If you thought you’d seen it all, you haven’t, since today, a dog-shape diamond is the subject of interest on this blog.
Yes, a dog-shape diamond.
Mercedes Franklin, founder and chief creative officer at Méche in Southport, Fla., has been kicking around the idea of a dog head–shape diamond for years, inspired by the multitude of fancy-cut stones that she’s seen during her time in industry (nearly 40 years).
After searching for several years for an American stone cutter up for the challenge, she found one, and instructed the artist to cut a diamond to resemble a Doberman Pinscher’s head. “Dobermans have a beautiful, strong profile with short hair and an easy-to-see silhouette,” she explains to JCK in a phone interview. The cutter started out with a thin piece of rough diamond weighing about 1.50 ct., and worked on it off and on for about a month (Franklin wasn’t in a rush for the rock). The finished piece she received was a 0.88 ct. stone H in color and SI3 in clarity. She set it into a platinum pin/pendant combination that’s 1 inch in diameter accented with 0.64 ct. t.w. micro pavé (F-G in color and VS clarity). The piece also comes with an appraisal from American Gemological Laboratories. “A couple can buy it and share it,” observes Franklin, an animal lover herself. (She currently has three cats, but has owned dogs as well.) Viewers can clearly see the dog’s head complete with those perky Pinscher ears.
The piece—which retails for $16,000—is a one-of-a-kind, and has generated a lot of buzz. She debuted it to clients Dec. 14, and says that “interest has been phenomenal.”
“We’ve had hundreds of emails from stores and consumers worldwide,” she says.
While most of the interest is from Americans, queries have come in from 20 other countries including Japan and some in the Middle East. Like all of her pet-themed merchandise—she has Nice Doggies and Pretty Kittys lines of jewelry—she will donate a percentage of sale proceeds to the rescue organization of the buyer’s choice, or to her own local no-kill shelter, depending on the wishes of the purchaser.
So far, a number of American store owners (from Pennsylvania, California, and New York) have requested to see the piece in person to show it to customers. As for custom pieces, requests for specific breeds or pets are welcome, but Franklin and her cutter can’t go much smaller on the stone’s size. “We were thinking that we wanted a minimum size about half of this one, but the diamond cutter said we shouldn’t go smaller so that you could recognize the shape as that of a dog,” she says.
As for her next design, she hasn’t made a decision, but options include a pooch with cropped ears and “maybe more hair on its face,” she says. Cats aren’t off the table, either. One definite: “It will be a completely different look.”
Brooch/pendant in platinum has 0.88 ct. Doberman Pinscher head-shape center diamond surrounded by 0.64 ct. t.w. micro pavé; $16,000. Méche
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