Three Stone Round Brilliant Diamond Ring

Three Stone Round Brilliant Diamond Ring 1/3ctw (IJ/I1) in White Gold.Do you want to give your woman a beautiful gift for christmas? I think,this ring is the right choose for you. Read More...

Blood Diamonds,What are they?

Blood diamonds is the name given to diamonds from Western and Central Africa due to the conflict beginning at the late 1990's also called conflict diamonds.The world seen glimpses of what was happening there a little on the local news channels and a little more on the cable news channels.But, The World became aware of rebel armies were illegally using diamonds to fund their conflict against legitimate internationally recognized goverments.

For funding their operations,The rebels sell the diamonds to terrorists.Many Peoples hands were chopped off by the RUF units and these victims were sent to spread the message to fear the RUF for the terror they bring.They also tortured children that they suspected of ties to the RUF. Hospital patients were slaughtered in Freetown trying to clean out the town of rebels. It is no stretch to say that Sierra Leone became a sinkhole of death, torture, and terror.


The UN (United nations) along with non-govermental agencies and the help of the Worlds diamond industry set in place laws and standards to eliminate the conflict diamonds by change.One is called the Kimberly Process to ban the sale of conflict diamonds by strictly enforced measures set forth. The WDC (World Diamond Council) was formed, the WDC's mission to stop trade in conflict or blood diamonds by working with goverment and non-govermental organizations. Read More...

Favorite : Black Diamond Earrings

You would not see this thing every day or everytime ,what is that?Diamond black earrings. They have become more popular,although not usual,in the last few years.The diamond is black in color, and sometimes will have small grey specks in it.
Black diamond earrings,is one of favorite diamond for woman.Other woman do not care about the colour.Wether black diamond earrings are something you would wear, would merely be a personal preference.

Black diamond are rare,not many jewelry store has them,and offer an extensive variety of black diamond.People have been known to collect black diamond earrings, simply for the black diamonds.If you want to be purchase apir of these rare,you can try to find them on ebay,,might be anyone is selling them.

Black diamond earrings can be worn with others colors of diamonds as well.You also can try to use black diamond earrring,with strand of black pearl or other jewelry. Read More...

An Extremely Viable Jewelry Alternative-Synthetic Diamonds

Diamonds have a number of natural qualities.The love of diamonds in our jewelry is a modern phenomenon. It has really only been since the 1930s that diamonds have been so desired as a jewelry stone.In jewelry a diamond has beautiful sparkle,and is very hard.They are, for example, the hardest of any natural product

Synthetic daimonds needed to have similar qualities to compete with the natural product. Any synthetic diamond that is to compete with the real thing has to exhibit similar qualities. And synthetic diamonds do this admirably.And with diamonds came synthetic diamonds. Synthetic daimonds will always be worth considering as an alternative to diamonds whilst real diamonds are so expensive, and synthetic diamonds are so good.

The first synthetic diamonds were produced in the 1950s in Sweden and then not so long after the synthesis of diamonds was reported a second time by researchers at GE.
There are, however, many excellent synthetic diamonds which are so close to real diamonds in their physical properties that they are very difficult to distinguish from real diamonds indeed. Read More...

American Topaz

The world’s largest cut topaz, called the American Topaz, resides at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. A 172-faceted topaz weighing 22,892.50 carats (5785 kg), it’s the largest cut yellow topaz in the world, and one of the largest faceted gems of any kind in the world. Originating from Minais Gerais, Brazil, it was cut over a period of two years. It was purchased by the Rockhound Hobbyists of America and presented to the Smithsonian Institution in 1988.

As stunning as this cut topaz is, another display at the Smithsonian is equally dazzling and awe-inspiring. That’s a sherry-colored topaz “spray” from the Thomas Range in Utah. This color of topaz can be found in Mexico and Utah, but when it’s exposed to sunlight, will become clear.

Other spectacular displays of natural crystals include a cluster of Stibnite, an ore of antimony, which has a bright metallic luster. This spectacular group of crystals is from Iyo, Japan and look like something from Superman’s home!

Another huge mineral in the exhibit is the Smithsonite, named for James Smithson, who bequeathed the funds to establish the Smithsonian Institution. He first discovered this greenish zinc carbonate mineral from the Kelly Mine in New Mexico.

Some of the other don’t miss items in the Smithsonian’s Gem Collection are the Smithsonian Canary Diamond, a huge canary and diamond ring. The 98.6-carat Bismarck Sapphire is also part of the collection and is one of the world’s largest sapphires. It originally came from Sri Lanka. It’s also fascinating to see some of these gems in their raw uncut state, such as the large corundrum crystal which is the mineral that sapphires are made of, and a very large beryl crystal, from which the emerald and aquamarine family of stones is derived.

Read More...

Victoria Transvaal Diamond

The Victoria-Transvaal is a 67.89-carat, brownish-yellow pear shaped stone. It was cut from a 240-carat crystal that was found in the Transvaal, South Africa. The first cutting produced a 75-carat 116-facet stone that measured 1 x 1³/8 inches; a recutting retained the same length and width, but reduced the depth to better proportions, making it more brilliant. The diamond has been featured in several Hollywood films, including a Tarzan episode from 1952 titled Tarzan's Savage Fury, and in leading exhibitions in the United States and Canada.

The necklace was designed by Baumgold Brothers, Inc, and consists of a yellow gold chain with 66 round brilliant-cut diamonds, fringed with ten drop motifs, each set with two marquise-cut diamonds, a pear-shaped diamond, and a small round brilliant-cut diamond (the total weight of the 106 diamonds is about 45 carats). The configuration of these stones makes them look like small angels! The necklace was donated by Leonard and Victoria Wilkinson in 1977 to the Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C.

