Lucy may be in the sky with diamonds, but Dianna Rae High has The Beatles diamond girl beat by an atmospheric level or two with diamonds in space. The Lafayette, Louisiana-based custom jewelry designer is sending hand-selected parcels of diamonds on a 10 million mile journey this autumn.
Dianna’s Diamonds in Space program, coordinated with NASA, will send 1,000 carats of pre-ordered parcels containing mined, lab-grown and fancy colored diamonds on an unmanned rocket launch in October. Astronauts will then transfer the diamonds onto the International Space Station (ISS). The precious gems will remain in space just over a month, then return to Earth in December.
NASA will transfer the Diamonds in Space to Dianna. She’ll then have these precious gems graded and authenticated by the American Gem Society (AGS) labs. These unique diamond grading reports will not only denote the 4Cs and other diamond grading essentials (plots and diagrams), but also a passport stamp for the month-plus journey in space.
Dianna formally announced her Diamonds in Space program in October 2021. But her odyssey began with a marketing idea of making the Louisiana-based jewelry designer a nationally-known brand a year prior.
“We wanted to grow our Dianna Rae brand nationally and we needed something really big to get people’s attention,” says Dianna. “We’ve always blended technology with design, and space travel is an exciting way to capture the attention of the techies and the romantics.”
In October 2020, Dianna started negotiations with NASA and SpaceX. Unbeknownst to Dianna at the start of her talks with both space exploration groups, each had their own Commercial Space Divisions. Each group assigned a commercial advocate to Dianna to help her with the process.
The Commercial Space Division is so new to NASA that Dianna was only the third business to inquire about sending items into space. And, she’s the first of this small group to have her cargo flown into space and then returned to the Earth’s surface. Ultimately Dianna decided to go with NASA. The round-trip cost for her 1,000 carats of cargo, $60,000.
“Yes, it is very expensive for a small business,” says Dianna. “But we considered it worth the price to spread our Dianna Rae brand nationally.”
When dealing with the exactness of space travel and NASA, Dianna knew that having 1,000 carats of her diamonds travel in space would require more than packing precious gems in the store’s signature decorative bags. A space cargo specialist was hired to help Dianna navigate the process of packing the diamond parcels in a larger package of two kilograms or less, the agreed-upon cargo weight through the Commercial Space Division.
Insuring the cargo was another challenge for Dianna. As this sort of junket is out of the jurisdiction of the industry’s dedicated insurance companies, Dianna was forced to insure the Diamonds in Space cargo with a company that specializes in insuring multi-million dollar satellites.
“This was just a little amount for them, even though it’s a big amount for us,” says Dianna. “The diamonds are insured during their travel to and from NASA, to and from the ISS and they are even insured at full retail value in case of a catastrophic accident. If something goes wrong and the diamonds cannot be recovered, every customer will get a full refund.”
One of the final logistical matters was partnering with a gem lab to certify the Diamonds in Space. Dianna’s husband, Jeff High was on the board of AGS when he was president of Gemvision. And, Dianna is an AGS jeweler.
“We knew that AGS had the innovative minds that would blend perfectly with our idea,” says Dianna. “They took our idea and ran with it, even adding the idea of a ‘Space Passport’ to verify that each diamond has been to space. And, each diamond will have a special laser girdle inscription that’s dedicated to the Diamonds in Space program.”
With a majority of the essential logistics handled, it was time to spread the word on Diamonds in Space. Dianna hired a marketing team for this national branding project. A domain name was purchased – DiamondsInSpace.com. The dedicated website has all the essential information a consumer would want, plus a compelling two-minute video.
“The video has really helped,” says Dianna. “It’s hard to explain such a mind-blowing concept with words, so we use the video to tell our story.”
Visual merchandising and displays in her store also convey the Diamonds in Space story. “We have a life-size cutout of an astronaut that greets customers as they enter the store,” says Dianna. “And, we have designed a line of jewelry specifically for the space diamonds. This collection is on display in the front showcases.”
Pre-orders for diamonds in space began in October. The final mix of diamonds that will make the 10 million mile journey depends on the customers’ orders. “We have diamonds priced from $700 lab grown to $2,000,000 natural fancy green on our website,” says Dianna. “Most of the diamonds that have sold [as of late 2021] have been lab grown.”
The Diamonds in Space program has been received with great interest beyond Dianna’s local and extended markets. Orders from across the country are being placed for a Diamonds in Space diamond, making Dianna Rae High a national brand. Mission accomplished.
“The Diamonds in Space diamonds really sell themselves,” says Dianna. “You either love the idea of space travel or you don’t.”
