The Real Luxury

Many people spare no expense when it comes to filling their home with expensive furnishings, draperies, carpeting and artwork. They know that creating a comfortable, stylish home is an effort to be truly proud of and take their job seriously no matter whether they are decorating the interior or exterior spaces of their home.

Sadly, though, all of their hard work often goes unnoticed or unappreciated by most if they fail to pay attention to the most important element of home decor: residential home lighting.

Choosing the proper home lighting is perhaps one of the most important facets of decorating your home and creating an atmosphere of warmth and comfort. With the right home lighting you can make a poorly decorated room look extravagant and make large, cold spaces seem warm and cozy. There is just no end to what you can accomplish with the proper home lighting. That is why it is so important to invest in good quality lamps for your home's interior spaces.

When decorating a room it takes several different types of home lighting to truly complete the look. In the ideal room, general home lighting, task home lighting and accent home lighting work in harmony to create an overall effect that is comfortable and engaging. For these reasons, serious thought needs to be given to the home home lighting design process, especially when it comes to lamps, which are usually classified as task home lighting. While lamps can be decorative and add an element of style to the room, they also need to be practical and able to handle the majority of your home lighting issues.

There are numerous different types of quality lamps that you can purchase for your home. Which ones you choose will depend largely on your existing decor, home lighting needs and the overall home lighting affect you wish to create. The types of lamps include floor lamps, table lamps, desk lamps and buffet lamps.

In addition to considering which types of lamps to incorporate into your decor, you should also consider and compare manufacturers according to quality, style and price. Two premier lamp manufacturers that you might wish to consider are Uttermost and Feiss. Each of these top-name manufacturers deliver decorative lamps of superior quality and style. In their inventory you can find lamps to compliment any decor no matter whether it is Formal, Country, Contemporary or Eclectic.

After deciding which lamps are suited to your particular tastes, budget and existing decor, you should carefully consider the placement of your lamps and which types of lamps to include in your interior spaces. Choose lamps that work with your lifestyle and the way you live in your home. For example: use desk lamps for delicate tasks such as a hobby and table lamps for more general tasks such as reading and place them where you are most likely to engage in these activities.

Do not make the same mistake that many do and underestimate the importance of purchasing quality lamps and home lighting fixtures for your home's interior. You will see that it is only after all of your home's design elements come together, that a truly beautiful and comfortable home is created.

The most expensive yacht in the world is owned by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai, and has renamed it as "Dubai". This super-yacht has been believed to optimize the pleasure of cruising expedition. This 158 meter long, vessel can accommodate 24 people. Due to insufficient funds, the work was suspended in the year 1998, but Dubai’s Crown Prince Jefri Bolkiah, who is the younger brother of the Sultan of Brunei, took charge of the project in the year 2001. This luxury mega yacht was earlier called Platinum 525 and the uncompleted yacht was put in a dock at the yard for people to see. The Prince named it The Golden Star until it was sold and renamed the Dubai. The most expensive luxury yacht in the world has a heli-pad, submarine, hangar for small aircraft, and a squash court. With interiors designed by Philippe Starck, the luxury yacht has fascinating interiors and a health spa offering natural beauty treatments to its passengers. For those looking for a splash, Golden Star has a large, comprehensive swimming pool whereas for fitness conscious people, it offers a modern-facility gym. The boat offers impressive security features to prevent undesired infiltration and ensure passengers’ safety. No wonder, this luxurious boat is priced above $300 million. This super-yacht has owner’s suite, five spacious VIP suites, and six guest sites. All suites have open balconies and boat features four diesel engines with more than 9000 hp. On moving towards the bridge deck, you can find captain’s quarters with an independent lounge and office. The mega yacht also has a massive foyer and atrium that connects each deck while lighting it up via a skylight from above. With so many engaging facilities and luxuries on-board this super mega yacht is not only world’s most expensive boat, but also the most luxurious boat you could have ever seen. You can call it Platinum 525, GoldenStar, Golden Star, Dubai or just the most expensive yacht in the world.

Type Ha provides the purest diamonds, which contain no nitrogen and thus are completely colorless. When manganese is present as a trace element a rose-pink color results (as in the Regent and the Williamson). Type lib is characterized by slight traces of aluminium, which not only colors such diamonds blue (like the Hope and the Wittelsbach), but also turns them into semiconductors which are vital to the electronic industry.