Other colored diamonds in the Smithsonian Collection include the 8.30-carat Shepard Diamond. This stone is from South Africa, and was acquired by the Smithsonian Museum in exchange for a collection of small diamonds that had been seized as smuggled goods by the United States Customs Service. The diamond is named for the Smithsonian employee who helped facilitate the transaction.

An extremely rare red diamond resides at the Smithsonian as well. This is the De Young Red, a 5.03-carat, brilliant cut red diamond. The main kite-shaped facets on the crown are divided in two, giving the stone more brilliance than a standard round brilliant cut. The stone is not pure red but has a slight brown hue, which makes it appear like a fine red garnet and indeed, it was once purchased as such at an estate sale.

It is the third largest red diamond in the world, after the Moussaieff Red (5.11 carats) and the Red Diamond (5.05 carats).

Read More...

Hooker emerald

There’s something incredibly mysterious about the largest emeralds. It’s one of the rarest of gemstones, unattainable for most of us, at least in a good-quality stone. This magnificent 75.57-carat emerald was supposedly owned by the Ottoman Empire until 1900. Legend has it was used in the belt buckle of a sultan!

The stone was featured in Tiffany's 1950 Christmas Catalog. Mrs. Janet Annenberg Hooker bought the stone in 1955 from Tiffany's and donated it to the museum in 1977.

Emeralds are part of the beryl family of jewels. Green beryls are called emeralds, while blue-green beryls are called aquamarines. A pink shade of beryl is called Morganite. There’s even a red beryl that’s rarer than emeralds themselves.

The name emerald comes from the Greek smaragdos via the Old French esmeralde, and really just means 'green gemstone'. Innumerable fantastic stories have grown up around this magnificent gem. The Incas and Aztecs of South America, where the best emeralds are still found today, regarded the emerald as a holy gemstone. However, probably the oldest known finds were once made near the Red Sea in Egypt. Having said that, these gemstone mines, already exploited by Egyptian pharaohs between 3000 and 1500 B.C. and later referred to as 'Cleopatra's Mines', had already been exhausted by the time they were rediscovered in the early 19th century.

But it has also, for centuries, been the color of beauty and of constant love. In ancient Rome, green was the color of Venus, the goddess of beauty and love. And today, this color still occupies a special position in many cultures and religions. Green, for example, is the holy color of Islam. Many of the states of the Arab League have green in their flags as a symbol of the unity of their faith. Yet this color has a high status in the Catholic Church too, where green is regarded as the most natural and the most elemental of the liturgical colors.

Read More...

Portuguese diamond

There’s something so exciting about these incredibly large and perfect stones. Sometimes they have well-documented histories and we know where they came from and who owned them and when. But others have a past that’s not as well-known, and that only adds to the romance and mystique surrounding them.

One such diamond is called the Portuguese Diamond and is a 127-carat, cushion-cut diamond, shaped in an octagonal emerald shape. It’s nearly flawless. While it’s called the Portuguese Diamond, with a story that it was mined in Brazil and became part of the Portuguese Crown Jewels, there’s really no true documentation that says definitively that that’s where the diamond was mined. Must of the diamond’s history is pure legend and conjecture. One can only imagine who wore this incredible stone!

One part of the diamond's history that is well-documented is that in February 1928 Peggy Hopkins Joyce traded a $350,000 pearl necklace for the diamond and $23,000 in cash. According to New York newspaper accounts, it was mounted on a diamond-studded platinum choker to be worn close around the throat (probably the same necklace described above). Miss Joyce performed in the Ziegfeld Follies, and had six husbands, at least five of whom were wealthy. She was said to be almost as fond of jewels as of men. Sometime prior to 1946 Miss Joyce placed the diamond on consignment to the group of jewelers mentioned above, in an unsuccessful attempt to sell it.

Harry Winston acquired the Portuguese Diamond from Miss Joyce in 1951, and for the next several years it traveled the country as part of his "Court of Jewels" exhibition. In 1957, Winston sold the diamond to an international industrialist, who then traded it back in 1962. In 1963, the Smithsonian acquired the Portuguese Diamond from Mr. Winston in exchange for 2,400 carats of small diamonds.

Read More...

Spanish Inquisition Necklace

One doesn’t normally associate beautiful jewelry with the time of the Spanish Inquisition. But in the Smithsonian Institution’s collection of gems, there is an exquisite necklace of diamonds and emeralds.

It is a spectacular double row of diamonds and emeralds ending in a chandelier of emeralds. There is unfortunately very little information about the provenance of this necklace. The large diamonds and Columbian emeralds were most likely cut in India in the 17^th century. This would make them one of the earliest examples of cut gemstones in the Smithsonian’s Collection. There are really only legends surrounding this necklace. They indicate that it was worn at times by Spanish and French royalty. In the early 20^th century, it was purchased by the Maharajah of Indore, whose son sold the necklace in 1947 to Harry Winston. Winston subsequently sold the necklace to Mrs. Cora Hubbard Williams of Pittsburgh. She bequeathed it to the Smithsonian in 1972.

Emeralds are a form of crystal known as beryls. Beryls are normally clear crystals, but when infused with chromium or vanadium, they attain various gradations of green. The purest green are the rarest emeralds and many people actually prefer an emerald that has a blue-green tint.

