The Jewelry Weblog: Craft or Graft?

Tammy Powley, who authors The Jewelry Weblog recently wrote an article on her blog entitled "Moissanite: Gem or Gyp?" Yes, the title is a negative and inflammatory statement rather than a legitimate question, but that was the writer’s true intention. Her article is bereft of any journalistic integrity or basic research about the subject of Moissanite, and it attempts to disguise her obvious disdain for Charles & Colvard Created Moissanite, and for the company itself. Her masquerade of “factual” statements, are really slanderous inferences and outright fallacious accusations about Charles & Colvard. Charles & Colvard is the sole worldwide supplier of this fabulous jewel.

As she describes on her blog, her background is limited to crafting costume jewelry (crystal and glass beads), and she’s written assorted chronicle pieces for various jewelry interests. Apparently this leads her to believe that her writings are somehow qualified to influence public opinion on this subject, despite the public’s increasing demand for Moissanite in the Fine Jewelry Department showcases of top National and International Jewelry Retailers.

Predictably, the mendacity doesn’t stop at the sarcastic title. She opens her article with the following false dichotomy:

"Moissanite is a new up and coming star in the world of gemstone jewelry, but actually, it is not a gem at all. It is a lab created crystal."

She’s only correct in that Moissanite is indeed a new, up and coming “star” in the world of gemstone jewelry. However her usage is intended to implant into her readers the false notion that that as a crystal, Moissanite is substandard to being a “gemstone”. In actuality, a crystal is merely an orderly arrangement of atoms and molecules, while a gemstone is a mineral or stone that can be faceted into jewelry. By these definitions, a diamond, cubic zirconia and moissanite are all crystals that qualify as being gems. Even the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) considers moissanite to be a laboratory-created gemstone.

Later in the article, Ms. Powley includes an irrelevant issue to support her disparagement of moissanite -- the decline of Charles & Colvard's (CTHR) stock price. This is a deliberate use of a “red herring” by Ms. Powley, to associate the stock price decline as a reflection of the quality of Charles & Colvard Created Moissanite. The fact is that the company's revenue growth declined this year resulting in a sell off after growing a whopping 82% in 2005.

Mrs. Barber and I posted rebuttals to Ms. Powley's article on her site. Her response to my rebuttal was cynical and dismissive. She writes:

Wilson - Wow! Time to take a little nap or something. Honestly, I did do a little more research and plan to follow up this initial article with some interesting stuff I found over at [Diamond Nexus Labs].

Apparently consumer awareness or vigilant research are not required traits to be appreciated by Ms. Powley who would prefer that no one expose her obviously biased and slanted reporting on moissanite.

Included in our rebuttals we named the major national retailers offering moissanite. With full knowledge that moissanite is marketed and sold directly to the public, from such top national retailers, Ms. Powley offers this absurd rejoinder:

Yes, I did see that [moissanite] is sold at lots of places [major national retailers], but so what? Are you suggesting that this gives [moissanite] some kind of legitimacy?

The legitimacy of moissanite jewelry being marketed and sold with the highest integrity and exactly as promised, by both its creator Charles and Colvard, and by a growing list of top retailers is not merely being “suggested” to readers by me or Mrs. Barber but by major players in the Jewelry Industry such as Ms. Beryl Raff, the Executive VP at J C Penney, who was instrumental introducing Charles and Colvard Created Moissanite to J C Penney as a breakthrough new category of fine jewelry, in 2004.

Then Ms. Powley admits that she has purchased lab-created gems for herself:

I actually personally own a number of lab created gems, and I enjoy wearing them.

Duplicitously, Ms. Powley wears a number of lab-created gems – just not moissanite. But wait it gets better...

However, I got them knowing that they were not naturally created, and I felt from the text on the site I quoted that this is not necessarily the case with this "jewel" as the manufacturers call it.

Ms. Powley, response implies that Charles & Colvard is deliberately deceiving their many buyers of Moissanite, by not disclosing or by hiding its manufacture and by extension accuses top national retailers, and multitudes of other independent jewelers worldwide of deceiving their customers.

Her response is pure deceit. As you see in her comments, Ms. Powley states that she has visited the Charles & Colvard website. For her blog article’s cover photo, she’s captured the Charles & Colvard web site’s image of their model wearing a fabulous moissanite necklace. However every page on the Charles & Colvard website features their logo which reads "Charles & Colvard Created Moissanite". Can you say BUSTED?

After reading Ms. Powley's bio you have to wonder why she chose to write about moissanite and Charles & Colvard having what appears to be little or no knowledge about fine jewelry. All she posses is a background in craft jewelry yet she has the audacity to patronize the business strategy of such successful companies like J C Penney, Macy's, Kohl's, Helzberg Diamonds, and Zale that offer moissanite as fine jewelry. In fact J C Penney named Charles & Colvard their 2005 Vendor of the Year.

Perhaps the rhetorical title of this article is not rhetorical at all but a very legitimate question to explore.

Thanks,
WB & Mrs. B