Precious metals to complement diamonds

Diamonds are undoubtedly amongst the most stunning of precious gems. They ooze elegance and class, give off a fiery sparkle, and have a classic beauty that seems to be unrivalled by other precious stones. Diamonds are chosen for all sorts of items of jewellery these days, from engagement and wedding rings to necklaces, earrings, brooches, and even bridal headwear.

In order to make the most of the beauty of diamonds you need to make sure that you choose the right precious metal to surround the gem when buying your jewellery. The great thing about diamonds is that they look stunning in all precious metals, which gives you far more choice and flexibility when it comes to choosing the most suitable precious metal.

Popular choice for precious metals

Sterling silver: This may be an option for those that are on a budget, as it is cheaper than the other precious metals but still complements the diamond beautifully. Sterling silver is usually a combination of silver, which makes up the majority, and another metal such as copper. This metal may be ideal for those that are restricted in terms of budget, but it is important to remember that it can wear more quickly than the other precious metals.

Gold: If you want a really traditional look for your jewellery then gold is an excellent choice. Gold and diamonds work beautifully together, and this has made this a popular choice of precious metal over the years. It is worth noting, however, that gold is classed as a soft metal, and this means that it can dent and scratch more easily.

White gold: Whilst gold continues to be popular amongst the older generation many younger people these days have taken to white gold. This offers the same quality as you would get with gold and a similar look to platinum but at a much cheaper price. White gold is perfect for setting off the sparkle of a diamond, hence its popularity. However, you should note that it is sometimes combined with nickel, which could result in allergic reactions.

Platinum: For those who have a larger budget platinum could be the perfect complement for your diamond. The mirror sheen and sparkle of platinum matches perfectly with the fire and sparkle of a diamond, and the two look absolutely stunning together. However, it can be expensive compared to the other metals and therefore way beyond the budget of many people.

The Basics of Diamond Manufacturing

Few people looking for a diamond ring realize the elaborate process entailed in the manufacturing of the ring. This process usually involves advanced machinery, and must take into consideration countless aspects, such as proportions, symmetry, size, color, clarity, brilliance, weight and inclusions.

The first stage is the measuring and analysis of the rough stone. This can be done by advanced software accompanied by a HR viewing system. This software gives you a 3D image of the rough stone, and provides all the cutting options of the diamond, taking into account any inclusions, such as holes and grooves, and provides you with different possibilities for polishing. This way you can gain the most profit from the stone. The information you get is the shape of the planned polished diamond, the number of stones you can achieve from one single rough diamond, and the estimated value of the polished stone based on Rapaport standards. The information is presented in charts and diagrams, so it is very clear and enables you to make the smartest decisions.

After deciding on the shape and size of your stone, the next stage is to mark the stone for sawing and polishing. With today's advanced technology, this is usually done with a laser marker for maximum accuracy. The marking is done with the aid of suitable lenses and internal led lighting, and you can view the 3D analysis of the stone during the entire process and make changes accordingly.

Following the designing and marking of the stone, it can be shaped by a green laser sawing & shaping machine, which is the best solution for smooth surface sawing. The sawing is done in accordance with the laser marking lines.

Once the diamond is cut and polished, it can be measured again, but this time for a different purpose. The software measures all the different aspects of the stone, such as facet symmetry, proportions, clarity, color and weight, and based on its analysis it produces a special certificate of authenticity.

The certificate of authenticity can be upgraded with laser inscription on the diamond's girdle. This is usually an inscription of a serial number, to prove ownership and to prevent counterfeiting. After the inscription is made, a snapshot is taken and it can be uploaded to the certificate. Some people like to inscribe more romantic things, such as dedications, words of love or secret messages (The inscription cannot be seen with the naked eye, but with a special loupe).

For more information on the fascinating world of diamond manufacturing, you are
invited to-
http://networkedblogs.com/dogRi
http://www.ogisystems.com/index.html
http://www.ogisystems.com/index.html

Tips on how to buy reasonably priced yellow diamonds

Yellow diamonds have the ability to reflect the most delightful light and many claim that this light magnifies the aura of the wearer. Maybe this is one of the reasons why yellow diamonds are increasing in popularity.

Not so long ago the yellow diamond was considered less pure compared with white diamonds, however, the market has shifted and yellow diamonds are now highly sought after. It just takes a few celebrities to wear something and a new trend starts and prices begin to escalate.

