Articles About Diamonds and Sapphires

This is a quick reference list of Diamonds and Sapphires articles published so far.

Hubs

• The Biggest Diamond You Can Afford
• Old European Cut Diamond Vs Round Brilliant
• Antique Diamond Ring What makes a ring an Antique
• Clarity Enganced Diamonds Why Buy a Treated Diamond
• Antique Diamonds Old Mine and Old European Cut
• Yellow Diamond Natural and Synthetic
• Sapphire Engagement Ring as an Alernative to a Diamond
• Yellow Sapphire and Other Yellow Stones

Articles

• antique diamonds - old european cut vs round brilliant
• lab created or synthetic diamonds why buy a man-made diamond
• yellow diamond and alternative yellow stones
• diamond alternatives for engagement rings
• enhanced clarity or treated diamonds a diamond alternative
• sapphire engagement ring - why sapphire is a diamond alternative
• engagement rings for dummies

More to come..

Two Articles on Sapphire Engagement Rings

I have just published two articles on sapphire engagement rings. 

• Sapphire-Engagement-Ring-Why-Sapphire-is-a-Diamond-Alternative
• Sapphire-Engagement-Ring-as-an-Alernative-to-a-Diamond

Hubs VS Blogs

I just learned of an Internet community called Hubpages. Hubs are similar to Blogs but they do have advantages.  A Blog is a single page with many entries. With Hubs, you can create pages similar to blog posts, but each one is like an independent article.  The advantages over a regular blog are:

• You have good statistics of who visits each one of your articles 
• You can monitor the statistics even closer with google analytics
• Your articles are automatically listed in the search engines, each one as opposed to the blog page as a whole
• You can write on any topic without starting a whole new blog
• You have a community, with many readers who have questions and answers
• You can "Monetize" it with many different venues
• Free and Easy to use tools

So I decided to write there about diamond related issues. I have already created several hubs, or posts, regarding Diamonds.

• Antique-Diamonds-Old-Mine-and-Old-European-Cut
• Antique-Diamond-Ring
• Clarity-Enhanced-Diamonds-Why-Buy-a-Treated-Diamond
• The-Biggest-Diamond-You-Can-Afford
• Yellow-Diamond-Natural-and-Synthetic
• Old-European-Cut-Diamond-Vs-Round-Brilliant

Blogs are a good way to communicate your daily activities but Hubs are the way to go if you have something unique you want to share when the topic is different from your usual activities.  

Yellow Diamonds and Alternative Yellow Stones for Your Engagement Ring

I just published another article on Suite101.com "Yellow Diamond and Alternative Yellow Stones"

Yellow diamonds are a popular choice for todays engagement ring center stones.  The price for a good quality Vivid yellow color diamond or 1 carat in size can be up to $50,000.  For people who love the look of a yellow center stone engagement ring, there are several options. 

First of all, one can buy a yellow CZ.  It will be shiny and starkly and won't cast an arm and a leg.  For a more romantic alternative, a person can choose to go with a Citrine or a Yellow Topaz.  Both of these stones are natural and beautiful, but they don't sparkle like a yellow diamond does.  To get the look of a diamond you really need a diamond!  But wait, didn't we say you can't afford one? Yes, but we where speaking of Natural diamonds.  Consider that you can buy a man made, synthetic yellow diamond at about one tenths the price of a real one.  No body can tell the two a part without expensive lab equipment.  If this sound like something you may consider, read "Lab Created or Synthetic Diamonds: Why Buy a Man Made Alternative."

Synthetic or Lab Created Diamonds:Why Buy a Man Made Diamond

Just Published an article on Suite101 "Lab Created or Synthetic Diamonds: Why Buy a Man Made Diamond"

Learn if a synthetic or a cultured diamond is something you would be interested in.  I discussed the pros and cons of a man made diamond and why a  lab created diamond is a viable alternative for an engagement ring.  You will also learn of other alternatives for engagement rings.  Synthetic diamonds come in many colors and can cast as little as one tenth the price of a natural counterpart.  They are just as beautiful as the natural stone and are often better cut then the natural diamond.  Synthetic diamonds, specially colored ones, are a great conversation maker and a hip alternative to other color stones.

Treated and Untreated Diamonds

Reprint from my article on Suite101.com "Enhanced Clarity or Treated Diamonds: A Diamond Alternative"

Treated diamonds are not a new thing. For many years diamonds have been enhanced by fracture filling, drilling, and painting. Clarity enhanced diamonds fall into two categories, permanent and not permanent treatment. It is worth noting that the treated stone is a cheaper alternative to a similar looking, more expensive, untreated diamond.

