Imperial Topaz Imitation

Natural deep yellow orange pink variety of topaz (imperial topaz) is rare and expensive. The important source for this gem is Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, Brazil. For now there are no known synthetic imperial topaz, but common imitations such as synthetic spinel, citrine, spessartite garnet and glass are common at the source as well in the international colored stone markets. But lately more synthetic imperial topaz-like corundum (Verneuil/Flame Fusion), rough/cut are seen + for the unsuspecting buyer this could become a problem stone. Standard gemological tests will easily separate common imitations, but the intruders can be a problem when you have to deal with hundreds of stones in a parcel.

Elizabeth Taylor: My Love Affair With Jewelry

The book Elizabeth Taylor: My Love Affair With Jewelry by Elizabeth Taylor was recommended by my associate at one of our recent business meetings. Elizabeth Taylor is not a newcomer; she is an extraordinary celebrity from a different generation + the book delves into her nature + individuality + her unique taste (s) for collecting jewelry + the interesting men who always went the extra mile to make her happy via gemstones and jewelry. A good read.

Here is a review from Publisher's Weekly (via Amazon):
Taylor has presumably had love affairs with many things over the course of her illustrious life. Her acting career might be one, and her seven husbands might be others. But perhaps her one constant love affair is the lifelong one she's had with baubles, bangles and beads. In this dazzling book, Taylor shows off her collection, complementing the gorgeous color photographs with snippets about the provenance of each piece. "I mean, how many young women get a set of rubies just for doing something wholesome like swimming laps? Or win a diamond ring at Ping-Pong with their husband...? Well, I did, and for all of these memories and the people in my life I feel blessed," Taylor writes. She then launches into descriptions of the "glorious" ruby and diamond Cartier necklace from Mike Todd, the 33.19-carat Krupp diamond from Richard Burton ("When it came up for auction in the late 1960s, I thought how perfect it would be if a nice Jewish girl like me were to own it") and a crystal and diamond lily of the valley brooch from Rex Harrison ("You're the stingiest man alive," Taylor told Harrison, "...your giving me this pin would be doubly important because it would signify a personal triumph over your naturally stingy nature"). The photographs, many never before published, are a mix of catalogue-type photos and shots of Taylor wearing the items, creating not only a tremendous feast for the eyes but an entertaining waltz through a Hollywood icon's decadent life.

This is what the book description says:
"Here, in my own words and as I remember them, are my cherished stories about a lifetime of fun and love and laughter...I've never thought of my jewelry as trophies. I'm here to take care of it and to love it, for we are only temporary custodians of beauty."
-Elizabeth Taylor

She has mesmerized movie audiences since her debut in National Velvet at the age of twelve, dazzled both men and women with her luminous beauty and iconic presence, displayed shrewd business acumen by creating a line of fragrances with unparalleled success, and her AIDS activism has been a call to arms for people around the world. She is Hollywood's greatest living star and a living legend Elizabeth Taylor.

One of her greatest passions is jewelry, and over the years she has amassed one of the world's foremost collections. By the time she was in her thirties, Elizabeth Taylor already owned an outstanding set of Burmese rubies and diamonds from Cartier, a fantastic emerald and diamond suite from Bulgari, and the 33.19-carat Krupp diamond, a gift from Richard Burton. That ring was later eclipsed by a subsequent gift from Burton, when he bought a staggering 69.42-carat pear-shaped diamond. Newly named the Taylor-Burton Diamond, it catapulted Elizabeth Taylor into that rarefied pantheon of great jewelry collectors.

In this revealing book, Elizabeth Taylor offers a personal guided tour of her collection. She takes us into her confidence, sharing personal anecdotes, witty asides, and intimate reminiscences about her life, her loves, and her collection. Whether talking about the famous La Peregrina pearl, which was briefly abducted by a household pet, or chatting about a childhood gift to her mother, Elizabeth Taylor shows herself to be the most seductive of storytellers: direct, irreverent, and charming.

Complementing the stories are 125 stunning new photographs of her most remarkable pieces, specially commissioned for this book, and more than 150 rarely seen images (many from Elizabeth Taylor's personal collection) of the star wearing her jewelry over the course of almost sixty years. We see her as a young ingenue of fifteen wearing what would be the first of many charm bracelets, and again, equally dazzling, as a mature woman, wearing the famous Duchess of Windsor diamond brooch, which she purchased to benefit AIDS research.

