Tanzanite

On Mon, 06 Feb 2006 08:07:40 -0800, in rec.crafts.jewelry "Jesse"
wrote:

but the sales
pitch which has worked so well with the emphasis on the 4C's is all
about how close a stone comes to natural perfection along with a strong
tie-in to romance and love. So, if you told the happy couple that the
stone they were looking at (symbolizing a lifetime of wedded bliss) was
heat treated and dunked in super inclusion-fixer glue, the whole
marketing strategy would be blown right out of the water,

I dunno (again). I'll bet the marketers could sell it just about any oldway.
After all, how realistic is it to symbolize a relationship with perfection, when
in reality, in most cases, both parties to a marriage need to overlook the flaws
in each other? Or one could work with the fact that so many of us are more or
less "clarity enhanced" in our own ways. People don't walk down the aisle just
as nature intended in the pure natural state of perfection. They're dressed up,
fashioned up, painted up, hyped up, no doubt enhanced with surgery or glasses or
mayby cardiac bypass surgery and who knows what all else. Seems to me a quite
flawed stone fixed up to hide the flaws and still look nice would be a pretty
suitable symbol... (Big grin, here...)

Peter

Peter W.. Rowe, wrote:
On Mon, 06 Feb 2006 08:07:40 -0800, in rec.crafts.jewelry "Jesse"
wrote:

but the sales
pitch which has worked so well with the emphasis on the 4C's is all
about how close a stone comes to natural perfection along with a strong
tie-in to romance and love. So, if you told the happy couple that the
stone they were looking at (symbolizing a lifetime of wedded bliss) was
heat treated and dunked in super inclusion-fixer glue, the whole
marketing strategy would be blown right out of the water,

I dunno (again). I'll bet the marketers could sell it just about any old way.
After all, how realistic is it to symbolize a relationship with perfection, when
in reality, in most cases, both parties to a marriage need to overlook the flaws
in each other? Or one could work with the fact that so many of us are more or
less "clarity enhanced" in our own ways. People don't walk down the aisle just
as nature intended in the pure natural state of perfection. They're dressed up,
fashioned up, painted up, hyped up, no doubt enhanced with surgery or glasses or
mayby cardiac bypass surgery and who knows what all else. Seems to me a quite
flawed stone fixed up to hide the flaws and still look nice would be a pretty
suitable symbol... (Big grin, here...)

Peter

Marriage is mostly an irrational act. That's why lack of perfection is
overlooked. Divorce then becomes a rational act.

If only we could think rationally to begin with. :-)

arnold
..

On Mon, 06 Feb 2006 00:30:44 GMT, "Jesse"
wrote:

There's been a mystical connotation associated with gemstones since the
beginning of civilization. This feeling about diamonds in the modern
world is subtle, but it runs deep.

Because the unique molecular structure of a diamond is primarily of
carbon and organic life itself is carbon based, diamonds represent an
ideal of beauty and perfection in the natural world. Which is a large
part of why they're so sucessfully marketed as the gem symbolizing
matrimonial union. The 4C's grading system capitalizes on this ideal.

I'd be more likely to believe this if diamonds hadn't become the
default engagement gift in the early 1900s.
--
Marilee J. Layman
http://mjlayman.livejournal.com/

Seems to me a quite
flawed stone fixed up to hide the flaws and still look nice would be a
pretty
suitable symbol...

Hey, if you really feel that way, I have a great used car for you..
It's got a little mileage on it, some rust here and there, but it runs
great, nothing that a little duct tape, baling wire and a quick paint
job can't fix-up. Don't worry, it's perfect for you. :-) When I was in
a career transition between being a bench jeweler and doing CAD work, I
worked in sales at one of the more upscale jewelry stores here in town.
I've seen diamond salesman appeal to a customer's vanity and even use
pressure and intimidation, but it would be hard to imagine convincing a
customer they should buy something a little flawed but enhanced,
because it would be a good reflection of the type of relationship
they're entering into.. It's like that Rodney Dangerfield joke..
Question: How's your wife? Answer: Better than nothing, I suppose.. :-)
People don't mind being sold an illusion or having their self esteem
enhanced in some way, but heaven forbid, don't ever remind them of
reality when they're parting with large sums of money.
But what do I know? I was a terrible salesman..The assitant manager
could size up a customer and make a groom-to-be sweat with dread as he
pulled out his credit card, fearing he wasn't going to measure up
somehow as a human being if he didn't buy the very best stone that he
could possibly afford. So you're probably right that it would be better
to appeal to (a sense of) being at peace with imperfection.

Jesse

On Tue, 07 Feb 2006 08:35:03 -0800, in rec.crafts.jewelry "Jesse"
wrote:

Seems to me a quite
flawed stone fixed up to hide the flaws and still look nice would be a
pretty
suitable symbol...

Hey, if you really feel that way, I have a great used car for you..
It's got a little mileage on it, some rust here and there, but it runs
great, nothing that a little duct tape, baling wire and a quick paint
job can't fix-up. Don't worry, it's perfect for you. :-)

hey, thanks Jesse. How much?

Actually, on second thought, don't need it. Already have one that prettymuch
fits the same description, though the "runs great" bit would be hypothetical
after some work... Might need two rolls of the duct tape too.
Um. Want it? Cheap?

On Tue, 07 Feb 2006 04:34:03 GMT, "Marilee J. Layman"
wrote:

On Mon, 06 Feb 2006 00:30:44 GMT, "Jesse"
wrote:

There's been a mystical connotation associated with gemstones since the
beginning of civilization. This feeling about diamonds in the modern
world is subtle, but it runs deep.

Because the unique molecular structure of a diamond is primarily of
carbon and organic life itself is carbon based, diamonds represent an
ideal of beauty and perfection in the natural world. Which is a large
part of why they're so sucessfully marketed as the gem symbolizing
matrimonial union. The 4C's grading system capitalizes on this ideal.

I'd be more likely to believe this if diamonds hadn't become the
default engagement gift in the early 1900s.

Not to mention that they were quite popular even before it was
generally known that they were carbon.

--
Al Balmer
Sun City, AZ

Oh yeah? Well, just for argument's sake, in the last 100 yrs or so,
physicists have just been getting around to discovered things about the
nature of the universe that the ancient mystics knew intuitively...so
even if they weren't aware of the exact mineralogical content of a
stone, they were keenly aware of it's vibrational energy..Oh man, this
is even starting to sound silly to ME now.,, OK here's the thing.. I
made the whole thing up one day when some New Agers came into the store
looking for a diamond. It worked then, but I didn't think anyone would
take it so seriously when I posted it, here. :-) But just to beat a
dead horse a little longer, mystical suppositions are known to defy
logic. And that's the truth!

Jesse

P.S. Peter, I'd take you up on your offer, but then I'd have to sell
mine..:-)