"Good morning, jewelry junkies!"







Wednesday, March 31, 2010

THEY PASSED ON THE CHAMPAGNE . . . AND THE COGNAC, TOO

Sometimes I just don't get it. As a jewelry journalist, I want to tell people about the most beautiful jewelry, the best designers, the newest product--all that good stuff. But what happens? People get afraid of that. Well, to be fair, some people.

Case in point: Last week, I pitched stories to two different magazines on great jewelry with champagne diamonds (also known as brown diamonds). Folks, these diamonds are a hot design trend right now, and so many beautiful new collections with champagne and cognac diamonds are being made. And frankly, given that their prices can be less than their white (yes, colorless) counterparts, they're something for consumers like all of us to think about--especially in this current economy, yes?

Well, the two editors responded "no" to my pitch. In essence, they said they'd rather I wrote about white diamonds. (How innovative.) Look, there's nothing wrong with white diamonds--I have quite a few white diamond jewelry pieces myself. (My husband thinks a few too many, I confess.) But that's not the point. Don't they want to educate their readers on browns--for example, that they are natural color diamonds? How they come in seven different color ranges (see http://www.ncdia.com/), from very light champagne to fancy dark cognac? Here's a ring, for example, from legendary goldsmith Zoltan David--and I do mean legendary--with the most breathtaking cognac center stone. http://www.zoltandavid.com/ Or, how about this multi-strand champagne diamond necklace by Sandy Leong, somewhat of a newcomer to the contemporary fine jewelry scene but already doing different kinds of things (like working at times in champagne-colored gold, for one thing). http://www.sandyleong.com/

Fine, I understand. Every print and online journalism medium has a right to write to its audience about what it chooses. I, for one, am glad I can do the same here. Yes, friends, this is how this blog is going to go. More later . . .


4 comments:

KWM said...

congratulations on your blog. great article, great layout, great photos.
looking forward to reading your next blog.

Jersey Kayaker said...

This looks absolutely fabulous! I can't wait for more! And by the way, I'm madly in love with this multi-strand champagne diamond necklace by Sandy Leong...its gorgeous!

Unknown said...

Too bad your editors passed on the champagne, but I'll take it! This jewelry is beautiful.

I'm looking forward to reading about new trends in jewelry at your blog first.

Aitcheson's Reports said...

This is incredible. I didn’t know this. I thought diamonds only came in white. I assume the most obvious difference would be cost but what else is different between say a citrine stone and a yellow diamond? You've gotta write this story.