Bekah Martinez, a fan favorite on Season 22 of The Bachelor back in 2018, couldn't be more thrilled with the heart-shaped diamond engagement ring she accepted from longtime boyfriend Grayston Leonard this past weekend.
"I CAN FINALLY STOP CALLING THIS MAN MY BOYFRIEND!!!!! she wrote on her Instagram page. "Also SO in love with my ring, it's more beautiful than I could have ever imagined."
Martinez revealed that she and her fiancé picked out the ring last year from an online store that specializes in ethically sourced diamonds, but she didn't get to see the finished piece until the actual proposal.
"Can't get over this ring!!!!!!" she exclaimed in a post punctuated with three heart-eyed smiley faces and seen by her 716,000 Instagram followers.
Martinez, who is the founder of eco-conscious clothing company Good Alma, told People magazine that she had wanted a heart-shaped diamond since 2015. That's when Lady Gaga received an 8-carat, heart-shaped diamond engagement ring from actor Taylor Kinney on Valentine's Day.
While Martinez and Gaga's rings both featured heart-shaped stones, the settings couldn't have been more different. Martinez has her diamond mounted on a thick gold band, while Gaga's diamond was set on a thin, white-metal band adorned with diamond pavé.
Gaga's band also had a surprise detail that the singer called her "favorite part" of the ring. “T [heart] S” was spelled out in pavé diamonds at the base of the band. “S” is for Stefani, Gaga’s birth name.
Sadly, Gaga's engagement to Kinney lasted 17 months. They broke up in July of 2016.
Martinez, 27, and Leonard, 33, have been a couple since 2018 — just after she returned home from filming Season 22 of The Bachelor. She had made it through Week 8 and finished 5th among 29 contestants.
The newly engaged couple share two children, daughter Ruth Ray De La Luz, 3½, and son Franklin James, 2. Grayston, the founder of the Long Beach Rising rock climbing gym, had popped the question very early in their relationship, but Martinez said she wasn't ready to make a commitment at that time.
The jewelry sales juggernaut soared to new heights in June 2022, as consumer spending increased by 16.2% compared to June of 2021 (YOY) and an incredible 86.6% versus the pre-pandemic figures of June of 2019 (YO3Y).
The jewelry segment's three-year gain outpaced every other retail category.
Jewelry's sales performance in June 2022 mirrored May 2022's stellar numbers when YOY sales were up 22.3% and YO3Y sales soared 65.4%.
These statistics were reported by Mastercard SpendingPulse™, which measures in-store and online sales across all forms of payment.
The credit card company emphasized that discretionary spending in June 2022 continued to drive growth across the fashion-forward sectors.
In addition to the impressive gains in jewelry sales, luxury items (excluding jewelry) saw a June 2022 increase of 4% YOY, and a 54% YO3Y.
And with summer in full swing, consumers continued to break out from pandemic restrictions and spend more on travel experiences: Lodging registered strong gains of 33.7% YOY and 30.4% YO3Y, while Airlines followed a similar, albeit less impressive, trend line of 18.2% YOY and 7.3% YO3Y.
Overall consumer spending in June (excluding auto and gas) was up 6.1% YOY and 17.1% YO3Y.
According to Mastercard SpendingPulse™, e-commerce grew at a slower pace in June (1.1% YOY) but were roughly double June 2019 levels. By comparison, in-store sales in June 2022 were up 11.7% YOY and 10.7% YO3Y.
Mastercard SpendingPulse™ findings are based on aggregate sales activity in the Mastercard payments network, coupled with survey-based estimates for certain other payment forms, such as cash and check.
Credits: Shopper image by Bigstockphoto.com. Table courtesy of Mastercard SpendingPulse™.
It's not every day that a rare solid gold artifact from the Late Iron Age turns up in a package of costume jewelry, but that's the exact scenario a young Norwegian woman faced when she got a lot more than she paid for at an online auction site.
After previewing pics of the site's offerings, Mari Ingelin Heskestad honed in on a bold, twist-motif gold-colored ring.
