Cloud Nine Diamonds, Inc.

Jewelry Making Process

Have you ever wondered how engagement rings are created? How the prongs can hold the diamond without it falling out? This is an intricate process that takes great skill. Below is a video that explains these questions. This will help you understand what goldsmiths will do to fix your ring if you have any problems or simply explains how your ring came to be.

World's Largest Diamond Mine!

There are diamond mines all over the world, but none as big as this mine in Mirnyi of eastern Siberia. The mine is 525 meters deep and 1,200 meters wide. The mine was discovered on June 13, 1955 and was mined for nearly 50 years, but was shut down on April 30, 2004. The mine was discovered by scientists Yuri Khabardin, Ekaterina Elagina and V. Avdeenko while on an expedition.

No measurements or words do the size of this mine justice. So, below you can see the size of this massive hole. On the second picture pay close attention to the tiny red arrow, which is pointing at a large rock-hauling truck. This picture really shows you how large the mine really is.

President Bush's Former Sister-In-Law Being Sued

You may be thinking, what is the significance of President Bush's former sister-in-law being sued? This is not a political blog or some random fodder blog. Well Sharon Bush ,55 and former wife of President Bush's brother Neil Bush, is being sued by her recent ex-fiance Gerald Tsai, 78. Tsai, a multi-millionaire financier, and Sharon Bush (below) "agreed" to marry in October of 2006, but was called off in January of 2008.

The ring given to Bush was a rectangular cut, yellow diamond that Tsai purchased for $243,000. He feels that the ring is worth much more and in his lawsuit is asking for the replacement amount of $434,000.

Sharon and Neil Bush divorced in April of 2003 after being married for 23 years and three kids later. During their divorce Neil Bush admitted to Sharon that he had been seeing another woman by the name of Maria Andrews, who had been a volunteer of former first lady Barbara Bush.

Woman Catches Diamond Ring

Imagine going to Mardi Gras or a local parade and instead of catching plastic beads or candy you catch a real diamond ring! This actually happened to a lady in Baton Rouge, LA. To hear more about this story click on the link below.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/02/08/la.diamond.ring.caught.cnn

Why Does White Gold Turn Yellow?

Often times a person’s white gold jewelry will turn yellow or look tarnished. Has this happened to you? Have you wondered why or think that the piece of jewelry was just of poor quality? If this does happen to you and it most likely will as time goes on, there is no need to worry.

White gold does not really exist. It is a common misconception that white gold is just like yellow gold that has been mined, the only difference is that it is white. I’m going to set the record straight. White gold is actually an alloy of yellow gold and at least one white metal, generally nickel and or palladium. This gives it the white appearance. Once the alloy has been created it will look dull, so to give it a shiny look like platinum, it will be covered with a thin layer of rhodium.

Rhodium can withstand natural elements, but unfortunately it cannot withstand the natural oils from our bodies and possibly chemicals we work with, so over time the rhodium will tarnish. So, there is no need to worry about the quality of your jewelry, but to make your ring look as shiny and beautiful as possible, you should have your ring rhodium dipped every 12-18 months.

Diamond Buying Tips

Another reality that should be discussed is the fact that the vast majority of people cannot tell the difference between diamonds unless the diamond is one of clearly inferior quality. Frankly, the average individual cannot distinguish between, for example, an F, VS1 versus an H, SI2 diamond. The naked eye simply cannot easily distinguish differences in diamond quality. Even using a loupe (the magnifying instrument used by diamontologists and jewelers) does not provide much help to the untrained eye.

It is no secret that those of us in the diamond industry typically make more money on diamonds of higher quality. If we can sell a diamond engagement ring of the highest possible quality and a relatively large size, our profits are enhanced. So why do we address this topic with such candor? We believe it is important to inform you of the challenges you could encounter when buying a diamond.

We firmly believe that too many diamond buyers overpay by caring too much about the quality and not enough about the size of the stone or by getting bad advice. Certainly we offer diamonds of the highest cut, color and clarity rating, but when we provide advice to clients we frankly do our best to provide the largest diamond of good quality at the lowest possible price. We do this because the vast majority of today's diamond engagement ring buyers want more diamond for their money.

When buying a diamond engagement ring, perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind is that you, or the recipient of the ring, must feel good about the ring that is purchased. Far too often a diamond ring buyer walks into a retail jewelry store only to be sold something that really does not meet their initial expectations. Once a sales person starts talking about the various alternatives available, it can become overwhelming and confusing for the buyer.

When shopping for your diamond engagement ring, diamond wedding ring or loose diamond, try to keep these tips in mind:

1. Set your budget based on what you can reasonably afford to spend and then stick to that budget. Avoid letting a sales person persuade you to overspend.
2. Understand the cut, color and clarity ratings for diamonds and then establish a range of values for each that you want to buy. For example, perhaps you will look at cuts ranging from good to excellent, color ranging from F to I and clarity ranging from VS2 to SI2. Doing this allows you a broad range of diamonds to consider and helps keep you from being "oversold".
3. Research the shapes available. By far the most popular shape is round followed by princess. If you are interested only in round shapes, for example, that will help narrow your search. But above all, choose a diamond engagement ring that you like and not something that you feel pressured to buy.