By Paul J Easton

The diamond is the hardest natural substance known to man, produced by eons of high pressure and temperature extremes inside the earth.

What is a simple carbon atom is transformed a complex crystalline lattice structure which has a lot of top-notched qualities that include durability, being chemically resistant, its light dispersion and refraction properties, as well as its abilities to scratch metals.

That is why the diamond one of the best known and most sought after precious gem.

What we mostly know about the diamond today is what we have learned through advertising and the movie industry. In the jewelry industry, diamonds are the most popular, making more money than all the other gemstones combined. Part of its popularity is because of its high luster qualities, a natural property of the diamond that is enhanced by the expertise of a diamond cutter.

Diamonds in the jewelry business are most popularly used in engagement or wedding rings, although it has been used in many other jewelry forms as well. Diamonds are usually set in metals that emphasize its natural beauty and sparkle, most common of which are white gold, yellow gold and platinum.

But diamonds have other practical uses as well. Actually, more of these gems are used in industrial applications, rather than in the jewelry making business, as not a lot of natural diamonds found in mines are suitable as gemstones.

Synthetic diamonds, or those that are man-made in a laboratory, are also produced to meet the demands of industrial use. These uses are mainly the following:

- cutting and grinding tools such as drill bits and saws
- abrasives that cut and polish other materials, including other gemstones
- fine engraving tools with detailed precision
- coatings for files
- semiconductor coatings and materials for microchips and computer processors.
- laser components for precise and durable optical equipment
- windows that are used to cover openings of lasers, x-rays and vacuum chambers
- speaker domes that enhance the performance of high quality speakers
- heat sinks to conduct heat away from sensitive parts of high performance microelectronics
- low friction micro-bearings placed in tiny mechanical devices like watches

The diamond is a versatile material that can be a thing of beauty or an object of practical application. As this industry is worth billions of dollars in economic trade, the diamond is also of big use to the global market. In addition to diamond miners, buyers, jewelers and designers, many other people base their livelihood on the state of the diamond industry.

It looks like the diamond is here to stay forever. And who knows what other uses it can be designed for in the future.

With increasing research and synthetic production, innovative companies might be able to further expand the use of the diamond in the fields of medical care, particularly that of prosthetics and surgery, in computer technology, acoustic and communication instrumentation, and others.

By Kevin Stith

Pink loose diamonds are amongst the exceptional and most valuable diamonds. Manufactures normally pick them for different purposes. Some might fix them on engagement rings where as some others might put in bracelets, necklaces or even earrings. Since there are only a few people who can afford these loose pink diamonds. There can always be a possibility for replicas of these, one of a kind diamond. It is always advisable to not go for the cheap loose diamonds, as there is always a possibility of them being false.

Many online sites are available that give detailed information, about the places from where a person can purchase loose pink diamonds. These are precious and exorbitantly priced. Many famous personalities order for a customized diamond ring, which has a carved pink diamond. Some people might also like it on their watch. These loose pink diamonds sparkle and are stunning to look at. They look even more stunning when they are fixed on earrings or necklaces. Even fake pink diamonds can look like the genuine pink diamonds. It is important to check the status of the jeweler before indulging in buying these loose diamonds.

Many people consider pink diamonds to be the ultimate embellishment for a woman. Pink diamonds are an incredible heirloom that can be passed down for generations. These diamonds are a timeless classic ornament. According to most of the people it is something that can never go out of style, and is most sought among all colors of diamonds.

It is always advisable to pick a jeweler with a good reputation. It is also important to ask a lot of questions to the people selling the diamond, and get them to spend time explaining the diamond being bought. It is most essential to look at the center stone under a microscope with a jeweler loupe. Pink loose stones are one of the investments of a lifetime, so it is important to check the diamond shape and clarity.

By Jason Markum

Investing in stock market is no piece of cake. In fact many individual investors have gotten burned on the stock market in recent years, and I won’t even mention the massive near crash of the stock market during the recession of 2008 to 2010 in which the savings and retirement plans of millions of investors were nearly wiped out overnight.

And if the stock market wasn’t bad enough, there’s inflation to worry about as well! With the current recession, the government has been printing money like never before which many experts believe will lead to runaway inflation throughout the years to come.