However, some yellow diamonds are not so expensive as the price totally depends on the intensity of yellow plus the modifying color. If your budget is low then you could actually find a reasonably priced yellow diamond among the lighter colors. See the below chart to get a better understanding of the color grades.

Note that the lower the grade the lower the price tag and that 1 = low and 8 = high.

1. Very Light (Y-Z)
2. Light
3. Fancy Light
4. Fancy
5. Fancy Dark
6. Fancy Deep
7. Fancy Intense
8. Fancy Vivid

You can save even further if you buy your fancy color diamond directly from the wholesaler instead of buying from a retail store. Obviously stores have their own massive overheads and they must add these expenses to the price of the jewelry they sell.

Returning to the color, it should be noted that Fancy Intense Diamonds and Fancy Vivid Yellow diamonds possess much more of the yellow color and therefore they become much more expensive. Some of you may have heard the term Canary Yellow Diamonds. Some of the Fancy Intense Yellow and Fancy Vivid Yellow are given this name due to their spectacular color. If you have the budget and you want the most spectacular yellow diamond then you would definitely want to look for a Canary Yellow Diamond.

If you are planning on having your yellow diamond set into a ring it is very important to remember that no matter which color metal you prefer, the border of metal surrounding your diamond should be in yellow gold. This will make you diamond appear bigger and more spectacular.

So in short, in order to buy a yellow diamond within your budget you should aim for a lighter shade of yellow and buy your diamond directly from the wholesaler.

The Great Diamond Crash

If I had to take a guess, I would estimate that there are over one billion carats of diamonds in the hands of consumers. That is over 100 times the annual consumption gobbled up for weddings, anniversaries, birthdays and even Super Bowl rings. The diamond markets for consumers exist in two categories; commercial grade (bluff stones) and non-commercial (the good stuff). A good diamond is defined as a “diamond that will hold its value and/or appreciate in value over time.” The current “cut rate” (distribution of commercial to non-commercial diamonds) is 49 to 1. For every good diamond that is sold in the US there are 49 crummy (commercial) ones. The average resale value of a commercial grade diamond is 19.7% of the original dollars paid; the average resale value of a non-commercial grade diamond is 85%– worst case, 60%; best case, 100% or better. Diamonds have never been considered an investment instrument after one billion dollars was lost by consumers buying diamonds as a hedge against inflation in 1980.
But, it appears some lessons aren’t easily learned. For anyone who has been paying attention, you would have noticed that large, investment grade (IF, VVS1, VVS2 & D, E, F) diamonds have been sky rocketing in prices! Currently a 5ct D,IF is selling for over 3/4 of a million dollars. That’s about double what it was just a few years ago. However, we don’t have to look hard to see other commodities mimicking the same exponential, unrealistic growth. Oil, gold, platinum, rice, wheat, etc… everything is up! Way up! The question is this: is this the new reality or have we fallen down the rabbit hole? The prices people are paying for some diamonds is reflecting a market mania. The current diamond climate is creating a craze very similar to the tulip mania in the early 1600s in Amsterdam. Believe it or not, back then, at the height of the mania, a tulip went for $76,000 a bulb! Six weeks after smart money got out, the price had fallen to a dollar!
Within 12 months there are going to be a lot of sad people sitting on a lot of big investment grade diamonds that will be worth a fraction of what they paid. My advice is this: for the next year, stay away from 2ct+ investment grade diamonds unless you are willing to be a statistic in the great diamond crash of 2009. If you are going to buy a 2ct non-commercial rock that isn’t investment grade, you will still have to pay at least 20% more than what its cash liquidity is worth! That said, if the world ever wakes up and realizes that nobody really needs a diamond and everyone goes to the market to sell at the same time, tulips and diamonds will have more in common than being pretty; they’ll both be a cautionary tale.
by Fred Cuellar, author of the best-selling book “How to Buy a Diamond.”
More questions? Ask the Diamond Guy®
Reference:

NBC Nightly News April 19,2009

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Bonded Diamonds: Diamonds for the “Conceptual Age”

It’s April 7th, 10:40AM. Good morning or good _________(fill in the blank) wherever you are right now in the future. I say future because as I write this newsletter, it dawned on me that these words will not be received, heard, or read until sometime in the future, if ever! But I’ll press on anyway.
We do this all the time—talk, write, create, destroy hoping and praying to be noticed; hoping to be heard. When others give us compliments, we feel good; ignored we feel bad. Why do we give that power to others, the ability to affect us? Employed we have self-worth. Lose our jobs, we feel worthless. Why is our happiness dependent on others? How well do you treat yourself? You can be kind to yourself, you know? Some people say “I’ve been really beating myself up over ________ (fill in the blank). Really? Beating yourself up? Worrying? Complaining? As Doctor Phil would say, “How’s that working for you?” The solutions may be found in the new “Conceptual Age”.

