Lady Heart Diamond Collection: Behind-the-scene

Picture of the Lady Leilana diamond taken with a cell phone . That's how we do it to make sure everything looks good!

We are very excited to receive a temporary display featuring, for the first time on exhibition, The Lady Heart Diamond Collection. The unveiling is happening on February 1 at 3pm, and the display will be open to the public until June 30, 2013. Each of the five diamonds in this exceedingly rare collection is a different amazing color: red, pink, orange, yellow and blue, all graded Fancy Vivid, the highest grade GIA gives for colored diamonds. All of the diamonds are cut in a heart shape, making them even more unique. We are so ready for Valentine's day! The jewelry pieces were custom-made for our exhibit by Bernard Bachoura from the Sophia Fiori company, based in San Dimas, CA.

Bernard Bachoura, from the Sophia Fiori jewelry company, designed the settings for the five valuable fancy heart-shaped diamonds.

We wanted to share with you the preparation of the exhibit, which was made possible thanks to Bernard, who brought the displays and helped us setting the pieces up.

 Bernard Bachoura, from the Sophia Fiori company, pinning the necklaces to make them displayable.

 Tony Kampf, emeritus curator at the NHM, attaching the necklaces to the mount.

 Alyssa Morgan, collection manager of the Gem & Mineral Collection of the NHM, helping out to have everything ready on time, while Bernard is still fighting with a necklace!

Starting to look good! The necklaces are almost in place! From left to right: Tony Kampf, Eloïse Gaillou & Bernard Bachoura.

After hours, we can install the precious jewelry pieces in the Gem Vault. Now is the time to make everything look as pretty and attractive as possible.

 All the jewelry pieces are in place in the Gem Vault. Now, it's just a matter of placing them, arranging the necklace chains and the labels. After a long day, it begins to be tricky, but Bernard is still smiling!

 View of Bernard and the Lady Zahira Fancy Vivid yellow diamond.

 Picture of the Lady Mandara Red diamond with a cell phone, just to make sure it looks good.

 Same thing for the Lady Zahira Fancy Vivid yellow.

 The Lady Orchidea Fancy Vivid Orange (man, even with a bad camera, these diamonds look stunning!).

 And last but not least, the Diantha Fancy Vivid Blue diamond.

 Bernard, recording this historic moment, before closing the display cases.

We are all waiting for you to come and visit the exhibit, which is on display in the Gem Vault of the Gem & Mineral Hall. The lighting of the Gem Vault has been completely redone before the special exhibit and was ENTIRELY SPONSORED by Sophia Fiori company. Again, a big thank to Bernard Bachoura and Sophia Fiori.