Hi all,
Happy Friday! Another month has gone by and time to catch up and discuss our progress - thus please grab a drink and let's get underway!
Amora Eternity H&A updates: We were able to increase the size range and quantity of our Eternity H&A production as expected this month. We restocked with everything from 1ct - 4ct sizes! Most notable was this D color, Internally Flawless 3.91ct Eternity which is the largest D/IF we've had to date:
We're still low on available inventory but we have another nice restock that will be ready today in fact (1ct, 1.25ct, 1.5ct-2ct and 4ct).
Amora Gem Inventory
New logo for the Amora Eternity! With production stabilizing we're finally able to start work on branding and generally nicer touches for the Amora Eternity. First up - a new logo!
New Eternity Studio Photo Of course, beyond a logo we have to have a nice studio photo - thus let me introduce you to the Amora Eternity H&A up close and crystal clear:
Of interest, after we posted this photo it garnered 4,400+ likes on our Facebook page:
BetterThanDiamond.com
Thanks to everyone who liked it!
Eternity H&A fire! Last Friday we had an absolutely beautiful blue sky, sunny day. A sunny day is not of great concern in California, etc. but for Seattle, we've set a new record for rainy days this year.
With the amazing sunshine, our production staff grabbed a just finished 8mm Amora Eternity off of TIGER and took it outside to watch it do it's magic in the sun and made a quick cell phone video as well.
This was not designed to be a promo video at all, but they sent it to me and I figured we might as well show what the Eternity can do in the sun. We'll definitely film with better camera, in a setting, etc. once we get past the rainy season but for now enjoy!
(Give it about 15 seconds where it really kicks in, and then enjoy!)
Amora Eternity vs Ultra vs UE1 vs UE2: In some of the discussion threads here on the boards there were several posters asking if we would bring back the Ultra. My point was that we have Ultra's at our lab and the Eternity easily beats out the Ultra.
However, better than saying it, we did the modeling with videos of the Eternity and Ultra in spotlighting and office lighting so you can see exactly the differences.
I also added in two modified Eternity possible variations that would make the Eternity more Ultra like (aptly named UE1 and UE2 for Ultra Eternity X).
You are welcome to view and vote on your favorite but I believe the votes will reflect why the Eternity is our premiere H&A cut and replaced the Ultra.
Amora Eternity vs Ultra vs UE1 vs UE2 - spotlight and office modeling
On a related note, we also did the modeling of the Forever One Moissanite round and H&A cut's as well using actual stones scanned in via the Sarin HD system, so you can further compare these in spotlighting and office lighting to compare.
Forever One Moissanite Round - Cut Analysis
Forever One H&A Moissanite - Cut analysis
Next week we're going to see if we can get the videos synced and shown side by side so we can create "versus" videos to make comparative viewing and evaluation trivial.
Amora AVR-OEC coming! I'm happy to announce that we'll have the Amora OEC-AVR available in July! The AVR (August Vintage Round) is a Super Ideal OEC designed by Jonathan at AugustVintage.
Thus for OEC lovers this is hopefully an opportunity to own the best cut OEC diamond alternative available.
Here's the Amora AVR in spotlight modeling:
This is a limited production run and we're taking $100 deposits (pre-orders) for those interested. The deposit becomes a 100% store credit to use but guarantees you access to an AVR to purchase. You can also sign up on the waiting list of course but the deposit guarantees a stone, assuming we have a match for you.
Key point - we will be cutting these with no culet. The culet is the 'open window' in the center of the stone that we used to do on the original Amora OEC. There are several reasons for this:
1 - Too many customer complaints about the "hole in the middle" of their stone. For those who bought without knowledge of the antique style.
2 - More brilliance/fire - the culet of course leaks light out the back, reducing the visual impact. This is why the round cut dropped it long ago.
3 - For those who wanted an open culet, no consensus on "large culet", "medium culet", small culet...we'd never be able to make enough to provide the carat size/color/clarity/culet size combo if so.
There's more info on the Amora AVR-OEC page here:
Amora Gem OEC-AVR Cut
Blue progress: Bad news and good news on the Blue Amoras. The bad:
1 - There is color zoning on the underside. Thus you have roughly 3 clear zones amongst the otherwise rich blue.
2 - The internal clarity is low with carbon type defects.
The good:
The color is exceptional from the top down and would very likely grade Fancy Intense Blue. In other words a true blue that is rich and saturated, not just a faint hint/tint of blue.
We believe the issues remain solvable and so are continuing to work on the blues. One main goal has been met - to achieve a rich, intense blue so the other issues are secondary but need to be resolved before we can begin production.
T2 update: TIGER-2 arrived three weeks ago to our production facility. Unfortunately after hooking up all the electrical and water connections, we've found there was some damage in transit and have been doing quite a bit of work now replacing and upgrading a number of components.
We did manage to cut some first test stones just yesterday but found some additional issues to be fixed.
It's possible we may have production with T2 starting next week but one lesson learned here - for T4 and higher, we are going to build in place to avoid moving and risking damage.
TIGER's for reference weigh just about a ton, (they are huge and require a step system to access, and yet at the same time are highly precisely tuned...so moving after building, even with a giant steel cage and frame suspending it during shipping, clearly is not a good plan any longer. We had thought that by enveloping it in it's own steel framework that it could be moved with no issue.
T3 is well underway, and slated to complete end of May and assuming a more successful transport to our production faclity, we are hoping to have 3x the production resources we've ever had in July!
BTD News:
Asha restock We're sold out of Asha H&A in sizes from 1ct - 9ct, except a few left in 8mm. Thus, we're starting a new run and will have a restock by roughly July.
Misc:
Trends in Engagement rings (diamond): A new site, RareCarat.com has been crunching the numbers on engagement ring purchases across the US. Among other interesting results, the average spent on a diamond for an engagement is 2.2 months pay. That translates to:
"Folks in New York are shelling out the most, domestically, spending an average of $11,692, followed by Rhode Island ($11,365), California ($10,747), New Jersey ($10,269), and Massachusetts ($10,154). As for the lowest spends per state, Rare Carat's Montana users are coughing up the least ($5,568), followed by South Dakota ($5,611), New Mexico ($6,051), Nebraska ($6,059), and Utah ($6,171). On average, the site's users across all states drop 2.2 months' salary on the rock itself. "
Top shapes were - 1)Round (more than all others combined) 2)Cushion 3)Oval 4)Princess and 5)Emerald.
2/3 of buyers preferered to get the best cut but were quick to offset that with lower clarity (SI1 was the most popular).
You can browse their data and results here:
Our Diamond Search Data | Rare Carat
Spring and Tulip Season in the Pacific Northwest: While I noted the issue with all the rain in Seattle, I felt compelled to close the blog with a counterpoint and show some of the beauty of the NorthWest. When we get sun, it's incredible - below is a sunrise photo and one that shows how true blue the NW skies are while also highlighting that we are fortunate to have lots of Eagles as well due to all the water and lakes and thus fish.
(These photos are both by Wild NW Beauty - you can see a lot more stunning photos of the NW here:
Wild Northwest Beauty Photography)
That's it for this month's blog! We'll be adding the new comparison videos hopefully as early as next week and of course working on getting T2 into production this month.
Have a great weekend, a great month and see you end of next month!
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