Are diamonds still forever? Given today’s divorce rates, perhaps not. But they are pretty and sparkly.
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Plus, they’re tough. Very tough. They were long thought to be the hardest objects in nature, having come from minerals formed billions of years ago.
Jeweller Robert Paul, who has a shop at Charlestown, reckons diamonds are still forever, despite the tendency for quite a few marriages not to last.
Robert, who has been in the jewellery game for 40 years, said diamonds signify eternal love.
Topics had a chat to Robert after he won the 2017 Jewellery Design Award.
His winning entry was the exquisite Mercedia Rose Diamond Cocktail Ring, which has a whopping value of $60,000.
It features a 1.92-carat Mercedia-cut diamond set into a palladium, 18-carat green and rose gold ring.
The contest required original ideas.
“For a competition piece you have to go much further than you’d normally go – you have to be outrageous,” Robert said.
“It’s supposed to be a cocktail ring. The diamond sits in a cone, which is designed to look like a cocktail glass. The ring on the side represents a slice of lime on the side of a glass.”
In the cone’s bottom, a red stone reflects pink up the cone walls, around the outside of the diamond. It’s very fancy indeed.
So, will Robert sell the ring?
“I’m not sure. It’s probably the best piece I’ve ever made,” he said.
Topics wondered if the ring might end up in the hands of royalty, a celebrity or high flyer.
“People interested in this type of jewellery have an appreciation for art, culture and design. They seek out unusual pieces,” Robert said.
If Robert does sell the ring, it won’t be the most expensive one he’s ever sold. He once sold a ring worth more than $200,000.
Purple Bikes
Topics wrote on Wednesday about the mystery of several purple bikes at Warners Bay. The entire bikes were coloured purple.
Darrell Harris told Topics that purple bikes had also been popping up at Gympie.
Expat Novocastrian Mitchell Wotherspoon sent us a message from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, saying “we have a similar phenomenon here”.
Only the bikes weren’t purple, they were blue.
A story from the year 2000 said the blue bikes were an urban mystery. That is, until a duo known as Blue Bike 2000 claimed responsibility, explaining that it was a social experiment.
The two men painted old bicycles bright blue, covering the whole bikes – including chains, tyres and wheels. The bikes were locked up in public places and, every few days, they were moved somewhere else, the Sun Sentinel reported.
A Blue Bike 2000 member said the point was to “give everyone something else to look at besides the mundane, regular-old everyday nothing”.
“It’s just for fun and to make people think. And smile.”
The purple bikes of Warners Bay have also been making people giggle. Several readers managed to capture the story’s spirit on the Herald’s Facebook page.
Mariesha Harrison: “Wow that's so purple... lol”.
Kim Howard-Holst: “OMG WTF are they!?”.
Kirra Woodward: “It’s a mystery and people are going nuts”.
So why were the bikes put there?
Some suggested they were being used to promote new bike racks, but others said this didn’t explain the purple bike hanging from a street sign on Warners Bay Road.
There’s also a theory that a certain fitness chain may be painting the bikes as a publicity stunt.
Dancing in the Dark
Bruce Springsteen sang about it in his famous song, but now dancing in the dark is really happening… at Broadmeadow.
At No Lights No Lycra, people dance freely in a dimly-lit room. They don’t have to worry what they look like. Topics usually uses alcohol for that, but hey, each to their own.
It’s held at the Polish Cultural Centre on Wednesday nights. Check out the No Lights No Lycra Newcastle Facebook page.
- topics@theherald.com.au
