When's The Best Time To Buy Gold?

Moneyweek writes about the tight supply and growing demand of gold + the market trends + other viewpoints @ http://www.moneyweek.com/file/12405/whens-the-best-time-to-buy-gold.html

The Top 50

The Guardian profiles UK's brightest/biggest designers + their concepts @ http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/design/story/0,,2159165,00.html

The Istanbul Biennial

Peter Schjeldahl writes about The Istanbul Biennial, one of the first non-Western biennials, and one of only a few in Muslim countries + its fun-filled, earnest concepts + other viewpoints @ http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/artworld/2007/10/08/071008craw_artworld_schjeldahl

About The Turner Prize

(via The Guardian) Jonathan Jones writes about the Turner prize + other viewpoints @ http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/news/story/0,,2181514,00.html

Useful links:
Turner prize 2007
In pictures: the shortlisted artists

About Mark Wallinger
Adrian Searle on Mark Wallinger's State Britain
What do you think of State Britain?
State Britain in pictures
Adrian Searle on Wallinger's Trafalgar Square sculpture
Mark Wallinger's 1995 Turner prize entry

About Zarina Bhimji
Adrian Searle reviews Documenta
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown on Muslim artists in Britain
Zarina Bhimji official site
Haunchofvenison.com: biography of Bhimji

About Nathan Coley
Adrian Searle on 2005's macabre summer shows
Doggerfisher.com: see works by Nathan Coley

About Mike Nelson
News: Art on drugs in Margate
Jonathan Jones talks to Mike Nelson
Mike Nelson's 2001 Turner prize entry
Tate: Mike Nelson profile
Mike Nelson at Frieze Art Fair

Special report
Full coverage: Turner prize 2006

Orthodox Bulldozer

Konstantin Akinsha writes about the background of rising nationalism and Orthodox assertiveness by Russian Orthodox activists + the influential members of the congregation of St. Nicholas in Pyzhi (whose archpriest, Alexander Shargunov, is a well-known radical fundamentalist) + the Sakharov Museum controversy + other viewpoints @ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=1521

Selling Diamonds

(via Diamond Promotion Service) 21. The diamonds are separated from the concentrate in the final steps of recovery. Until recently, this was done primarily by grease tables or grease belts. Diamonds are water-resistant; therefore when the concentrate is sluiced over tables or moving belts coated with a heavy grease, the diamonds stick to the grease and the rest of the material is washed away. Then the diamonds and grease are scraped up and put into boiling water which cleans away the grease.

22. The latest development for this final recovery is X-ray separation. A diamond fluoresces in an X-ray beam. The diamondiferous concentrate passes a beam. The fluorescence triggers a photoelectric cell, which in turn, trips a jet of air that blows the diamond out of the main stream. When another mineral passes the electronic eye, nothing happens. This method of separation is incredibly fast, and it’s more than 99 percent effective.

23. In alluvial mines, the diamonds are usually found among the gravels and other material lying on the bedrock. The sand or earthen overburden is scraped up and dumped in an other location. Then the diamond-bearing gravels are scooped up and taken away for the recovery treatment. Every crevice of the bedrock is swept clean with brooms to make sure that they get all the diamonds. The recovery process is essentially the same as for ore from the open cast and underground mines.

24. The ratio of diamonds within the diamond-bearing rock is very low. In some mines, to recover one ounce of diamonds—which is 142 carats—the miners have to dig as much as 112,000,000 ounces of material—which is 3500 tons. Furthermore, the average size of the rough diamonds is less than a carat. So in one ounce of rough—142 carats—there may be only half a dozen stones larger than a carat, and a couple of hundred smaller than half a carat.

25. Of the total world production of rough diamonds, only about 20 percent are capable of being cut into gem diamonds. The rest are put to industrial use for the cutting, grinding and polishing of a great variety of materials used in manufacturing. The gem-industrial ratio varies from country to country. Production in the Republic of Zaire (DR Congo) runs more than 98 percent industrial while that of South-West Africa is more than 90 percent gem.

26. Broadly, diamonds are sorted in the following categories: stones, which are octahedral in shape and look like two four-sided pyramids joined at their bases; cleavages, or broken and blocky pieces; macles, which are triangular stones usually with a herring-bone line around them; and flats, or thin but cuttable diamonds. Stones and shapes weighing less than one carat in the rough are known as melee. Cleavages under one carat in the rough are known as chips. Bort, ballas and carbonado are varieties of diamond used only in industry.