“It was really heavy, and shiny. It looked very special,” Heskestad told Bergensavisen, BA, a Norwegian newspaper.
Heskestad wasn't allowed to purchase the single ring, which was part of a grouping of 50-plus items. Instead, she had to bid on the complete lot — a mixed bag of low-value, non-precious earrings, bracelets, pendants, brooches and rings. Also thrown into the lot was a pocket-knife, pill box, pipe and other trinkets.
When the package arrived, the gold ring turned out to be even more special than Heskestad expected.
Her father-in-law, who has some experience with historical artifacts, suspected that the ring might be from the Scandinavian Viking Age and advised Heskestad to contact the Vestland County archaeological team.
Karoline Hareide Breivik, acting section leader for cultural heritage in Vestland County, was able to quickly confirm that Heskestad's gold ring was, indeed, from the Late Iron Age/Viking Age, which dates between 400 AD and 800 AD.
Breivik said that rings with this twist motif have been found in Norway in the past, but they were mostly made from silver.
“Gold was rare during the Viking Age," Unn Pedersen, an associate professor of archaeology at the University of Oslo, told Science Norway. "So this would have been reserved for the richest and most powerful people in society.”
Based on its size and weight (11 grams or 0.4 ounces), the gold ring was likely worn by a male of high social and economic status, perhaps a Viking chief, reported Science Norway.
Archeologists are often frustrated when there is no way to track the precise origin of an artifact. The Viking ring couldn't be tracked to a particular place or person because it was one of many jewelry items from an unnamed estate that had been randomly packed into banana crates and shipped to the auction site for liquidation.
Heskestad wasn't permitted to keep the ring because of its historical nature. Instead, it will have a new home at Norway's University Museum in Bergen, where it will make its public debut in the fall of 2022.
Credits: Images courtesy of Vestland County Municipality.
Members of the Cambridge Fire Department Dive Team needed only a minute to rescue a diamond engagement ring and gold wedding band from a watery doom at the bottom of the Charles River near Boston.
Lynn Andrews had removed her cherished rings while enjoying a Fourth of July weekend outing on board their friend's boat, Rebecca Rose, docked at the Charlesgate Yacht Club. She didn't want to get sunscreen on her rings, so she tucked them in the pocket of her husband's shirt.
"We're going about our day and it was awfully hot out there, and [Ninos] decides to take his shirt off to go for a swim. And as he took his shirt off, the rings went flying out of his pocket," Andrews told local ABC TV affiliate WCVB.
Lynn Andrews “was obviously quite distraught,” the fire department noted on its Facebook page. She told cbsnews.com that she didn't think she would ever see the rings again.
Ninos Andrews was confident that everything would be alright.
The couple contacted the Cambridge Fire Department Dive Team, which happened to be patrolling the river on Sunday, July 3. Lynn and Ninos described exactly where the rings had entered the water and firefighter Jeremy Marrache was able use those coordinates to quickly locate the precious heirlooms.
"Things in the river are usually pretty hard to find, so didn't really have a lot of confidence in finding it," Marrache told cbsnews.com. "But we figured we would at least give it a shot."
By a stroke of good luck, the engagement ring had settled onto the silty bottom on its side. When Marrache shined his flashlight at the bottom, the light reflected brilliantly off the diamond about 12 feet below the surface.
"Truly within a minute, Jeremy comes up with it, screams 'I've got it! I've got it!' and blew me a kiss, and I blew him a kiss," Lynn Andrews said.
“This is an amazing example of using our training for public service and a terrific opportunity for the dive team and marine unit members to practice working together,” fire Lt. Stephen Capuccio said in a statement posted to the Cambridge Fire Department's Facebook page.
Credits: Ring and rescue photos via Facebook / Cambridge MA Fire Department. Charlesgate Yacht Club photo by User:Magicpiano, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you fun, new songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, Disney heroine Luisa Madrigal — voiced by Jessica Darrow — is so tough she can flatten not only the world's hardest substance, but also its most durable precious metal in "Surface Pressure," a big hit from the studio's animated musical film, Encanto.
