Is anyone going to the Infinity Diamonds "Meet the Cutter" events?

[Ellen]

My 1.40 next to the round. By this angle you can see a bigger difference. Face up, I was surprised that the difference was not "huge". Noticeable, but not glaring. John said he thought they got my stones stats wrong. My diamond was quite pleased. (as was I)

 

[Ellen]

One more with both cuts.

 

[Ellen]

Infinity has just started doing a "birth certificate" on their diamonds.

 

[Ellen]

A Shold setting.

 

[Ellen]

Forgot this, during the presentation, which was really interesting btw.

 

[Ellen]

Great pic of Jim and Paul.

 

[Ellen]

Last but not least, John, Ame (from PS, so glad I got to meet her finally!, wish Patty could have made it), me and Paul. What a great night.

 

[Lorelei]

Fantastic peetures Miss!!!! Good to see Ame too!

Hehe! Love the fembot face El!

 

[Ellen]

Date: 10/11/2009 10:45:14 AM
Author: Lorelei

Fantastic peetures Miss!!!! Good to see Ame too!

Hehe! Love the fembot face El!

I can''t take credit for the pics, that goes to Ame and John!

 

[Karl_K]

Tell us more about Paul and the presentation please :}
I love the birth certificates.

 

[hlmr]

Sounds like it was a fun and interesting event!! Thanks for sharing the pictures Ellen!

 

[Ellen]

Date: 10/11/2009 11:54:18 AM
Author: Karl_K

Tell us more about Paul and the presentation please :}

Most of it was about things we would already know from having talked to Paul on the board over the years (and I figured the gals just wanted to see the diamonds, lol). Their focus on cut of course, and how he and Lieve work as a team. The part I found most interesting was about how they go to look at parcels. Unfortunately, that was with a slide show, no pics of that. And you may know about that too. But for those who don't, they go to this building and pull into an area where they literally get "trapped". The car is checked out by security, then they are allowed in. Obviously security is extremely tight inside and out.

I forget how long they have to look at the pacels, it's not all that long as I remember, maybe Paul will chime in. They work as a team, looking the rough over, determining what color and clarity they think it will be, what could be cut from it and decide on what to bid. Of course the trick is to bid just right, not under, not over too much. Then they resell the rough they can't use on the parcels they "win".

Something I didn't know about Lieve, who is one of the few women in the biz to buy and sell rough (and graduated first in her class), is that she's a judicial expert with the Belgian Federal Police!

As for Paul, what can I say? He's a great guy, and really skinny. I'm terribly jealous.

I will post a couple more pics for you. These are of the crown and pavilion cutters. One person cuts all the different stages of the stone, as opposed to several people doing just one certain stage, which is how many stones are cut.


Crown cutter.

 

[Ellen]

Pavilion cutter.

 

[MissGotRocks]

Very interesting account Ellen - thanks so much for sharing the story and pictures!

 

[Lula]

Great photos, Ellen, of the St. Louis event.

A friend of mine and I attended the Chicago Meet the Cutter event last Wednesday (Oct. 7), held at Diamond Scaasi It was a great event.

No PS posters at that event, but I did get to meet Andrey from PS, and his wife Linh (who we had a great time trying on some jewelry with -- much to Andrey''s shagrin!).

I was waiting to add to this thread until I got some photos (I forgot to bring my camera - duh!) from John Pollard, who was kind enough to take some for us. Thanks, John!

First, some photos of the bling...

 

[Lula]

More bling....I''d love to call this "line-up" of Infinity diamonds my own...

 

[Lula]

A photo of my friend (L), Paul (C), and me (R)...

Dimend Scaasi has a lovely suite inside a tall building in the Loop. The area the building is in is called "Jewelers' Row" and is a mini diamond district. Very different from your typical stand-alone retail store.

And, yes, in case you're wondering, this photo is my new "Sreen-saver" !!! Hubby thinks I'm nuts.

