BLUE DIAMOND
Blue is one of the rare and most desirable colors. Natural blue diamonds are so rare that most jewelers have perhaps ever seen one. Quality for quality, fancy blue diamond is comparatively more expensive than ordinary near-colorless ones.
Besides blue color, other color diamonds are mined, cut and shaped to bring its inherent brilliance and sparkling shine. It is the ability and ingenuity of the professional cutter who brings the magnificent multiple cuts and shapes to its perfection, as value of each piece is determined on the final outcome besides the purity factor.
In any piece of color diamonds, the higher is the intensity, the more valuable it becomes. These precious gems come in various color range from colorless to white and yellow to brown. There also come in other intense colors like orange, pink, green or black. All colored diamonds including blue diamond are priced according to its characteristics like cut, carat, clarity, color and shapes.
Of white diamonds the most valuable is the colorless gem, which is called a D color. The total value range is from D to Z that is yellow.
Hope diamond is displayed in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., is the most famous blue diamond in the world, and the largest at 45.52 carats. It is believed to be more than a billion years old and was mined originally from India.
Other Diamond Colors:
Jewelry designers started using black diamonds widely only a few years ago. For contrast, they are usually combined with other gems usually white diamonds and set in platinum or white gold.
White diamonds are actually colorless and clear. By far the mot popular gemstones, they come from mines all over the world, in many different shapes, sizes and levels of quality.
Yellow or canary, these are the most popular and expensive colored diamonds and range from pale to bright. They are often set in yellow gold to intensify their color.
Pink diamonds were extremely rare but are now very popular, and still expensive; they range from pale seashell to raspberry and are usually set in pink gold.
Green diamonds - gems for the collector are very rare and very expensive. The colors range from brass-green to green-yellow.
The least pricey, brown diamonds come in champagne cognac and cocoa. Bright yellow gold, blackened silver and black rhodium platinum is the most common settings for them.
The high-end buyers who are looking for its pure beauty, quality and exclusiveness typically seek blue diamond.
.: PURE DIAMONDS :.
What should you know before selecting diamond?
Most of the customers usually do not have the experience when it comes to choosing a diamond of fine quality. Though it is not hard yet it is overwhelming. There are few important things to keep in mind before buying
diamond. Get yourself familiarize yourself first with so called four C's of diamond. What are 4 C’s? They stand for color, cut, clarity and carat.
These four C's are the most important determining factors when choosing diamond as each one of these plays their own part in the end conclusion of buying fine quality diamond.
All jewelers examine the diamond for its quality with a loupe to have a closer, magnified look at the stone. Customers must also prefer to look at the diamond and pay close attention to the facets. Their symmetry should be very precise. The preciseness of the cut is what determines the diamond fire and its brilliance. If a diamond is nicely cut, it will have a good reflection of light. This reflection of light on the cut surface – facet will give the sparkling and glittering appearance. In a well-cut diamond, light enters the diamond and reflects straight back to the viewer's eye. Some cutters will sacrifice cut to create the largest possible diamond, thus making too shallow or too deep of a cut and causing light to "leak" out the sides and bottom of the diamond. Cut is graded Ideal, Premium, Very Good, Good, Fair, and Poor.
Similarly the color of a diamond can vary too. The ideal diamond color is clear white. They can however, range from clear white, to yellow, to brown. The color chart range from D thru Z, D being the best, Z being the lowest.
Clarity of any diamond piece when examined carefully will reveal the internal and external flaws it has. Since there is practically no such thing as a perfect diamond in the world, but still some diamond will assuredly have minor to few degree of flaws. Certificate of authenticity given by the jewelers should give you the details of how many flaws the diamond has. If there were a dark or a cloudy spot inside the diamond which is called an inclusion or if there is a pit, polish line, or scratch on the outer surface this would be a blemish.
Diamond frequently has inclusions, or small flaws, air bubbles, scratches, or other minerals inside the diamond. The less inclusions a diamond has, the more valuable it is, and the more beautiful it is. Here is the general scale for grading diamond's clarity is:
F Flawless: means no internal or external inclusions.
IF Internally Flawless: No internal inclusions but slight external inclusions.
VVS1-VVS2: Very Very Slight inclusions - minute inclusions that are nearly difficult to detect under 10x magnification, even by an experienced appraiser/grader.
VS1-VS2: Very Slight inclusions - minute inclusions that are invisible to the naked eye and seen only with difficulty under 10x magnification.
SI 1-SI 2: Slightly Included - invisible to the naked eye, yet easily seen by an experienced appraiser/grader under 10x magnification.
I1-I3 Included: inclusions are visible to the naked eye and affect brilliance.
Stones that are VVS2 to F are very rare and thus very expensive. Most couples will opt for something between SI 2 and VS1, and will never know the difference.
Lastly, the fourth C is the diamonds caret weight. It determines the overall size of any diamond. Normally bigger the size, higher goes the price of a diamond but that may not be true all the times. Small size diamond with very fine cuts. hardly any spot on it and very clear and sparkling piece may command higher price than the larger size with lots of blemishes.
It is common practice to ask that an independent international laboratory such as GIA, EGL, DCLA, HRD, IGI, and AGS certify the diamond. When you buy a diamond, it should be accompanied with a certificate of authenticity. This should list the four C's and state the approximate retail value of the stone. Be sure you get a certificate and make your own comparisons between what it says and the diamond itself.