The “Conceptual Age” is defined as an era of creativity, innovation and design. As Daniel Pink says in his book, The Whole New Mind,“Answers need more problems!” That’s what the “Conceptual Age” represents! It’s about being able to see the book, not just as a source of knowledge, but as a paperweight, a source of energy (burn it to stay warm), a hat, a bullet-proof vest or even a door stop. We need our answers to solve more problems. We need to see the book as more than just a book. A diamond can no longer be just a diamond—not in this day and age. We expect more from things. A toaster can’t just be a toaster! Any toaster can do that! It has to be a thing of beauty! Heck, it spends 99% of its time just sitting around doing nothing. It might as well look beautiful while it sits on your counter top! If you can’t see a toaster as art and art as toaster, you haven’t joined the “Conceptual Age”. You are still stuck in the “Information Age”, where everything was safe and linear. A problem had one solution. Very, very safe. Don’t want to get hit? Stop moving! Want to be safe? Be perfectly still! Quite the paradox. Static was the old safe. Momentum, frequency, vibration, sound, harmony and symphony are the new. Creating chaos to find order and center. This is the new reality. Our “Conceptual Age” fully bonded diamond now is beauty, durability, symmetry, meaning, value, story, safe haven, flexibility, liquidity, nest egg, college fund, retirement fund, rainy day fund, get-out-of-jail-free card, life saver, new car, new job, starting over, upgrade, downgrade, save a life, define a life, make a life, and more. Now quite simply a fully bonded diamond isn’t just carbon from the earth. A fully bonded diamond doesn’t just make a connection; it defines it. It expands it! It grows with you. It goes with you! It is a part of you! A fully bonded diamond, like true love, doesn’t come with rules, regulations, or limits! It is endless, indefinable, and unpredictable—it flows! Any diamond can take you from A to B. That’s yesterday’s Newtonian diamond. Only a fully bonded diamond can take you anywhere you want to go!

Yesterday’s diamond could only be a diamond—one that depreciated with time like a used car. Today’s fully bonded diamond is ready to be whatever you want it to be. As time goes by, maybe it will be a bigger diamond, or maybe you will transform it into a down payment on your dream home! Only a fully bonded diamond can be anything you want it to be because it is the only diamond in the world that is liquid!

Anybody can own a diamond. Not everyone can own the future!

P.S. Remember, “you are the master of your fate; the captain of your soul.” Invictus by William Ernest Henley.


by Fred Cuellar, author of the best-selling book “How to Buy a Diamond.” More questions? Ask the Diamond Guy®

Don’t Force It! (Pre Fab Isn’t Fab)

Ninety percent of all jewelry sold in the United States is prefabricated. Let’s see what Webster has to say. Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the word Prefabricate as follows:

Function: transition verb
Date: 1932
1: to fabricate the parts of at a factory so that construction consists mainly of assembling and uniting standardized parts.
2: to produce artificially