Luisa sings, "I don’t ask how hard the work is / Got a rough, indestructible surface / Diamonds and platinum. I find them, I flatten them / I take what I’m handed, I break what’s demanded."
Encanto, which features a soundtrack penned by Pulitzer Prize-winning lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda, tells the story of the magical Madrigal family, who live hidden in the mountains of Colombia.
Luisa and all but one Madrigal child — the film's protagonist, Mirabel — are bestowed with special powers. In the case of Luisa, her super-human strength is both a blessing and a curse. She's had to shoulder such heavy burdens for so long that she's now suffering an emotional meltdown.
In the song, the overtly confident character lets down her guard and admits that she's really not sure how long she will be able to hold it together.
She sings, "Pressure like a drip, drip, drip / That’ll never stop, whoa-oh! / Pressure that’ll tip, tip, tip / ’Til you just go pop, whoa-oh! Oh!"
Miranda, who is best known for creating the Broadway musical Hamilton (2015), said in an interview with Variety magazine that he wrote "Surface Pressure" as a tribute to his older sister, Luz Miranda-Crespo.
"That song is my love letter and apology to my sister. I watched my sister deal with the pressure of being the oldest and carrying burdens I never had to carry," he said. "I put all of that angst and all of those moments into Luisa."
In Encanto, the superpowers of the special Madrigal children become depleted and it's up to Mirabel, the only "ordinary" child, to save the day.
"Surface Pressure" was released November of 2021 as the third track of the Encanto soundtrack. The song charted in nine countries, including a #8 spot on the US Billboard Hot 100 and #12 on the Canadian Hot 100. "Surface Pressure" was the second song from the soundtrack to hit the Top 10 on the US chart. The other was "We Don't Talk About Bruno."
The 27-year-old Darrow got her big break when she was cast as Sarah in the 2018 film, Feast of the Seven Fishes. Darrow fans can see her performing a jazzy version of "Surface Pressure" on her YouTube channel.
Please check out the animated video of Luisa, voiced by Darrow, singing "Surface Pressure." The lyrics are below if you'd like to sing along…
"Surface Pressure"
Written by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Performed by Jessica Darrow.
I’m the strong one. I’m not nervous
I’m as tough as the crust of the Earth is
I move mountains. I move churches
And I glow, ‘cause I know what my worth is
I don’t ask how hard the work is
Got a rough, indestructible surface
Diamonds and platinum. I find them, I flatten them
I take what I’m handed, I break what’s demanded. But…
Under the surface
I feel berserk as a tightrope walker
In a three-ring circus
Under the surface
Was Hercules ever like
“Yo, I don’t wanna fight Cerberus”?
Under the surface
I’m pretty sure I’m worthless
If I can’t be of service
A flaw or a crack, the straw in the stack
That breaks the camel’s back
What breaks the camel’s back? It’s…
Pressure like a drip, drip, drip
That’ll never stop, whoa-oh!
Pressure that’ll tip, tip, tip
’Til you just go pop, whoa-oh! Oh!
Give it to your sister
Your sister’s older
Give her all the heavy things we can’t shoulder
Who am I if I can’t run with the ball?
If I fall to
Pressure like a grip, grip, grip
And it won’t let go, whoa-oh
Pressure like a tick, tick, tick
’Til it’s ready to blow, whoa-oh oh! oh
Give it to your sister
Your sister’s stronger
See if she can hang on a little longer
Who am I if I can’t carry it all?
If I falter
Under the surface
I hide my nerves and it worsens
I worry something is gonna hurt us
Under the surface
The ship doesn’t swerve
Has it heard how big the iceberg is?
Under the surface
I think about my purpose
Can I somehow preserve this?
Line up the dominoes, a light wind blows
You try to stop it toppling
But on and on it goes
But, wait.
