Back then, life didn’t get much better than an afternoon out of the classroom surrounded by dinosaur bones. Fast-forward some 20 years to that same sweet, adorable child's life as an (alleged) adult living in New York City, and it’s easy to understand why one of my favorite attractions is the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH).

So when approached by gemologist Joshua Sheby of New York-based Scarselli Diamonds Inc. about spending an afternoon in the museum's Morgan Memorial Hall of Gems, I naturally jumped at the chance.

Sheby spent years as a diamond grader specializing in fancy colors with the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) and has been with Scarselli for two years now. He curated the “Olympia Diamond Collection,” Scarselli’s grouping of five natural-color diamonds loaned to the AMNH for its current display of diamonds.

The diamonds in the Olympia collection range in size from 1.01 to 2.34 carats and they all have three things in common:

• They're untreated; their color is entirely natural.
• They’re all radiant-cut stones.
• All three are graded "fancy vivid" by the GIA, the colorless diamond equivalent of a "D."

My personal favorite in the collection is the vivid orange (second from right), and I am not just saying that because I have an affinity for fall, carving pumpkins and Halloween, or because it was the largest of the collection, weighing in at more than two carats.

When I first started working at National Jeweler, natural-color diamonds appealed to me from the start. In first learning about the stones, I was told that red and purple diamonds are the most rare when talking color. But Sheby said based on his knowledge of the industry and experience as a grader, he believes orange diamonds—natural, untreated oranges, like the famous and delightfully named "Pumpkin Diamond” worn by actress Halle Berry when she accepted the Oscar for Monster's Ball in 2002—might actually top reds in rarity.

So how much would a stone like this one go for?

Sheby and Scarselli aren’t saying. But, with only one in 10,000 diamonds unearthed qualifying as a natural-color diamond, and with orange being among the rarest of these, I’m going to guess this 2.34-carat stunner would command a pretty hefty price. 

Guess I’ll just stick to admiring orange diamonds from afar.

Entries in the AGTA Spectrum Awards were especially diverse this year, with numerous examples of Windex-blue Paraiba tourmalines (one of my all-time favorite stones), baroque pearls, sapphires in every hue (of course) and even color-change garnets.

We’ve named the Spectrum winners in this story, but here I am featuring some personal favorites spotted at the press preview of the awards, held last week in New York City. The preview was held in a beautiful penthouse in Greenwich Village, where sunlight helped play up the colors of the gemstones. These were all photographed by Thomas Rosinski, National Jeweler's art director.

Above is a pair of jade earrings, entered in the Evening Wear category, by Liora Berdugo of Oshawa Jewellery, rendered in 18-karat white gold and featuring jade accented with 2.85 carats of diamonds and onyx. So delicate and vibrant!

Jorge Adeler of Adeler Jewelers submitted this 30.5-millimeter freshwater baroque pearl ring, above, in 14-karat yellow gold and accented with white diamonds totaling 0.34 carats in the Business/Day Wear category. I like the way the diamond pavé is used only halfway around the pearl, adding to the "imperfect" look that makes baroques so popular. What a great power ring to wear to work!

The "Orbit" ring, below, by James Currens of J.W. Currens in New York, is aptly named, with colors that are really out of this world. It features a 5.37-carat pink spinel, 15.83 carats of spessartite garnets and 1.16 carats of diamonds and was the winner in the Platinum Honors category for Business/Day Wear. The pink and orange combination is unusual and striking.

This 18-karat white gold and black-rhodium ring, right, entered in the Evening Wear category is by David Hakimian of Parviz Designs, and features a 9.65-carat aquamarine accented with 0.99 carats of pavé diamonds.

It is an example of how the darkened metal look can work extremely well with colored stones. 

How festive are these18-karat white gold drop earrings, left, entered in the Evening Wear category by Samuel Getz of Samuel Getz Designs? These feature 24.82 carats of antique square cushion-shaped rhodolite garnets, 91.25 carats of cushion-shaped red spinels, a pair of 13-millimeter black Tahitian pearls and 2.04 carats round-brilliant diamonds.

