Wednesday, August 27, 2014

How many 'Memorial Diamonds' manufacturers are there in the UK

The simple answer is JUST ONE.  Despite what you may be led to believe, there are currently only FOUR 'MD' manufacturers in the whole world - Russia, Switzerland, America and 'Phoenix' in UK. We are British owned, we charge Sterling and have to pay British overheads. But what is the difference......

I'm expecting my most serious 'competitor' (Russian) to be reading this, but for YOU (my reader and potential customer) I'll offer my opinion.  Personally - and it is my decision, Phoenix would not offer any diamond less than 1/4 carat - it is small enough and it very uneconomical to make just one, so we offer them in 'three's (the equivalent to a 3/4 carat order).

Two of the 'others' will offer 1/10th of a carat - ridiculous, too small, the wind could blow it away and I could buy a 'mined' 10 point white diamond for you for just £22.  Now disregarding their perplexing 'range' where they offer "0.1- 0.19" - so what are you paying for 1/10th or nearly 1/5th??

One website tantalisingly offers "prices start at £185" but beware, it's seemingly for one of four???
Another offers the size "Melee" just to confuse us all. It's still in the range 0.1 to 0.19 - bizarre!
Lets simply work on one diamond 1/10th of a carat

One quotes a 1/10th ct.  at £1395 - that's a CARAT PRICE of £13,950
The other offers 0.1- 0.19 at £2295 - a whopping @22,950 per carat.

Currently, we charge £3250 for a 1/2 carat brilliant cut Canary diamond [£6500/ct] Pro-Rata
We offer 0.33ct in two's [0.66ct total weight = £4290] and 0.25ct in three's [0.75ct = £4875]

We only grow NATURAL colours which stem from the special personal carbon you provide - Canary yellow (very like LifeGems) but not "Orange-Yellow" or "Yellow-Green". We also make what we term a "Free-Range" BLUE [what goes in - dictates what comes out] usually very light powder blue but sometimes Royal Blue and rarely sapphire blue. FR-Blue's costs £5475 for 1/2 carat.

Another bizarre situation..... Being based in the UK, we charge Sterling.  I have to question why the American LifeGems UK prices are massively over-priced in Sterling for the UK customers? The US Dollar prices are almost 50% cheaper.  If we sell to America - the American's have to pay in Sterling - exactly the price you would pay in Britain.

Despite what you may find in 'Google' there are many 'other' websites offering 'Memorial Diamonds' but all our older sites [ashes2gems & pets2gems, celebration-diamonds, and Live-on-Diamonds etc:] ALL offer the same telephone number and the exact same address - Sunrise House, Hulley Road, Macclesfield, SK10 2LP.

The Sunrise House building was developed by this writer with Richard May and Julie Arnold in 1985 The huge 26,000 sq.ft' of offices with 75 car parking spaces are far to big for us, so we let out a range of supported serviced offices and their upkeep but it has been our base since we started.





Friday, August 08, 2014

Memorial Diamonds are made in natural rare colours

3 Natural Coloured Memorial Diamonds








Phoenix Memorial Diamonds are real diamonds

Our 'Memorial Diamonds' are actually real diamonds but made from the carbon within cremation ashes (Cremains) and also hair (if the deceased loved-one is being buried).

Natural diamonds (mined) have grown deep in the earth, compressed by huge pressures and heated to fantastic temperatures - over millions of years.  They are 'cherry picked' for COLOUR, clarity and quality - the most expensive are the 'fancy' coloured diamonds which sell for many millions.

We grow our diamonds like they grow in the earth - under immense pressure, heated to fantastic heat, but instead of years your process takes a few months. They are still REAL diamonds with ALL the exact same characturistics as natural mined diamonds, but the colours we make are within the very valuable 'fancy' range - not £Millions but certainly a few thousand.  

Canary Yellow is the normal outcome from the interference of nitrogen. They are very consistent in a light shade of yellow (a colour very sought after in the 'States).  

We also grow Blue/White diamonds which we term 'Free-Range' - basically what goes in comes out. The Blue hue stems from Boron and we aim for the lightest shade we can make from the source of the carbon extracted (from ashes or hair). The processing is slightly different but still HPHT (High Pressure High Temperature)

We cut our diamonds like 95% of the worlds diamonds are - with 58 facets in a round 'Brilliant' cut.

It is as complex to make 1/10th of a carat as it is to make 2 carat, we therefore have a minimum order as a compromise on costs and profit for value to you.  We also have a cut tolerance of 5 points (100 in 1.00 carat).  We never recommend any diamond less than 0.25, they are simply too small. 

Some of our famous 'firsts' include "The Jessica Diamond" (made from an umbilical cord of an 'at risk' baby). 'The London Riots Diamond" (from the detritus in the streets after the riots). "The Honey Bee Diamonds" (made from thousands of bees which died after colony collapse disorder. The profits when sold will be donated to a worthy cause to research of why bees are dying).