Diamond Insider: A Mervis Diamond Blog

Rumors floated around last week that Barack had bought his wife, Michelle, a $33,000 diamond ring as a “thank you” for her support throughout the campaign. Those rumors have been flatly denied by the Barack PR machine, however, somehow images of this imagined ring surfaced. (Seen here to the left)

One thing is clear: In Washington these days, everyone is making plans for the big Inaugural galas. It seems Michelle is no exception, as she too needs to put herself together in front of all those cameras.

And so I was having lunch with my father, Ronnie Mervis, today and I asked him what he thought of offering rental diamond jewelry for the big parties. There’s got to be many people who are stressing out about having a ticket to a ball, but nothing to wear to it. This is a special event and deserving of something really out-of-this-world. Here’s an opportunity to rent a $15,000 diamond necklace, for example, that you could otherwise never afford.

I’ll post the details and costs associated with rentals in the coming days.

Our downtown store is at the center of DC: 17 St. and K St, and close to many of the big hotels.

I can’t tell you how many people have come in our stores the last few days with the same predicament.

I want to get her something special, but I just don’t know what. I don’t have a huge amount of money to spend since the economy has gone to S***. Help me! What should I get?

The answer, my friends, is simple and easy: Diamond Ear Studs

1. They’re the first piece of diamond jewelry a woman typically acquires. They’re both gorgeous and practical. She can wear them with jeans and a t-shirt or with a black cocktail dress. They match everything and they’re a classic that will never go out of style.

2. With ear studs, the “cut” is most important of all the 4 C’s because the “cut” is what will produce the brilliance and sparkle. The job of an ear stud is to produce brightness and that’s all you should care about. Don’t worry about small microscopic inclusions –the clarity–when you’re buying studs. Rather, go for a bigger size and save your dollars. Don’t get me wrong here– Quality is important! But it’s quality of the “Cut” that will determine the effectiveness of the earrings, not the clarity. No one puts a microscope up to her ears.

Of course I’m biased here because my name happens to be Mervis, but I can honestly tell you that my uncle Zed is METICULOUS when it comes to a diamond’s cut. He makes sure that every one of the 57 angles of a diamond is cut perfectly…. When you see a Mervis pair of earrings and compare them side by side to another pair, the difference becomes obvious. One simply outshines the other.

Allow me to share the words of a good man, Darryl, whom I was showing diamonds the other day at our trunk show. In his own words, “It’s like a light show!” I literally wrote it down because I thought he captured it so well. He went on to tell me that he’s been other jewelers and our diamonds literally outshone them all.

3. We have a 100% trade-up policy on our diamonds. So that means that if you’re poor now, but will one day be rich, you can start small and get a cute little pair of earrings today. Come back in a few years when you’re Senior Vice President  and we’ll give you every dime you paid for your original pair and help you choose a new one. We have NO minimums to participate.

Phew… I think I can speak for the whole Mervis team when I take a deep breath and tell you I’m exhausted. We threw our BIG Holiday Trunk Show this past weekend and it was a grand success. I don’t know the final count of people, but we had over 1,000 RSVPS and the building was just packed the whole weekend.

We were worried that given the economic times, our show might not get a great turnout, but I think we learned a valuable lesson. Love rules supreme. No matter how bad the stock market gets, boys will chase girls in the playground and nothing can hold back the human heart.  Engagements continue and wedding bells ring.

Our show featured over 20 of our best designers from all over the country, including Tacori, Veraggio, Precision Set, Claude Thibadeau, Mona Taner, and Martin Flyer, among others.

We went through cases of champagne, per usual, but the highlight for me was the delicious red velvet wedding cake. It got rave reviews from everyone. So, thank you to Areen and the kind folks at Classic Bakery for donating the cake. Also, a big thank you to Stacey and Katie from Laboroflovephoto, and Samantha from Enfocas Photography. The photos above are courtesy of these fine ladies.

And here’s a shot of one of our models, Katya, and myself, the humble jewelry blogger. This was taken by Inga, the number one model fromTrans-Karpathia.

Here’s a shot of all three models.

UPDATE - DECEMBER 18 –

For reasons beyond our control, the trip has been “postponed.” As you can imagine, there were a huge amount of logistical hurdles to overcome in order to bring a team of city dwellers to Africa and broadcast a major radio show from the jungle. We’re still hopeful the trip will happen, but we need to work out some new “kinks” that have come up. Personally, I’m really disappointed because I wanted to go on an elephant ride with Elliot and have some beers watching a real life, “Discovery: Project Earth”, but alas, I’ll have to wait a little longer.

— Ok here’s my original post from before —

I’m thrilled to announce a joint African safari trip between Elliot and Morning and ourselves. We’ll be traveling on Ethiopian Airlines to see the incredible sights in Ethiopia and Tanzania. We’re taking the whole Elliot In The Morning crew and will be broadcasting the show LIVE from the Safaris.

To win 2 all-inclusive tickets to join the party, please submit a short video (details to be provided later) showing your enthusiasm for Elliot, Africa, and Mervis Diamond.

I took this picture below of Elliot and Ronnie in the studio the day this trip was planned. An African safari with the whole Elliot team started as a crazy idea that my dad threw out one day, and no one thought would be logistically possible. How can you broadcast a mega-hit like Elliot in the Morning from the jungles? But, when there’s a will there’s a way.

Jeff Cooper is one of our most popular designers and it was a privilege to spend a morning with Jeff’s son, David. I’m Ronnie’s son and he’s Jeff’s son and we always have a good time together. It’s all about family.

David walked us through the 41 year history of the company, and explained that to this day, it is still entirely family-run. Every single ring is hand-made and inspected by a Mr. Cooper before leaving their New York studio. Nothing is mass-produced and they refuse to send their manufacturing work overseas, where the quality can be compromised.

David explained that his rings are all “forged,” under high pressure, and this produces a much high density and more durable product than the alternative, “casting” method. In casting, liquid platinum is simply poured into a cast and allowed to cool. This is a cheaper production method, but the problems are inevitable. Because the metal is under no pressure, little air bubbles form, which results in “porosity.” This is particularly problematic when you’re relying on strong metals to hold your diamond in place.

In the “forging” process, platinum is melted into large button shapes, almost like chocolate for fondue. Then it is hit with high pressure, as you can imagine a blacksmith hitting metals in the movies. It’s formed into bricks, and then rolled out, before being “struck” into rings. It’s a more time-intensive process, but the end result is a far superior product. When you hold a Jeff Cooper ring, you can feel that it is heavier and more durable. The platinum will last forever. David commented that in the big auction houses of Sotheby’s or Christie’s, how often do you ever see them selling antique gold? You see platinum mainly, because that’s what lasts and maintains its shape and beauty.

My uncle Zed showed me a diamond today that I believe illustrates an important point: You can’t judge a diamond from its certificate alone and you really need to see it your own eyes.

This diamond looked perfectly fine by its certificate, but  when we saw the stone, it was riddled with problems. Internally, the diamond had all sorts of impurities and generally just looked cloudy. You can see that it looks like it’s got “cracks” on the inside. Read the rest of this post…

Thank you to everyone that showed up for our limerick poetry reading at The ONION happy hour. Our grand prize winner is the lovely Beverly Sharp, who submitted this clever quip:

In the Capitol’s mammoth Rotunda
His engagement ring struck me like thundah.
He had no need to guess,
‘Cause of course I said, “YES!”
(Had it not come from Mervis, I wondah…)

Beverly took home this gorgeous pendant, but we have more diamond pendants in stock, so don’t worry if you’re wanting one too. Below, you can see Ronnie chatting with two new friends.

Read the rest of this post…