Many investors like to investing in gold as a hedge against inflation but the fact of the matter is, diamonds can also be a nice investment to hedge against inflation and the vagaries of the stock market.

It seems like most investors don’t know anything about diamonds or how to invest in them. Gold is fairly easy to invest in and fairly easy to research whereas diamonds are a whole different beast.

In this article today I’m going to give you several tips about how to purchase diamonds as well as how to sell them in case you want to cash in on your investment.

The first tip that I have about investing in diamonds is to tell you to only only only deal with a reputable firm. If at all possible only deal with a firm that has been in business for at least 15 years. It can be heartbreaking to purchase diamonds from a new company only to find out that the company has gone out of business several months later. You don’t want to find yourself in that situation.

Next I recommend that whenever you buy diamonds ask for a 30 day refund policy. Diamonds aren’t like cars that decrease in value the second you drive them off the lot. A diamond is forever as the saying goes, so a reputable firm should have no problem offering you a 30 day trial period. Be sure to understand thoroughly the liquidation policy that the company you work with has in place before you buy your diamond.

Next you should really know exactly what you are buying. Be sure to ask for a trade laboratory report issued by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). These guys are the most respected laboratory for gems and their reports are recognized everywhere in the world. Three gemologists will judge your stone’s color, clarity, weight, and cut and describe them in detail.

Many of these reports will also list price comparisons to other diamonds of equal grade. This is a great way to determine whether or not you are being overcharged and another great reason why you should always insist on seeing the GIA report before you purchase.

Hopefully these several tips are enough to send you on your way down the path to diamond ownership. Diamonds can be a great investment and have proven their worth many times over throughout history in times of turmoil as well as times of peace and prosperity.

By R Govindan

Did you know that that diamonds can also be sold as a wholesale product, which is almost similar to how the food or industrial products are being sold?

It doesn’t mean these diamonds are of lesser quality. It’s just that the diamonds are sold at affordable and cheaper prices these days that even a common man can afford it. The same products which you get to see on the websites are found in the regular diamonds jewelry stores.

In the past, buying a diamond wasn’t as easy as it is today. The advent of internet has maximized the supply chain and many wholesale diamonds jewelry dealers are now ready to sell their items straight to the customers.

The diamond wholesale dealers offer diamonds to the customers at very lesser prices, when compared to the prices at the local retails shops.

Most of the customers who reach out to the diamond wholesalers are usually the retailers.
They get a good price on their purchase depending upon the purchase volumes. It gives them a decent room to make profit by selling it out in the retail outlets or on their websites.

Now with the common man gaining access to the wholesale dealers, the retailers cannot enjoy the monopoly over the product. The competition and information exchange has actually benefited the end user since the retailers cannot overprice their products due to the fear of losing out on sales to their competition.

One of the biggest disadvantages of wholesale diamond jewelry is that the people are apprehensive about the quality of the diamond, since it is offered at a lower price.

It is very important for you to gain good knowledge about the diamonds before you venture out to buy diamonds from a wholesale dealer. Make sure the diamond company provides proper authentication information or certification on the product and its genuineness.

Precautions to be taken while selecting Wholesaler:

While selecting a cheap wholesale jewelry supplier for buying diamond make sure you deal with a company which offers a guarantee for the product and good after sales service. You need to ensure that you don’t choose any product just based on the product.

How to get the best deal?

Are the diamond wholesalers in the market providing you the right diamonds?

How do you find it out?
Just follow the simple steps. The value of the diamond would depend on its quality. The value of the diamond drops significantly even due to smallest of defects.
However, even tough there are no defects in a diamond the value would differ due to various reasons.

The main factors that determine the price of the diamond are:

1. Cut
2. Clarity
3. Color
4. Carat Weight

Make sure your wholesale diamond jewelry dealer discloses accurate information to you before they sell the product.

Since diamonds are normally high priced products, it is very important for you to make purchases from the authentic sources that provide you with the proper certification on the products they sell.

