Hi all,
Its Friday! A lot of things 'in progress' so not as much to discuss as usual this week - but lets get started:
The Gem Updates:Asscher patent application nearly ready: We should be filing the Asscher cut patent next week and will show the Asscher photo and video hopefully next Friday.
Re-visiting the OEC culet: Based on the feedback from last week, we'll dial down the culet to small for the OEC's
Of note, the photo/video is *very* zoomed, so in real life the difference between large/small is not nearly as noticeable. But, we will go with small for production.
Production schedule of the cuts: Based on customer emails asking to be notified when various Amora gem cuts become available for sale, its clear that the greatest demand, by leaps and bounds and even more leaps beyond that, is for the 2ct H&A rounds, followed by 1.5ct and 3ct H&A rounds.
Thus, the initial production will be solely focused on the H&A rounds, and then will expand out to the additional cuts after that. But did want to note that even when we have Amora gem ready for sale, we will not have all the cuts available at first, just the H&A rounds.
General BTD updates:Miss America 2010 selects the Timeless Halo ring for her wedding: I'm happy to be able to announce that Miss America 2010,
Caressa Cameron, has selected our Timeless Halo wedding set (ring and matching bands) for her upcoming wedding this December.
Apparently she saw a photo someone posted of their Timeless Halo ring on Pinterest, so thanks to whomever posted that out.
We're still working on what center stone we'll be setting in there for her…what could it be? More details on that in the future.
(Please note, I did expressly get permission to be able to post that we're making this ring for her..we do take customer privacy very seriously).
Avarra H&A round sapphire and rubies: We will be starting cutting officially next week with Mr. Robot and hope to have some photos and videos to show of these shortly.
Asha restock next week: We've been sold out of 8mm and 9mm Asha H&A rounds, but should have a nice restock ready by this coming Friday.
RingExplorer.com updates: We're nearly complete with all the User Interface updates and our search engine accuracy is becoming finely tuned. Thus, we will be adding in Facebook login support next week and are planning to have the first 'alpha' release so interested users can play around with it by the first week in June. I'll post some screenshots next week to show off some of the new improvements.
Misc:Back to atoms: Continuing with our 'fundamentals of matter' dialogue as the basis for understanding gems and precious metals:
As noted last week, Hydrogen atoms provided and continues to provide, the building block for forming everything in our visible universe, including your body. Step outside on a sunny day and look up - that's hydrogen at work, being transformed into helium.
Thus, we can show a quick timeline of at this point, and list out some basic rules inherent to our universe, all of which will then lead us into understanding why gems and metals are the way they are.
A fast timeline of our universe:*Big Bang (13.7 Billion years ago) forms our universe from something smaller than a pinhead size that rapidly inflates at incredible speed.
*300,000 years after that, Hydrogen atoms form as things (quarks and other subatomic particles) begin to cool.
*Universe is completely dark,but filled with hydrogen.
*Irregularities in the distribution of dark matter cause clusters of hydrogen to coalesce, creating a gravitational effect and the formation of stars-to-be.
*As those hydrogen clusters grow, the gravity within increases to the point that hydrogen atoms begin fusing into helium, which ignites thermonuclear fusion within and begins producing light and heat as a result.
*And much like lights flicking on throughout the universe, the first (very, very large) stars are born and the universe lights up!
From there, as those stars grow, hydrogen becomes helium, which then becomes oxgyen, carbon, nitrogen, etc. up to iron.
The beginnings of the most common elements, and the core building blocks, in our universe.
Eventually some of those stars go supernova, and the resulting explosion provides enough force to create more fusion for even heavier atoms including our precious metals like gold, platinum, palladium, rhodium, etc.
Thus, we can see the transition from simple but amazing hydrogen atoms into all 92 of our most common atoms (elements), and we have the building blocks to start making crystals of various properties and design.
And the basic rules for making anything of matter:
1 - All atoms are derived from hydrogen atoms formed at the beginning of our universe.
2 - All matter is composed of atoms
3 - The properties (optical, chemical, physical) of all matter are defined exclusively by:
A- The atoms that compose it (
atomic composition)
B - How those atoms are arranged or bonded (
atomic structure).
Note that in the case of Amora gem vs. Moissanite for example - both have the same atomic composition (Silicon and Carbon atoms), but Amora gem is more brilliant and has better color because of….better
atomic structure.
With the above, we now have the core rules that can let us understand the behaviour of any crystal or metal and realize what properties it will exhibit including what color it will be, how hard it is, etc.
Thus, next week - some images of actual atoms (boron and nitrogen, which play key roles as color contributors) and we can finally discuss the first of many 'why' questions related to gems - in this case, why blue sapphires…are blue!
And since this post was the first in a long time with no images...how about two more images of supernova - our precious metal making friends:
Keplers:
N49:
(images courtesy Wikipedia.com)
Have a great weekend,
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