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World Famous Jeweler Opens Doors in Noosa

February 9, 2012 By
Gordon Herford

Gordon Herford and his wife in Hastings.

Renowned jeweller Gordon Herford has finally opened the doors to his new jewellery and art gallery where he will continue to create the finest products such as wholesale diamonds, platinum wedding rings, and white gold wedding rings. The new shop is conveniently located in downtown Noosa on Hastings Street and his wife, well-known Australian artist Belinda Herford has moved in as well to fill the gallery with beauty.

Herford is best known for making personalized jewellery such as wholesale diamonds and white gold wedding rings, he has rejected any attempts at commercializing his work. Until now, his has instead preferred to work from his home creating personalized jewellery ast customers’ request. While he’s never been famous for inexpensive engagement rings or affordable wedding rings, he has been repeatedly recognized for his high quality of work.

In 2007 Herford accepted the prestigious Harper’s BAZAAR Jewellery award for his astounding work with pink diamonds. His exponential calibre of work has also earned him a spot at auctions for the rare Australian pink diamond. This type of diamond is the rarest on the planet and most jewellers only every dream of seeing one much less working with it. Instead of platinum wedding rings and white gold engagement rings, now you can impress your fiancée with a Gordon Herford ring of the rare pink diamond and studded with wholesale diamonds.

However, Herford does not work exclusively with the planets rarest and most expensive materials. He is a master jeweller in every way and has both won and judged De Beers awards for many years. Now that Herford has a gallery located downtown amongst potential customers, a client willing to pay for the time of a master jeweller might be able to request from him an inexpensive wedding ring or an affordable engagement ring of high quality.

Thin engagement rings and thin wedding rings are also in style right now, and Herford is an expert in every method of jewellery making. You would be sure to receive the highest quality of white gold engagement rings and white gold wedding rings from such a master in his field.

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Diamonds in Space

September 29, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Diamond in space

Diamond in Space

Diamonds are not just forever it seems, but also everywhere – even in the most distant reaches of outer space. However, most diamonds in outer space are significantly smaller than those found on Earth. These diamonds measure as tiny particles less than one micrometer in width – that’s even a million times smaller than a single grain of sugar! Most of these diamonds found in outer space are located within the circumstellar disks surrounding certain stars. A circumstellar disk, simply put, is the material surrounding a star that forms the shape of a disk, like the one we mostly associate with Saturn. Although each diamond particle is negligible in terms of mass, if we were to combine all diamond constituents found throughout all of outer space, we would form a diamond as big as the moon!

Despite the fact that most diamonds are found as minute circumstellar particles, there are big exceptions, literally speaking. Just about a year ago, astronomers discovered the largest diamond ever to be found in history, both on Earth and beyond. At a distance of approximately fifty light years away from Earth, astronomers found a huge diamond measuring at 4,000 kilometers (or just over 13 million feet) in diameter, which is in fact an enormous chunk of crystallized carbon. The carat value of this colossal diamond was estimated at a whopping 10 billion-trillion-trillion carats, although of course no jeweler’s loupe this big exists to confirm this. Astronomers decided to name their diamond discovery Lucy, as a tribute to the famous Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”. The Lucy diamond by far exceeded all previous diamond discoveries ever made on the Earth’s surface, the largest of which was the Star of Africa coming in at a value of 546 carats.

Astronomers began to question as to how such a large diamond in the scale of Lucy could occur naturally in space, and found a very reasonable explanation to this phenomenon. Scientists believe that Lucy was in fact a star very similar to our Sun many, many years ago. They explain that this star collapsed on itself sometime in the course of history, leaving a white dwarf marvel floating in space. A white dwarf is in fact a radiating orb containing extremely high density of substance compressed into a relatively small sized orb. This radiating orb mostly consists of natural carbon matter, and therefore under the intense conditions and density, these carbon atoms had to arrange themselves in a very tight formation, eventually causing a natural lattice to occur and hence becoming a diamond. Therefore, astronomers strongly believe that Lucy is in fact a crystallization of a white dwarf.

Scientists claim that in approximately five billion years our own solar system Sun will die out and collapse on itself, causing a very similar white dwarf effect. Due to the similarities between the original star that Lucy once was in the past and our Sun, scientists suspect that the Sun will eventually also become a huge diamond just like Lucy is today. So we could in fact be witnessing a potential diamond when we look up into the Sun.

Although we are not extremely aware of this fact, there are billions of extra terrestrial diamonds floating in outer space, greatly varying in shape, size and mass. In order for diamonds to form in outer space, they have to undergo very special conditions, and these diamonds will continue to light up our skies for eternity.

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Diamond Mines Start Cleaning Up

August 23, 2009 By Leave a Comment
south_africa_environment

South Africa Environment

In the past 20 years, the diamond industry has become more and more aware of the affects diamond mining on the environment. The facts are clear. Diamond mining can disturb wildlife habitats, pollute water, and devastate local vegetation. However, there are conservationists and industry specialists who are making it their business to ‘clean up’ the diamond mine’s environmental mess.

The coast of South Africa, known for its diamond-rich soil, seems to be slowly turning diamond dry. De Beers, the diamond giant that owns about 10 percent of South Africa’s 2.5 thousand kilometer coastline, has been cutting it’s diamond mining operations and massively reducing its staff since 2007. The fact is, diamonds are running out and the projection is that in 30 years time, most all of the well known diamond mines in the world will have been completely picked dry.

