Ex Aurum Jewelers

Hi...my name is Gino Priolo and I wanted to introduce you to my new blog.

I am the owner of Ex Aurum Jewelers in Montreal we manufacture jewelry of all kinds but diamond wedding jewelry and fine jewelry designs using precious gemstones is our specialty.

Using our CAD facility we can re-produce any design you want and at really good prices. Keep on checking our blog as sometimes I will put up different items and offer them to you at really deep discounted prices.

I will also post information on a variety of subjects such as jewelry cleaning, how to buy diamonds and today's trends and hottest selling designs.

If you have any questions concerning jewelry, trends, repairs etc, please do not hesitate to write. I will be happy to include the answers in my blog

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

What is love? Knowing the value of diamonds

NEW YORK One engagement ring costs $1,000. Another is $10,000. You may wonder why there's an extra zero if you can't tell them apart. For anyone mulling the big question on Valentine's Day, the cost of the ring can weigh just as heavily as making the commitment. The romance of the affair can make it hard to ask blunt questions about whether you're getting a good deal. But failing to do so could mean paying thousands more than necessary.
The average amount spent on an engagement ring last year was about $3,200, according to The Wedding Report. Several factors can move that price up or down, including the shape of the diamond you pick. Then there are the four Cs - carat, clarity, color and cut, the last of which refers to the stone's overall craftsmanship. You should be able to compromise on one or more areas to save and still get what you want.

You'll also want to consider where to get your diamond, and whether the stone is certified. So don't buy into the idea that price shouldn't matter when it comes to love. Here's what you should know.

First off, don't confuse carat with karat. The latter refers to the purity of gold, while a carat measures a diamond's weight. A one-carat diamond weighs about as much as a paper clip and is smaller in diameter than an eraser on a pencil.

Most diamonds you see are a carat or less, although high-end jewelers carry heftier rocks.

Prices jump substantially with size. So a one-carat diamond won't be merely double the price of a half-carat diamond.

A half-carat engagement ring at Tiffany & Co., for example, costs $3,200. If you move up to a one-carat in the same model, the price nearly triples to $9,200. Go for a two-carat version, and it's $28,200.

So if you can't afford a one-carat ring but fear a half-carat is too small, try playing around with the ring design. A ring with three smaller stones will still cost thousands less than a single one-carat diamond ring.


Clarity & color


A diamond's clarity doesn't refer to how clear it is, but to the stone's natural characteristics such as stress fractures and other blemishes. These marks often are only visible when magnified. So even if a diamond is graded as "flawless," you may not be able to differentiate it from diamonds with lower clarity grades. There will be a huge difference in price, though.

For a full list of clarity rankings, check the Web site of the Gemological Institute of America (www.gia.edu), which issues diamond grading reports. Or, check out our website: www.exaurum.com

Tiffany & Co. unveils newest 'Blue Book'



The Tiffany "Majestic" diamond necklace from the "Blue Box Collection" features round brilliant and pear-shaped diamonds set in platinum. Photo Credit: Tiffany & Co.

New York—Tiffany & Co. has revealed its latest "Blue Book," the retailer's annual presentation of its most spectacular diamond and gemstone jewelry designs.

Sent out to customers each year since 1845, the Blue Book catalog was designed by founder Charles Lewis Tiffany to entice customers to visit his store.

The brand has continued in the tradition with its latest Blue Book, which features a collection of jewelry that is varied in design but unified in its display of exceptional diamonds and gemstones.

This year's collection includes the Tiffany "Majestic" necklace, a design inspired by the splendor of royal jewels. According to Tiffany & Co., it took more than a year to procure the more than 300 pear-shaped and round brilliant stones that form the necklace and over 700 hours to create. The sparkling stunner features a bevy of diamond florets set in individually crafted platinum mountings surrounding a 30.31-carat, E color, internally flawless detachable diamond drop.

Diamonds are also showcased in a selection of glamorous rings as well as the book's "Fringe" necklace, a design of fluid lines and motion that features a 20.01-carat, D color, internally flawless diamond in a rectangular modified brilliant cut. The design is accented with 61 round-, 33 cushion- and 30 marquise-cut diamonds in platinum.

The retailer, which has lately been promoting its yellow diamonds in consumer fashion magazines, has highlighted the stones in its Blue Book as well via a triple-drop pendant with three rare fancy vivid yellow diamonds: a rectangular-shaped, 13.09-carat yellow diamond and two approximately 6-carat yellow diamonds that are among the most sought-after stones in the world, Tiffany says.

Colored gemstones of esteemed origin are on full display, too, including pieces crafted from highly coveted Kashmir sapphires, vibrant tourmalines and rubellites, tanzanite and kunzite.

Having published decades of Blue Books, Tiffany has built up an archive that has come to form a detailed chronology of the brand's role in American design, with past books chronicling some of the French and Spanish Crown Jewels reset into Tiffany designs, jewels that won gold medals at the world fairs of the late 19th century, as well as dazzling examples of 1920s art deco jewelry and cocktail-style pieces from the 1940s and '50s, among much more.