Gavin Bok — Diamonds From Ashes

David Watts on MAKES 93.8 Here it is, Watts involved, as we do each and every Monday night at this time. And you may wonder why did I choose Shirley Bassey and Diamonds Are Forever? Well, I've got two guests tonight, but the first guest, I'm equally excited about both, but the first guest is Gavin Block. Now, Gavin, you are from a company in South Africa called Diamonds From Ashes. Now, OK, so first and foremost, let's get into a little bit of what we'll start off with. What is Diamonds From Ashes? And then I want to get into a little bit more of the story and a bit more about you and why you did it. So let's start there. What is Diamonds From Ashes? OK, thank you, David. Diamonds From Ashes is a memorial diamond made from cremation ashes from a loved one. It is there to share and represent a person who's passed and in a beautiful memorial that you can keep and pass on to your family. I think it's because when I first we were chatting just now, when I first heard about what you were doing, I was like, OK, really? And then talking to you and doing a little bit of research on it, it's an absolutely and it makes so much sense. Now, Diamonds From Ashes is this South African sort of company, but this is an international company that actually does this, isn't it?

Diamonds From Ashes is my representation of the product. I am a regional partner for Algedanza South Africa, which is represented Switzerland, Diamonds From Ashes. Basically, I use that to explain what the product is about. But Algedanza is about 14 to 15 years old. And it started in Switzerland and we are now in about 34 countries around the world. And you were saying that Algedanza itself is an ancient language? Yes, it's a Swiss ancient language called Ramange and Algedanza means remembrance. Yes, it means remembrance. Brilliant. I think that's so cool. Now, your background, I mean, you didn't just sort of wake up one day and went, oh, I'll do this. I mean, tell us a little bit about Gavin. What do you do when you're not doing this or do you do this full time? It is now a full time activity alongside some of my other business activities. My background is I am a photographer and I've been in the media industry. But my mum passed away about three years ago and through social media and through viral article that came through Facebook, I read about this company in Switzerland that turns a loved one's ashes into diamonds. I just lost my mum and my last memories of my mother really wasn't, it spooked me and she was very ill, lost a lot of weight and I didn't recognise her.

And when I saw these diamonds, I had this instant desire personally to do this for my mother. But obviously being foreign, something that has just been passed on through social media, I just kind of forgot about it. And then as things would have it, it was almost serendipity that you kind of came across these people and then you ended up in Switzerland. That's right. I was working for one of my clients. I was doing a shoot and I told him about this idea. He was in the funeral industry and expressed my desire and wish to do this for my mother. He looked at me and thought I was kind of crazy, but the conversation ended there. And a short while later, he called me up and asked me to give him as much information about it. I didn't have the details, so I had my sister-in-law living in Switzerland to investigate the company. Her boyfriend connected us up and the next thing I found myself with my friend in Switzerland meeting the founder, Rinaldo Woolley, the manufacturing process, everything. And I was totally blown away. Now, as I said, I mean, I heard about this and it actually came through a mutual friend and colleague of ours that mentioned this to me. And initially I thought, that's a bit weird. And then tonight when you got here, you actually showed me the pendant with this most beautiful blue half-carat diamond in it.

And it suddenly struck me, you know. Yeah, there is a novelty aspect to it when somebody goes diamonds from ashes. But I mean, and you put it to me very, very clearly, you know, to keep that special someone, to keep those memories, to keep it close to you. Now, in conventional traditional things, what we would do is, you know, somebody would get buried or they'd be cremated. We would have a memorial. There would be tombstones. And then there's all of that upkeep and maintenance. Now, this way, it's there with you all the time. Yes, you can keep your love month with you. I think in our modern society, people migrate. It's not a friendly place to go to a graveyard. And also more and more people are cremating due to societal change. So after losing a loved one, families presented with ashes. The one family member wants to cost the ashes somewhere. The other wants to keep it in a jar on the mantelpiece. And it causes a kind of a friction. And so having a diamond obviously has a perception of value. It's a symbol of love. And a diamond can be made for every family member if they wanted to do that. It can also be taken with you if you migrate. You leave the country or you move to another town.

You don't have to care for a grave site or something like that. Now, let's talk about this because what you now do in South Africa is you would then facilitate this whole process. And then we're going to get onto the happier side of what we can do as well in just a bit. But then you would facilitate that the ashes, for example, would then get taken over to Switzerland. And there they would put them through this process. And I was actually amazed because the last time I'd heard about people creating diamonds, the best they could do was industrial diamonds. And subsequent to that, obviously the process is now being refined. It's way better. And these guys do this whole process, but it's a very specialized process. That's correct. The diamond is, from a chemical point of view, a real diamond. It's made from carbon. So when we receive the ashes, we facilitate everything. We handle it. We send it to Switzerland. In Switzerland, the carbon is isolated from the ashes and then placed into a high pressure, high temperature machine. And over extended period, we simulate what would happen in nature. And the diamond would then form like it would in nature in this machine. Obviously, it's an organic process as well. So do the colors because the one that you showed me, in fact, you showed me two.

