Like the LBD, the little black gem ­− otherwise known as the LBG − is also classic, yet versatile. The varied LBG collection consists of diamonds, pearls, opals, onyx, and other unique stones, ranging from the most affordable to the most precious gems available. No matter what their price, these stunning stones connote affluence.

Although some black gems, such as the cultured black pearl, are now reaching new heights in popularity, the use of black stones in jewelry can be traced back to Biblical times. A large onyx stone is said to have graced the gem-laden breastplate of Aaron. Black stones were also in the spotlight in the 19th century when Queen Victoria, mourning the loss of her husband, Prince Albert, commissioned the crown jewelers to create entire parures (complete, matched sets of jewels) out of carved jet, a fossil coal also known as “black amber.”

During the same mid-19th century period, black onyx and other dark stones were extremely fashionable. And later, during the “Roaring Twenties,” style-conscious women in the United States wore long strands of jet beads extending from the neckline to the waistline.

Black is a favorite color of Kenneth Jay Lane who designs fashion jewelry for the famous as well as everywoman. Here is an example of  a KJL dramatic design in black.

Today, the black diamond represents the ultimate LBG. According to the

Best selling Oriental Flavor Earring

Gemological Institute of America(GIA), the world’s foremost authority in gemology, black diamonds get their color from the presence of numerous inclusions, often consisting of graphite. Due to the dense concentrations of these dark inclusions, sometimes lining the stone’s cleavages and fractures, black diamonds are generally opaque and difficult to cut. Some notable black diamonds are the Black Star of Africa at 202.00 cts. and the Black Orfloff, at 67.50 cts.

Near the top of the LBG list are natural black pearls, which represent one of the rarest and most exotic of gem materials. Tahitian cultured pearls are among the most popular of the black pearls. Known for their deep luster, these pearls can range from a soft dove grey to a deep midnight ink color. Other LBG stones to look for include shimmering tourmaline, glassy obsidian, and hematite, which is a favorite of lawyers because it is fabled to bring the wearer success in litigation.

No matter which LBG the wearer may choose, they can be assured that it will meet their requirements for versatility and style – proof that the little black dress has finally met its match.

Source: Gemological Institute of America

Just upload your digital image in jpeg format and attach it to an email to me at jane5505@msn.com . Include a note that you give me permission to publish on my site. That’s the only place it will appear. And I will not be publishing your name, email address, or etc. My goal here is to help people envision how the jewelry would look on them. I am sure it will be fun.

 When I had a jewelry shop I snapped photos of customers in my jewelry, and they were delighted to do it. I tacked them up to my wall in the shop. I found a bunch of those photos the other day, they brought back sweet memories about how I started out in jewelry.

         PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR FACE

Jane’s Design — bead drama

 KJL coral earrings for a Hawaiian wedding

Here’s a gift for the first person to place a $150 order in 2012 (not including shipping), a lovely 6mm pearl knotted necklace with a beautiful Swarovski crystal-inlaid magnetic clasp–no fuss. Perfect for any day or evening. Just place your order & I will include the necklace. The pearls are highest-quality glass–dipped not sprayed, fantastic luster. (You didn’t think I was giving away the real thing, didya?) Length is 16 inches. Color is a fraction off white.

Beautiful Strand of Pearls

Very pretty magnetic clasp!

 Here’s a famous lady–ex-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher– in one of her many pearls, they look like 10mm at least, and a longer length, probably about 20 inches. I can duplicate these for you at any length if you want, as well as the earrings. Meryl Streep will be wearing plenty of pearls in Iron Lady, the movie about Thatcher.

Wishing you the BEST this year, and the best accessorizing! No need to buy clothes, just jazz up your jewelry stash.

All you need for the prettiest earrings at a negligible price is some wire, along with some beads that appeal to you. Presto, ten minutes later (or less) you have a beautiful accessory that you designed for yourself or a gift.

I love the vintage, ornate purple sterling ball with the Swarovski drops and rondels.

Crystal and Ornate Bead Earring

Here’s another basic style with a lot of pizzazz, featuring Swarovski crystals and a beautiful large white pearl. Many brides and their maids have added this to their bridal outfits.

Elegant pearl earring for any occasion

If you have the itch to start making your own jewelry, it’s so easy and fun! Call me 800-572-7920, or check  out http://kennethjaylanesales.com for more excellent  ideas and contact.

