Keep the faith a little closer thanks to Religems, a division of Gemory LLC, a producer of a nanotechnology that imprints images onto stones. While the latter was founded in 2006, and appealed directly to consumers with its Memory Diamond—“Your picture inside a diamond, forever,” according to Gemory’s website—Religems, launched in October 2010, and aims to inspire similar sales to the faithful: Think Jesus, on customers’ own diamonds or Religems’ finished gemstone jewelry.
Until now, the technology has only been available directly to consumers through sales on its website, but Religems jewelry and services are now available for wholesale. Religems offers 80 SKUs of finished karat gold and diamond jewelry featuring faith-image–imprinted stones, as well as the service of personalizing consumers’ own stones. At press time, “a handful” of stores had already picked up the line, according to a company spokesperson.
“Religems can work on any jewelry that is provided to us by customizing the diamond or any other gemstone,” said the spokesperson. “Jewelers or manufacturers can send us the finished product or just the diamond that they later mount.”
Images of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and the Peace Dove, are currently available, and are nanoscopic, meaning they are invisible to the unassisted eye yet easily seen under a loupe (supplied with each order). According to Religems, the brilliance, clarity, and sparkle of the diamond are unaffected by the process.
And while initial imagery is Christian, the company says that other religious orders will eventually join the fold. “We can add any faith image jewelry professionals ask us to inject in the diamond,” said the Religems spokesperson. “We can work with any religion.”
The idea to wholesale arose from some market research conducted with Gemory officials; the feedback was positive. “Having a faith image inside a diamond made a lot of sense as it is very personal and it will last forever,” explained the Religems spokesperson. “Furthermore, at JCK last year, many jewelry professionals validated the idea, and even asked to buy the product on the spot! Now selling wholesale allows us to significantly reduce the price per image.”
The starting retail price for Religems’ finished jewelry in 14k gold and diamonds is $150. For more information, log onto religems.com, or “like” the Religems fan page on Facebook, which has more than 5,000 fans.
for Style 360 blog
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