If I could shake the crushing weight of expectations
Would that free some room up for joy
Or relaxation or simple pleasure?
Instead, we measure this growing pressure
Keeps growing, keep going
‘Cause all we know is…
Pressure like a drip, drip, drip
That’ll never stop, whoa
Pressure that’ll tip, tip, tip
’til you just go pop, whoa-oh oh oh
Give it to your sister. It doesn’t hurt and
See if she can handle every family burden
Watch as she buckles and bends but never breaks
No mistakes, just…
Pressure like a grip, grip, grip
And it won’t let go, whoa-oh
Pressure like a tick, tick, tick
’Til it’s ready to blow, whoa-oh oh oh
Give it to your sister and never wonder
If the same pressure would’ve pulled you under
Who am I if I don’t have what it takes?
No cracks. No breaks
No mistakes
No pressure
Credit: Screen capture via Youtube.com / Jessica Darrow Official.
On the Fourth of July, the venerable New York Times dedicated more than 1,000 words to a unique rough diamond crystal that's making its mark as a fashion-forward favorite of the tony elite.
A "macle" is a twinned diamond crystal that presents as a flat triangle instead of the more dimensional octahedron. The crystal looks like it's been naturally cut so designers will often set the diamond macle in its raw state.
“They are for an inherently sophisticated customer,” Sally Morrison, director of public relations for natural diamonds in the De Beers Group, told freelance journalist Kathleen Beckett, writing for The Times. “It’s a quiet, understated luxury. People may not know what they are, but you know it.”
Although the use of macles is a relatively new phenomenon in today's fashion circles, these twinned diamond crystals have been part of the jewelry landscape for thousands of years.
“They were probably first used in jewelry in India about 2,500 years ago when diamonds were first discovered in Golconda,” Andrew Coxon, president of the London-based De Beers Institute of Diamonds, told Beckett.
Morrison said that she is seeing more designs using rough diamonds in their natural state — a trend identified in a recent article at brides.com.
"Raw diamond rings are a stunning option, especially if you’re completely uninterested in a blingy, cookie-cutter ring," noted fashion writer Laura Lajiness Kaupke. "While raw diamonds don’t twinkle in the traditional sense, many have a more subdued shimmer that catches the light at various angles of the stone's uneven surface — the ultimate effect for low-key brides craving a one-of-a-kind diamond."
Gemologists explain that "macle twinning" is more common in spinels, but very rarely seen in other gem species. That's why diamond macles, especially in large sizes are very rare. The specimen shown, above, was sourced in South Africa and weighs 9.94 carats.
Because they lack depth, macles present an ongoing challenge to diamond cutters. So when they are not left in their natural state, macles will generally end up as a pear, triangle or heart-shaped finished stone.
In Anderson Cooper's bestselling book, Vanderbilt, about the unfathomable rags-to-riches-to-rags saga of one of the most famous families of America's Gilded Age, the journalist describes the extraordinary opulence of The Breakers, the 70-room, 138,000-square-foot Italian Renaissance-style palazzo that served as the Newport, RI, cliffside summer home for Cornelius Vanderbilt II and his family. Cornelius is Cooper's great-great grandfather.
In the book's Prologue, we learn that as one of the richest men in the world, Vanderbilt spared no expense in building what Cooper described as a "temple to Vanderbilt money and ambition." The $7 million Cornelius spent on the project from 1893 to 1895 was equivalent to $220 million in today's dollars.
In one passage that sparked our curiosity, Cooper — whose mom is the late Gloria Vanderbilt — described The Breakers' morning room walls as "paneled in platinum."
After a little digging, we learned via an excellent January 2007 article in the journal AIArchitect that within The Breakers' elegant morning room there are eight gleaming, distinctive leaf panels accenting all four corners of the room. The platinum decorations, which feature elements of Classical mythology, also overlap onto the ceiling panels.
Back in 2006, the chief conservator of The Preservation Society of Newport County in Rhode Island, which now operates The Breakers, was curious to learn why the silvery metallic surfaces adorning the morning room hadn't tarnished in more than a century. Originally, the leaf was believed to be either silver, aluminum or tin.
