Greg Herro of LifeGem Memorials says he can produce goodquality gems, albeit small ones, from pets or people’s ashes, using a process he spent three years perfecting. His technique, based on an industrial diamond-manufacturing process, begins in the cremation oven, where oxygen levels are reduced to prevent the loved one’s carbon atoms escaping as links of london sale. The ashes are then heated to 3000 deg C in a vacuum, which converts them into graphite. Finally, a thimble-full of graphite is heated under intense pressure forl6 weeks to create the diamond links of london charms.

So even if diamonds are not a girl’s best friend, her late best friend can be a diamond. As long as money’s no object, that is: a one-carat LifeGem diamond costs a cool $22,000. Herro expects his biggest market to be Japan: some 98 per cent of Japanese opt for cremation, compared with only 26 per cent of Americans links of london bracelets.