Another Business/Day Wear category entry that drew my eye is Frederick Sage’s pink and green gold “Enigma” pendant, below, featuring a 161.81-carat natural quartz with various crystal and mineral formations. The quartz is accented with brown and white diamonds and hangs on a hand-made chain. It's difficult to tell from the photograph, but the quartz has a really great 3D effect, and the earth tones make it a great  piece for accessorizing.

For city dwellers and visitors out and about doing some holiday shopping the week before Thanksgiving, a jewelry exhibition taking place at Aaron Faber Gallery will be worth coming in from the cold.

In conjunction with UBIFRANCE and the French Trade Commission, the gallery will host the Jewels of France Exhibition and Trunk Show featuring the creations of 13 French jewelry houses.

If you have some time to stop in during the exhibition's Nov. 16-20 run, check out some of the pieces you'll find:

Left: Ximena Alarcon Cavrois "Eliptica" ring with Tahitian pearl and diamonds set in 18-karat yellow gold.
Center: Antoine Camus "Hippopotamus" ring in silver and 18-karat yellow gold.
Right: Marchak "Octopus" crafted from a baroque pearl, sapphire, aquamarine and diamond on white gold.

Rumors have been swirling for the past few weeks that Penelope Cruz and boyfriend Javier Bardem are engaged. The notoriously private couple has yet to confirm anything, but one jewelry company is already offering a replica of what is supposedly Cruz's engagement ring.

The Nine actress has been spotted out and about sporting on her left ring finger what seems to be a large sapphire surrounded by small diamonds, and now The Natural Sapphire Co. is offering up its own take (rendering seen above and below).

Up for grabs, at the price of $11,500, is a 2.58-carat natural blue sapphire circled with a halo of colorless diamonds.

It's a gorgeous ring, and I love the idea of brides doing something different and diverging from the diamond. I'm not so sure, though, that I'd love to look down at my engagement ring and think, “Penelope Cruz has the same one,” no matter that I think she's a dynamo on the big screen.

Perhaps it's just the "replica" wording that has me uneasy. But one cool thing that The Natural Sapphire Co. does is make any design changes or customizations via computer renderings before the piece is cast. That has me resting easier, and I think they've gone a smart route: bringing attention to their company (or to colored stones in general) via an event currently in the news, but allowing customers to make the piece their own.

What do you think? Would customers go for it?

I love perusing jewelry in stores--who isn't attracted to bright, shiny things?--but I have to admit, I don't know that I would call it the most fun experience. I often feel slightly uncomfortable when I see that I’m being watched like a hawk, add to that, unlike in stores such as Apple, where I can test out products to my heart's content, I can't touch and feel the jewelry without the help of a salesperson.

I know that's simply safe jewelry retailing, but a few new technologies are helping to add more excitement to the experience.

At Geneva's l'Heure Asch, an interactive display located right in the store window helps to draw passersby indoors. Pressing a touch pad located on the outside glass turns the displays inside, allowing customers to see a greater array of timepieces.

Amsterdam-based retailer Ace Jewelers Group uses an augmented reality tool on its Web site. Customers who visit the site are invited to virtually "try on" rings on their own computer. They simply print out a marker item, such as a paper ring, put it on and point it at their Web cam. The user will then be able to select from various pave rings on Ace's Web site, and their chosen ring will show up on their hand onscreen, in the place of the marker ring. If customers like what they see, they can purchase the ring online or visit one of the retailer's stores. Devised by London-based Holition, retailers can use the tool on their Web sites or via in-store kiosks.

Can you imagine? I'd love to walk into my own store or thumb through my design archives and pick out the pieces for my dream day. Here's what Ivanka selected:

Platinum and mixed-cut diamond cluster earrings with 9.67 carats total weight of diamonds ($130,000).

Custom-designed, platinum and mixed-cut diamond hair piece with 6.38 carats total weight of diamonds ($45,000).