The one is this beautiful blue. It's a bright, bright blue. And then there's another one that's a much deeper blue. Does it sort of stay in the blue range of diamonds? Yes. We don't interfere with the remains that we receive, the carbon that's extracted. So our diamonds always come out in a shade of blue. It might be a very pale whitish diamond. It can be a very dark diamond. The color is generated by an element that is not destroyed in the cremation process or the carbonization process. And the elements bore on. And that causes the blue color for the diamonds. So when we produce a diamond for a client, we cannot say what color it's going to come out. It can come out very light. It can come out very dark. It's totally unpredictable. But I mean, that's what you get. I mean, it's we're essentially simulating a natural process. It's absolutely fascinating. And it's actually a great way because, as you say, with what's happening now, you don't have to worry about, you know, you can have that person with you all the time. But obviously, in South Africa, this is a fairly new thing. And I think it's a very emotive subject at the moment, because you get some people that would go, oh, heck no.

But more and more people, you said internationally, how many diamonds do they do per year now? The company does a few hundred diamonds every year. As I said, we are in many countries, over 30 countries around the world. And yes, so it is a obviously a new opportunity or a new trend, a new alternative. It's not for everybody. Obviously, there could be cultural barriers where where there is no cremations taking place. We have an option, for instance, to have diamonds made from hair, human hair, where the carbon can be extracted from that. I want to I want to get into that because that's like that's like the upside, the good news side of this kind of thing. But and also, I must stress just and I stand to correction here, but you did mention when we were off air, when they make diamonds industrially, they can make a bunch of diamonds at one time. Correct. But now, because this is something that is so special and so personalized, they can only literally make the one diamond. Yes, we would only use the carbon extracted from one client. And in that machine, only a single diamond is produced so that obviously that sentimental value is then guaranteed. OK, wonderful stuff. We are talking to Gavin Block this evening from Diamonds from Ashes, the regional representative from a Swiss company called Algedanza.

And it's about doing something like a fascinating, fascinating subject. When we come back, though, we'll be talking about the lighter side of what you can do with this as well, because it's not just from ashes that we can do these diamonds. I'll be chatting to Gavin about that when we come back. David Watts on Mix 93.8. What's involved this Monday nights? Matthew Wilder, break my stride. My special guest in studio, Gavin Block, and he is from Diamonds from Ashes. And we're talking about this amazing process by using carbon. And in certain circumstances, carbon from a loved one's ashes that can then be created into a diamond. But there's a brighter side because you don't have to, and I don't mean to sound flippant when I say this, but you don't have to be dead before you can have a diamond that gets made. So let's talk a little bit about this. Gavin, you mentioned that you can also do and have a diamond made from hair. Correct. Now, you've done something after you went through this process with your mum, you then decided you wanted to take this a step further, and you've gone through something similar. Tell us about that. Correct. Obviously, the first passion was or the first desire was to have a diamond made for my mother. At the same time, we're celebrating this year's 30th wedding anniversary.

I still can't believe that because you don't look like you've been married for 30 years. But anyway, carry on. And we have three amazing sons. And to celebrate our love and our unity and togetherness, we had a diamond made from the hair that was sampled from our three boys and the carbon extracted from that we had a diamond made for my wife. And then that was I mean, because the story is amazing, because then you used jewelry that had been passed down in the family to get it then melted down and made into a very special ring. Not only did I lose my mother, my wife lost her mother two years before my mum. And we were presented with a lot of family jewelry pieces, which didn't suit our needs or didn't fit our modern style. So we had the gold all joined together, melted down. And the little diamonds that we got out of that. And we had a beautiful celebration ring made with the boy's center diamond and then the gold and the diamonds from my mother's and my mother-in-law's rings all together. And in that in that instance, in that particular ring, the diamond came out this deep, deep blue. It's absolutely beautiful diamond. Can you can you sort of, you know, if you're on a bit of a budget, can you go, listen, I want to, how does it work?