Before the 16^th century, the only known emerald deposits were in Cleopatra’s Egyptian mines. But after emeralds were discovered in Columbia, those became the “gold standard” in emeralds. Columbian emeralds have been discovered by archaeologists among artifacts of such tribes as the Inca, Maya, Aztec, Toltec and the lesser-known Chibcha Indians. Emeralds are among the rarest of gemstones and can be more expensive per carat than even the finest diamonds! They are a hard mineral, with a Moh’s hardness scale of 7 or 8 (compared to a diamond’s 10). While most emeralds are found in Africa, Russia and Africa, there have been discoveries of emerald deposits in North Carolina!

Read More...

Blue Heart Diamond

There is a spectacular diamond in the Smithsonian Collection called the Blue Heart Diamond. Fans of the movie Titanic might think the “Heart of the Ocean Diamond” was based on this stone, and it may have been! However, this diamond hasn’t been cast in the ocean, but is safe and sound at the Smithsonian!

It has also been called the Eugenie Blue Diamond, although it’s uncertain that the Empress Eugenie ever owned this particular stone. It was cut in Paris between 1909 and 1910, but the stone’s origin – Africa or India – is unclear.

It is an enormous heart-shaped, blue diamond weighing 30.82 carats. Its current setting is in a platinum ring, surrounded by white diamonds. It changed hands among famous jewelers – such as Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels - and owners until it was bought by Harry Winston in 1959 who mounted the diamond in its current ring setting. Winston sold the ring to Marjorie Merriweather Post. Mrs. Post donated the ring to the Smithsonian and it remains there with other famous blue diamonds, including the Hope Diamond and the Heart of Eternity Diamond.

These famous blue diamonds have recently gone through a grading and examination process, to classify their colors and to determine the source of the color. The Hope Diamond is classified as Fancy Deep Grayish-Blue. The Heart of Eternity has been classified as a Fancy Vivid Blue. The Blue Heart Diamond has not yet been classified, but some experts categorize it as either Fancy Vivid Blue or Fancy Deep Blue. Blue diamonds are of particular interest to scientists not only because of the color and the impurities that create it, but because blue diamonds also have an electric conductive property that makes them unique among clear and other colored diamonds.

Read More...

Napoleon Diamond Necklace

One of the most spectacular all-diamond pieces of jewelry in the Smithsonian Insitution is the Napoleon necklace. Thought to have originally been owned by Catherine the Great of Russia, it was presented by the Emperor Napoleon of France to his second wife, Marie-Louise of Austria on the birth of their son in 1811. The silver and gold set necklace contains172 diamonds weighing 275 carats - 28 oval and cushion-cut diamonds, dangling 19 briolette-cut oval and pear shaped diamonds and accented by small, round diamonds and diamond set motifs in a silver and gold setting. The diamonds are cut in "old mine" style, the precursor to the modern brilliant cut, and have a high degree of fire (flashes of color as the stone moves in light), but less brilliance due to less light refraction through the top of the stone.

The necklace has an estimated total gem weight of 275 carats, and the largest single diamond on it weighs approximately 10 carats. When Marie-Louise died in 1847, the necklace was given to her sister-in-law, Archduchess Sophie of Austria, who removed two stones to shorten the necklace. Earrings were made with the two removed stones, the whereabouts of which are unknown.

In 1872, the necklace was bequeathed to the Archduchess' son, Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria. In 1948, Archduke Ludwig's grandson, Prince Franz Joseph of Liechtenstein, sold the necklace to a French collector who then sold it to Harry Winston in 1960. Marjorie Merriweather Post obtained the necklace from Winston and donated it to the Smithsonian Institution in 1962.

It’s difficult to value a piece like this in today’s market. However, in 1993, the auction house Christie’s in Geneva sold another necklace that Napoleon had given to Marie-Louise that was composed of rubies and diamonds. This necklace sold for $13 million.

Read More...

Marie Louis Diadem

There were a few benefits to marrying the Emperor Napoleon, if you loved jewelry, that is! The Marie-Louise diadem, now part of the Smithsonian Collection, was a wedding gift from Napoleon I to his second wife, Empress Marie-Louise in 1810. The diadem was originally part of a set that also included a necklace, comb, belt buckle, and earrings, all made of emeralds and diamonds set in silver and gold. They were all made by French Jeweler Etienne Nitot et Fils of Paris.

In the original diadem, there were 22 large and 57 small emeralds, along with 1002 brilliant-cut and 66 rose-cut diamonds. The central emerald weighed 12 carats. After the fall of the Emperor, Marie-Louise fled to Vienna and took her personal jewelry with her, including the diadem and other pieces that were made as part of a set, including a necklace, a pair of earrings and a comb.

Empress Marie-Louise left the diadem to her Hapsburg aunt, Archduchess Elise. Archduke Karl Stefan Hapsburg of Sweden, a descendent of the Archduchess sold the set to Van Cleef & Arpels in 1953. Between May 1954 and June 1956, the emeralds were removed and sold individually in pieces of jewelry as emeralds "from the historic Napoleon Tiara."

Between 1956 and 1962, Van Cleef & Arpels mounted turquoise cabochons into the diadem. In 1962, the diadem was displayed in the Louvre in Paris with the necklace, earrings, and comb in an exhibit about Empress Marie-Louise. In 1971, Marjorie Merriweather Post, heiress to the Post cereal fortune, purchased the diadem for the Smithsonian Institution. There are 1,006 mine-cut diamonds weighing a total of 700 carats and 79 Persian turquoise stones weighing a total of 540 carats. In one respect, it’s a shame that the original piece was dismantled to sell off the emeralds. Yet the diadem, reset with the turquoise cabochons is equally beautiful and made even more distinctive with the use of the less valuable turquoise.

Read More...

