Russian Model Shows Off Lamborghini Aventador Encrusted With Two Million Diamonds

Daria Radionova

With London’s supercar season underway, it’s only natural that you will see a variety of Ford Fiestas, Volkswagen Polos and Vauxhall Corsas. Who are we kidding, eh?

The streets are actually packed with extravagant cars such as a £280,000 Rolls Royce Dawn, a £140,000 Porsche 911 GT3 and even a Bugatti Chiron worth an unbelievable £2.5 million. Wonder whether you can get it on finance.

Despite these, it was Russian model Daria Radionoca’s Swarovski crystal encrusted £350,000 Lamborghini Aventador that got the most attention.

According to the MailOnline, the 26 year old studied business management in London and now customises fur and leather products for wealthy clients.

So, now we know where she got the inspiration from herself, it is believed that the revamp took 700 man hours and over two months to apply two million of the crystals. Phew, bet she didn’t do that on her own.

Daria clearly likes her cars as well because she had previously owned a Lamborghini Huracan and a Mercedes CLS which she also adapted to suit her style. Wonder how much she forks out on insurance though…

Daria lives in Knightsbridge, central London, and is just one of 600 owners of the SuperVeloce version of the V12 model.

As well as this supercar, the model is CEO of two companies: DRJACKETS by Daria R. and a beauty salon called Royale Dolls Beauty.

She has over 150,000 followers on her personal Instagram account and in a recent Instagram Q&A on her story when she was asked how she could afford the whip, she said: “If you work as hard as I do – then you would afford one as well, even at a younger age. Whatever I show on Instagram – that’s what I decide to show.

“There is much more behind all these fancy pictures. I’m a very hardworking and ambitious person and I work 24/7, even when I sleep my mind is always on and always thinking about work and ££.

“I love luxury, I don’t want to depend on anyone – hence I’m working like crazy and being able to afford whatever I want.” Fair play to her.

When someone asked how she got insurance on the SV (SuperVeloce), she wrote: “Everything is possible, it’s just a matter of £££££. I’m paying way too much for insurance but this car is worth it”.

Source: ladbible

PS: Swarovski crystals are not diamonds.

3.72 Carat Diamond found at Crater of Diamonds State Park

A 3.72 Carat diamond was discovered at Arkansas State Park.

Miranda Hollingshead 27 year old of Texas discovered the diamond during her first trip to the park.

Miranda said she was in town visiting siblings and they wanted to do something fun, so they visited the park.

An hour into their search, she found the yellow diamond.

Park officials said recent rainfall in the area likely assisted in the diamond being uncovered.

The 3.72 carat yellow diamond is the biggest one discovered this year, topping the 2.12-carat brown diamond discovered last month.

Anna Hu’s 100 Carat Yellow Diamond Necklace

ANNA HU The Dunhuang Pipa Necklace

Five pieces created by contemporary high jewelry artist, Anna Hu, will be among the jewels being offered at Sotheby’s Hong Kong Magnificent Jewels and Jadeite sale on October 7.

The high jewels on offer will come from Hu’s latest collection, “Silk Road Music Collection.” Unveiled in Paris during the first week of July, it consists of a group of about a dozen jewels inspired by musical and cultural exchanges that took place on the Silk Road – an ancient trade route connecting the eastern and western parts of the world.

Leading the five pieces at the upcoming auction is the “Dunhuang Pipa Necklace,” set with a 100.02 carat fancy intense yellow diamond provided by Sotheby’s. Its estimate is $5 million – $6.25 million. The silhouette of this necklace resembles a Chinese pipa a four stringed Chinese lute attached to lines of a western musical staff in 18k white gold that flows in twists and waves, and sparkles with pavé diamond along the neckline.

Hu was inspired by images of women playing the pipa depicted on murals in Dunhuang, considered an oasis for travelers in China’s northwest desert area along the Silk Road. The necklace can be transformed into a brooch and earring.

“It is absolutely a pleasure to collaborate with Sotheby’s on this project and be given the opportunity to work with the 100.02 carat yellow diamond, which is a true gift from nature,” Hu said.

Yvonne Chu, acting head of department, Jewellery, Sotheby’s, said this necklace “is one of the most important jewelry pieces on offer this season.”