Think about it! Ninety percent of all the settings that hold our diamonds and gemstones are manufactured PRIOR to knowing what diamonds or gemstones are going to go in it! That’s life in the 21st century—picking out a frame for a newly discovered DaVinci without bothering to ask the exact dimensions. That’s Crazy! But, I’ll keep going! All this Prefab jewelry is mass produced in such great quantities, (#1 goal being profit) that any decent quality control to insure against under-carating of the quality of the gold or precious metal is thrown out with the baby and the bath water! Prongs that should be hand rolled for durability and strength are plucked out of an assembly line machine losing an incredible amount of tensile strength (that’s what keeps your rocks in place)! Of course even under the most optimal conditions, using a Master Craftsman & Master Stone Setter, damage is possible but why would we want to increase the odds of an accident by over twenty times?! We might as well text and drive with an open container in the car! All right, don’t get me started! Here are the facts:
1) Prefab jewelry is a lot less expensive upfront but will cost you more on the back side with costly repairs.
2) Prefab jewelry is ordered out of a catalog so you may get it quick and fast but you aren’t buying something meant to last.
3) Prefab jewelry serves a place in our society the same way a place holder does. It’s a good band-aid until you know exactly what you want your dream piece of jewelry to look like.
4) Custom made jewelry is more expensive (but not unaffordable like some jewelers want you to believe) but will more than pay for itself when it lasts generations not
months!
Here’s how you protect yourself:
1) Ask the jeweler if the ring was Prefabricated by him or anyone else.
2) If the ring was Prefabricated and you are willing to roll the dice with prongs that have been FORCED out of place to fit stones that were jammed into them, what guarantees does the jeweler provide when the little sparkly beauties start jumping ship?
3) If they say the ring is custom made will they put it in writing and guarantee any stone loss (Large main stones must be covered under a personal floater policy) as long as you bring it in for scheduled maintenance?
4) Did the jeweler attempt to show and sell you a setting first and then ask you to pick out the main stone? * Never put the cart before the horse!
5) And finally, how long did the process take from start to finish? If it took days and not weeks with several visits, I’m sorry my friend, you just bought a Prefabricated piece of jewelry and as the story goes “Prefab aint Fab!”
by Fred Cuellar, author of the best-selling book “How to Buy a Diamond.” More questions? Ask the Diamond Guy®

The Health of Your Jeweler

In the last two and a half years one out of every seven jewelers has gone out of business! Generations of jewelers have been wiped off the face of the map because they were ill-prepared for the next tidal wave of consumerism—Twitter, text message, Facebook, etc. connected consumers that don’t care what the old way to do business is because they want to buy their way on their schedule! Jewelers who had legions of fans have been left in the Sahara Desert as their fast track-spending baby boomers are off searching for the meaning of life and have put away their pocket books and wallets! Of the remaining jewelers, half are on life support betting on Christmas! If Santa appears, they may squeak by with their lives. If not? It’s Sayonara! Arrivederci! After the next 3 months, we will have a pretty good idea of which jewelers are going to survive and which ones will join the Tyrannosaurus Rex!

As a consumer here is what you have to be on the look out for:
1) Promises that seem too good to be true! If the jeweler keeps lowering the price until you buy he’s not going to be around tomorrow!
2) The lack of non-bonded diamonds; the bonding of commercial diamonds. If the jeweler is offering a lifetime buyback guarantee on crummy diamonds, it’s because they are just dynamiting the pond to get the most money in their pocket before they go out of business. Of course, they don’t have to worry about keeping a promise if they close up and leave town after the sale.
3) Over-stocked Cases! Desperate jewelers bring in a lot of jewelry on consignment that they haven’t paid for yet hoping to make a quick sale! If they sell it to you and they go out of business with out paying their bills you are in possession of stolen merchandise!
4) How long the jeweler has been in business now is irrelevant! Legacy jewelers are dropping like flies. Look for the little things like small repairs that haven’t been made, lights out in cases or outdoor signs that haven’t been replaced. Out of date décor. Does the place have a current minimalism look or old fashion iron stands behind the cases approach?
5) Look at the age of the jewelers. If everyone serving you is older than dirt there is a good chance there is a hole in the desert six feet deep that the company is going to be dropped into.
Are the sales people a little eager like their life depends on it or do they give you room to breathe? If they crowd you it’s because they are missing the crowds!
6) Flat out ask them if their diamonds come with “certificates” guaranteeing the diamond? If they say yes run for the hills! The FTC has deregulated lab reports to not be responsible for the exact accuracy of their grades as long as disclaimers are present! If the jeweler is telling you a piece of paper stands behind their diamonds and not the jeweler himself, you are talking to a dinosaur.
7) Does the jeweler have a social media director? If they don’t they are in the dark ages and will soon be left in the dark.
Do they try to make the sale today vs. giving you time to make your decision? If they’re rushing you they are hunting for cash.
9) And finally, who do you know of your friends that have recently bought from the jeweler? If you can’t quickly Facebook your friends and find at least a half a dozen happy customers it’s because they don’t have any!
The health of the “business as usual” jeweler is critical. They are on life support and if they are on life support, how are they going to be around to support you?

by Fred Cuellar, author of the best-selling book “How to Buy a Diamond.” More questions? Ask the Diamond Guy®