What Diamonds are Treated

Diamonds which are clarity enhanced, by fracture filling, usually fall into the commercial or the I1 to I3 clarity range. However, even VS clarity diamonds may be treated with laser drilling. Color treatment can be done on all diamonds and the buyer should refer to a diamond certificate. According to Willam George Shuster in his article "What Store Managers Must Know About Fracture Filled Diamonds" published Feb. 1, 1998 in JCKonline, majority of clarity enhanced diamonds on the market are in the .50 to 1 carat in size. However, smaller diamonds are routinely treated as well; they can often be found in tennis bracelets.
When selling a diamond, the seller is obligated by law to disclose all treatments. He must tell make it known to the buyer that the stone is treated and if the treatment is permanent or not. This does not guaranty that the buyer will be informed as there will always be dishonest people, but the law is on the consumer’s side.

The Clarity Enhanced Diamond

A clarity enhanced diamond has been ether fracture filled or laser drilled. GIA and many other laboratories will not grade a fracture filled diamond because the treatment is not permanent and so the certificate will possibly not match the stone in some time. They will however grade a laser drilled diamond as the treatment is permanent.
Fracture filling a diamond is a process by which the cracks or fractures in a diamond are coated or filled with a glass like substance. The treatment enhances the appearance but not durability, and can make an I2 clarity stone look like an SI2 clarity diamond. The treatment can be reversed by exposing the diamond to high temperature. It can also be damaged by heat, ultraviolet light and ultrasonic cleaning. If the stone is brought in for cleaning to a jewelry shop, though the treatment is detectable, the customer should always disclose to the jeweler that the diamond is treated.

Laser drilling is done by burning out of dark inclusions in a diamond. This can be done in any clarity graded diamonds. The process is permanent and easily detectable. After the treatment, white tunnels are left where the inclusion used to be. Lighter inclusions are considered better then dark ones, which is why this treatment is performed.

It is recommended by Mr. Shuster that the value of a diamond should be based on its original price plus the cost of the treatment. The buyer will not pay the same for an I2 treated diamonds the same as for an SI2. This makes a clarity enhanced diamond a great alternative to a more expensive stone, considering that only the buyer will know of its true clarity grade.

Color Enhancements

Color treatments can range from primitive to very sophisticated. Many years ago, people used to paint the girdle, or side of the stone, with blue ink to counteract the yellowish tint of the stone. This made it appear white. Later, a thin film was applied to the whole stone which produced a similar effect. Today, diamonds are treated with HPHT high pressure high temperature treatment to make some yellowish diamonds to look white by changing their crystal structure. HPHT treatment is permanent and usually disclosed. The others are not permanent and are rarely used by the trade, and are only applied to trick someone.
In conclusion, the clarity enhanced diamond is a good alternative to a more expensive diamond. It is worth noting that some treatments are permanent while others require more attention and careful handling. To read about other alternatives to diamonds read Diamond Alternatives for Engagement Rings.

Read more at Suite101: Enhanced Clarity or Treated Diamonds: A Diamond Alternative http://jewelry.suite101.com/article.cfm/enhanced-clarity-or-treated-diamonds-a-diamond-alternative#ixzz0mxUiNSA1

Renting Diamond Jewelry for Parties and Weddings

Looking like a Star is cheaper then you think!  Renting Diamond Jewelry for parties or weddings  is much easier then one may have imagined.  The days of going to a Jeweler and begging them to rent or let you borrow a piece of jewelry to wear for your special occasion are over.

There are several well known Internet Jewelry Stores which let you rent diamond jewelry for your day in the spot light at reasonable prices.  Therefore, don't need to be a Hollywood or a Rock Star to look like one.  Consider that even Stars wear borrowed jewelry most of the time.  Who needs to buy diamond set of earrings, a necklace and a ring when one can be rented for less then a few percent of the cost.  Consider how many times you would wear such a set and how much time you would have to spend if you where to make such an investment.

What do you need to know about renting diamond jewelry.

• Work with a reputable and a dependable company.
• You need to receive the article on time.
• You need the piece of jewelry to be clean and in tact.
• You need to trust the company to charge you a fair price.

•  Select the Jewelry and make sure it is available for the dates you need it.
• Compare Prices
• Some articles are cheaper then others so the rental will be less.
• Consider how much is shipping
• Is there a discount for long term rentals?
• What are the late fees, the late fees could be expensive - consider that someone may be waiting for this article for their wedding.
•  Insurance 
• Diamond Jewelry is expensive, consider the coverage the jewelry store offers.
• Do you have to pay anything for insurance?
• Will there be a deductible if the piece is lost or stolen?
• Do you need to buy additional insurance?

Most jewelry companies have insurance and they will cover their losses but probably not yours.  Renting Jewelry may require you to take out an insurance policy with a low deductible, for the full price of the article at hand.  Consider the price and if is worth the effort.