The structural build of diamonds arouses our curiosity about the conditions of their formation. The interpretation prevailing today rests on the hypothesis that in a very early era there existed above the sima widespread focal points of magma in which dense olivine aggregates gradually became concentrated. In a second, much later period, basic magma masses were forced, under immense internal pressure, into fracture zones of the middle and upper crust, and alteration of the olivine aggregates into eclogite knolls came about.



These consist of olivine, garnet, and diopside. In the course of this unusual metamorphism, which took place at about 2 5 kilometers depth under an overburden pressure of about 50,000 atmospheres and at temperatures of about 1,300° C, the formation of diamonds occurred at the same time as that of other minerals. In a third phase the diamonds were catapulted in sporadic explosive eruptions from the earth's interior to its surface and embedded in the kimberlite rock which formed as the lava masses cooled. In the course of the last two hundred million years the friable kimberlite crumbled away through the destructive ravages of weathering.

The diamonds thus freed were in part set down in the detritus of river beds, and in part carried down to the sea coast and there deposited either in coastal sediments or in shoal banks in the ocean. As a result of this, the diamonds are won from very varying strata: from the primary rock fill of the volcanic necks (the "blue ground"), from the secondary gem gravels of the river beds, and from the marine beds of coastal sands.

Consequently, very distinct mining methods have been developed, ranging from highly mechanized operations in South Africa, Tanzania, and Siberia, through the most primitive excavation methods of private diggers in all parts of the world, to the imposing array of machine installation and earth moving along the coast of southwest Africa. In contrast to the primary deposits, where some 3.6 tons produce one carat of diamond (1:18 million), the ratio of the littoral mining areas in southwest Africa amounts to only 1:80 million (i.e. one carat of diamond from sixteen tons of spoil). Of the world's annual production of diamonds, which in 1967 totalled 42.4 million carats, only approximately 21 percent, or 9 million carats, were diamonds of gem quality.

Glassy and unattractive, shapeless and rough, diamonds can hardly be told from ordinary pebbles when, separated from their common brethren in their long treatment process, they at last arrive on the sorting table. Then man, with his knowledge and his

skill, transforms them into objects of lustrous life. Giving them a facet-rich cut brings their beauty to scintillating fruition, displays their clear transparency, and sparks their high intensity of light—that unique combination of optical properties which is described as brilliance. Brilliance is created by the combined effects of adamantine luster (reflection of light from the polished surface), high refraction of light (diamond has a refractive index of 2.42, which means that light in diamond travels 2.42 times more slowly than in air), total reflection of the rays returned from the interior of the cut stone, dazzling fire of the light emerging from the stone dispersed into its component colors, and vivid sparkle. Diamond cutting is both science and art at one and the same time. The first stage is to establish the form by cleaving or, nowadays, principally by sawing on a very fine, circular metal saw. Depending on the size and the individual resistance, this can last hours or days. Before the two different sized parts can be cut into brilliants the cutter gives them a roughly circular form by rounding the pointed corners. For faceting and polishing, the rounded diamond, held in a dop, is lowered on to the quickly rotating cutting lap, which is coated with diamond powder and oil. During this most delicate phase of the cutting process the cutter sets down the diamond and lifts it up again hundreds of times in order to supervise his cut. But however carefully a diamond is cut, about half its weight is always lost in the process. Then, finally, after day- or week-long care, the diamond has become a brilliant-cut gem—a glittering jewel with its rich pattern of planes and geometrically shaped facets and the glistening play of light of its fiery brilliance. It is of unsurpassable beauty, arousing enraptured delight and astonished wonder.

Yet, however important the cutting is for the inimitable beauty of the brilliant-cut diamond, it is only one of the Four Cs, that is, carat, clarity, color, and cut, which together constitute the qualitative factors of the worth of a diamond. There is a widespread misconception among the public that a good diamond must be blue-white and flawlessly clear. Really blue-white diamonds are extremely rare, so rare indeed that many a diamond merchant has never encountered a blue-white diamond in his life. The subtle color nuances from blue-white through finest white, white, off-white, and yellowish to yellow apply only to the so-called white, i.e. colorless, group. The full-colored varieties are classed as fancy diamonds. As with the color, the same applies also to their clarity. Diamonds are precious marvels of Nature's creation and often carry within them clear evidence of their laborious birth, in the form of inclusions, which perhaps in the future will one day be seen as valuable proof of natural origin. Generally these involve diamond's twin brothers which were formed together with it: olivine, garnet, chrome spinel, diopside, enstatite, and many others—all are likewise gemstones which, in macroscopic size, are cut and highly esteemed by collectors. Diamonds in which an experienced expert can discover no inclusions with the help of tenfold magnification pass as internally flawless—the highest clarity grade of the trade. Thereafter follow several clarity grades down to stones full of inclusions, which mark the boundary between gem and industrial diamonds.