Art deco platinum fancy-link estate bracelet with 26 carats total weight of diamonds ($90,000).

Photos: All Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry

The sight, scheduled for Nov. 2-6, is the ninth of the year and is usually a small sight, partly because the Diamond Trading Co. (DTC) sightholders buy what they need for the holiday rush prior to the first week of November. 

According to the article, however, this ninth sight is seeing a lot of sightholders submitting applications—requests to the DTC for extra rough—that will result in the sight totaling around $350 million, above the pre-determined allocation believed to be about $300 million.

This is great news for an industry where the DTC sights sunk as low as an estimated (by Rapaport Group) $129 million earlier this year, though still doesn’t represent a return to pre-crisis levels, when sights ranged between $600 million and $700 million.

What’s the source of this excess demand for rough?  

My first thought when I read this article was that sightholders must be feeling optimistic about the approaching holiday season in the United States and spending in November and December, even though an article I wrote just this week tells that shoppers are going to be hitting the malls earlier this year, either to spread out their spending or to make sure they get what they want before it’s out of stock.

In the article, though, Edahn presents another strong possibility: anticipated healthy demand in China for diamond gifts to mark the Chinese New Year, celebrated in February. He also mentions the fact that Indian banks are stepping up their lines of credit, lining the pockets of various industry players with cash that hasn’t been seen in months and fueling the pursuit of rough among buyers.

Perhaps more interesting than these theories, however, is what the article doesn’t say. Nowhere in the story does Edahn ever utter the words “United States” or “holiday season.”

This is further proof that many in the diamond industry have stopped worrying so much about the U.S. market—What’s happening there? When will demand return? When will debt-ridden consumers feel comfortable enough to start spending again?—and simply moved on to emerging markets such as China.
 
*Image courtesy of the De Beers Group

Last Friday was especially so despite the dreary weather, as I trekked up to Christie's in New York City and spent a very informative morning getting an up-close look at a number of pieces that will be on the auction block this Wednesday.

First and obviously foremost was the Annenberg Diamond. The 32.01-carat D-flawless diamond was set into a ring by designer David Webb and purchased by well-known philanthropist and art collector Leonore "Lee" Annenberg in 2007.

Annenberg, who died in March at the age of 91, bought the ring as a present to herself on her 90th birthday.That's a self-purchase that would make Ken Gassman proud.

My visit to Christie's on Friday brought to mind this article I read in The New York Times early last week, telling us that luxury is gravitating east. I don't disagree with that notion—the growing importance of Chinese consumers to the diamond industry has been a story for a long time. 

But thinking of this article prompted me to ask why Christie's didn't make the Annenberg part of its December auction in Hong Kong, where a 5-carat pink diamond called the "Vivid Pink" will be up for sale.

A Christie's spokesperson said that they always place jewelry at the auctions where they feel it will do best. For a diamond with a name like Annenberg, that means putting it up for sale in New York.

Lee Annenberg was the wife of Ambassador and publisher Walter H. Annenberg, whose empire included The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Philadelphia Daily News, Seventeen magazine, TV Guide and radio and TV stations.  Lee Annenberg also served as President Ronald Reagan's first chief of protocol back in the 1980s, admitting at that time that the $50,000-a-year gig was her first real job.

Together, she and her husband gave away billions to cultural, educational and medical institutions throughout their lives.

Though it's not known what Lee Annenberg paid for her 32-carat diamond when she purchased it in 2007, it's expected to fetch between $3 million and $5 million on Wednesday. 

If you saw the ring in person, you'd see why. It is an amazing stone.

When I finally recovered my eyesight after being blinded by the Annenberg, another piece that caught my eye at Christie's was an Art Deco diamond and multi-gem "wave" bracelet by Rubel Freres (right).

Channeling our fashion editor Cate here, I couldn't help but think how great the multi-colored piece would look with just a plain little black dress.

It's expected to fetch between $500,000 and $700,000, making it much affordable than the Annenberg.

