Tennis star Maria Sharapova and her cute white dog Dolce are starring in another campaign for the Canon Powershot cameras. As part of the promotion and in anticipation of the U.S. Open, Canon will be giving away five diamond-encrusted cameras in each color that the camera is offered in. Sharapova will debut the five diamond-covered Canon PowerShot Elph cameras during an invitation-only event at "Canon Center Court" on Aug. 20 at South Street Seaport. The cameras are worth around $12,000 each and the contest will run from August 20 to October 20 on the Powershot website.

If you've ever thought you might want to do the stereotypical baseball stadium proposal, here's your chance to do it without having to spring for the rock, provided that you are a Yankees fan. Jewelry retailer Michael C. Fina, Hearts On Fire diamonds and N.Y. Yankees All-Star pitcher Mariano Rivera are offering a contest called The Final Engagement. Fans who write a short essay (250 words or less) describing why they should be chosen will be entered into the contest to win a 1.5-carat Hearts On Fire diamond engagement ring valued up to $40,000, plus four tickets to the Sept. 18 game and to propose live via the Diamond Vision screen. Winners will be chosen based on love of the Yankees as well as a creative and persuasive essay. For each entry, Michael C. Fina and Hearts On Fire will donate $1 to the Mariano Rivera Foundation, a nonprofit that benefits underprivileged children. The contest ends August 31.

[via National Jeweler]

There's the Swarovski-fied iPhone pouch that Mercedes intro'd during Berlin Fashion Week. Then the "I Am Rich" app came along, soon to be removed by Apple but not before eight eager customers added the illuminating ruby application to their cells. Now, in an attempt to outdo the most luxurious (or at least ostentatious) iPhone accessories, Noreve brings us its hand-crafted leather case adorned with 272 diamonds. That's a whopping 6.8 carats of bling for your 3G. The French company based in St. Tropez has crafted glittering iPhone cases in colors ranging from black to red to a vintage shade of sand.

Available through the Noreve North America website, the case retails for $14,990.

Back in February I mentioned that Graff Diamonds had cut the the 603-carat Lesotho Promise diamond into 26 smaller diamonds varying in size from .52 carats to 76.41 carats each with a D Flawless grade (a total of 223.25 carats). Graff is in the process of turning the story of the 18 months of cutting and polishing the stones into a book and documentary. Now they have turned these those stones into one spectacular necklace, The Lesotho Promise Necklace.

The Lesotho Promise, mined at the Letseng mine in Lesotho, is the 15th largest rough diamond ever recovered and was sold to Graff and its partner polishing company Safdico for $12.36 million in October last year. The necklace is part of the company's display of magnificent jewels in Monte-Carlo and is available for viewing until August 10 at the Salle Empire, Hotel De Paris in Monte-Carlo along with rare gems from Graff's collection including The Flame, a 100-carat pear-shaped D-flawless diamond.

The stones are valued at $50 million but a value hasn't been given for the finished piece. Laurence Graff has vowed not to split up the set of diamonds and so this necklace has a small set of potential buyers, people in the world with the wherewithal to afford it. Monte Carlo seems the perfect place to display it to the wealthy.

First off let me say that decorating your home with large, artificial gems is a delicate task that is really hard to pull off. That being said, though, used sparingly and in the right ways artificial diamonds can be a great way to satisfy (somewhat) your craving for sparkly gemstones and add a touch of glamor to your decor. Chiasso offers diamond sculptures in a couple different ways, miniature ones (above) and a large paperweight version if you're really looking to make a statement.

Via Wists

Jewelry sales often flounder in the face of a rough economy but so far that hasn't hit De Beers. The company recently reported that total sales increased 10 percent in the first half of the year. The company's retail division which been expanding their amount of stores over the past couple of years had double-digit growth over 2007 pushed by the sales of high-end pieces like the Dragonfly necklace shown above and bridal jewelry. Still the company has expressed concerns over the second half of the year because of the struggling U.S. economy which has already impacted mass-market retail sales. De Beers, like many other companies that do businesses on the global playing field, is looking to Russia, China and the Middle East to help make up some of the shortfall from any potential purchasing dips in the U.S.

Fashion designers have their haute couture lines and their ready-to-wear collections. High-end diamond jeweler, Daniel K, has a dazzling diamond and platinum couture jewelry collection but now there is Daniel K Prêt-à-Porter, the luxury jeweler's first entrée into the gold arena, the jeweler's version of ready to wear. Since 1999, Daniel Koren, the young jeweler behind Daniel K has been creating jewelry with diamonds and platinum and his pieces have been worn by celebrities including Debra Messing, Mary J Blige, Sigourney Weaver and Halle Berry.

The Daniel K Prêt-à-Porter line is a a recently unveiled, collection of modern earrings, bracelets, rings, and necklaces featuring pavé diamonds set in 18k rose, yellow or white gold. The collection offers a variety of pavé diamond encrusted, round and oval hoops in different widths and sizes. I also love the colorful stacking bangles which are available in different colors featuring rubies, sapphires, tsavorites and diamonds and can be worn together or individually. The bangles are hinged and have a release button for getting them on and off easily.

The most dramatic pieces are the ones that feature black and white diamonds. The bracelet above is part of a set that has black and white diamonds set into rhodium blackened white gold for a distinctive and slightly gothic look. The Prêt-à-Porter collection is more moderately priced than the Daniel K Couture collection, retail prices range from $2,500 - $60,000.