Renting Diamond Jewelry is easy and not expensive.  Take a look at some of the offers from Adorn.com, they are really amazing.

Antique Diamond Cuts

Just published an article on Antique Diamond Cuts, comparing Old Mine and Old European Cut to the Modern Round Brilliant.  Although these diamonds have all of the same geometric properties, the difference is vast.   Read my article on Suite101.com, Antique Diamonds - Old European Cut VS Round Brilliant.

Diamond Alternatives Aritcle on Suite101

My second article on suite101 is about Diamond Alternatives for engagement rings.  I will discus even more options in greater detail in the next article.  For now this is a good place to start.  If you are considering CZ or Moissanite you MUST read the article first.

Engagement Rings for Dummies

So the time has come. The groom-to-be is now searching for that one, special engagement ring which symbolizes everything he knows about love. Should it be so complicated to choose the ring and diamond? Selecting the diamond cut, clarity, weight and color can take all the fun out of it. Is there a simple way to get past this gibberish?

Yes there is!

Engagement Ring Selection Comes First

To get past the annoyance of picking the right stone, many people choose to select the ring first and then try to match a stone to it. This works well for antique looking rings with detailed carvings or pave diamonds and rings with side stones. Princes, Asscher, Cushion and Emerald Cut diamonds are often chosen for these rings.


Statistically, round diamonds are the number one choice when it comes to engagement rings, most often for solitaire rings. Choosing the style of the ring is the fun part, it is done by observing and trying to predict the brides-to-be taste.


A Diamond's Price

After the groom-to-be has selected the style of the ring he plans buy, it is time to find a worthy diamond. A diamond's price is mainly based on its rarity. Diamonds which are larger, free of imperfections and have the least amount of color are the rarest. The price grows disproportionate to the size chart because a one carat diamond is much rarer than one that is half its size.


The other important thing that affects price is the cut; because a well cut diamond will reflect light better, causing a more pleasing appearance. A diamond which is well cut costs more, not because it's harder to cut a diamond well but because more rough is lost and the final stones come out smaller.


Fancy shapes are chosen when they yield more from a specific rough diamond. For this reason fancy shape diamonds are usually cheaper than round. According to the Jeweller magazine, in its March 2008 article titled "It's Hip to be Square: The Princess Cut", in a round stone fifty percent of the rough is wasted while in a princess cut diamond only twenty percent is wasted.


The certificate also affects the price of a diamond. Diamonds with GIA and AGS certificates usually cost more than same grade diamonds from other laboratories. This is most often because the other laboratories give higher grades to the stones than they really are. This makes the stones price be more then it would have been if properly graded but less expensive than the same grade stone from a reputable Lab.

Buying a Diamond

When the buyer knows what makes a diamond tick the process becomes easy. He will probably want the best cut, which is GIA Ideal or AGS 000, and likely a colorless stone, to which degree is up to the budget. Colors D to F are colorless face up, G and H colors are barely noticeable.

The clarity is also simple to understand. Diamonds with clarity of VS2 – Very Slightly Included and better should have no eye visible inclusions, so people are paying only for the rarity factor from this point on. It is up to each individual to pick how rare a diamond he desires. Diamonds in the SI – Slightly Included clarity grade range may or may not have eye visible inclusions; it can be hard to tell without seeing the stone. Diamonds in the I – Included range are commercial quality. They can be prone to breakage and have large easily visible inclusions.

In conclusion, buying an engagement ring should be simple when the buyer knows what he wants. Selecting the ring style, the diamond shape, cut grade, color and clarity will be simple now that the groom-to-be understands what is meant by each grade and how it affects the price and the final appearance.


Read more at Suite101: Engagement Ring Buying Guide http://engagement.suite101.com/article.cfm/engagement-rings-for-dummies#ixzz0m14Ijud9


Reprint from my article published on Suite101.com

Diamond Price - where to find out how much diamonds go for?

Public Diamond and Color Stone Price List
I just stumbled onto some useful info on JCKs website.  The JCK is the largest jewelry show which is hosted in Vegas. Got to their site and type "Gem Pricing Report" in the search box.  It doesn't give you too much info regarding if the stones listed are certified, good, bad... but you get the idea.


Alternative - Compare to Bluenile
Still the best alternative is to search BlueNile.com.  They have about 50,000 stones so you will definately find something in the category your looking for and be able to price it.  BlueNile is up to 10% over wholesale but don't expect to pay much less at any jeweler. 

Diamonds Cost So Much - Why is that?

Diamonds cost a lot of money, have you asked yourself why that is?  If you want to know, here is what makes the diamond a high priced "commodity."