Your jewelry buddy,

Jane Shafrin

An animal joins the Big 5 if it is known to kill humans. The African big 5 consist of lion, cape buffalo, elephant, cheetah, and rhino. (Why is the crocodile not in this group?) You certainly don’t want an intimate encounter with any of these dangerous critters if they are hungry or lusty. That’s why the driver/guides get very nervous if a passenger steps out of the vehicle while animals are around.

Interesting, 3 of the big 5 are herbivores. Guess which ones. I heard tourists brag about getting photos of all 5. “Big effin deal, I can grab any pitcher offa this here Internet thingy!” –tourist from Florida who substituted beer bottles for a camera …

Top o the food chain -- pretty lazy, too much to eat

Cheetah brothers in the Serengeti

Elephants, cooling off in some water

Cheetahs are the fastest land animals, reaching speeds of up to 70mph.

Other African carnivores include leopards, hyenas, warthogs (see detailed description below), vultures, crocodiles, chimps (they eat other monkeys), baboons (maybe?), african wild dogs (didn’t see any of these).

Hyena pair waiting for the lion to serve dinner

Birthplace of Homo Sapiens

Homo sapiens (that’s brainy all-knowing us) first walked upright in Oldu-pai (Olduvai) Gorge, in the Serengeti (endless plain). Oldu-pai means sisal plant, important for building huts, roofs, baskets.

It was there that Mary Leakey, after more than 30 years’ field work, discovered the first, fossilized footprints of homo erectus, our direct forebears, thought to exist over 2 million years ago. She and her husband Louis Leakey established once for all the answer to the question “Where did man originate?”

Unmistakable Rock Formation at Olduvai Gorge

The parade of hominid fossil footprints are preserved in powdery volcanic ash from what scientists believe to be an eruption of the 20 km distant Sadiman Volcano. Soft rain cemented the 15 cm thick layer bearing the imprints without destroying the prints.

The Leakeys braved punishing conditions (dust, heat, no water) and financial ruin to conduct their research in Olduvai Gorge. (I visited the dig on a very hot and dusty day so I admire their dedication.) Their discoveries proved that earliest homo erectus lived more than 2 million years ago, although this timeline is disputed. The Leakeys also discovered tools that were made by homo habilis, the toolmaker, that are even older. The Leakeys established that more than one branch of the human tree flourished and then died out, leaving homo sapiens as the survivors. And so here we are.

For more about the Leakeys, Wikipedia has details and Amazon has book suggestions. If you enjoy reading about academic intrigue, backbiting, and posturing surrounding formidable discoveries, the Leakeys have been at the center of it for decades.

By the way if you are planning to go on a safari, let me know, because caveat emptor (buyer beware). I’ll give as much information as I can about my safari, each company is different. They are all pretty interested in your dollars/euros/pounds.

Africa, the Ineffable Land

It is impossible to capture the impact Africa had on me. Africa possesses mystery, humor, tragedy, joy, unimaginable beauty, frightening danger, and mesmerizing tranquility. My stress and worries evaporated, vaporizing in the Amsterdam evening as soon as I boarded the flight to Arusha. KLM’s cabin stewards know how to welcome passengers (they are all natural blondes), the seat was very roomy, and they didn’t block the aisle with a drinks cart. After landing at Kilimanjaro Airport (JRO) about 8 pm, the hundred or so of us from the flight got through customs quite efficiently, even though some travelers didn’t have their visas and the electricity in the airport failed three times. My lovely driver/guide Robert was waiting with a huge smile and pretty fluent English. He drove me to a lodge called Rivertrees, where I had a snack and a couple of Ambien.

Animals Abound

No matter where you start in the US, you won’t see a wild animal until your third day. But then, zowie! I said to Robert, that I would love to see an … ostrich! and around the next bend, there he was, a tall regal ostrich, strutting like a lord! My first sighting. They are huge! The Masai also believe they bring good luck. I don’t believe the adult ostriches have any predators either, since they have some ability to levitate, but it is their huge, powerful feet that can deliver a killing blow to the head of a big cat.

Ostriches are mostly feathers and gristle, one of the creatures I called “spare parts” collections. This ostrich is about 7 feet tall with a big poufy tail and white wingtips. When the ostrich flares his wings out he looks about 6 feet wide. The males display like that when courting or when chasing another animal. I imagine any carnivore would consider an ostrich egg a rare delicacy, if it could get close enough to grab one.