A third of a carat or a half a carat or a one carat diamond. Can you specify? Obviously, the cost of the diamonds are determined by the size and the cut and not necessarily by the quality of the diamond. We cannot guarantee that we're going to get a flawless diamond. When we manufacture a diamond, the result is what it is, just like it's a representative of a person who's not perfect. We all are unique. So the diamonds very unique. And also the color, depending on the amount of boron, as I mentioned earlier, can vary from person to person. So the intensity of the color of the diamond will vary. So my mother's diamond came out a very white, bright, light blue. And the boy's diamond came out very dark, almost like a sapphire. But absolutely beautiful. How much hair? I have to ask. How much hair does it take to make a diamond? Is it a lot? We don't need a lot of hair. About 10 to 15 grams of hair is sufficient. I'm just thinking if I've got enough to make one. I'd say one or two haircuts. And for a memorial diamond, we need about 500 grams of ashes. Okay, just an interesting question just came through now on our WhatsApp line is, can you do that with dog or cat hair? Yes, we can. We also do memorial diamonds for pets. Obviously, that is also an option that's available.

That's quite because I know there's a lot of people that get very, very attached to their pets. That might be a nice way of sort of keeping them with you as well. Okay, so now we're going to give out your details in a minute or two. But just a question. So if somebody is doing this, then they would supply with either the hair or the ashes. You then make sure that it all gets done and transported properly and it gets across to Switzerland. How long is that process? Because I'm assuming, I mean, those diamonds that you showed me are beautifully cut. I'm assuming when it comes out of this pressurized container, it's not a beautifully cut diamond. So it's this rough diamond that looks like a stone or a piece of glass or something. Correct. The diamonds are grown slightly bigger than initially ordered so that there's sufficient size to cut the selected cut that you wish for, if it's a brilliant or a heart shape to whichever shape you had desired. The whole process takes from receiving the ashes or the hairs approximately five to eight months from the time that we receive until we personally hand over and deliver it to the client. And there's no, I mean, you know, I know, specifically in Africa, you know, there's these big companies that have somewhat of a hold on the diamond industry. There's no law or legislation that says we cannot do this.

I don't know. No, definitely not because obviously this you get the certificate from Switzerland as well, which says that this has been the diamond is manufactured in Switzerland. We get a full certificate which describes the cut, the clarity, all the normal specifications of a diamond and authenticates the diamond as manufactured. Every diamond as well is laser inscripted with the Algedanza name on it. We can also inscript a personal message also onto the diamond. One of the questions we often get is obviously we're in a society where your diamond can be stolen or lost. If if the diamond is recovered or stolen or tried to be brought into the trade, a jeweler with a 10 times magnification can see the branding. The Algedanza label or logos on there with the manufacturing code. And we could bring a diamond back or can reconnect a diamond with with with with a lost a loved one, which obviously if it was stolen. Yeah, I can imagine if you do something like it, but it's not a cheap process. Okay, we sort of running out of time, but I need to ask you, it's not a cheap process. But now let's say if I was to go, okay, this is something that I would maybe I would like that. Okay. So so, you know, once I'm popped off this mortal coil, I want to be a diamond. Is there a way that we can make provision for that? Sure.

Obviously, there's two circumstances. The one is you've just lost a loved one and you this is your desire to have a diamond made to immortalize them and memorize them. Then if the funds are available, you can do it. But in my case, for instance, I'd like each one of my children to receive a diamond when we pass on. So what we've done is, is we've written into our lost will and testament our wish. So we've expressed it that way. And secondly, we've taken out additional life cover so that the funds are provided and put aside so that can happen without burdening our state or our our loved ones who stay behind. Fantastic stuff. Yes. Given this is it's a fascinating subject and one we could talk about for a while. If somebody needs to get hold of you, somebody wants to find out some more info. People have been listening tonight. How would they go about that? Firstly, social media is the way I found the product and connected with the company. And that's the way you can connect with me as well. I have a Facebook page, diamonds from ashes. So it's facebook.com forward slash diamonds from ashes. Okay. Or you could go to diamonds from ashes.co.za, which will also redirect to the Facebook page.

Okay, fantastic. So diamonds from ashes on Facebook. Anybody can chat to their you're about to give them all the info, they'll take them through the whole process. And they're most welcome to give me a call. My contact details are on the page. They're welcome to come and see me and discuss the circumstance. And obviously, I can show them also my own diamond. Well, I was gonna say, do you do have photos on the Facebook page as well? Yes, there's stories, lots of stories and samples of people who've assisted. Okay. And obviously, a lot of emotional stories also. Because somebody's just somebody said, you know, can they can they have pictures? So Facebook page is where to go. There's lots of pictures, there's stories. I'm also on LinkedIn. So there's a lot of information. And generally, also on Google, there's a lot of information about it. And the company has been going for an excess of, I think, 14, 15 years. Wonderful stuff. Kevin Block, diamond from ashes, the Algedanza representative here in South Africa. Thanks so much for taking the time out to have a chat to us. It's been absolutely fascinating chatting to you. We wish you all the best. Thank you, David. I really appreciate it.

And there we go. That was my special guest.