diamond crystals atom by atom. Both methods produce 100% real diamonds. HPHT produces high-quality, often larger crystals and intensely colored diamonds with strong, consistent crystals, while CVD offers greater control, producing exceptional clarity and larger, high-quality, colorless stones such as pure type 2a (IIa) diamonds (i.e. diamonds without metallic inclusions, which are very, very rare in natural diamonds). Only an expert with a spectroscopy in a laboratory can tell a natural diamond and a lab diamond apart. Natural diamonds usually contain small amounts of nitrogen gas that become incorporated into the diamond structure. UV light (fluorescence) can highlight the growth structure of the diamond being tested. Lab-grown diamonds can also be identified by the types of inclusions they might show. CVD, HPHT, and natural diamonds will all have their own distinctive inclusions. Type 2a diamonds produced by the CVD method are the most chemically pure type of diamond, containing no measurable nitrogen, boron, or metallic impurities. They have exceptional transparency and brilliance, comprising less than 2% of gem-quality diamonds. Of course, that would add to their expense.

Often, you pay 50%-70% less for lab-grown diamonds, which usually have better color (D-F) and clarity (VS1) than natural diamonds. In other words, customers get a bigger, cleaner stone for less money. More sparkle! Natural diamonds fetch a higher resale value. But jewelry isn’t an investment, and you should only think of it as a luxury buy, since you’ll usually lose money by selling your jewelry.

Lab-grown diamonds are lowering the price of both natural and lab diamonds as more retailers enter the market and more people buy them.

Michael Gabriels, a 3rd-generation New York jeweler at 46 Howard Street in Soho specializes in lab-grown diamond jewelry with stellar craftsmanship, beautiful design, and good reviews for attentive customer service. Good craftsmanship is vital. You want to buy excellent cut diamonds. In a tennis bracelet or necklace, you want all the diamonds to have matching color and clarity. With regular promotions, you can also score a deal.

Lab-grown diamond jewelry isn’t cheap, but it’s sustainable and considered a better value because you can get more carats and better color and clarity for a lot less moola! No longer must customers spend 5-figures to buy a bigger or cleaner carat diamond ring, bracelet, or pair of earrings!

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