Come join us on Friday, May 18th from 1-7 pm as we celebrate the Year of the Dragon with John Hardy! Be the first to shop the new Spring 2012 Collection, while enjoying cocktails and gourmet hors d’oeuvres . You’ll also get the chance to meet with a John Hardy stylist. Don’t miss it!

This interesting diamond inclusion was noticed when a customer brought in their loose diamond to set into a new mounting. The pink inclusion is actually garnet, not something that is typically seen and is know as an included crystal inclusion.

Included crystal inclusions are whole crystals or tiny included gem fragments of undigested crystals such as garnet, diopside, olivine, spinel, calcite, iron oxides, silica that diamond can form around.

On Sunday, 60 Minutes aired a report about an amateur diver and part-time
treasurer hunter who is sitting on an “unbelievable” amount of emeralds
discovered at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico that could end up being more
trouble than they’re worth.

In “The Trouble with Treasure,” CBS News correspondent Armen Keteyian brings
viewers the story of Jay Miscovich, a real estate investor from Latrobe, Pa.,
who spent years shuttling between his home 40 miles outside of Pittsburgh to Key
West, Fla.

According to the report, Miscovich poured money from real estate investments
into dives in the hopes of discovering sunken treasure. Eventually, a meeting
with a “down-on-his-luck” diver in a Key West bar resulted in Miscovich
purchasing a nautical map that led to an area literally littered with emeralds
as well as amethysts.

Miscovich made more than 20 dives down to the site to pull up the gemstones
and convinced investors to sink hundreds of thousands of dollars into this
sunken treasure.

But, the report notes, even though Miscovich is the one who found the
gemstones, they don’t necessarily belong exclusively to him. His attorney David
Horan said in the segment that federal courts in Key West are trying to sort out
ownership of the treasure. Until then, Miscovich can’t sell a single stone.

“He’s emerald rich and cash poor,” Horan said.

What’s more, Miscovich is almost $10 million in debt to investors and
attorneys, has other underwater explorers accusing him of running a scam and
recently discovered that some of the emeralds have been treated with a polish
that’s only been in use for the past 50 years, dashing hopes that they were part
of an ancient sunken treasure.

A few faces familiar in the jewelry industry netted some airtime during the
13-and-a-half minute segment, including Greg Kwiat and the Gemological Institute
of America’s Tom Moses, the senior vice president of GIA Laboratory and
Research.

The story opens with Miscovich displaying a “sample” of what he found in
front of gemologist Ed Peterson and Kwiat at the Fred Leighton store on Madison
Avenue. Both men “could hardly believe their eyes,” when Miscovich poured out
the emeralds, the report stated. “I think this piece could go to the Oscars,”
Kwiat said of one of the stones.

In a segment taped at the GIA, Moses confirmed that at least some of the
gemstones Miscovich discovered were indeed prized Colombian emeralds.

The segment, along with Sunday’s entire 60 Minutes broadcast, can be viewed on CBSNews.com.

This men’s silver and black woven leather bracelet looks great and comes in 2 different sizes. This is from the John Hardy Naga collection and would make a great gift this Valentines Day for that special guy on your list. Here is a link to the item in our online store: http://www.imagesjewelers.com/shopping/mens-naga-silver-black-woven-leather-dragon-bracelet

This stunning ring was contains a nearly flawless emerald center and emerald accent stones, as well as diamonds on the side of the shank. This was a dream of a customer who has loved the movie “The Wizard of Oz” since she was a little girl. Her idea was for us to craft a ring that someone from the fabled Emerald City would wear, something whimsical and magical. In the future she would like to have us make a ruby ring to match and we look forward to making that a reality for her.

This stunning tanzanite ring contains a rare unheated tanzanite center that weighs in at 8 carats. An unheated tanzanite this size is very hard to find, as they are almost always heated to improve color. The side trillion shaped diamonds are a little over 1 carat total and the ring was crafted in 18k white gold.

This stunning looking ring contains a cushion cut 2.05 carat fancy vivid diamond center. With three rows of white diamonds on each side and also a row around the center this ring really pops. At their strongest,  fancy vivid yellow diamonds can become rather expensive.  A fancy vivid yellow diamond with a nice color and eye clean clarity will cost the same approximately as a similar sized D Color Flawless diamond of the same shape.

These great stocking stuffers would make any woman jolly. The snowflake earring design is perfect for the hollidays and adding diamonds is even better. This pair contains .25ct tw of diamonds and are made from 18k white gold.

A unique twist on typical engagement ring design lately has been the use of colored stones, instead of diamond. This ring features a 2 carat blue topaz and is made from 18k white gold.