In any case, here are a couple of highlights from the past few weeks:

—Last week, I made my first-ever trip to the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) here in Manhattan for the premiere of a documentary on Swiss goldsmith and jewelry designer Lucie Heskett-Brem, who is known as “the gold weaver” for the unique way she has with the metal.

The World Gold Council and New York’s jewelry-focused art gallery Aaron Faber organized this exclusive screening, marking the addition of one of Heskett-Brem’s signature spider-web designs to the museum’s collection.

The 40-minute film, simply called The Gold Weaver—Lucie Heskett-Brem, gave viewers insight into the artist’s personal and professional life.

When Heskett-Brem first started out, she really didn’t know exactly what she wanted to do with her life, a dilemma that I’m sure sounds familiar to many. The film shows that before she found her calling, she tried a veritable cornucopia of careers, including working as a typist at a newspaper where she took dictation over the phone from the international correspondent and attempted to bang out his stories on deadline.

Newspaper work wasn’t a fit for Heskett-Brem and neither were the next few jobs she tried.

She finally found her calling—jewelry design—at an evening workshop.

London jeweler Bentley and Skinner was the first to pick up her pieces, and Heskett-Brem’s career took off from there.

The movie gives an amazing glimpse into the life of a truly talented and unique individual who comes from an equally amazing family of artists.

You can view The Gold Weaver in its entirety and learn more about Heskett-Brem here.

—On Wednesday, I headed downtown to Greenwich Jewelers to finally meet face-to-face with a family of New York retailers with whom I’ve had an over-the-phone relationship for two years.

What I found out there (among other things, some of which will be included in an online article I’m working on) is that just this month, founders Carl and Milly Gandia officially handed the business over to their daughters Jennifer Gandia and Christina Gandia Gambale, who have been working alongside their parents for years.

Their influence is evident all over the store.

Greenwich Jewelers’ display cases are filled with great-looking, fashion-forward jewelry—pieces by Melissa Joy Manning (her bracelet is pictured to the left) and Jamie Joseph were among my favorites (Hi, Rob)—in price points that are applicable to these times. 

I could easily see my friends and I spending a Saturday afternoon in Greenwich Jewelers picking out a few baubles,and having a great time doing it.

Now, how many jewelry stores do you think have women in their 20s and 30s saying that?

In addition to viewing The Gold Weaver and carving time out of my schedule to head downtown to Greenwich Jewelers, I’ve also been bombarded with event invitations as of late, as I mentioned earlier. 

There were two last week, three this week and I’m sure there are a few more late-October invites floating around in my in-box that I haven’t even had the chance to put on the calendar.

I can’t go to all of them, nor are all of them blog-worthy, but I choose to look at events as a positive sign the economy is picking up or, at the very least, that people are more optimistic than they have been in a long time.

So when I heard about the runway debut of a 500K gown, I was more than a little surprised, especially given the current trend of inconspicuous consumption. The figure is a hard one to fathom. I’m thinking that’ll buy a single-family house or cover four years of college tuition for more than a few kids.

But anyways, a six-digit price tag on a wedding gown does indeed exist. Last month, Platinum Guild International USA announced the debut of the “Platinum Wedding Gown,” a collaboration between wedding planner David Tutera and jewelry designer Erica Courtney.

The one-of-a-kind gown is valued at $501,640, and it’s not just a showpiece, as I was imagining a six-figure gown must be. It’s available for sale at New York City retailer Michael C. Fina.

So what is it that six figures buys?

The gown is ornamented with 10 feet of platinum chain, 33 carats of diamonds, 158.84 carats of aquamarine, plus white keshi pearls and a white South Sea pearl pendant suspended from platinum.

The dress also features a platinum-colored tulle veil and bouquet to match, and is accentuated with a sweetheart neckline and cascading white roses down the front.

Though the bride might only get to wear the dress for a single day, perhaps the consolation lies in the jewelry. Post-wedding, she’ll have a whole lot of it to hold onto and wear again and again.