As with much of Hu’s work, this latest collection combines her passion for music and western art with the Chinese themes from her upbringing in Taiwan. A resident of New York for many years, Hu’s brand is known for creating one-of-a-kind pieces with rare gemstones crafted by skilled French-trained artisans.

Source: forbes

Sotheby’s Expects $26M for Pink Diamond

A 10.64 carat pink diamond ring

A 10.64 carat pink diamond ring worth up to $25.5 million will go under the hammer at Sotheby’s Hong Kong sale.

The fancy vivid purplish pink center stone is internally flawless, the auction house told Rapaport News Friday. Sotheby’s will offer the piece, which is flanked by white diamonds, at its Magnificent Jewels and Jadeite sale on October 7. The ring has a presale estimate of $19.1 to $25.5 million USD.

Pink diamonds have historically done well at auction, with the Pink Promise, a 14.93 carat, fancy vivid pink, fetching $32 million USD at Christie’s Hong Kong sale in 2017. In November, Harry Winston purchased the Pink Legacy, an 18.96 carat, fancy vivid pink diamond, at Christie’s Geneva auction for $50.4 million USD.

Prices of pink fancy color diamonds increased 0.4% in the three months ending June 30, outperforming blues and yellows, the Fancy Color Research Foundation noted. The imminent closure of Rio Tinto’s Argyle mine in Australia has contributed to the price rise, as the deposit produces most of the world’s pinks, explained Alan Bronstein, president of the Natural Color Diamond Association.

Source: Diamonds.net

Tiffany & Co. launches men’s line, hoping diamonds are a dude’s best friend

Tiffany & Co

Tiffany & Co. hasn’t had any trouble getting men to come shop for the ladies in their lives.

Now the jeweler behind those iconic blue boxes wants them to stay and peruse … for themselves.

Tiffany is rolling out its first comprehensive jewelry line for men, the company announced Thursday, in a bid to attract younger shoppers and reverse declining sales. Come October, the collection will include nearly 100 designs, some of which will fetch prices as high as $15,000. Tiffany also plans to add home furnishings and accessories, such as ice tongs and beer mugs, with male customers in mind.

But retail experts say it could be a tough sell. The glitz and glamour of Tiffany has long been tied to feminine jewelry (along with Audrey Hepburn’s soft smile and bejeweled neck).

Rolling out masculine designs are one thing. But getting male customers in the door and with themselves in mind is quite another.

“[Men] still see Tiffany as a female-based proposition, just because of its heritage and even things like the color of the boxes,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of research firm GlobalData Retail. “It could be quite difficult for them to really persuade male customers that they have something to offer and that is relevant to them.”

Reed Krakoff, Tiffany’s chief artistic director and who developed the collection, told the Associated Press that the new line will get its own floor space in Tiffany’s 300 stores, rather than being sold alongside other merchandise.

“Men all over the world are wearing jewelry and more accessories as part of a wardrobe,” Krakoff told the AP. “You started to see it on the runways, in social media.”

Krakoff said that men’s merchandise hasn’t historically been a large focus for Tiffany. But the company saw an opening given that half of the company’s global customers are men, most of whom come into Tiffany to buy women’s jewelry.

“We have a captive audience,” Krakoff said.

Mark Cohen, director of retail studies at Columbia Business School, gave credit to Tiffany for trying to become “more relevant” and less reliant on its aging “legacy customer.” That is key when younger shoppers “aren’t responding the way their parents did in terms of their affection for fine jewelry.”

But Cohen was skeptical that there was much Tiffany could mine in the men’s jewelry business. Gem stones and diamonds may glisten on the runway. But they do not carry the same currency for the average Joe.

“I just don’t see it as a meaningful business,” Cohen said. “To think this is going to be some sort of windfall — it’s just not going to happen.”

It is not just a lack of male foot traffic that has unsettled Tiffany. In November, company shares plummeted after Tiffany reported weaker-than-expected sales. Chief executive Alessandro Bogliolo said at the time that tourists, and specifically Chinese tourists, were traveling less, dampening sales in places like New York and Hong Kong. (Bogliolo said business in China was still strong, reaching double-digit sales growth throughout 2018.)

Though the fine jewelry market for men climbed to $5.8 billion worldwide in 2018, according to the market research firm Euromonitor International, it still lags far behind the $33.2 billion women’s market.

