 |
|
|
|
|
  
|
A girl's best friend Kevin Allerston Northern News Services Published Wednesday, February 8, 2012
That's good news for businesses like Sasha's Jewellery, which has seen a paradigm shift up in the sales of Northern diamonds since the NWT diamond mines started going into production more than 10 years ago. Jason Yamkowy, who has been the manager at Sasha's Jewellery since 2004, said when he started there few of the diamonds in the industry from Canada, but that has since changed. "Most people who are looking for an engagement ring want a diamond. It's still the standard," said Yamkowy. "And most want a Canadian diamond." "Now, that's turned on its head and something like 95 per cent of the diamonds we sell are from the North," said Yamkowy. He said people come in two to three times a week looking for diamond engagement rings. Arlene Lavoie-Stobbs, a Yellowknife women who got married last year, said getting a Northern diamond was an absolute must. "I think being from Yellowknife ... you know, it's something that speaks to home," said Lavoie-Stobbs. For husband Beau Stobbs, the decision to buy her a diamond engagement ring (and diamond wedding band), was simple. "I knew she wouldn't have been satisfied with anything else," Stobbs said with a chuckle. "That's the traditional way to go and I knew that's what she was wanting." Tricia Morland, a sales assistant at Arctic Jewellers, said Northern diamonds are a big seller for engagement rings in her store too. "Diamonds are still big for engagement rings," said Morland. "I think the attraction is that people know where they came from." Like at Sasha's Jewellery, people come in several times a week looking at diamond engagement rings. However, a diamond ring isn't a top priority for everybody. Amanda Epp's husband Darcy Lansdown opted instead to get her something more difficult to find. "She didn't want diamonds ... she said she never, ever, wanted diamonds, she's just not that kind of girl," the Yellowknife resident said. "So I researched all the gems and all that - and she was actually born in Kenya and moved to Canada when she was five - so I looked online and found out there's a stone called tsavarite. "I didn't necessarily want diamonds but he knows me well so he selected tsavarite, a green garnet, as the main stone. There are a four small diamonds on the wedding band and the engagement ring, but green garnet is only mined in Kenya, and that's where I was born," said Epp. "It was very impressive. I would say, well, he didn't need to win me over but he certainly won me over."
|
