Diamonds In The Rough Jewelry

Interesting enough, in the midst of our discussion about new methods
(aka metal clay), I stumbled across Diamonds In The Rough Jewelry.
The site starts with “for 2100 years, uncut natural diamonds were
worn by majarahas, kings and queens…” then three diamond rings
appear; one has a blackish diamond and the other two have a
yellow/brown diamonds in their centers. Every rough diamond is held
in place by wrapping them with metal set with “micro pave” diamonds.
Neiman Marcus, Bergdorfs and Hamilton Jewelers all have these
pieces.

I sat there slack-jawed followed by annoyance with myself that I
don’t have that degree of hutzpa. Then W arrived. They call this
issue “Heavy Lifting”; it is over 640 pages; covers the fall fashion
scene and lo and behold… Diamonds in the Rough was advertising (one
of 603 pages of advertising). One page is devoted to fall jewelry and
what a surprise, Diamonds in the Rough was highlighted (as was
Madison Avenue’s perennial favorite advertiser, Yurman).

I suddenly had a visual of Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada -
she is selecting pieces of clothing to feature and outright asks
"don’t we have anything else from our advertisers?"

So, in the midst of proof, once again, that I need to pull a George
Constanza and do things completely opposite of how I would normally
do them (i.e., to charge way more, to think outside the box, etc)…
I have to question: which comes first: recognition or advertising?

Cameron

Cameron,

As you might expect advertisment comes first, then recognition. I
guess it is the ads that are recognized. That is how it seems to be.
Or you’ll get recognition after you’re dead, has worked for out many
estates. Or get the media world to recognize you by your generous
gifts, hopefully as deductible as the ads. No six digit
marketingbudget? ooops, didn’t think of that. It’s a sad world
sometimes.

still a foot in that racket,
michaela

Hi Cameron;

which comes first: recognition or advertising? 

Neither one. What comes first is capital… lots and lots of
capital.

David L. Huffman

I believe the original post on this thread was someone looking for
sources for rough diamonds to use “as is” in jewelery.

You might try the following company in NYC. The last time I was
there they had a good selection of white and black rough diamonds. I
haven’t been there for several years though, as I ran into the owner
in a Hotel in Teofilo Otoni, MG, Brasil and decided that if he was
buying directly from my suppliers in Brasil - it would be a waste of
his and my time to tryto sell him merchandise from Brasil.

Anyways, I have basically given up on selling to the stone dealers
in NYC due to the fact that they want me to sell to them below my
cost and then to wait forever to get paid.

And I guess I have been in Latin America too long - their “show me
your best material in six seconds” attitude doesn’t fit in with my
way of doing business. And anyways - all of my material is my “best
material” as Ilet my material sell itself, so I am very careful
about what I pick out. I was told by a jeweler that I was the
“worst” salesman he had ever met - because I did not try to talk him
into buying my stones - just present them and let him decide what he
wants - That was after standing there for an hour watching him “sell”
a diamond to a retail customer with all of the arguments and
explanations etc. (I really could not do retail - and have great
respect for all of you that have the “patience” to deal with retail
customers).

Robert Bentley Company, Inc
www.robertbentleygemstones.com