Saunders pointed to the athleisure brand Lululemon as a company that successfully pivoted from a mainly female audience and got more men in to shop. But Lululemon’s challenge was, in some ways, simpler to overcome, Saunders said. Lululemon does not carry the same “heritage” as Tiffany and could more easily persuade men to buy comfortable, practically gender-neutral workout clothes — not expensive bling.

Still, Tiffany has at least one major advantage: Even if men are not shopping for themselves right now, they are already inside and at the counter. Alexis DeSalva, a senior analyst of retail and e-commerce at Mintel, said Tiffany does not have to go after an entire new bucket of customers and woo them inside.

Rather, Tiffany can focus its pitch on existing male customers. Better yet, it can spread the word to its female fans who will then talk up the new line to male friends and family.

“Part of [Tiffany’s] legacy is on the service they offer,” DeSalva said. “They need to hone in on that and make sure they’re communicating [to men], ‘Hey, we have something for you too.’”

Source: Rachel Siegel washingtonpost

Super-deep diamonds contain traces of a pristine chunk of early Earth

A unique haul of diamonds that formed incredibly deep underground has been found in Brazil. What is more, they contain evidence that points to the existence of a pristine piece of original Earth rock that remains intact far underground.

It is hard to believe that any of Earth’s early structure could still exist today after being churned up by more than 4 billion years of geological activity.

But several diamonds uncovered in the Juína area of Brazil contain chemical signatures that suggest such a reservoir of rock is still preserved deep under the surface.

The diamonds, which were analysed by Suzette Timmerman at the Australian National University and her colleagues, contain high levels of an ancient helium isotope called helium-3 that was incorporated into Earth’s first rocks.

Diamond time capsules

This suggests that the diamonds, which are themselves thought to be less than 500 million years old, formed in or above a remnant of Earth’s original rock, Timmerman says. As they formed, they encapsulated some of the ancient helium-3 that is slowly diffusing upwards from this primordial rock, she says.

The diamonds also contain a mineral called breyite that is formed at ultra-high pressures, suggesting they originated about 410 to 660 kilometres underground. This means the primordial rock must be deeper than at least 410 km, says Timmerman.

Normally, diamonds form less than 230 km underground. This makes these “super-deep” diamonds unique time capsules to study early Earth, Timmerman says.

The diamonds were carried by upwellings of hot rock and volcanic eruptions about 93 million years ago, finally ending up in the Juína mines at the surface, her team’s analysis shows.

The researchers are now hoping to work out the location and size of the preserved primordial rock that supplied the helium-3 now trapped in these diamonds. “Hopefully we will then be able to understand more about how it formed and survived,” Timmerman says.

Her best guess is that the primordial rock is a very dense structure close to Earth’s core, which would explain why it has managed to remain intact all this time.

It won’t be possible to access the rock directly because it is so far underground, but further studies of super-deep diamonds may help us to understand it better, she says.

Source: newscientist

Stornoway still seeking partner to ease finances

Stornoway diamonds

Stornoway Diamond Corp. of Montreal released its Q2 2019 report and repeated its plea for a partner or buyer for the money losing Renard mine 350 km north of Chibougamau.

The company began the hunt for a buyer or investor this spring, but no indications of interest were received by the July 15, 2019, deadline. Instead, the deadline has been extended to the middle of September and Stornoway arranged bridge financing to keep the mine open during this time.

For Q2 2019, Stornoway recorded a net loss of $346.3 million, due primarily to a non-cash impairment charge of $442.7 million. The impairment was driven by the sagging prices for rough diamonds that forced the company to write down the value of property, plant, equipment, right of use assets and deferred transaction costs.

Revenues during the three months ended June 30, 2019, were $189.4 million made up of cash sales revenues of $40.7 million and non cash revenues of $148.7 million. Cash operating costs per carat recovered was $63.8, compared to $147.7 in Q2 2018. Cash and cash equivalents stood at $21.3 million, excluding $5.1 million of restricted deposits related to debt service and reserve account.

Said Stornoway in its Q2 news release: “Management estimates that the working capital as at June 30, 2019, and forecasted cash flows will not be sufficient to meet the corporation’s obligations, commitments and budgeted expenditures through June 30, 2020, in the current diamond market price conditions.”