Marie Antoinette Earrings

There’s no more fascinating subject in history than the doomed French Queen Marie Antoinette. Much maligned by history (she never said “Let them eat cake,” in response to the people’s need for bread), she was an unwilling part of the one of the greatest revolutions in history. And met an untimely end at the guillotine in 1793. While she loved jewelry, and possessed many magnificent jewels, she often preferred simple muslin gowns and very little jewelry. Many of the portraits of her by Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun show her dressed just like that.

Two large, pear-shaped diamond earrings, weighing 14.25 and 20.34 carats respectively, are part of the Smithsonian Institution’s collection. The diamonds once were supposedly set in earrings that belonged to Marie Antoinette and some sources say they were her favorite pieces of jewelry and she wore them constantly. They were taken from her during an attempt to flee France as the Revolution dawned and the position of the Royals became dangerous.

The diamonds were later acquired by the Grand Duchess Tatiana Yousupoff of Russia. When jeweler Pierre Cartier puchased the diamond earrings in 1928, their authenticity was attested to in an affidavit by Russian Princess Zenaide Yousupoff and her son, Prince Felix Yousupoff, stating that they originally belonged to Queen Marie-Antoinette and have never been reset in the one hundred years that they were in the family. Marjorie Merriweather Post acquired the earrings from Pierre Cartier in October 1928. Harry Winston reset the large diamonds in platinum replicas of the original silver settings in 1959. Cartier, Inc. designed the triangular tops. In November 1964, Mrs. Post's daughter, Mrs. Eleanor Barzin, donated the earrings, along with the original setting to the Smithsonian Institution. The diamonds are originally from India or Brazil, the only significant sources of diamonds in the eighteenth century.

Read More...

Fire

The term fire is commonly used to describe a diamond, but what does it refer to? The ancient Greeks thought that fire in a diamond symbolized the eternal flame of love. Fire in a diamond is the dispersed light that appears as rainbow-like flashes of color. You can usually observe a diamond’s fire in places like restaurants or clubs where the light is lower. The amount of fire depends on how the stone is cut and faceted. Older cut diamonds appear as if they have more fire because they’re cut with steep crown angles and flatter tables of the facets.

Other characteristics that are used to evaluate a diamond include brilliance and scintillation. Brilliance requires both brightness and contrast in the diamond and refers to how light is reflected back to the viewer, or return-of-light in the diamond trade. To many jewelers, it’s the most important quality in a diamond, and is what people react to when they exclaim over a diamond.

Diamonds also have a quality called scintillation. Scintillation refers to how light disperses from the stone when it’s moved. While brilliance is the quality of dispersed light when the diamond is in a stationary position, scintillation is observed when the diamond moves in the light. They’re closely related qualities, while fire is a different attribute.

The way a diamond is cut will determine how much fire or brilliance it has, and often one may have to make a trade-off for one quality or another. Which way is the best way to go? For the most part, most diamonds are cut more for brilliance and scintillation rather than for fire. When shopping for a diamond remember that it’s in investment, yes. But what really matters is whether you love it. Qualities like brilliance vs. fire really do pale in comparison to that one critical element! Read More...

Fluorescence

We’re all familiar with the 4Cs of diamonds – cut, color, clarity and carat weight. But diamonds also possess a quality called fluorescence that’s part of the evaluation and assessment of a diamond. It’s actually called photo-luminescence and it’s caused by small amounts of the chemical boron in the diamond. It’s activated by UV light.

It’s graded by how much blue there is in the diamond – None, Faint, Medium, Medium blue, Strong, Strong Blue and Intense Blue. At one time, this was a highly-prized quality in a diamond and the demand for a blue-white diamond was high. The blue indicated the fluorescence of the diamond, while white was a reference to the overall color of the body of the stone. This has decreased over time as consumer preference shifted towards the more colorless stones.

The tide of public preference may be shifting back to the blue-white diamond, but you want to be sure, when buying a diamond, that you examine it under a variety of conditions, such as sunlight and fluorescent light, as well as a jeweler’s black light. Some diamonds with a fluorescent quality can become hazy in daylight or even glow out on the dance floor!

Colorless diamonds have become increasingly rare and expensive. The color grades of D (flawless) to G are going to be hard to come by at a reasonable price. If you’re buying a diamond with a color grade of H or higher, some fluorescence may actually be a good attribute for it and increase your stone’s value and attractiveness, as the blue fluorescence can offset any other gradations in the stone, such as a yellowish tone.

Although some diamonds have a yellow or orange fluorescence, most reputable jewelers will recommend against a diamond with this quality, unless you’re buying a colored diamond in the same hue, as a similar fluorescence will enhance and intensify that color. Read More...

Couples diamond

The smart groom-to-be does his research before buying his fiancée a diamond ring! There are more styles and cuts to choose from than ever before. It’s not enough to be educated about the four Cs of diamonds – cut, color, clarity and carats. Now there are all types of diamond cuts and settings to choose from.

The most popular style is still the round brilliant. It’s one of the earliest cuts ever developed and now relies on precise mathematical equations to create a stone with fire and brilliance that the earliest gem cutters could only have dreamed of.

But many brides want something completely unique. There are many traditional cuts to choose from. A pear-shaped is just that – wider at one end than the other. Or she can choose an oval, emerald or heart-shaped diamond. There are other cuts with unique faceting, such as the square princess-cut diamond.

Some cuts are patented, like the elongated Ashoka diamond or the Asprey & Garrard Eternal cut diamond. Other branded and patented cuts include:

Elara – a square-cut diamond with rounded corners
Asscher – a square diamond with rounded facets that gives an unusual complexity to the diamond
Couples diamond – this diamond is faceted to reveal either a circle of hearts or arrows inside. It’s a truly unusual diamond that requires precise cutting for the image to appear properly.