Elizabeth Taylor: My Love Affair with Jewelry marks the first time this beautiful jewelry will be seen together as a collection. Lavishly produced and illustrated, the book has an introduction by the world-renowned authority on jewelry, François Curiel, of Christie's. It is for those who are enchanted by this most incandescent and enduring star, for those who cherish and dream of jewelry, and most importantly, for those who believe in the true meaning of love. This book is a fabulous display of unbelievable glamour, assembled over a lifetime, by one of the most extraordinary women in the world.

Global Rough Diamond Production

The analysis by A J A (Bram) Janse (Diamond Consultant, Perth, Western Australia) is really interesting. He summarizes his views (via Gems & Gemology, Spring 2007) as follows:

The history of modern diamond production spans 135 years. Although alluvial deposits have been known since antiquity, diamond production from primary deposits (kimberlites and lamproites) commenced only in 1870s and has increased by leaps and bounds ever since to a staggering total of 4.5 billion carats.

It is interesting to note that nearly 20% of this total was produced during the last five years. During the last 10, nine new mines have commenced production or come very close: Nyurba and Arkhangelskaya (Russia); Ekati, Diavik, and Jericho (Canada); Murowa (Zimbabwe); and Catoca, Camafuca, Camatchia, and Camagico (Angola). Four additional advanced projects are waiting in the wings: Snap Lake, Victor, and Gahcho Kué (Canada); and Grib (Russia). This will more than counterbalance the closing of seven old mines. As it is predicted that demand for rough will outstrip production during the next five years, and a gap of $20 million in supply and demand by 2015 has been quoted, this new production can easily be accommodated in the diamond market.

Primary deposits were first discovered in South Africa and exploration spread from there to identify diamond-producing pipes in Tanzania (1940s), Siberia (1950s), Botswana (1960s), Angola (1970s), Australia and northwest Russia (1980s), and Canada and northwest Russia (1990s). Thus, it appears that at least one major diamond mine or field has been discovered every 10 years since the 1940s. If this trend continues, then a major new discovery is imminent. This may perhaps be in China, where prospecting for diamonds is being vigorously pursued at present.

What Should A Jeweler Tell A Client About Emerald Treatment (s)?

As always, emeralds require maintenance and disclosure. I think Mary L Johnson's comment (s) via (Gems & Gemology, Summer 2007) was the best. I liked it.

'Like pearls, and unlike most diamonds, your emerald is a delicate stone. It has probably had its fissures filled and sealed in some fashion. You should clean it only with soap and water, and avoid ultrasonic cleaning or harsh chemicals. If you notice a change, bring it back and we will be happy to have it resealed (just as we would help you be cleaning your jewelry, or replacing watch batteries). If you are concerned about the extent to which it is enhanced, we can get a laboratory report for you.'

Now it's up to the gem and jewelry industry to act instead of endless talk.

The Only Sustainable Edge

Good Books: (via Emergic) John Hagel and John Seely Brown’s book The Only Sustainable Edge: Why Business Strategy Depends on Productive Friction and Dynamic Specialization explains how companies could become successful if they do the right thing. Bill Joy (Sun Microsystems co-founder) used to say: "there are always more smart people outside your company than within it." I think the bottom line is: find specialized business partners on a global scale. It's a good book.

The book has the following introduction:
Many firms have used outsourcing and offshoring to shave costs and reduce operating expenses. But as opportunities for innovation and growth migrate to the peripheries of companies, industries, and the global economy, efficiency will no longer be enough to sustain competitive advantage.

In Your Next Business Strategy, renowned business thinkers John Hagel and John Seely Brown argue that the only sustainable advantage in the future will come from an institutional capacity to work closely with other highly specialized firms to get better faster. Enabled by the emergence of global process networks, firms will undergo a three-stage transformation: deepening specialization within firms; mobilizing best-in-class capabilities across enterprises; and, ultimately, accelerating learning across broad networks of enterprises.

Hagel and Seely Brown discuss the strategic levers that will accelerate this migration, and they outline a new approach to strategy development that will help companies capture this shifting source of strategic advantage.

Calling for a forceful reinvention of business strategy and the very nature of the firm itself, this bold and forward-looking book reveals what every company must do today to become tomorrow’s market leader.