The Society worked with the Delaware-based Winterthur Museum, which employed a non-invasive, state-of-the-art conservation technique to determine that the silver-colored leaf was, in fact, made of platinum. This noble metal, like gold, will not tarnish or oxidize.
“Silver-colored metals usually tarnish and degrade,” said Jeff Moore, chief conservator for The Preservation Society of Newport County, at the time. “I often wondered about this particular leaf and suspected it was not silver. I expected to discover it was aluminum."
Moore went on to describe how designers of that era would use tin or aluminum leaf and add a yellow varnish on top to make it look like gold.
"To find platinum up there in thin leaf form was really interesting," Moore added. "Even in the Modern Era you would be hard-pressed to find a platinum surface of any kind in favor of more inexpensive aluminum, copper or tin. Platinum is even more expensive than gold.”
(In January of 2007, platinum was priced at $1,130/ounce, compared to gold at $625/ounce.)
Moore explained that the use of platinum leaf during that period was virtually unheard of.
"There is almost no documentation of its use in architecture during the Gilded Age," he said.
When The Breakers was completed in 1895, Vanderbilt was president and chairman of the New York Central Railroad, the company his grandfather, Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt had founded after making his first fortune in shipping.
The home remained in the Vanderbilt family through 1948, but the ever-increasing expenses related to maintaining an aging structure and 13 acres of landscaped grounds proved to be too overwhelming for a family that squandered its riches. They worked out a deal to lease the home to The Preservation Society of Newport County for $1 per year.
Today, the vision of Cornelius Vanderbilt II remains one of Rhode Island's most popular tourist destinations, with nearly 400,000 visitors each year. Tour tickets cost $24.
Since biblical times, ruby has been one of the most revered and coveted gemstones on Earth. According to the Book of Exodus, July's official birthstone was one of the 12 gem varieties affixed to the Priestly Breastplate worn by Aaron (1396 BC - 1273 BC), elder brother of Moses. Each gem represented one of the 12 tribes of Israel.
In Indian culture, rubies have been mentioned in literature for more than 2,000 years. The Sanskrit word for ruby is "ratnaraj," which means "the king of gemstones." According to The International Colored Gemstone Association (ICA), whenever a particularly beautiful ruby crystal was discovered, the Indian ruler would order high-level dignitaries to meet the precious gemstone and welcome it in appropriate style.
The ICA also noted that in the fascinating world of gemstones, the ruby is the undisputed ruler. This is because it has everything a precious stone should have: magnificent color, excellent hardness, outstanding brilliance and extreme rarity.
The ruby's rich, vibrant red color is an important part of its appeal, as it conveys love, romance and passion. On the mystical side, a ruby is said to promote health, wealth, wisdom, creativity, loyalty and courage.
The International Gem Society, wrote about how the ancient Burmese soldiers took rubies to battle because they believed the blood-red gem bestowed invulnerability. There was one proviso, however. Wearing a ruby as a piece of jewelry wasn’t good enough. The gems had to be physically inserted into their flesh to protect them from physical harm.
Ruby is a variety of the mineral corundum (aluminium oxide). Gemstone-quality corundum in all shades of red are generally called rubies. Corundum in other colors are called sapphires.
The word “ruby” comes from “ruber,” Latin for red. Pure corundum is colorless, but rubies get their color from slight traces of the element chromium in the gem's chemical composition. Ruby boasts a hardness of 9.0 on the Mohs scale. Only diamonds are rated higher at 10.0.
The value of a ruby increases based on its color, cut, clarity and carat weight.
Since the late 15th century, Burma, particularly the region around Mogok, has been a vital source for high-quality rubies. The area, known as the “Valley of Rubies,” is regarded as the original source of pigeon’s blood rubies.
While Myanmar (formerly Burma) has earned the reputation for producing the finest rubies, the coveted red gems have also been mined in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. In the U.S., rubies have been found in Montana, North Carolina, South Carolina and Wyoming.
