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A diamond found in Arkansas Park was appraised at $21,000 and one of the most valuable diamonds discovered in the park the past 3 years. Last March, Melissa and Kenny Oliver uncovered a diamond weighing about 2.44 carats in Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas. The couple, like many others, went to the state park to look for diamonds.

Photo Courtesy of Crater Of Diamonds State Park from JCKonline.com

Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas is the only park in the world that allows the public to look for diamonds. Oliver got lucky and discovered a 2.44 carat diamond, named the “Silver Moon”. The diamond was cut down to a 1.067 carat diamond, with a clarity of VVS2 and F color. The jeweler who appraised the diamond for them was Bill Underwood from Underwood Jewelry in Arkansas.

Well to the couple, they are very lucky and I hope they set that beautiful diamond into a nice ring or pendant.

      Jewelry making is one of the oldest crafts in the world and forms of decorative art. There are more than 7000 years worth of jewelry history spanning from great empires, royal families, and jewelry found from all over the world. I’ve decided it would be fun to post snippets about jewelry pieces from the past. First stop, the Kingdom of Asante.

       Between the 1700s-1900s in West Africa, the Kingdom of Asante raised as one of the most successful imperial powers in West Africa. This kingdom was found on the large amounts of gold resources found in that region. The sole currency used in this kingdom was gold dust. Everything encompassing the Asante kingdom was in relation to the gold found. The king and major chiefs, plus certain senior officials wore gold jewels and gold decorative insignia. It was a way of distinguishing the different rankings among people. 

Asante Finger Ring

      Since the sole currency was gold dust, the king was the only official that could give permission to turn the gold dust into regalia or jewelry. As a goldsmith in the kingdom, you were required to be inventive and produce a continuous flow of unique and new styles for the wearer. The method of making the jewelry was lost-wax casting. Lost-wax casting makes an impression of a metal jewelry model in a rubber mold. The rubber mold is repeatedly injected with molten wax which hardens into exact copies of a jewelry item. Molten metals are injected into the cavities and allowed to cool. This type of method can make one of a kind pieces or multiple pieces. Today, many hand crafted wedding rings are created with lost-wax casting

      Some of the jewelry designs were taken from Europeans, but most designs were verbal representations. For example, the finger rings and toe rings were usually designed to illustrate proverbs and adages. The pictured finger ring is a sample of the jewelry made in the Asante Kingdom. There are three cannons on the top of the ring. On the side of the ring, there are hand carved leaf-like designs.

Recently, an Emerald colored gemstone considered to be the world’s largest emerald cut is set to be auctioned in Canada by Kelowna-based Western Star. Reagan Reaney is the owner of the stone.  He showed the stone to a gemologist and they stated that it truely is a genuine emerald.

The emerald was found in Brazil and cut in India. It is an oval shape emerald estimated at 57,000 carats, weighing 25 pounds, and the size of a watermelon. By far one of the largest cut emerald. It’s quite amazing to read about in the news.  The gems name is called “Teodora” which means “God’s Gift”. The emerald was appraised at $1.15 million. The auction house states they already have bids coming in for the gemstone. 

Here is a video showing and detailing more about the Emerald:

Over the New Year’s weekend, Mario Lopez proposed to his long time girlfriend and mother of his 2- year old daughter, Courtney Mazza. They were vacationing in Ixtapa, Mexico. According to Us Weekly, Lopez and Mazza were walking on the beach while sunset and wanted his children to have the same last name as their mother. Mazza did not understand until a few minutes later. They plan on having the wedding in Mexico later this year. Wishing them many congratulations. We hope to see the type of ring he picked out pretty soon.

We definitely feel for this guy. A young man proposed to his girlfriend at the UCLA-Richmond game in December during the Kiss-Cam. Some believe it was a set up while others say it was definitely real. The outcome of the proposal: she rejected the proposal; at least on the big screen. She could at least say yes and spoke to him after the game. Don’t embarass the guy. Hopefully, she said yes afterwards in a private setting. We feel for him!