The price of a diamond increases exponentially with its carat weight. A one-carat diamond costs much more than 10 10-point diamonds and a two-carat diamond costs more than twice as much as a one-carat diamond (given equal quality in other areas).

One way to enhance a ring is with embellishments such as baguettes or trillions. A baguette is a small emerald-shaped diamond that can be placed on either side of the main stones and a trillion is a triangle-shaped diamond that also is a good enhancement to the center stone. Read More...

Diamond cutting styles

Our love of diamonds and admiration of their fire and brilliance has given rise to many different cuts of diamonds. While we still see some of the earliest styles of diamond cuts – such as the round and emerald-cut, there are many more cuts today, some of them patented by their designers and costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The most popular cut for a diamond ring today is still the round, brilliant cut. It was developed in the 17th century in Venice. It is still preferred when the raw crystal is in an octahedron formation. Even though as much as 50% of the stone is cut away in the process, often two stones can be carved from an octahedron. More unusually-shaped stones are used for fancy cuts, such as a marquise, pear or heart-shaped diamond. The earliest brilliants had 17 facets on the top of the stone and were called double-cut. This was soon improved with stones cut with 33 facets and were called triple-cut brilliants.

In the 19th century, with the development of better gem-cutting tools, more innovations in diamond cutting styles were developed. In 1919, Marcel Tolkowsky combined the art of cutting with the science of light and refraction and published his book, Diamond Design. These relatively recent geometric calculations were the forerunner of much of diamond cutting work today and led to other, more precise mathematical models engineered to enhance the fire and brilliance of diamonds.

There are now cuts such as the princess cut, trillions, ovals, pear and heart-shaped. Some innovative cutters have even fashioned star or butterfly-shaped diamonds! One patented cut, the Ashoka diamond, is an oblong cut with rounded, brilliant ends, and requires a stone 3 carats or larger. It’s an exceptionally beautiful (and pricey!) diamond shape. Tiffany has also patented a cut of diamond called the Lucida cut. It’s the lucky bride whose fiancé gives her one of these highly coveted stones! Read More...

Gem cutting

Gem cutting– how it has changed over the years (50% of the original rough diamond is lost during the cutting of a round brilliant gem)

How does a lump of mineral or crystal become a dazzling diamond, ruby or sapphire? It’s an amazing process called gem cutting or lapidary and makes all the difference in the final value of the stone. It was developed first in Venice in the early 1300’s and was seen in Paris and Bruges in the mid-1400s.Good cutting is a precise art that catches the light just so, and captures the beauty of the gem. Poor cutting destroys it.

Most gems start out actually being sawed with a special lapidary saw into a rough shape, such as square, round, pear or marquise. It’s then ground with a diamond-infused wheel to further refine the shape. The gem cutter uses a series of finer and finer abrasives to get closer to the clear heart of the gem. Cabochon gems are polished to a smooth overall surface, sometimes held by hand, but more often fixed or “dopped” with wax or adhesive to a dowel to hold it while the lapidarist polishes the stone.

Transparent stones are most often faceted, a process where flat planes of the stone are cut and polished over the surface in a precise, symmetrical pattern. It’s critical that the planes match up perfectly, or the beauty of how the light is captured by the facets will be lost.
If a stone is cut to flat or not polished, the brilliance of the gem will also be lost. When a stone is properly faceted, it captures the light so it bounces around inside the stone, giving it the sparkle we love and that helps determine the value of the gem. If the stone is cut too flat, or the facets don’t meet precisely, the light doesn’t bounce off the angles in the facets to maximum effect. Read More...

Colors of gems

Gems come in every color of the spectrum. While sapphires, rubies and emeralds are what come to mind first when one thinks of a colored gem, there are so many other beautiful colored gemstones to consider. Even among gems normally associated with one color, there are gradations and variations to them. A sapphire, for example, comes in many different hues of blue, depending on where it’s from. But sapphires can also come in pink, yellow and green.

The most highly prized colored gems are in the very deepest, richest hues of the color. While sapphires can range from pale blue to near-black, the most valuable are a rich, deep blue. The same holds true for rubies. While they too can range in color from pale to very dark and murky, the most highly-valued color is what’s called pigeon’s blood, a deep blood-red ruby that is mined in what was once known as Burma.

The most expensive emeralds are a deep green, although emeralds themselves come in a broad spectrum of hues, from yellow-green to blue-green. All colored gems, and clear gems, depend on expert cutting and polishing to showcase the colors in all their subtleties and brilliance.

Generally the deeper and richer the color, the more valuable the stone. The best amethysts will be a dark, royal purple. A lighter-colored amethyst simply isn’t as valuable.

But many people prefer these lighter or darker gradations in color. And, they tend to be more affordable. A slightly lighter-colored amethyst is much easier to obtain than the “ideal” color, but is still a beautiful gemstone.

Oddly enough, diamonds are rated by how colorless they are. The less color, the higher the grade of diamond. Unless of course it’s a defined color such as a pink diamond or a canary diamond. These are almost as highly prized as a near-colorless diamond. Read More...

Why are most minerals not popular as gems?

There are millions of minerals that exist on the earth, but few of them are prized as gems and used for adornment. Many of them aren’t in colors that are usually highly prized for jewelry. Or they’re not able to be cut and polished to be made wearable as jewelry.