Credit: Photo by NMNH Photo Services / Smithsonian.
This 58.19-carat, honey-colored "Maharani Cat’s Eye" displays one of the world's finest examples of an optical phenomenon called "chatoyancy" — or the cat's eye effect.
A chatoyant gem presents a single band of reflected light that seems to move just beneath the surface of the stone, and the effect looks very much like the vertical-slit pupils of a cat's eye.
Chatoyant is derived from the French word "chatoyer," which literally means "to shine like a cat's eyes."
Chatoyancy arises when light reflects off of needle-shaped inclusions present within the body of the gemstone, in this case chrysoberyl. When a stone is cut with a domed top and flat bottom, called a cabochon, the light reflected off the inclusions is focused into a bright band that forms the "eye." To get the best results, cutters will orient the needle-shaped inclusions to be parallel to the base of the gem.
When the needles are oriented in a single direction, the result is a cat's eye. When the needles grow in three directions, the result will be a six-rayed asterism or "star."
Chatoyancy occurs in many gemstone varieties, including corundum, tourmaline, spinel and quartz, but the most coveted cat's eyes are cut and polished from the mineral chrysoberyl.
The International Gemological Institute clarified that while other minerals can be polished to produce a similar cat’s eye effect, only chrysoberyl can be referred to as “cat’s eye” with no other designation. Other minerals require a qualifier, such as cat’s eyes quartz or cat's eye sapphire, etc.
The stone seen above was sourced in Sri Lanka and is now part of the Smithsonian's National Gem Collection. The Smithsonian obtained the gem in an exchange in 1961.
Credits: Gem photos by Chip Clark / Smithsonian. Cat's eyes by Keith Kissel, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
An impossibly rare 5.09-carat electric blue Paraiba tourmaline fetched $377,650 at Bonhams' Jewels and Jadeite auction in Hong Kong last night.
The modified shield brilliant-cut gem was the most anticipated lot of the event because a stone of this color, size, quality and origin is a unicorn in the world of colored gemstones. Faceted specimens larger than a few carats are virtually unheard of.
To put the rarity of such a large intense blue Paraiba tourmaline into some perspective, note that the Smithsonian has one in the National Gem Collection in Washington, DC. It's an oval-cut gem and weighs a mere 1.22 carats.
"Paraiba" is the most prized tourmaline variety. The vivid teal, turquoise and neon blue stones caused a sensation when they were first discovered by prospector Heitor Dimas Barbosa in Brazil’s tropical, coastal state of Paraiba in 1989.
Worldwide demand sparked a mining frenzy and, within five years, the supply beneath “Paraiba Hill” — an area measuring 400 x 200 x 65 meters — was largely tapped out.
Bonhams explained that Paraiba tourmalines are typically seen in smaller carat sizes because the crystals mined at their original source were extracted from pencil-thin veins. The material was delicate and prone to splintering or fragmenting during the mining process.
Common tourmalines come in a rainbow of colors, which are determined by the trace amounts of iron, manganese, chromium or vanadium in their chemical makeup. Paraiba tourmalines are different. They owe their spectacular blue hues to a high concentration of copper, an element not previously seen in tourmalines.
Bonhams noted that while traditionally mined in Brazil, copper-bearing tourmalines have been discovered in both Mozambique and Nigeria.
Some gem experts believe that the uncanny connection can be attributed to continental drift, the theory that the Earth’s continents have moved over geologic time and that South America and Africa were once connected. Paraiba, on the far eastern tip of Brazil, would have been adjacent to the west coast of Nigeria.
“Thus we may suppose that the radiant copper tourmalines from Nigeria came into being under the same conditions as those from Paraiba, at a time before the ancient continent drifted apart,” writes the International Colored Gemstone Association on its Paraiba Tourmaline web page. “Is that the reason why it is so difficult to tell one from the other? This remains one of the great riddles in the fascinating world of gemstones.”
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