Here is an excerpt from the book:
When customers demand more and control more, a company cannot rely solely on its own capabilities, no matter how distinct. Similarly, a company will struggle to mobilize outside resources unless it can offer exceptional capabilities in return. After all, the best enterprises receive so many proposals to collaborate that they will likely form partnerships only with whoever provides truly compelling, unique value. And so the real strategic power comes when a company integrates and extends these two schools of thought, amplifying the value of its distinctive internal capabilities by creatively and aggressively harnessing complementary capabilities from other companies.

John Hagel blog.

Greatest Film Directors

21. Fritz Lang

22. John Huston

23. Woody Allen

24. Luis Bunuel

25. Ernst Lubitsch

26. William Wyler

27. Cecil B. DeMille

28. Frank Capra

29. Pedro Almodovar

30. Robert Altman

Greatest Films

The films I like:

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

L.A. Confidential (1997)

Forrest Gump (1994)

Modern Times (1936)

All About Eve (1950)

Amadeus (1984)

Jaws (1975)

The Sting (1973)

The Apartment (1960)

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Rembrandt: Myth, Legend, Truth

Sylvia Hochfield writes about Rembrandt + opinions and beliefs + Rembrandt Research Project’s ongoing Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings + Rembrandt’s spontaneous technique + other viewpoints @ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=2087

Namibia DTC: Testing Ground For The New Rough Distribution System

Chaim Even-Zohar writes about Namibia DTC (NDTC) + the new rough distribution system to local manufacturers + other viewpoints @ http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp

Can You Identify This Stone?

(via The Canadian Gemmologist, Vol.III, No.4, Spring, 1982) I, too, am sometimes found as a green stone, though you probably see me more often as red brown, white, blue, or golden colors. My R.I can vary considerably, as does my S.G. Usually you see me as tetragonal crystals, but if I am found as rolled pebbles, I am more nearly amorphous. Sometimes I show easily recognized absorption spectra, sometimes none at all. What am I?
Answer: Zircon

Ulexite

Chemistry: Hydrated borate of calcium and sodium
Crystal system: Monoclinic; fibrous.
Color: Transparent to translucent; white.
Hardness: 1 - 2
Cleavage: Perfect; Fracture: fibrous.
Specific gravity: 1.65 – 1.99
Refractive index: 1.51 mean; 0.029
Luster: Vitreous.
Dispersion:-
Dichroism: -
Occurrence: USA

Notes
Collectors stone; also known as Television Stone, for if a slab is polished with both faces at right angle to the fibers, it will transmit image as per fiber optics; used to make imitation cat’s eye effect assembled stones; fluorescence: blue green (SW); may phosphoresce.

Jewelry And Gem Program

I found an interesting link via FBI @ http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/jag/jagpage.htm on jewelry theft + the costs associated with gem and jewelry thefts + the popular fencing cities in the United States.

Greatest Film Directors

11. Martin Scorsese

12. Akira Kurosawa

13. Ingmar Bergman

14. John Cassavetes

15. Billy Wilder

16. Jean Renoir

17. Francis Ford Coppola

18. Howard Hawks

19. Francois Truffaut

20. Buster Keaton

Greatest Films

The films I like:

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Citizen Kane (1941)

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Sunset Blvd. (1950)

It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

Apocalypse Now (1979)

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

Collapse

Good Books: (via Emergic) Jared Diamond’s Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed follows Guns, Germs and Steel + discusses how societies morphed through the centuries + why some became lucky and prosperous. History is a life-long school of learning...... It's a good book for everyone.

Here is an excerpt from an article by the author in The New York Times:
What lessons can we draw from history? The most straightforward: take environmental problems seriously. They destroyed societies in the past, and they are even more likely to do so now. If 6,000 Polynesians with stone tools were able to destroy Mangareva Island, consider what six billion people with metal tools and bulldozers are doing today. Moreover, while the Maya collapse affected just a few neighboring societies in Central America, globalization now means that any society's problems have the potential to affect anyone else. Just think how crises in Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq have shaped the United States today.

Other lessons involve failures of group decision-making. There are many reasons why past societies made bad decisions, and thereby failed to solve or even to perceive the problems that would eventually destroy them. One reason involves conflicts of interest, whereby one group within a society (for instance, the pig farmers who caused the worst erosion in medieval Greenland and Iceland) can profit by engaging in practices that damage the rest of society. Another is the pursuit of short-term gains at the expense of long-term survival, as when fishermen overfish the stocks on which their livelihoods ultimately depend.