27. Synthetic diamonds for industrial uses are being manufactured by subjecting graphite compounds to tremendous heat and pressure in giant presses. Synthetic gem diamonds have been made in laboratory experiments, but only at great cost, far more than the cost of natural gem diamonds.

Selling Diamonds (continued)

How Green Was My Valley

Greatest Opening Film Lines (How Green Was My Valley - 1941):
I am packing my belongings in the shawl my mother used to wear when she went to the market. And I'm going from my valley. And this time, I shall never return. I am leaving behind me my fifty years of memory. Memory. Streams that the mind will forget so much of what only this moment has passed, and yet hold clear and bright the memory of what happened years ago - of men and women long since dead.

I liked this one.

Common Gemstone Treatments

A number of gem materials are treated to alter their appearance. Temperatures may vary considerably depending on the material and the desired effect. In some cases relatively low temperatures may cause the desired change (s).

Amber may be heated to produce a number of desired changes. Most commonly it is heated to induce discoid fractures known as ‘sun spangles’ that some consider desirable. It may also be heated to change yellow material to a darker, more orange brown color, thereby resembling naturally age-oxidized material. Cloudy amber containing a myriad of tiny gas bubbles may be clarified by heating, usually while immersed in an oil medium (rapeseed or linseed oil). The presence of sun spangles is generally assumed to imply treatment whereas the heat oxidation and clarification processes are not normally detectable.

Aquamarine, a beryl variety, most commonly occurs in nature as a blue-green stone, the color from which it derives its name (meaning seawater). Today, however, a purer blue is more marketable. Heat treatment is therefore used to remove the yellow component of its color, leaving the stable blue. The same treatment is used to remove the yellow component from some peachy morganite beryl, resulting in a purer pink color. Because of the relatively low temperatures used, heat treated aquamarine and morganite rarely show the type of heat-treated damage used to determine heat treatment in some corundum, so detection is generally not possible.

One of the commercially more significant varieties of quartz is amethyst. The stone is heated to improve the color of dark-toned material by bleaching out some of the purple color and/or removing a smoky component. In both cases the heating (partially or completely) reverses radiation-induced structural damage that produced color centers. Heating to high temperatures is routinely used on amethyst from some sources to produce the yellow quartz variety, citrine. It is believed that practically all of the citrine on the market today is the result of such treatments. Some amethyst, upon heating, will convert to citrine in some zones and not others; this results in the bi-colored amethyst-citrine variety that has marketed under the trade name Ametrine.

Some brown to orange topaz owes its color to a combination of a chromium-produced pink component and color-center-produced yellow-to-brown component. Heating such materials repairs the structural damage that produces the yellowish component, leaving only the stable pink color. This process, which requires relatively low temperatures, is referred to as ‘pinking’. The material reportedly shows stronger dichroism than untreated natural pink topaz. Heating is also a step in the production of some irradiated blue topaz, as some irradiation sources will produce color centers for both blue and yellow to brown colors. The heating removes the yellowish component, leaving the more stable blue color.

Designers' London

(via The Observer) It's all about top designers and their inspirations + the places and spaces in London that motivates them most + other viewpoints @ http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/design/story/0,,2162272,00.html

Damien Hirst Speaks

(via The Guardian) I really liked Damien Hirst's artwork because it inspiring + the way he connects the dots is remarkable.

Useful links:
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/visualart/story/0,,2180929,00.html
Damien Hirst: Beyond Belief

On the blog
Jonathan Jones: Buy the skull for the nation

Related articles
06.06.2007: Jonathan Glancey: Now you, too, can own a version of Damien's £50m skull
04.06.2007: Who would pay £50m for Hirst's skull?
02.06.2007: Diamonds are a skull's best friend
25.10.2006: Jonathan Jones: Fresh out of ideas
20.06.2006: Charlotte Higgins meets maverick British artist Damien Hirst
24.10.2005: The bell tolls for Hirst's tried and tested work
01.09.2005: Hirst snaps up rotting Gothic manor
13.06.2005: Hirst ditches plans to use photograph from scene of unsolved murder
07.04.2005: Hirst show 'terrible', say New York critics
04.03.2005: Damien Hirst, Gagosian, London
28.01.2005: Eternal city finds holy site for Hirst
16.01.2005: Hirst shark sold for £7m
27.11.2003: Hirst buys his art back from Saatchi

The Hirst Files
06.10.2001: Part 1: Student works, butterflies and corpses
06.10.2001: Part 2: Lost weekends, Charles Saatchi and Pharmacy
07.10.2001: Part 3: Rows with Matthew Freud, his comeback, and how to buy a very big fish
25.10.2006: Jonathan Jones: Fresh out of ideas

Hanging On

(via The Guardian) In my view, provided proper safeguards were in place museums and galleries should be free to sell off works of art and other objects from their collections.