Now, the question remains: what is to be done with the once-untouched and beautiful environment that has been turned into a wasteland of scarred earth? Well, in the town of Kleinzee, once a town wholly owned by De Beers, the question is about to be answered.

The mine in Kleinzee has been completely shut down and the local municipality is set to declare the town independent. Residents are preparing for the moment when Kleinzee will officially change from a privately owned mining factory to a regular town where they can buy their own home and attempt to build up an economy.

In order to address the economic depression left behind after the closure of the massive mine, De Beers is partnering with conservationists to leave the town in good condition. The plan is to revive the area through tourism, fish farming and other industries.

The current project blueprints emphasize increasing concerns about the environmental marks left by mining and the responsibility of companies to mitigate it. In fact, it might be the most extensive diamond mine restoration yet, and is estimated to cost a grand total of 56 million dollars.

Restoration is already underway with environmental experts filling up cavernous holes and replanting fragile and delicate plant species to hold the soil and return the land to its previous state. Although much of the land has been devastated by diamond mining, luckily a hefty percentage of the town’s most pristine landscapes have been inaccessible to mining and protected as a national park.

Salt-water pumps used in mining are now helping fill the pits, many of which will be turned into oyster and abalone farms. There are also plans for around 100 wind turbines to be set in exposed bedrock along the windy coastline. Other campaigns propose to create land art, build a marina, erect seawater greenhouses, dig hiking trails, and even to convert one of the diamond mining pits into a concert venue.

It is expected to take 30 years or so till the area is completely restored and redeveloped, but it’s a good start. Hopefully this effort will serve as model for diamond mines around the world.

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Conflict-Free Accessories Are IN!

July 20, 2009 By Leave a Comment
livestrong-jewelry-causes-accessories

Livestrong Jewelry Causes Accessories

This day in age, it’s hip and chic to be eco-friendly and politically aware and there are accessories you can sport to show the world how “with-it” you really are. Only a few years ago, Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong bracelet hit the scene and soon enough celebrities were spotted everywhere with multi-colored rubber “cause bracelets”. Not long afterward the “I am not a plastic bag” tote exploded as a fashion trend. Vegan clothing is in and fur is out. Fair-trade is hot and sweatshops are not. So if it’s the accessory makes the man (or woman!), then it’s important to be just as conscious and educated about the dazzling diamonds you don.

You may have seen the Leonardo DeCaprio box office blockbuster “Blood Diamonds”, but lets get down to specific details. Blood diamonds, technically referred to as conflict diamonds, are an international problem that the UN has already begun to address very seriously. These are diamonds that are typically hand-mined by forced labor within a war-torn zone and then illegally sold to fund terrorism and brutality in war-torn areas, most famously in central and western Africa.

While most diamond-financed civil brutality has occurred historically in the western coast of central Africa (Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, and Sierra Leone), this type of human-rights violation is not limited to this region. The UN’s technical definition of conflict diamonds is: “…diamonds that originate from areas controlled by forces or factions opposed to legitimate and internationally recognized governments, and are used to fund military action in opposition to those governments, or in contravention of the decisions of the Security Council.”

Now, when did this business of diamonds get all mixed up with blood and conflict? Conflict diamonds hit the international stage in the late 1990s when there was extreme war brutality in Sierra Leone. A revolutionary group called the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) initiated attacks against the government and began taking over diamond mines. They kidnapped civilians – children included- forcing them to work in diamond mines. The RUF used the profit from illegal diamond trading to finance their insurgent activities.

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Blood Diamond Conflict Free

In 1999 the UN finally got involved, deploying a force to deal with the civil-war conflict and the growing international problem of conflict diamonds. In 2000 they immediately banned all imports and exports of rough diamonds from Sierra Lione. At this time, the entire global community including the global diamond trade industry, Amnesty International, and the UN, recognized the need for diamond trade regulations.

By November, 2000, the Kimberley Process Certification System was drafted – a system that helps track diamonds from their mining to their retail sale. What is this certification process exactly? It requires participating governments to certify diamonds as conflict-free, trade diamonds only with other Kimberley Process participating governments, and issue a numbered government-issued certificate to accompany the diamonds from their mining to their retail sale. This makes every diamond traceable to its origin. The agreement was approved, accepted, and fully actualized in August of 2003.

There are currently 74 countries participating in the Kimberley Process Certification System and Now, for the practical info… as an educated consumer, how can you be sure that you are keeping up with the non-conflict, pro-human-rights trends? How can you be certain that your diamond accessories are completely conflict-free?!

Here are some simple steps to buying the most fantastic and fabulous conflict-free diamonds:

- Ask questions: know your retailer and ask them what their policy is on conflict diamonds

- Avoid obvious red-flags: to be sure your diamond is conflict free, stay away from diamonds that come from historically war-torn regions such as central and west Africa or Brazil.

- Know the tracking number: all certified diamonds have a special certification number and can be traced to their origin. The most stringent certification programs engrave their diamonds with a serial number by laser.

- Properly polished and cut: ask for the certification from the regional government program that the diamond was mined, cut and polished there under fair wage and labor conditions by resident workers.

- Buy from a brand that is known as being part of the diamond certification program.

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