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From today and onward, the diamond industry and trade can stop screaming foul. During the past decade(s), the diamond industry has been discussing, arguing and sometimes been kicking and screaming foul against the tendency to call synthetic diamonds….indeed, diamonds. Throughout the years, I have witnessed grown men and women getting worked up and all emotional, arguing passionately that synthetic or lab-grown diamonds cannot be called diamonds, because they just aren’t. Their arguments were driven by emotion, not by reason. This contrary to their colleagues in [...]

(Orginally published on GemKonnect on June 1, 2018) Earlier this month, the Diamond Producers Association (DPA) released the findings of a survey done by the Harris Poll revealing that ‘a clear majority of American consumers (68 percent) recognise that diamonds created in a factory (also known as “synthetic” or “laboratory-grown”) are not “real” diamonds’. The purpose of the survey was, as stated on the first slide of the survey's presentation, to "assess the extent to which consumers associate the term 'real diamonds' with 'natural diamonds’.” [...]

One of my favorite quotes is by the Greek philosopher Heraclitus who said that “Change is the only constant in life.” Wikipedia states that "Heraclitus was famous for his insistence on ever-present change as being the fundamental essence of the universe…" Some 2500 years later, this philosopher's pearls of wisdom are still fresh and applicable, also to the diamond, gem and jewellery industry and trade in which many of my blog's readers make, or try to make, a living in. Currently, one of the world's [...]

As a diamond industry communications specialist, I read Rapaport - and many other new sources - daily. In the diamond industry and trade itself, Rapaport is no doubt an important news source. "Rapaport's weekly email is the first thing I read on Friday morning," a religiously-observant diamond trader told me a while ago. Add to that his multiple, daily consultations of the Rapaport diamond price list, and he most probably reads Rap many more times a day than he opens his prayer book. Therefore, when [...]

How many members of the international diamond trade make a weekly beeline for the bookstore or newsstand to pick up a selection of the latest consumer fashion and lifestyle magazines? Probably very few. Let’s face it, Vogue, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan and Oprah magazines are not regular reading in diamond business offices. However, in today’s diamond business, there is ever-growing awareness of the need to know the trends in the consumer markets, to catch up on fashion news and follow the performance of other luxury products. [...]

This post was written in February 2012. It's 30 days ago since Howard Rubin passed away, and throughout the past weeks I've noted the many kind and often moving words have been spoken and written about Howard, that true gentleman. This may be a bit presumptuous on my part, but I'd like to try and speak on behalf of those who did not know Howard well, who knew him, as it were, from a certain distance, and who, in spite of that observation, feel that [...]