The title is something of a challenge, because the terms carry certain semantic nuances that are rather hard to pin down. And not only in Romanian.
What may seem "cheap" to some is certainly affordable to others.
We chose to ask the people who work in this relatively exclusive market of diamond jewellery how they see things from an insider's perspective.
"I can easily counter that idea. We, for instance, do not make expensive jewellery but valuable jewellery. Some will say it is just another word, another shade of meaning. It is not so. Valuable means far more than expensive," says Marian Constantinescu, CEO of Diamante.ro/FIRESC.
Partly enlightened and, rather, with our curiosity roused to the utmost, we turned our eyes and ears to this glittering market that seems destined for a rather select audience who "know a thing or two".
The experience of searching for an engagement ring or a pair of wedding rings is a special one, even when you do not need them... at the present moment, and you let it all remain a purely journalistic exercise.
What you want and what you don't
The search begins online and continues through the bricks-and-mortar shops. You can find an engagement ring for 600 lei or for 14,000. Wedding rings can cost as much as a decent little car. So what do you do? You set yourself a realistic budget on the principle of "this is what I have and this is what I can afford" and you search... until you find exactly what you can buy.
Marian Constantinescu (Diamante.ro): "The budget determines the purchase. And so we try to guide customers towards a spectacular piece of jewellery at a cost they can afford. Our consultants take on this role, and FIRESC's customers are grateful for this support. Over 25 years we have gathered countless interesting stories.
Customers who, had they not listened to us, would have walked away with an unremarkable piece of jewellery for which they would have paid a considerable sum. And all because they were not "matching" the diamond to the colour of the gold.
Our advice was heeded and the result was a showstopping piece for which the customer paid a considerably smaller sum than they would have paid had they chosen the precious stone on their own." What we take from this is that it is best either to be quite certain of what you want, or to listen to those who can help you make things clear.
The jewellery that is never "cheap"
You have often been surprised to see dizzying "scores" attached to gold and diamond jewellery, figures that are bandied about with relish in the national and international media.
Famous auction houses host veritable shows in which diamonds of impressive carat weights are sold for millions of dollars, or some necklace or other, set with dozens of precious stones, changes its rightful owner.
But here with us, "down on earth", the situation is a little different. We are not talking about millions of dollars, but we are talking about jewellery that costs a small fortune.
"I have never liked to say that a FIRESC piece of jewellery costs x lei. Because it does not cost, it is worth far more than a figure expressed in a national currency. It is creativity, it is design, it is craftsmanship. The gold and the diamond are merely 'working tools' for the jeweller and the designer. What impresses you about a piece of jewellery is never just one single thing. You might like a ring and simply be unable to say why. That is art. Of course the materials have their own importance too. In money terms. They too make a piece of jewellery valuable. The fact that we do not work with 'trade-in gold' but only with pure alloys is because we want to produce quality. An engagement ring or a pair of wedding rings are experiences to be lived, and they deserve our full attention," says Marian Constantinescu of Diamante.ro.
Source text Ziare.com: http://www.ziare.com/life-style/bijuterii/bijuterii-din-aur-ieftin-vs-scump-1533597