Source: canadianminingjournal

Pink Russian Diamond May Rank Among World’s Most Valuable Gems

Russian Pink diamond

A 14.83-carat pink gem found and cut by Alrosa PJSC is expected to fetch one of the highest prices ever for a diamond when the Russian company puts it up for sale later this year.

The oval stone, named The Spirit of the Rose, has been certified by the Gemological Institute of America as fancy vivid purple-pink with excellent clarity, excellent polish and very good symmetry, said Alrosa spokeswoman Evgeniya Kozenko. The sale is planned for November, she said.

The Spirit of the Rose diamond.

Colored diamonds, formed by impurities such as boron or nitrogen, are the most expensive and rarest, with pink and red stones fetching the highest prices. The Spirit of the Rose may be one of the most expensive pink stones ever, according to Eden Rachminov, the chairman of the board of the Fancy Color Research Foundation.

He estimates the potential price at between $60 million to $65 million.

Sotheby’s set the record for any gem ever sold at an auction in 2017, with its $71 million sale of the 59.6-carat Pink Star to Hong Kong-based jewelry retailer Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group The stone was mined by De Beers, and dethroned the Oppenheimer Blue, which fetched $58 million in an earlier sale at Christie’s.

Kozenko declined to comment on how much Alrosa hopes to raise from the sale, but said that The Spirit of the Rose will be the most expensive stone ever polished in Russia. The company is still considering how to conduct the sale, with a decision expected next month, she said.

It’s a good time for a sale, as pink stones are about to get even rarer after Rio Tinto Group confirmed earlier this year that it was shutting its giant Argyle operation in Australia. The mine produces about 90% of the world’s pink gems.

Alrosa found the 27.85-carat rough stone at its alluvial mines in Russia’s Far East in 2017 and named it Nijinsky, after ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky. The preparation and cutting process, which took a full year, was done at Alrosa’s cutting factory in Moscow.

The Spirit of the Rose was named for the ballet Le Spectre de la Rose, staged by the Ballets Russes company, which premiered in 1911 and in which Nijinsky was a star.

Source: bloomberg

Pandora to Buy Back $75M of Jewelry

Pandora charm bracelet

Pandora is set to repurchase DKK 500 million ($74.7 million) of unsold inventory from retailers that stock its products, the company said.

The Danish jeweler believes this will reduce the quantity of goods its clients keep in stock for long periods. The company plans to smelt and recycle the old jewelry to make new collections, a company spokesperson told Rapaport News Tuesday. The venture, which it will implement in select global markets, is part of a wider restructuring plan that will cost Pandora up to DKK 1.5 billion ($224.3 million).

Other features of the plan include supplying retailers with fewer goods in a bid to prevent buildup of excess inventory. Pandora will instead replenish clients’ stock with in-demand items when necessary, rather than providing them with too much product up front.

Pandora has struggled with disappointing sales, leading to the departure of the company’s CEO last August, as well as 1,900 job cuts this year.

Last week, the company announced a new partnership with television and film star Millie Bobby Brown as part of its efforts to connect with a younger audience.

Source: Diamonds.net

LUCAPA RAKES IN $1,234 PER CARAT IN LATEST LULO DIAMONDS SALE

lucapa large white rough diamond

In 2019 to date, Lucapa has sold a total of $26.5 million worth of Lulo diamonds

Lucapa, which owns and operates the Lulo alluvial mine in Angola and the Mothae kimberlite mine in Lesotho, sold a parcel of 3,558 carats of Lulo diamonds for $4.4 million in its latest sale – a whooping $1,234 per carat, according to IDEX Online. In 2019 to date, Lucapa has sold a total of $26.5 million worth of Lulo diamonds ($2,764 per carat).

Lucapa also reported selling a parcel of 4,376 carats of Mothae diamonds for $1.8 million. These figures bring sales of diamonds from Lulo mine in Angola and the Mothae kimberlite mine in Lesotho to $35.5 million in 2019 to date.

Earlier this week, Lucapa announced the recovery of a top-color, exceptional 64-carat diamond from its Mothae mine in Lesotho. According to Lucapa MD Stephen Wetherall, the Type IIa D-colour stone “is considered to be the best individual diamond recovered to date from the Mothae mine”.

Source: Israelidiamond