 

[Lula]

This was my friend's first exposure to the "new" world of diamond shopping, i.e., super-ideals, internet vendors, diamond forums. She learned a lot, and was surprised that no one was "pushy" to make a sale -- I told her it's all about cut education with Infinity and the dealers Paul works with, so the consumer can make up his/her own mind based on education, and, of course, the visual beauty of the stones.

We very much enjoyed John's presentation on how rough is bought, how Paul and Lieve make decisions on how to orient the stones within the rough, and how the stone is then sawed -- we saw a picture of the one man whose job it is to saw the rough -- diamond cutting is such an old-world craft, and a mysterious one at that! Finally, Paul passed around the crown and pavilion cutters (shown in Ellen's pictures) to demonstrate how the cutter can adjust the cutting process as he goes, to maintain the critical angles.

We both loved the idea of the birth certificates -- they are signed by Paul! I think this personalizes the purchase of a diamond, and embodies the long and complex process that a diamond takes to go from rough (millions of years old) to cutting and polishing, and finally set in precious metal.

And now that I've met Paul IRL, I believe the birth certificates are especially fitting, because he knows so much about each Infinity stone's history -- it's really amazing.

So, again, it was a great time. John is a great speaker, very informative. Paul is very kind. I really liked being able to ask him questions about my Infinity M SI2. Luckily, we didn't have a whole lot of time to talk (my friend and I were meeting friends for dinner) or I would have asked him to pull up the Helium report for my stone...that would have been heaven for a cut geek!

Thanks to John P. for the photos and the great presentation, and to Isaac from Dimend Scaasi for inviting us to his event. Wink told me that Infinity dealers are a family, and he is definitely right about that. We felt at home. And, Paul, thanks to you for creating my beautiful M SI2!

 

[Paul-Antwerp]

Date: 10/11/2009 1:30:18 PM
Author: Ellen

As for Paul, what can I say? He''s a great guy, and really skinny. I''m terribly jealous.

No need to be jealous, not at all. You are great yourself, and I did not notice in any way that you were not skinny.

And my low weight does not prevent the airlines from charging me for a small overweight on my luggage. I think that that is not fair.

Live long,

 

[Paul-Antwerp]

Date: 10/11/2009 1:30:18 PM
Author: Ellen

I forget how long they have to look at the pacels, it''s not all that long as I remember, maybe Paul will chime in.

In general and on average, we have about one minute to assess one rough stone when buying. In that one minute, we basically need to know the size, colour and clarity of the stone that we can produce from that rough stone.

On my presentation in Roanoke, I got to meet Stone_cold and he picked up that we are using an OGI-scanner in our buying process (he noticed it on our pics), while the OGI is generally considered of an insufficient quality here on Pricescope. I explained to him that, while buying, we basically need a fast scanner that gives us a good indication of what is possible, and that the result of the scan is combined with my visual assessment of the rough crystal to come to a realistic estimate. Speed in this process of buying actually is more important than accuracy.

Live long,

 

[Ellen]

Date: 10/12/2009 9:25:56 PM
Author: Paul-Antwerp

Date: 10/11/2009 1:30:18 PM
Author: Ellen

As for Paul, what can I say? He''s a great guy, and really skinny. I''m terribly jealous.

No need to be jealous, not at all. You are great yourself, and I did not notice in any way that you were not skinny.

And my low weight does not prevent the airlines from charging me for a small overweight on my luggage. I think that that is not fair.

Live long,

Paul, did I happen to mention you are my new best friend??

Thank you sir, but I can only dream of being as svelt as yourself!

And lol, I think that''s unfair of the airline too.

Thanks for addressing the time aspect on parcels, I knew it was pretty quick!




sara, thanks for the yummy pics! I wouldn''t mind calling that line up mine myself.

I was remiss in mentioning it was also great to meet John P. as well! Please forgive.

 

[Dancing Fire]

Date: 10/11/2009 10:36:14 AM
Author: Ellen
Last but not least, John, Ame (from PS, so glad I got to meet her finally!, wish Patty could have made it), me and Paul. What a great night.

c''mon Ellen don''t be shy!!