Useful link:
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/visualart/story/0,,2179460,00.html

The 10 Most Expensive Living Artists

Kelly Devine Thomas profiles the most expensive living artists @ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=1520

Selling Diamonds

(via Diamond Promotion Service) Diamond Mining: 15. It is believed that diamonds were formed by heat and pressure, millions of years ago, deep within the earth. Later, the magma in which the diamonds were embedded was forced to the surface through fissures like the throats of ancients volcanoes. This material then cooled into formations that we call ‘pipes’. Diamond pipes are being mined today in Botswana, Siberia, South Africa and Tanzania.

16. However, all these formations did not remain intact. Exposed to rain and heat cold for millions of years, many diamond-bearing pipes weathered away. Because the diamonds were so hard, they didn’t break up like the other material. Rather, they were carried along by streams and rivers. When their size or specific gravity was too much for the force of the water, they dropped to the river beds. These are called alluvial deposits, and most of the world’s diamonds come from alluvial mining. The pipe mine in Botswana was discovered by geologists who backtracked from an alluvial deposit along the course of an ancient river.

17. In certain areas of southern Africa, it is believed that some rivers carried diamonds all the way to the Atlantic Ocean, where wave wash deposited them in marine terraces. Some of these terraces are now on dry land, where they are being mined. There is another theory that the diamonds were washed up on the beaches from volcanic pipes on the ocean floor.

18. A diamond pipe is usually composed of a rock-like material called kimberlite, or blue ground. When a diamond pipe is mined, the first step is to dig into it from the surface, like the excavation for a huge building. This is called open-cast mining. It can continue until the hole is too deep for the ore to be brought to the surface easily, but this depth can be 800 to 1000 feet. The Finsch Mine in South Africa, the Williamson Mine in Tanzania and the Orapa Mine in Botswana are open cast mines.

19. When the hole gets too deep, the mine goes underground. Vertical shafts are sunk into the ‘country rock’ away from the pipe. Although there are different methods for underground mining, the basic technique is to drive horizontal tunnels from the shafts into the pipe and then to dig out the diamond-bearing ore from below. This, of course, makes the hole deeper, and the tunnels are driven at successively lower levels until the entire pipe has been mined out, leaving only a hole where the pipe had been. The Big Hole at Kimberley, now the site of a diamond museum, is what remains after the Kimberley Mine was mined out in 1914; now filling with water, it is 1335 feet deep, one of the deepest man-made holes on earth.

20. After the diamond-bearing ore is brought to the surface from either open cast or underground mine, it is put through a long and complex recovery process. The ore is broken up in mills that exert enough force to break the kimberlite, but not the diamonds it contains. Then the broken ore goes through a series of washings, jiggings and screenings that remove much of the waste material. Then what’s left is put into huge tanks that look like mud puddles; the liquid is heavier than water, however, so that the diamonds and other heavier minerals can sink to the bottom in a concentrate while the lighter waste material floats off.

Selling Diamonds (continued)

Different Types Of Star Gemstones

In general, star gemstones occur in fewer minerals. In theory, if right conditions were present, almost any mineral could produce asterism.

In a star ruby or sapphire, titanium oxide is exsolved as fine needles of rutile. They orient themselves in three directions, intersecting at 60° and 120° within the same plane producing beautiful stars. The most desirable black star sapphires are those which exhibit the golden star and can be many times more valuable than the more common white-rayed black star sapphires. The asterism of black star sapphire is due to perfectly oriented intergrowth of elongated hematite lamellae. Asterism can be produced in certain types of non-asteriated corundum by moderate heating, if a piece of natural corundum contains enough titanium oxide. Star rubies and sapphires can also be produced by surface diffusion technique, with red and blue being the most common.

Synthetic star corundums by the Verneuil (flame fusion) process are made by adding 0.1-0.3% of titanium oxide to the mixture. The stones are known as Linde stars in the trade and are currently manufactured in several colors, with red and blue being the most common. Identification of synthetic star corundum is not difficult because the needles are usually much smaller than those in the natural stone, and they are more evenly distributed.

Star quartz is sometimes used to imitate star sapphire. The silk usually consists of rutile intersecting in three directions or sillimanite (fibrolite). This may result in a four-rayed star or a six depending upon how the stone is oriented.

Star diopside and star entstatite are two inexpensive stones which are confused with one another. Both display 4-ray stars which meet at almost 90° and one ray is slightly more diffused than the other.