The blog Jewelry Insider hit upon a great item that combines jewels and chocolate -- perfection! A Swiss chocolate company, Cocoa Gourmet, has created what its calls its "Royal Collection," which features 12 chocolates made with safe-to-eat gold or silver, or sprinkled with diamonds. Priced at $1,250, the collection has four 22-carat gold chocolates, four pure silver chocolates and four sweet diamond pieces. There's also a $520 Gemstone Collection. Lovely, and an unusual gift idea, but I'm not convinced that ingesting metal is such a hot idea, though I guess if you have dental work you're ingesting it all the time ... Order here, if you're braver than I. Free worldwide shipping!

De Beers is making big moves into the retail market. The diamond company which was once more on the back end of diamond transactions, providing diamonds to jewelers, is now planning to have around 50 stores by the end of the year. In an interview in the Wall Street Journal, De Beers Group Managing Director Gareth Penny said that the company's retail business is still in its "start-up phase and is rapidly expanding, seeking to be in one of the top five jewelry retailers in the world. De Beers currently has seven stores open in the U.S. in San Francisco, Beverly Hills, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, New York and Washington D.C.

This is part of a big shift in De Beers over the past few years. Recently De Beers created their Forevermark diamond brand. They are putting their substantial marketing muscle behind Forevermark and planning to build into one of the world's leading diamond brands.

The new Diamond Standard vodka takes a concept I first saw with Diva vodka, a step further, using just diamonds rather than all precious stones to filter their vodka. Their process uses over 600 cut diamonds of up to one carat in size. The grain used is from Poland. The bottle is produced by Saver Glass and is made of perfume bottle grade glass with a 25mm Swarovski Xillion Chaton crystal as its centerpiece embedded within its neckline. The vodka is now being test marketed and sold in Massachusetts with plans to expand into New York and New Jersey and has a retail price of $100.

Certainly with more and more billionaires in Russia, the luxury market there is growing by leaps and bounds. Mostly I have written about retailers like Lamborghini, Gucci and Cartier getting their foothold in Moscow and beyond but now there are a few Russian companies seeking to sell their brands in the U.S. and Europe. In April I heard Russian billionaire Roustam Tariko, speak about his quest to sell vodka in the U.S.; last month, I met with the lovely women from the Russian company Rifesta who were kind enough to show me their diamond jewelry.

Rifesta has been agrowing name in the Russian market for a while now. Rifesta Holding opened its first jewelry shop in Ekaterinburg in 1998. In 2005, the first Rifesta boutique opened in Moscow and in June 2006 the company made their first forays into the U.S. market. At Rifesta the pieces are all made in Russia, from Russian designers and using Russian diamonds.

The pieces are rather distinctive. What struck me about the designs is that they make great use out of small diamonds. The rings are large showy pieces meant to be noticed and appreciated. Each collection has its own theme and style, some of which are more intriguing than others, their Diamond Figures collection and Legends of Elves collections were ones I found particularly striking.

Dame Elizabeth Taylor's jewelry company has been in bad shape for a while now but now that she and Kathy Ireland have terminated their licensing agreements with House of Taylor it looks like the company is officially over. The company is reportedly insolvent and the loan company is threatening to take possession of all inventory. Both Ireland and Taylor were major shareholders in the company along with Jack Abramov, the former chairman, president, and chief executive officer, and Monty Abramov, former secretary and vice president, both of whom resigned from their positions in April.

In May the company was delisted from Nasdaq and it will be forced to lose the Taylor name. Also, Lyle M. Rose, House of Taylor president and chief executive officer, left the company when they did not pay his salary, but is still hoping for a severance payment of around $150,00. Five other employees were terminated at the same time. The business will likely be liquidated. The company was in business for over three years and did create some lovely pieces such as the "Daisy" necklace shown above.

Simply good sounds more like a slogan for a food company but it's the motto of Hellmuth jewelry. Founded by Gert Hellmuth in 1983 and based in Pforzheim, Germany, the company makes a wide variety of pieces including bridal jewelry and large statement pieces. Celebrities who've worn Hellmuth include Aisha Tyler, Ali Larter and Britney Spear who wore a Hellmuth ring during her performance at the VMAs last year. Many of the Hellmuth designs incorporate crocodile or snake patterns but in a very abstract way that gives the pieces a luxe feel.

Sharon Stone may have gotten in trouble with Dior over her remarks on China recently, but she can still bring in the gigs. Jeweler Damiani has announced that Stone will be their new face. The new ad campaign for the diamond seller celebrates women throughout history starting with Eve up through Ameilia Earhart and today's modern women. Silvia Damiani, who is a longtime friend of Sharon Stone, introduced the new campaign, which was shot on March 20th by photographer Solve Sundsbo, at a press event in Beverly Hills this week.

Champagne is always considered a fairly luxurious drink (even when it's the cheap stuff) but any champagne, cheap or not, is sure to get a class upgrade when it gets served in one of these two glasses. Valued at $400,000 and blinged out with 1,700 white and pink diamonds the glasses were chiseled out of 8kg blocks of rock quartz crystal and it took 5 jewelers 3 months to put them all together.

The set was designed by John Calleija and although they'll be present at the opening of his second store in London they'll eventually be returning to the home of the Melbourne businessman who bought them and plans to turn them into family heirlooms.