Often it’s a matter of changing taste and times. In Imperial Russia and in the Victorian era, the mineral malachite and other opaque minerals were highly valued as gemstones jewelry. It is often a by-product of copper mining, and is distinguished by a brilliant green color, with dark concentric circles of color swirling through it. It’s not as highly valued because it’s easily available and not as expensive as an emerald or ruby. But there is an entire room devoted to malachite in the Russian museum, the Hermitage, as testament to its desirability among the most privileged class of people.

There have been discoveries that indicate that malachite was mined in Egypt as early as 4,000 B.C. It’s a soft gem, and easily carved and shaped. It polishes to a beautiful, rich sheen. But still is not highly prized in the U.S. as a gemstone.

Very often some minerals simply shouldn’t be used as gemstones, but because of their beauty, people wear them as such anyway. A moonstone is one such gem. It’s relatively soft, with a rating of 6 on Moh’s scale of mineral hardness, compared to a diamond’s hardness rating of 10. It’s a type of mineral called orthoclase, but when it exhibits a translucent, milky quality, it’s then called moonstone.

Other minerals exist, but are simply not prized for gemstones. Among the more common minerals, quartz stands out as one that can be used for jewelry, as well as decorative items. Read More...

Beryl

The beryl is the family of crystal that creates emeralds and aquamarines, when its color is green or blue-green, respectively. Red beryl is bixbite or red emerald or scarlet emerald, pink beryl is morganite, white beryl is goshenite, and a clear bright yellow beryl is called golden beryl. Other shades such as yellow-green for heliodor and honey yellow are common. It can also come in violet.

The earliest known source of emerald was near the Red Sea in Egypt, the so-called Cleopatra's emerald mines. They were probably worked from about 2000 B.C., apparently the location of them was lost in the middle ages, and not rediscovered until 1818. Most emeralds used in ancient jewelry are believed to have come from these mines. They are not worked nowadays because of the low quality of crystals found.
Emeralds have been found in Austria since Roman times; these are no longer commercially mined.

Columbia is generally recognized as the source of the world's finest quality emeralds, both in the past and the present. The Columbian Indians were using them before 1537, when Quesada conquered Columbia. Russia has been another important source of emeralds in the past. Emeralds were discovered in Australia in 1890 in New South Wales. Emeralds were discovered between1927 and 1929 in South Africa, followed by other sources. Another important source of superb quality emeralds, usually only of small size, is in Zimbabwe formerly Southern Rhodesia. These were discovered only in 1956. Emeralds were known in India from antiquity, but their source is not certain. The quality of Indian emeralds is very variable, but most are polished as beads. Other sources of emerald include Norway, North Carolina, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, although none of these are very important. But if you’re vacationing in any of those states, we best you’ll keep your eyes peeled for any stray beryls!

Read More...

Diamond cutting styles

Our love of diamonds and admiration of their fire and brilliance has given rise to many different cuts of diamonds. While we still see some of the earliest styles of diamond cuts – such as the round and emerald-cut, there are many more cuts today, some of them patented by their designers and costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The most popular cut for a diamond ring today is still the round, brilliant cut. It was developed in the 17^th century in Venice. It is still preferred when the raw crystal is in an octahedron formation. Even though as much as 50% of the stone is cut away in the process, often two stones can be carved from an octahedron. More unusually-shaped stones are used for fancy cuts, such as a marquise, pear or heart-shaped diamond. The earliest brilliants had 17 facets on the top of the stone and were called double-cut. This was soon improved with stones cut with 33 facets and were called triple-cut brilliants.

In the 19^th century, with the development of better gem-cutting tools, more innovations in diamond cutting styles were developed. In 1919, Marcel Tolkowsky combined the art of cutting with the science of light and refraction and published his book, Diamond Design. These relatively recent geometric calculations were the forerunner of much of diamond cutting work today and led to other, more precise mathematical models engineered to enhance the fire and brilliance of diamonds.

There are now cuts such as the princess cut, trillions, ovals, pear and heart-shaped. Some innovative cutters have even fashioned star or butterfly-shaped diamonds! One patented cut, the Ashoka diamond, is an oblong cut with rounded, brilliant ends, and requires a stone 3 carats or larger. It’s an exceptionally beautiful (and pricey!) diamond shape. Tiffany has also patented a cut of diamond called the Lucida cut. It’s the lucky bride whose fiancé gives her one of these highly coveted stones!

Read More...

Victoria Transvaal Diamond

The Victoria-Transvaal is a 67.89-carat, brownish-yellow pear shaped stone. It was cut from a 240-carat crystal that was found in the Transvaal, South Africa. The first cutting produced a 75-carat 116-facet stone that measured 1 x 1³/8 inches; a recutting retained the same length and width, but reduced the depth to better proportions, making it more brilliant. The diamond has been featured in several Hollywood films, including a Tarzan episode from 1952 titled Tarzan's Savage Fury, and in leading exhibitions in the United States and Canada.

The necklace was designed by Baumgold Brothers, Inc, and consists of a yellow gold chain with 66 round brilliant-cut diamonds, fringed with ten drop motifs, each set with two marquise-cut diamonds, a pear-shaped diamond, and a small round brilliant-cut diamond (the total weight of the 106 diamonds is about 45 carats). The configuration of these stones makes them look like small angels! The necklace was donated by Leonard and Victoria Wilkinson in 1977 to the Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C.

Other colored diamonds in the Smithsonian Collection include the 8.30-carat Shepard Diamond. This stone is from South Africa, and was acquired by the Smithsonian Museum in exchange for a collection of small diamonds that had been seized as smuggled goods by the United States Customs Service. The diamond is named for the Smithsonian employee who helped facilitate the transaction.