African ostrich

Another “spare parts” combo is the warthog, and now I know where Bette Midler found her prancing stage toddle, that’s exactly how the warthogs trot. Fat round buttocks, erect curlycue tails, and tiny legs and hooves but with huge heads and 2 pair of nasty tusks (not describing Bette!!). I am sure the carnivores find them quite tasty if they can get past those tusks. They are about the size of a small pig–140lbs or so–and know how to procreate because all the parks have huge warthog populations.

African warthog, Tarangire NP

Digression: All the animals have tails, except for chimpanzees. They are the closest to homo sapiens. There are only 8 chromosomes’ difference between us and chimps. Jane Goodall’s station, Gombe on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, is where she studied chimps for more than 30 years. She observed chimps making tools in order to remove termites from their mounds. This caused a seismic change in the known beliefs about primates’ intelligence. If you get an opportunity, by all means attend a lecture by Dr. Goodall or see a film about her work. Admirable!

The recent discovery of thousands of Egyptian mummies in a network of tombs reinforces the fact that Egyptians were obsessed with dressing the mummies in the proper clothing and jewelry to prepare them for their trip to the underworld.

Egyptian burial sites have provided knowledge about the history and use of beads in ancient civilizations because so much beaded material has survived in their sarcophagi. Much of this jewelry was too fragile to have been worn, but has survived because it was made specifically for use in the other world.

Egyptians practiced pantheism and also believed that the naturalistic likeness of a deceased person or creature in the form of a statue or painting contained the ka, or actual life-force, of that individual.

The Egyptian civilization was a peaceful one — they were protected by the surrounding desert, yet the annual flooding of the Nile ensured that crops would flourish.

For example, children wore fish amulets to protect them from drowning.

The Ba bird, a statue of a person with huge outstretched wings, represents the soul of the dead.

The scarab or beetle signified rebirth, creation, and power. The bottom of the beetle was inscribed with a person’s name. This led to the development of the signet ring.

Horus, the sky god, was a falcon wearing a double crown. Often only the eye of horus is shown on an amulet or carving.

Egyptians shaped jewelry into many different creatures such as snakes, birds, horses, monkeys and apes, frogs, pelicans, rams, or spiders. Each shape represented a specific type of power or idea.

Palm branches symbolized millions of years.

The basket symbolized royal power.

The patroness of birth is Toerris, the hippopotamus goddess.

Anubis, the jackal, was another symbol of royal power.

Osiris was the great god of the underworld; Isis was his wife, and her son was Horus-the-child.

Thoth was the god of wisdom. His sacred animals were the ibis and the baboon.

Astarte was the goddess of love and war, often depicted on horseback.

Egyptians wore rings with large bezels containing cartouches with symbolic meanings.

Much of the jewelry found in Egyptian tombs was made of faience, a vitreous (glass) paste which when fired turned a beautiful blue-green. Many pieces were made from gold worked in complex designs. Egyptians also used semiprecious stones such as agate, carnelian, quartz, lapis, and some of the jaspers. They were quite sophisticated in the jewelry fabrication techniques they used.

Statues and drawings from the early Egyptians are naturalistic, depicting facial features and body types exactly as they were. Most of the statues wear some type of jewelry, and we know that both men and women pierced their ears.

Gold is a mineral with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. It has been a highly sought-after precious metal for coinage, jewelry, and other arts since the beginning of recorded history.

The metal occurs as nuggets or grains in rocks, in veins and in alluvial deposits. Gold is dense, soft, shiny and the most malleable and ductile pure metal known. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster which it maintains without tarnishing in air or water.

Gold has served as a symbol of wealth and a store of value throughout history. Gold standards have provided a basis for monetary policies.

Gold is insoluble in nitric acid, which dissolves silver and base metals. This property is exploited in refining. Nitric acid has long been used to confirm the presence of gold in items, and this is the origin of the colloquial term “acid test”, referring to a gold standard test for genuine value.

Because of the softness of pure (24k) gold, it is usually alloyed with base metals for use in jewelry, altering its hardness and ductility, melting point, color and other properties. Alloys with lower caratage, typically 22k, 18k, 14k or 10k, contain higher percentages of copper, or other base metals or silver or palladium in the alloy.

Copper is the most commonly used base metal, yielding a redder color. Eighteen carat gold containing 25% copper is found in antique and Russian jewelry and has a distinct, though not dominant, copper cast, creating rose gold.

Fourteen carat gold-copper alloy is nearly identical in color to certain bronze alloys. Fourteen and eighteen carat gold alloys with silver alone appear greenish-yellow and are referred to as green gold.