The "fragment of Eternity," as Indians call the diamond, has been from time immemorial the epitome of strength and courage. As the birthstone for April it is credited with freeing the spirit from anxieties, making poison ineffective, and its owner invincible, if—so the legend runs—his mind is lofty and his thoughts noble. Through its immaculate clarity it has embodied to the present day the highest of virtues and is considered a symbol of happiness. Above all goods and chattels mankind has prudently and carefully treasured its value as the most precious jewel as well as the very smallest form of dependable investment. Scientists have still, after all this time, not completely fathomed diamond: it remains wrapped in mystery and still provides them with many riddles for the future. For example, it has till now obstinately resisted all efforts to synthesize it in gem quality, and thus remains in this respect, too, adamas, the unconquerable.

So diamond displays, now as then, the majesty of Nature in radiant beauty and splendor, and its crystalline clarity and dazzling fire are a reflection and symbol of the sublime and timeless grandeur of creation.

Diamonds are the hardest substance known to man, but they aren't indestructible and can be damaged or dulled. Caring for a diamond takes more than the occasional cleaning. Diamonds are forever, but they can be damaged if you are not careful. By learning how to properly care for your diamond, you will ensure that your diamond is indeed forever. Caring for a diamond is fairly simple and there are a few things to keep in mind when caring for your precious stone.

With these helpful guidelines, you can keep your precious jewelry safe and preserve its eternal state.

* Don't jumble your diamond jewelry together or with other pieces, because diamonds can scratch other jewelry and each other. If this happens, the clarity of the diamond will be affected.
* Scratches are external blemishes that can reduce a diamond's value. So if you want your diamond jewelry to retain its high price value, be sure to keep it in separate boxes. You can use a fabric-lined jewel case or a box with separate compartments or dividers.
* Don't wear your diamonds when doing rough work. Even though a diamond is durable, a hard blow can chip it. Do not wear your diamond ring when you are playing sports or engaged in other tough activities. Remove your diamond ring or bracelet when doing the dishes or gardening.
* Clean your diamonds regularly using one of the following: a commercial jewelry cleaner, a mix of ammonia and water, or a mild detergent. To clean the diamond without affecting its brilliance, it is best to use any of these four methods namely; detergent bath, cold water soak, quick-dip method, and ultrasonic cleaner. If possible, use a cleaning solution recommended by the jeweler where you bought your diamond jewelry from, since the jeweler will have more experience than you with regards to diamond jewelry cleaning. If you are cleaning the jewelry at home, don't forget to dip the jewelry into the solution, and use a soft brush to dislodge dust or dirt from under the setting.
* Don't let your diamond come in contact with chlorine bleach or other chemicals, because they can pit or discolor the mounting. Some cleaning compounds that are oil-based such as soaps and other lotions will cover diamonds with a thin film layer making the diamond somewhat dull and lifeless. It may even irreversibly change the color of the diamond!
* See your jeweler at least once a year to have your diamond jewelry professionally cleaned and checked for loose prongs and wear. This type of cleaning will get rid of the hardened dirt and grime that simple home cleaning is unable to remove, as professional jewelers will use an ultrasonic cleaner or steam cleaners. A professional jeweler will also be able to quickly assess whether or not your diamond is still secure in its mount. Most professional jewelers will perform this service for free, so you have little to lose in bringing it to them. At the same time, he will give your jewelry a "professional shine-up".

Don't forget to take special care of your diamond jewelry since this is one of your most precious investments. These tips will help you clean and care for your diamond jewelry so that it remains beautiful for the next twenty years as it is today.

Hurry up and visit Anjolee.com Collection to buy from a huge selection of classic diamond jewelry, as you are now skilled in how to take care of it.

Q Polash is an Internet marketer based in Texas, USA. His website focuses on diamond jewelry, especially Indian fashion jewelry. You can read about well designed engagement rings, Wedding and Bridal Sets and other jewelry related tips.