An extremely rare red diamond resides at the Smithsonian as well. This is the De Young Red, a 5.03-carat, brilliant cut red diamond. The main kite-shaped facets on the crown are divided in two, giving the stone more brilliance than a standard round brilliant cut. The stone is not pure red but has a slight brown hue, which makes it appear like a fine red garnet and indeed, it was once purchased as such at an estate sale.

It is the third largest red diamond in the world, after the Moussaieff Red (5.11 carats) and the Red Diamond (5.05 carats).

Read More...

18 Royalty diamonds

When did diamonds first become recognized as precious stones and used for jewelry? The earliest reference to them has been found in a Sanskrit document dated around 300 BCE. They were associated with the gods and were used to decorate religious icons and statues. In India, only kings, the highest caste, were allowed to own them.

Although diamonds were traded east and west of India, they were still prized in their natural crystal state, or polished to increase the shine and luster of them. The first guild of diamond cutters was established in 1375, and it was then that the practice of cutting the stones and faceting them was developed.

From the earliest times, diamonds were the province of kings and queens. In fact, in the 13^th century, Louis IX of France decreed that only royalty could own diamonds, a dictate which faded away about 100 years later. By the late 15^th century, they were used as wedding rings.

The largest diamond ever found was a 3106-carat diamond discovered in 1905 in a mine owned by Thomas Cullinan, for whom the stone was made. It was cut into smaller stones, the largest being made into the 530-carat Great Star of Africa diamond, cut by the Asscher Brothers, a famous diamond firm to this day. It’s also called the Cullinan I diamond, and is set in the Scepter of the Cross of the United Kingdom. A smaller stone cut from the Cullinan diamond is called the Lesser Star of Africa. It weighs 317 carats and is part of the Imperial State Crown. Both gems can be seen as part of the British Crown Jewels which are displayed in the Tower of London. The rest of the Cullinan diamond was cut into 11 smaller-weight stones and a number of fragments.

While the Cullinan diamond is the largest diamond ever found, there is a rumor that the man who discovered the diamond actually broke off part of the diamond before presenting it to the mine’s owner. This diamond, if the rumor is true, would have been 5,000 carats!

Read More...

30 How diamonds made

Diamonds form between 75-120 miles below the earth's surface. According to geologists the first delivery of diamonds was somewhere around 2.5 billion years ago and the most recent was 45 million years ago. The carbon that makes diamonds comes from the melting of pre-existing rocks in the Earth's upper mantle. There is an abundance of carbon atoms in the mantle. Temperature changes in the upper mantle forces the carbon atoms to go deeper where it melts and finally becomes new rock, when the temperature reduces. If other conditions like pressure and chemistry is right then the carbon atoms in the melting crystal rock bond to build diamond crystals.

There is no guarantee that these carbon atoms will turn into diamonds. If the temperature rises or the pressure drops then the diamond crystals may melt partially or totally dissolve. Even if they do form, it takes thousand of years for those diamonds to come anywhere near the surface.

It takes millions of years to make a diamond. When you own a diamond, you own something which is a legend in the making. It has not been made in a factory just the other day. A diamond comes from the bosom of the earth. More interestingly not all the diamonds mined are made into jewelry. Only one fourth of the diamonds that are mined are made into jewelry. Every 100 tons of mud produces one carat of a diamond. And this one carat is not one stone! It could be anything from 0.005 ct to 1 ct. because much of the original stone is cut away in the process of cutting, shaping and polishing the diamond.

Diamonds come in different rough shapes. The next time you look at your diamond, think about the amount of time, energy and resources have gone into making that one.

Read More...

4 Common and uncommon gemstones

Gemstones quite literally can take our breath away when we see them. Who hasn’t seen a beautiful diamond or sapphire ring and exclaimed over it? Is it only their beauty that makes them so valuable? Why else are they valuable to us?

Most gemstones are minerals that occur naturally in the earth. The most common is quartz, which is made of silicon and oxygen, two of the most common chemicals or substances on the planet. Even though most people don’t find such crystals unless specifically looking for it, it’s still relatively common in the gem world.

One quality that determines the value of a gem is how rare it is. A diamond, believe it or not, is actually a more common gemstone. However, the sales and distribution of diamonds are tightly controlled, which keeps the demand for diamonds of any characteristic in high value. Certainly perfect, flawless diamonds are truly rare, but diamonds themselves aren’t particularly rare.

Other gemstones are much rarer, such as sapphires and rubies, which are part of the beryl family of minerals. Rubies are rarer than sapphires and top quality colors in both are extremely rare.

A mineral called benitoite is found only in the San Benito valley in California, where only a few hundred carats of it are found each year. It is the state gem of California and is a hexagonal-shaped crystal. It can be cut and polished to produce sapphire-colored gemstone jewelry.

Some gems are even rarer than bentitoite. They’re so rare, that only three or four of them exist in the world. And the location where the gemstone was found can make a big difference as well. While peridot is a fairly common gem, there were actually several carats of peridot discovered in a meteorite, making that one of the rarest gems ever! Read More...

3 Gemstones are mineral crystals

What specifically are gems and gemstones? We know some of the most common ones – emeralds, rubies, sapphires and diamonds. But what exactly are they, how are they made and why we do we prize them so highly?

The International Gem Society defines a gem as “a mineral that has been chosen for its beauty and durability, then cut and polished for human adornment.”

Most gems are minerals. Others, like pearls or amber, are created from living organisms. Usually gems are of a color that mirrors other natural elements we consider beautiful or valuable. Emeralds mirror the lush green of plant life, sapphires are the color of the sky and rubies are a rich blood-red. There are variations in color in all of these gems, of course, and in diamonds, but those are the colors most normally associated with them. Diamonds can come in colors as well, with pink and canary diamonds being highly prized variants.