Other expenditures would be:

Freight: you need to see if the cost includes freight, and you’ll also need to check if your dealer requires any other documents from your end.
Insurance: Even if your buy diamonds in lesser volumes, the buying of diamonds would attract unwanted risks. It’s always better to have insurance against theft.
The wholesale diamond merchants should clearly mention the costs involved until the point of delivery
Make sure you follow the above precautions while buying diamonds from a wholesale dealer in order to avoid any stress after the purchase.

By Sarah Reddingworth

Would you like to make savings when buying diamonds? It makes sense, especially considering the price of diamonds! In this article, we will look at solutions to saving, while staying safe in the process.

There are all different ways to buy diamonds. For most people, the process begins in a jewelry store. There is a selection, you find what you want, you buy, and then you have diamonds!

Though this is a method that works, it usually also comes with full recommended retail prices. One solution is to visit several stores, and find the best prices.

Another solution is mail order or direct mail. Advertisements for jewelry can often be seen around the various media. It can be a great route to saving, but often selection is limited to a few items.

There needs to be a better solution, and it does exist. The internet is truly a great route to making things happen.

Take a look online, and you can find many stores. These stores often have the best prices.

The time is takes to visit a store, you could research several stores online. In the process, you could have found big savings.

The process is one I suggest, however, before buying, let us look at some tips to staying safe. The first thing you need to consider, is the use of an association.

In most countries there is an association that deals with jewelry stores, to make sure there is a standard of quality and honesty. Seeing these logo’s and emblems is the first key to knowing that you can purchase the product.

By Jan Rooss

Whether you want to buy loose diamonds to put in an engagement ring setting, earrings, necklace or bracelet this article will give you a few tips on what to look out for when making your purchase.

The first thing you need to do is study the 4 C’s of diamonds a bit. The 4 C’s stands for color, cut, clarity and carat and is used to determine the quality of a diamond. The better the quality of a diamond is the more it costs and the better it looks as well.

If you put two diamonds next to each other. One is bigger than the other but the smaller one is of better quality you will choose the smaller one every time because it will have much more sparkle and brilliance than the bigger one. That is my first tip for you. Make sure you educate yourself about the quality of diamonds first, before buying loose diamonds. This way you will also know that you won’t pay too much for the diamonds which can easily happen if you are not educated.

The second tip is to go and compare the top online wholesale dealers in high quality GIA Certified diamonds with each other. You will be surprised to see the huge price differences out there. The internet is the best place to buy loose diamonds by far because these dealers have thousands of loose diamonds to choose from, they sell them wholesale and regular brick and mortar companies just can’t compete.

There you have it, If you just study the 4 C’s of diamonds bit and then compare the online jewelers against each other you are sure to find a great diamond at a great price.

By Elizabeth Henderson

Colored diamonds amount to less than one carat in 10,000 carats of all mined diamonds. They are very rare. However, because they exhibit the wonderful color saturation and hues of less expensive colored gemstones, but still have the brilliance of diamonds, they are like two gemstones in one. All of this makes them much sought after.

To meet demand for what it a very rare gemstone, gemologists developed techniques where by high pressures and temperatures are applied to clean but poor color diamonds, to enhance their natural hues in exactly the same way that Mother Nature first produced the nature fancy colored diamonds. These practice is so common that unless the colored diamond has a prohibitively high price tag (and I mean really high), the gemstone will have been treated to bring out the natural hues to perfection. This does not mean that the diamond is a fake. The treatment process mimics Nature’s own and is considered to be totally permanent. So even if the jewelry piece needs repairing at some point in the future, the color of the diamond will remain.

If the diamond has been mined, it is a real diamond. Period.

However, there are laboratory created diamonds, which have been developed to mimic colored fancy diamonds. Because these diamonds have not been mined, they are not genuine diamonds. Make sure you ask about the origin of the diamond and ask for a certificate to validate the gemstone.

Like white diamonds, all fancy diamonds are graded according to the 4Cs. These are carat, cut, color and clarity. Cut and carat weight classifications are the same as for white gemstones, but there are slightly different considerations for clarity and color.

The clarity of colored diamonds is generally lower than that of white diamonds. In fact, translucent to transparent stones are very rare. However, the clarity does not matter as much for colored diamonds, if the color saturation is good. If you are looking for a fancy diamond, included stones are often perfectly fine.