History also teaches us two deeper lessons about what separates successful societies from those heading toward failure. A society contains a built-in blueprint for failure if the elite insulates itself from the consequences of its actions. That's why Maya kings, Norse Greenlanders and Easter Island chiefs made choices that eventually undermined their societies. They themselves did not begin to feel deprived until they had irreversibly destroyed their landscape.

The other deep lesson involves a willingness to re-examine long-held core values, when conditions change and those values no longer make sense. The medieval Greenland Norse lacked such a willingness: they continued to view themselves as transplanted Norwegian pastoralists, and to despise the Inuit as pagan hunters, even after Norway stopped sending trading ships and the climate had grown too cold for a pastoral existence. They died off as a result, leaving Greenland to the Inuit. On the other hand, the British in the 1950's faced up to the need for a painful reappraisal of their former status as rulers of a world empire set apart from Europe. They are now finding a different avenue to wealth and power, as part of a united Europe.

Wine And Gems In Dijon

‘Color Sparkles: Legendary Wines and Gemstones,’ a unique exhibition of fine gems and fine wines, is being held in the Sciences Garden at the Parc de I’Arquebuse, Dijon, France, through Dec 9, 2007 + the French National Museum of Natural History with wines from the great vintners of Burgundy and beyond + wine tasting and hands-on experiments in light and color @ www.dijon.fr/fiche/eclats-de-couleruspierres-et-vins-de-legende.evt.5604.php

Performance

Peter Schjeldahl writes about Chris Burden + his conceptual art + his interpretation of art as a free spot in society, where you can do anything—anything + other viewpoints @ http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/artworld/2007/05/14/070514craw_artworld_schjeldahl

BHP Billiton To Market The Satellite Pipe Mine Production

Chaim Even-Zohar writes about Satellite Pipe Mine + European Diamonds Plc + the government of Lesotho + complex marketing system (s) + other viewpoints @ http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp?TextSearch=&KeyMatch=0&id=25199

Can You Identify This Stone?

(via The Canadian Gemmologist, Vol.III, No.4, Spring, 1982) . Usually I am green or greenish blue, sometimes yellow, and all too often white or grayish. They call me Bonamite sometimes when I am greenish blue. Not many gemstones have zinc in them, but I do. My R.I is 1.62 – 1.85, and I am heavier than garnet. What am I?
Answer: Smithsonite

Ruby / Sapphire Fakes

When you are visiting gem mines or markets in Africa, South Asia, South East Asia, South America and North America, you might encounter the following stones. Gem dealers, jewelers and gemologist (s) may or may not be able to recognize the 'intruders' or 'tell-tale' signs of the fakes due to 'momentary autism', lack of knowledge or even over confidence.

I.
- Heat treated, tumbled Verneuil synthetic ruby
- Heat treated and/or ‘quench-crackled’, tumbled Verneuil synthetic ruby.
- Heat treated and/or ‘quench-crackled’, tumbled, oiled or waxed Verneuil synthetic ruby.
- Heat treated and/or ‘quench-crackled’, blue dye impregnated, tumbled Verneuil synthetic ruby.
- Heat treated tumbled Verneuil synthetic ruby with fillings + with/without colored wax.
- Heat treated, tumbled Verneuil synthetic filled with fused particles of blue sapphire.
- Heat treated, tumbled Verneuil synthetic ruby that has modified opening (s) filled with fused particles of blue sapphire.
- Natural pink sapphires rough coated with dark red nail polish.

***** May Look Like Natural Ruby Rough

II.
- Heat treated, fashioned, tumbled Verneuil synthetic ruby.
- Heat treated, fashioned, tumbled, partly blue painted Verneuil synthetic ruby.
- Heat treated and/or ‘quench-crackled’, fashioned, tumbled Verneuil synthetic ruby.
- A composite crystal containing fragments of Verneuil synthetic ruby.

***** May Look Like Ruby Crystals

III.
- Heat treated and/or ‘quench-crackled’ Verneuil synthetic ruby.

***** May Look Like Faceted Ruby

IV.
- Heat treated and/or ‘quench-crackled’ Verneuil synthetic sapphire.

***** May Look Like Faceted Sapphire