Matt White
11-03-2005, 11:18 PM
By MICHAEL FORSYTH
CHICAGO -- Widows like Anna Nicole Smith can prove their love truly was "solid as a rock" when their rich geezer hubbies croak -- by having the old buzzard's corpse turned into a beautiful diamond ring!
A company has developed an innovative process for turning cremated human remains into gorgeous diamonds that can be worn as jewelry.
A thimbleful of ash can be made into a dazzling diamond worth $4,000 and "of the same quality as those you would find at Tiffany's," according to Gregg Herro, head of LifeGem Memorials, which has begun marketing the eye-catching blue, red and yellow diamonds.
For $22,000, you can have a larger one-carat diamond made -- a perfect engagement ring for the groom who thinks his dead mom was a real gem.
"We're building on the simple fact that all living creatures are carbon-based and diamonds are carbon-based," Herro explained in an interview.
The crafty entrepreneur spent three years refining the process and successfully created the first human-remains diamond in July.
The ash is purified in a special furnace at 5,400 degrees Fahrenheit. It's then crushed under intense pressure and heat, replicating the forces that form the precious stones in nature. The process takes about four months.
Man-made diamonds have been around since the 1950s, but this is the first time that carbon from a human being has been made into a diamond, company spokesman Mark Bouffard told Weekly World News.
The diamonds have been certified by the prestigious European Gemological Laboratory, he said.
Several funeral homes, such as Ahlgrim and Sons in Zurich, Ill., already are offering the service.
"We've had many requests for information about LifeGems from people who say 'I'd love to do this for my mother, or for my sister,' " funeral director Doug Ahlgrim said. "People have also been asking about using the service for their pets. I believe this product is going to take off."
CHICAGO -- Widows like Anna Nicole Smith can prove their love truly was "solid as a rock" when their rich geezer hubbies croak -- by having the old buzzard's corpse turned into a beautiful diamond ring!
A company has developed an innovative process for turning cremated human remains into gorgeous diamonds that can be worn as jewelry.
A thimbleful of ash can be made into a dazzling diamond worth $4,000 and "of the same quality as those you would find at Tiffany's," according to Gregg Herro, head of LifeGem Memorials, which has begun marketing the eye-catching blue, red and yellow diamonds.
For $22,000, you can have a larger one-carat diamond made -- a perfect engagement ring for the groom who thinks his dead mom was a real gem.
"We're building on the simple fact that all living creatures are carbon-based and diamonds are carbon-based," Herro explained in an interview.
The crafty entrepreneur spent three years refining the process and successfully created the first human-remains diamond in July.
The ash is purified in a special furnace at 5,400 degrees Fahrenheit. It's then crushed under intense pressure and heat, replicating the forces that form the precious stones in nature. The process takes about four months.
Man-made diamonds have been around since the 1950s, but this is the first time that carbon from a human being has been made into a diamond, company spokesman Mark Bouffard told Weekly World News.
The diamonds have been certified by the prestigious European Gemological Laboratory, he said.
Several funeral homes, such as Ahlgrim and Sons in Zurich, Ill., already are offering the service.
"We've had many requests for information about LifeGems from people who say 'I'd love to do this for my mother, or for my sister,' " funeral director Doug Ahlgrim said. "People have also been asking about using the service for their pets. I believe this product is going to take off."