Diamonds are Rare!  Diamonds of larger size, better quality and whiter color are even rarer.  Each one of these attributes is important in its own right and adds to the value of a diamond.  Other things which add value to a diamond are certificate, shape and cut.

Consider this, a cut diamond of one carat is produced from every 250 tons of soil which is mined.  It's much rarer then a half of a carat stone which is why the price for diamonds rises disproportionate to it's size.  Also, consider the fact that diamonds which are colorless, meaning fall into the D-F color range, only make up 2 percent of all diamonds mined.  Clarity is also important and Internally Flawless diamonds are quite rare.

Here it is important to note, for the diamond buyer to be.  You will not see a difference in diamonds of VS clarity and Flawless Diamonds without magnification.  At this point you really are paying for the fact that the diamond is more or less rare then the others.

Diamonds in the D to F color range are Colorless when observed from the top.  This means that you will not see a difference unless you take the diamond out of the ring and place in face down on a white surface next to a lighter color stone.  Diamonds in the G to J have slightly noticeable color, and most people recommend buying G or H for white metal settings, if you don't have a budget for F color.

The other thing which determines the price is a certificate.  Consider that when you're buying a diamond with a certificate which states that a diamond is better then it really is, you are only fooling yourself.  It is now understood that diamonds with GIA or AGS certificates have a premium, because these labs give the real grades.  EGL and many other laboratories give higher grades then the stone really is and that is why a stone with the same grades but from EGL cost less.

The last important thing which effects the price is the Shape and Cut.  They are listed here together because they are a part of the same issue.  When a round diamond is cut from a rough stone, fifty percent of the rough is wasted on average if the stone is cut in ideal proportions.  A diamond does not, however, need to be cut to ideal proportions.  Many cutters choose to cut a diamond slightly deeper to save more of the rough or shallower, so that two diamonds can be made from one rough stone.  As you can understand, the buyer has to pay for an ideal stone more because the cost is simply higher.  Shapes other then round are also chosen for the same reason, to save more of the rough.  A princess cut diamond, a square from top, is cut very similar to the round.  However, since a diamond crystal is square cutting a princess cut diamond saves eighty percent of the rough and wasts only twenty.  When a diamond crystal is not perfect, the cutter chooses the best shape to maximize yield.  For this reason fancy shape diamonds are always cheaper then the round. 


It's also worth mentioning that currently there is no cheap synthetic diamond on the market.  The cheapest synthetic, which is practically the same thing as a real flawless diamond, casts about one third of the price to make.  This and the demand for real diamonds helps keep the prices of diamonds high.

What's a Diamond

A Diamond is a carbon crystal.  Although graphite is also pure carbon, the two are quite the opposite of each other.  Diamond is the hardest stone of all, which means that it is durable to wear and that it can take a great polish where as graphite is soft and brittle.  Softer stones, all other stones, will not have such sharp (well formed) edges and the polish will wear off quicker. This is fundamental to understand because many people buy diamonds which have poor polish and don't even consider that this is the main reason why diamonds are valued.

Diamonds come in many colors and clarities.  The main colors are yellow, blue, pink, green, red, brown and colorless.  The biggest portion of natural diamonds fall into the colorless range which actually includes slightly yellow stones.  Diamonds which have enough yellow color to become desirable are considered fancy yellow and are worth much more then slightly yellow stones.  Diamonds in the colorless category are graded from D to F for colorless when looking at them face up.  Diamonds graded G to J are Very Faint Yellow when looking at them face up.  Colors K and up have easily observable amounts of yellow.  It is recommended to buy H color or better for white metals, I'd recommend G or better.

Most diamonds have some internal imperfections called inclusions.  There are many ways to call such inclusions, each specific type has its own name but it is not important for the consumer to know most of them.  It is important to realize that all diamonds which are in normal clarity range of SI or better are durable.  It is also very important to understand that diamonds of VS clarity and better have no eye visible inclusions, so no one will be able to tell a difference, without magnification, between a VS1(Very Slightly Included) diamond, a VVS1(Very Very Slightly Included) and a F(Flawless) diamond.  The difference in price is due to the rarity factor.  Do you want a diamond which is in the top 2 percent of all diamonds sold or in the top 0.3 percent?

So now you know something about diamonds. Read on...

Diamond Basics

Diamond Basics:

I will cover the following subjects in the near future, for now you can read about them here.

• What is a diamond?
• What diamond shape is best?
• What are the 4Cs?
• How important is a Diamond Certificate and which one is best?
• How much should you spend on a diamond?
• What is more important, diamonds color or clarity?
• Is size important?
• Will she like it?
• What to watch out for?
• Where to buy a diamond and why?
• Should you buy the diamond and the ring at the same place?
• If you have questions, post them here or e-mail me and I'll cover the subject as well.