Most people I know eat cartoon food. You know, the food that is
made in plants and factories and is processed and manufactured and
has little resemblance to what occurs in nature. Food imported,
probably produced under the same conditions miners and cutters
suffer from, but not seen as an issue.
I agree! Perhaps Leonardo DiCaprio could star in a movie about the
(possibly) exploited workers in food processing factories or the more
well-known example of Indian clothing “factories” and then they’ll
have something else to moan about as well as thinking that ALL gem
mining is done by slaves who are ruled by murdering, exploiting
villains in war-torn countries. More than likely, the people who
constantly moan about “conflict” gems are people who are happy to buy
clothing made by people in India who work and live in terrible
conditions on the factory floors and earn an absolute pittance (which
they have to send back home to their families). These workers are
often young children who are sent by families in the countryside to
work illegally in the big cities. These children and thousands of
adults make clothing for a lot of the well-known high street and
designer names and yet there aren’t many people up in arms about it
because it’s not high profile.
Helen
UK
Jewelers belittling their clients, I don’t quite get that. Whether
you’re making something for a hundred bucks or a million, aren’t we
here to serve the clients’ interests? That hundred dollar item could
easily alleviate some distress in the world yet we still make it. And
happily sell it.
Is there some magic dollar threshold, above which it becomes
socially incorrect to deal in? I think if you limit yourself to only
serving a ‘whatever’ class of people you’ll be in the same place ten
years from now. Me, I have itchy heels.
Before I’m castigated, I’ll point out that among the first things I
ever made were tiger eyes and malachite. If I had stayed in that
ballpark I could only afford to eat hotdogs.
I came in late to this thread but, I’m surprised by the direction it
took. The big stars get dressed for the awards shows with items on
loan from head to toe, literally. The jewelers and designers (and
their publicists) work year round to get in good with the stars and
their stylists, publicists and managers to get their items on the
stars bodies. A lot of the local (I’m in L.A.) antique jewelry
dealers who deal with the studiohead’s/wives and the stars year
round are often the ones outfitting them for the many awards shows.
So much of what you see is old. But I really found this an odd place
to read rantings of people about what an actress wore, or of a
judgement about where some unknown stones are from and then judging
the wearer? or how she spends her money? We are jewelers and artists
and we saw some lovely looking stones…couldn’t that be our
discussion?
Sharon Kaplan
We are jewelers and artists and we saw some lovely looking
stones....couldn't that be our discussion?
I couldn’t agree more and thank you!
Meanwhile, I can’t say I am surprised to see these types of
responses because it seems time and time again that Jolie generates
odd emotional responses from people who have probably never met her.
My conclusion is that she generates it because her fame is based as
much on her personal life as her profession, I guess.
We are jewelers and artists and we saw some lovely looking
stones....couldn't that be our discussion?
Thanks, Orchid, for being normal. I found the posting in question
(which I will not quote) to be so disturbing I couldn’t think what
to say. Not the fact that we humans have a role to play in the
world’s future, but that one would look at a garden and only see the
muck and mire and decay. That’s a pretty sorry place to be, IMHO.
They’re rocks. Pretty rocks, yes. But rocks.
Following up on the Angelina Jolie/Oscars thread, there are many who
want to be politically correct but are often misinformed.
At the recent Baltimore ACC craft show I had a conversation with a
young jewelry designer who was so grossly uninformed – about
diamonds, mining, Africa, conflict diamonds, gem diamonds, industrial
diamonds, uncut diamonds – you name it, she was incorrect, yet she
was busy pointing out to me the correctness of the diamonds in her
jewelry. She referred to uncut diamonds as “industrial” and did not
know the difference. She referred to all diamonds coming from Africa
as conflict diamonds, and said she was sourcing her diamonds from
Venezuela. Since the diamonds in questions were very small, about two
points each, I doubt that the vendor was able to provide source
It’s wonderful to want to do the right thing – but first you have
to understand what the wrong thing is!
Ironically, Venezuela has been cited by the World Federation of
Diamond Bourses as being complicit in diamond smuggling, in violation
of the Kimberley Process.
Ettagale Blauer
hello,
in all honnesty, I do care about the origin of the stones. I buy and
I try to prefend buying stones from conflicted origin but I’ll never
know the truth!
If I don’t know about it, I don’t tell my customers a fairytale just
to make them buy or to make them happy. I don’t want to be the smart
one with all the knowledge!
What I do know is that diamonds are a hot item and prices do not
refer to “good” or “bad” stones. Frankly, I watch what I do and buy
what the market is offering and the customer will pay. What you get
is what you see, straight forward in a way which keeps me out of
trouble.
I’m sorry if somebody feels different, but nobody will ever know the
real truth behind this diamond industry or where they come from,
based on the level of diamond education that I have.
Have fun and enjoy
Pedro