White gold alloys can be made with palladium or nickel. White 18 carat gold containing 17.3% nickel, 5.5% zinc and 2.2% copper is silver in appearance. Alternative white gold alloys are available based on palladium,
silver and other white metals, but the palladium alloys are more expensive than those using nickel.

High-carat white gold alloys are far more resistant to corrosion than pure silver or sterling silver.
In medieval times, gold was often thought to be beneficial for the health, in the belief that something that rare and beautiful could not be anything but healthful.

Even some modern esotericists and forms of alternative medicine assign metallic gold a healing power. Some gold salts do have anti-inflammatory properties and are used as pharmaceuticals in the treatment of arthritis and other similar conditions.

However, only salts and radioisotopes of gold are of pharmacological value, as elemental (metallic) gold is inert to all chemicals it encounters inside the body. In modern times, injectable gold has been proven to help to reduce the pain and swelling of rheumatoid arthritis and tuberculosis. Gold has been known and used by artisans since the 4th millennium BC. Gold artifacts appeared in Central Europe from the 2nd millennium BC.
Egyptian hieroglyphs from as early as 2600 BC describe gold, which king Tushratta of the Mitanni claimed was “more plentiful than dirt” in Egypt. Egypt and especially Nubia had the resources to become major gold-producing areas for much of history.

The legend of the golden fleece may refer to the use of fleeces to trap gold dust from placer deposits in the ancient world. Gold is mentioned frequently in the Old Testament, starting with Genesis 2:11 (at Havilah) and is included with the gifts of the magi in the first chapters of Matthew New Testament.

The Book of Revelation 21:21 describes the city of New Jerusalem as having streets “made of pure gold,
clear as crystal”.

The south-east corner of the Black Sea was famed for its gold. Exploitation is said to date from the time of King Midas, and this gold was important in the establishment of what is probably the world’s earliest mint in Lydia around 610 BC. The Romans developed new methods for extracting gold on a large scale using
hydraulic mining, especially in Spain from 25 BC onwards and in Romania from 150 AD onwards.
The various gold-mining methods used are described by Pliny the Elder in his encyclopedia Naturalis Historia written towards the end of the first century AD.

So there you have it, permission from no less a serious thinker than Emerson to act silly!

Why do you fall in love with a certain gemstone, its vibrancy and color? Science cannot explain why a certain gem “speaks to you”.

Although scientists and gemologists devote their careers to unraveling the mysteries of the wonderful gemstones that Mother Nature makes, our response to the beauty of a gem is completely emotional.

However, science can indeed explain how the diamond got its perfect hardness and transparency; how the ruby became incarnidine; how the sapphire mirrors the sky, the daffodil, the peach; how the aquamarine looks like a solidified chunk of the clearest South Sea; how the amethyst exhibits the deepest and most astounding purple like nothing else on earth except certain flowers like clematis or iris. How did lowly copper give birth to treasured turquoise?

When I look into facts about a diamond’s hardness or a gem’s origins, I find a dry pedagogical discussion dealing with the diamond’s atomic structure. The diamond is crystallized carbon, but so is graphite. However, the atomic structure of graphite is incomplete in comparison. To simplify, the forces exerted by the nucleus in each diamond atom are so powerful that nothing but another diamond can break off any of the trillions of atoms joined in the jewel’s perfect structural linkage.

The diamond’s perfection can be explained by words such as octahedron, dodecahedron, electric forces, molecule, electronic shell.

But at the end of the day who cares? We love the diamond, any gemstone, for its perfection and the fact that it could only be revealed by a dangerous process of humans going into the earth–or the sea.

(By the way, pearls are the only precious gem immediately ready to wear.)

For a more complete technical explanation refer to the book Five Centuries of Jewelry by Jean Lanllier, 1983, Arch Cape Press.

Diamonds are nature’s royalty and their powers will never be surpassed. Thrones won and lost, lovers torn apart, lives lost, diamonds are an obsession and a prize.

Where are Bernie Madoff’s diamonds? Gemstones are an age-old way to reduce unwieldy clots of cash into a tiny handful of value, very necessary if a wealthy person is on the lam.

DeBeers no longer owns all gem diamond production. Diamond mines in Canada, Russia, and Brazil now contribute gem quality diamonds. Only 20% of diamonds mined possess gem quality.

Among the most astounding diamonds because of their huge size, are the Cullinan, 530 carats (owned by the Queen of England), the Jonker, 726 carats, the Lesoto, 601 carats.

The largest diamond discovered in the U.S. was 40 carats, found in Murfreesboro, Arkansas. It was a singular occurrence. No one has attempted to mine diamonds there.