Star beryl is an unusual type. Brown in color and displaying a weak 6-rayed star, it bears a strong resemblance to black star sapphire. The star results from plates of ilmenite and hematite which are oriented in certain positions parallel to the basal plane. These plates also appear to give the stone its dark brown color; if viewed parallel to the plates, clear transparent areas are seen.

The color of star spinel varies from reddish purple to black, with most being quite dark in tone. If the stone is cut so that base is parallel to an octahedron face, a 6-rayed star will be seen; if the stone is cut so that the base is parallel to a cube face, a 4-rayed will be seen. In either case, additional stars will be seen around the girdle. Asterism may also be seen in almandine garnet and moonstone.

Helvetica

(via The Guardian) Andrew Dickson writes about (Helvetica) typeface and its creators + the movie @ http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/design/story/0,,2127233,00.html

In pictures: Around the world with Helvetica
Happy birthday, Helvetica

I liked it.

How To Buy Gold

Moneyweek explains in detail how to buy gold + the do's and dont's @ http://www.moneyweek.com/file/11428/how-to-buy-gold.html

Useful links:
Goldmoney.com
Kitco.com
Bigcharts.com
Stockcharts.com

How To Profit From Scarcity

Harvard Business School professor John Quelch writes about the concept of creating the illusion of scarcity + other viewpoints @ http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5776.html

Blog: Marketing Know: How

Odd Man In

Paul Gardner writes about the world and work of Richard Tuttle + other viewpoints @ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=1508

Selling Diamonds

(via Diamond Promotion Service) 6. Specific gravity: The diamond has a specific gravity of 3.52 because a diamond weights a little more than three and half times its equal volume of water. This means that it is a very compact gem. The specific gravity of ruby is 4.03; emerald is 2.74. This characteristic is important both for the location of diamond deposits by prospecting geologists and for the separation of diamonds from the other materials with which they are found in nature.

7. Thermal expansion: Many minerals expand and contract with heat and cold. The diamond doesn’t, and therefore is not affected by changes in temperature. A diamond will burn at 1444ºF, which is the range of a blowtorch. It will not melt until the heat reaches 6642ºF. This explains why diamonds can remain unscathed in even the most disastrous of fires.

8. Conductivity: Diamonds conduct very little heat. Most diamonds are non-conductors of electricity. Conductivity is a characteristic more important for industrial diamonds than for gems.

Where Diamonds Are Found
9. Diamonds were first found in India, more than 2500 years ago, along the banks and beds of ancient rivers. Golconda, which has always been a symbol for fabulous riches, was one of the great diamond-producing districts. Travelers brought diamonds from India into the Mediterranean world; diamonds are mentioned in the Old Testament, and they were well-known in Greek and Roman times. For many centuries India was the only source of diamonds, but today it accounts for less than one-tenth of one percent of the world’s natural diamond production.

10. Diamonds were discovered in Brazil in the 18th century, and this new source of supply helped meet the demand for diamonds by the increasingly affluent middle class in Europe. (Diamond had also been found in the East Indies by this time, but in very small numbers). South American diamonds, from Brazil, Guyana and Venezuela, account for a little more than one percent of the world’s production today.

11. The first diamond in South Africa was discovered in 1866, and the mines opened in the next 20 years made a tremendous increase in the supply of diamonds. While South African diamonds were treasured by princes and potentates, they also made it possible for almost every girl in Europe and America to have a diamond engagement ring. South Africa and South-West Africa (where diamonds were discovered in 1908) today account for about 20 percent of the world’s natural diamond production.

12. Later diamonds were discovered in other parts of Africa, and that continent is the largest producer of diamonds. Republic of Zaire (DR Congo) is the largest single diamond producing country, accounting for about 35 percent of the world’s production; but most of its diamonds are industrials rather than gems. Angola, the Central African Republic, Congo (Brazzaville), Ghana, Guinea, the Ivory Coast, Lesotho, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Tanzania together account for about 23 percent of the world’s diamonds. The newest of all diamond mines was opened in the new republic of Botswana in 1971.

13. Diamonds were discovered in eastern Siberia within our own time, in the Yakutia district above the Artic Circle. The Russians do not release their production figures, but estimates are that Russian diamonds account for about 20 percent of the annual world production today.

14. Diamonds have been found in many parts of the United States, but never in sufficient concentration for economic mining. At Murfreesboro, Arkansas, there is a diamond pipe which is worked by tourists, for fun—and they find diamonds.

Selling Diamonds (continued)

The Style Icon Of The Century

(via The Guardian) Ciao, bella! A roadtrip through its history.....

I liked this one.