Affordable Wedding Ring | Affordable Wedding Sets | African Wedding Jewelry

Due to the fact that the marriage does not happen often in life, most couples tend to pour their savings into making your wedding dreams come true. In fact, the fact that weddings are not cheap. Preparations and only cost a fortune. Then the wedding rings. Despite the fact that wedding bands are not merely symbols of the union, still can not deny the fact that these rings are still regarded as gems and jewelry is not cheap. According to the preparation side, some couples also end up buying expensive wedding rings or wedding ring sets, which in turn has strained its budget.

Wedding bands do not have to be very expensive. At the time of exchange rings with his partner, the price does not matter, because the rings are just symbols. The most important aspect is their union and their pledge to each other. If this is the case, then it's okay for you to settle for a more affordable wedding ring set. Unlike before, when the options are limited, you now have plenty of choices, especially when it comes to precious metals used to build the rings.

Famous Emeralds

Gachala Emerald (origin: Colombia)
The Gachala Emerald is an uncut 5-cm emerald crystal weighing 858 carats (172 g). The stone was found in 1967 at Vega de San Juan mine in Colombia and is named after the mining district where it was discovered. Now in the United States, it was donated to the Smithsonian Institution by the New York jeweler, Harry Winston.



Chalk Emerald (origin: Colombia)
The Chalk Emerald is a 37.82 carats (7.56 g) Colombian emerald.

It originally weighed 38.40 carats (7.68 g), but was recut and set in a ring, where it is surrounded by sixty pear-shaped diamonds (totalling 15 carats (3.0 g), by Harry Winston Inc. The ring is housed in the National Gem and Mineral Collection at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in the United States and was donated to the museum by Mr. and Mrs. O. Roy Chalk in 1972.

Duke of Devonshire Emerald (origin: Colombia)

The Duke of Devonshire Emerald gets its name from the 6th Duke of Devonshire, William Cavendish, who according to one version, received the enormous gemstone as a gift from the first emperor of Brazil, Don Pedro I, the son of King John VI of Portugal, but according to a second version purchased the gemstone from the emperor.

The Duke of Devonshire Emerald is a terminated hexagonal-shaped crystal discovered from the mines of Muzo, Santa Fe de Bogota, in Colombia, reputed to be the premier source of the world's finest emeralds. It is an exceptional deep-green emerald, with perfect transparency in certain areas, but heavily flawed in other areas. The emerald that measures 5 cm across the pinacoid also has a height of about 5 cm, and weighs 1,383.95 carats. The emerald had a reputation as the largest and finest uncut emerald in existence.

Mackay Emerald
The stunning 167.97-carat Mackay Emerald was mined in Muzo, Columbia. The largest cut emerald in the National Gem Collection, it is set in an Art Deco diamond and platinum necklace designed by Cartier Inc. In 1931, Clarence H. Mackay presented the necklace as a wedding gift to his wife, Anna Case, a prima donna of the New York Metropolitan Opera from 1909 to 1920. The piece was donated to the Smithsonian Institute by Mrs. Anna Case Mackay in 1984. Source: The National Gem Collection by Jeffrey E. Post.

World's most famous 'unseen' diamond

By Jane O'Brien
BBC News, Washington

The room was dimly lit. Armed guards stood at both entrances and enormous ironclad doors were slid shut to seal the gallery.

Nobody spoke above a whisper as we waited for the first glimpse in half a century of one of the world's most extraordinary gems.

The Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond was last seen in public at the 1958 World Exhibition in Brussels. After that, it disappeared and its whereabouts remained a mystery until Laurence Graff, a billionaire diamond dealer, bought it at auction in 2008, appending his surname.

He and his son Francois were in the gallery of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC as the blue stone, was brought up from a secret vault and finally revealed.

Flawless beauty

"I've been privileged over the years to own some of the world's most important and famous diamonds, but I would say that the Wittelsbach-Graff is the most valuable and the most beautiful," he said.

Sitting unadorned on a silken white cloth, it glittered grey and blue in the low light. Classed as "internally flawless" it is said to have exceptional colour and becomes intense orange when viewed under ultraviolet light.

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News : Christie's Auctions Two Huge Gems

March 26, 2010, jewelry.com

It's auction time again. See the two stunning stones that are causing a stir this time around.

Jewelry lovers may not be able to afford the gems and jewels offered for sale at big auction houses like Christie's and Sotheby's, but we can certainly gawk at the incredible display from afar. To that end, we give you two stunning pieces on the block for the upcoming Christie's New York sale on April 22^nd: The Catherine the Great Emerald and The Emperor Maximilian Diamond.

The first stone comes in the guise of a large emerald and diamond brooch once worn by one of the world's most powerful and ruthless female leaders, Catherine II of Russia. The hexagonal-cut stone weighs between 60 and 70 carats and is surrounded by rose and old mine-cut diamonds. The estimated price for this little beauty clocks in at around $1 to $1.5 million.

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