Most gems are hard and durable, although pearls can be easily damaged, as can opals and moonstones. Usually a gemstone has to be durable enough to wear as adornment, but others, while too soft to wear, are valued by collectors. Pearls can eventually disintegrate, even if all you do is wipe dust off them. And if you spray hairspray or perfume on them, this can also damage your pearls.

Opals are highly prized for their beauty and fire and make exquisite jewelry, but are extraordinarily susceptible to damage. They can shatter easily if dropped. And there’s a story of a woman who wore an opal brooch to a holiday party. When she left the warmth of the party to leave and the brooch experienced the sudden drop in temperature, it shattered, just like a glass that’s been heated and then cooled too quickly. Read More...

Minerals are crystals

The earliest forms of jewelry were items that early humans found naturally, such as shells or bits of bones. Early gravesites have also revealed that pre-historic man buried his dead with flowers and with carved ivory beads. These primitive beads would have taken at least an hour each to make.

Early man also might have found bits of turquoise that occurred naturally in areas of Turkey and North America. The pearlescent swirls found inside an abalone or conch would have also been used as jewelry.

They might have also found the earliest types of precious gems in the form of natural crystals, such as quartz or diamonds. Crystals are solid substances where the molecules are arranged in a symmetrical fashion, and they generally fall into one of six shapes:

Isometric, or cubic crystals are shaped like blocks and are symmetrically shaped. An example of an isometric crystal would be pyrite. This is also called fool’s gold because it has a metallic yellow or brassy color similar to gold.
Tetragonal, where the crystals are shaped like four-sided prisms and pyramids. An example of a tetragonal crystal is the zircon.
Hexagonal crystals are shaped like six-sided prisms, or pyramids. An example of this kind of crystal is the beryl, which includes gems like emeralds and aquamarines.
Orthorhombic crystals. An example of an orthorhombic crystal is topaz. Topaz can come in a variety of colors, although the mostly highly prized is a deep amber color. At one time, topaz was much more valuable, until rich veins of it were found in Brazil, which devalued the market.
Monoclinic crystals are short and stubby, with tilted faces at each end. Monoclinic crystals include gypsum.
Triclinic crystals are usually flat with sharp edges but no right angles. Each crystal has three unequal axes. An example of triclinic crystal is feldspar. Read More...

Palaeolithic age

As a species, we love to adorn ourselves with jewelry, makeup, hair accessories. We do it now to enhance our looks, to attract a mate and because it just makes us feel good about ourselves. Some forms of adornment are symbolic – like wedding rings. Or they’re used to make a statement about our lifestyle, like multiple piercings and earrings.

Have you ever wondered what the origins are of such self-decoration? Was there a meaning behind it? Or did we just start wearing beads, necklaces and earrings as our awareness of self increased and as we evolved?

We know that the earliest jewelry of bits of bones, shells and other personal adornments appeared in graves about 40,000 years ago. The idea that there was an afterlife, and the belief in spirits both good and bad, gave rise to the means to attract the good spirits and ward off the bad ones.

People protected themselves from evil spirits with adornments in the form of necklaces or bracelets, and pierced themselves with the same bones and shells to have these amulets on their persons at all times. At this time people also started painting their bodies with red ochre, which can be considered the earliest form of makeup. They also started lining their eyes with kohl to protect themselves against the force known as the “Evil Eye.”

Even today, much jewelry takes the form of amulets. People wear crosses around their necks, or the Star of David, or wear a claddagh ring – all to attract good fortune or ward off bad luck. There are even more throwbacks to this earliest form of magic, such as a lucky rabbit’s foot, or a lucky penny. Or we often have less well known, more personal amulets that have a meaning to us alone, but are still worn as good luck charms and amulets. Read More...

Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy for http://1st-in-diamond.blogspot.com/

If you require any more information or have any questions about our privacy policy, please feel free to contact us by email at globalsbrain@gmail.com.

At http://1st-in-diamond.blogspot.com/, the privacy of our visitors is of extreme importance to us. This privacy policy document outlines the types of personal information is received and collected by http://1st-in-diamond.blogspot.com/ and how it is used.

Log Files
Like many other Web sites, http://1st-in-diamond.blogspot.com/ makes use of log files. The information inside the log files includes internet protocol ( IP ) addresses, type of browser, Internet Service Provider ( ISP ), date/time stamp, referring/exit pages, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement around the site, and gather demographic information. IP addresses, and other such information are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable.

Cookies and Web Beacons
http://1st-in-diamond.blogspot.com/ does use cookies to store information about visitors preferences, record user-specific information on which pages the user access or visit, customize Web page content based on visitors browser type or other information that the visitor sends via their browser.

Some of our advertising partners may use cookies and web beacons on our site. Our advertising partners include Google Adsense, .

These third-party ad servers or ad networks use technology to the advertisements and links that appear on http://1st-in-diamond.blogspot.com/ send directly to your browsers. They automatically receive your IP address when this occurs. Other technologies ( such as cookies, JavaScript, or Web Beacons ) may also be used by the third-party ad networks to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements and / or to personalize the advertising content that you see.

http://1st-in-diamond.blogspot.com/ has no access to or control over these cookies that are used by third-party advertisers.

You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party ad servers for more detailed information on their practices as well as for instructions about how to opt-out of certain practices. http://1st-in-diamond.blogspot.com/'s privacy policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such other advertisers or web sites.

If you wish to disable cookies, you may do so through your individual browser options. More detailed information about cookie management with specific web browsers can be found at the browsers' respective websites. Read More...