I'm billing again, my friends! In addition to a couple internal projects for Atlas, I'm working for Zolastar (The website getting hepped up some, don't worry). I'm pretty excited about them because:
1)They have wicked cool machines
The machines add a few angstroms of diamondy-coating to anything you put in them. That fact means you can make the merely shiny sparkle and/or make an item reeeealy hard to scratch.
2) I get to use what I learned in Earth Science
This fact means that 8th grade--conventionally known as The Worst Grade EVER--has finally paid off.
3) I like thwarting De Beers and their stupid ad campaigns in any way possible.
I don't like the diamond business for a lot of reasons, but I do love shiny things.
[Warning: Nerdy text below]
They create a diamond-like coating, which means you can use something else in the middle (like, say the much-less durable CZ) that doesn't have to be mined, but coat it in something that is diamond-like in hardness and depth. It's faster and less expensive to produce than other diamond simulants (look at me with my gemology vocabulary). So, you get all the bling without De Beers.
You can get all-the-way-through-diamond gems that are lab-made, but they are still pricey (I'm not just eco-crunchy and West Coast, I'm cheap, too). Zolastar gave me a sample pair of earrings, but I probably would have bought myself a pair anyway. Feel free to buy me the matching pendant.
Where Zolastar gets more interesting is non-jewelry items where you can take advantage of other diamond properties (like a low coefficient of friction and super-high scratch resistance) for industrial and commercial purposes--airplane parts, lenses, dog toys... I'm pretty entertained by the "What Can We Put in the Zolastar Machine" game, if anyone has suggestions (note: please nothing alive).
3 years ago