Unlike white diamonds, colored gemstones are graded in terms of how much color they do have, rather than how much they do NOT have. For fancies, the deeper the hue, the better the gemstone. And if the hue is deep enough, internal flaws are harder or impossible to see, so the clarity of the gemstone becomes less important.

By Elizabeth Henderson

Colored diamonds are high fashion nowadays. The trend for wearing them started on the celebrity Red Carpet, and when A-list figures, such as Jennifer Lopez and Victoria Beckham received pink diamond engagement and eternity rings, interest peaked. And where the celebrities go, everyday fashion follows. But most colored diamonds these days do not have celebrity price tags. This is because they are normally treated by irradiation and temperature. So does this mean they are fake diamonds?

Although most diamonds are colorless, fancy colored diamonds do form naturally in the Earth’s crust. But they are incredibly rare. Natural fancies get their color hues from different trace elements present within the crystal structure of the diamond. Trace nitrogen produces yellow diamonds. Other trace elements produce different colors including red, green, yellow, orange, blue, pink, purple and violet as well as many shades in between, and the color can be intense (saturated) or faint.

But their very rarity makes natural fancies prohibitively expensive for many. In fact some of the most famous diamonds in the world are natural fancies. The fabled Hope diamond, for example, is one of the most perfect examples of a blue diamond. The Tiffany diamond is yellow. Both are priceless.

To satisfy the demand for the stunning look of a fancy, but at more affordable prices, gemologists have pioneered techniques to enable them to create affordable gemstones. This is now normal practice for most colored diamonds found in jewelry today. The process is known as color enhancement and involves treating clean diamonds with a combination of irradiation and safe electron accelerator technology (intense heat) to replicate exactly the process by which Mother Nature forms fancy diamonds, only much quicker! This process enhances natural diamonds to intense hues but does not alter, dissipate or hide internal flaws.

The process yields a myriad of stunning colors including blue, green, red, orange, yellow, pink, purple and black diamonds, all of which are considered permanent.

These are real, mined diamonds, which have been treated with exactly the same conditions radiation and high temperature conditions that would have produced a natural fancy in the Earth’s crust. They are in every sense, real diamonds. The real beauty and popularity of these gemstones lies in the fact that they combine the unmistakable dazzle and brilliance of a diamond with the color saturation of colored gems, like rubies and emeralds.

Author: Jam

Aside from white, diamonds are also found in shades of yellow, brown, red, purple, blue and green. The color can be either natural or artificial.

fancy color diamonds get their coloring in different ways. The color can be due to trace elements present in the stones, such as nitrogen, which produces a yellow diamond. The diamond may have been exposed to radiation during its creation; green diamonds are an example of gems affected by radiation. Inclusions, regarded as undesirable in a colorless stone, often contribute unique tones and interesting flashes of color in a fancy color diamond.

It is possible to enhance or change the natural color of a diamond. Fancy color diamonds are becoming increasingly popular, so gemologists have developed ways to create affordable versions by using heat and radiation to turn brownish and yellow diamonds into colorful show-stoppers, at an affordable price.

Treatments make it possible for more consumers to own these vivid diamonds, because most natural colored diamonds are rare and expensive. It is best to assume that any affordable fancy color diamond has been treated in some way. If there are questions as to a stone’s origins, ask for a lab certificate to verify its authenticity. If a colored diamond is offered a bargain price, it is safe to assume the color is synthetic.

Author: Morgan

As long as they look fabulous, I don’t mind the brand that is attached to my necklaces, earrings, and rings. At least that was how I felt until I found out about Cartier jewelry.

Of course, I had heard about Cartier jewelry before, and have even observed a few pieces from their collection. I always thought that they would be too expensive for me. However, one day I was able to examine some Cartier jewelry up close and I was able to take a peek at the price tag. I was surprised that even though the price was high, it certainly wasn’t extremely expensive. I mean, I wouldn’t have to file for bankruptcy to be able to buy the necklace or anything like that. As a result, I decided to buy that special necklace.

The necklace made me feel special every time I wear it. Like all Cartier jewelry, my necklace was luxurious, stylish, and elegant. I was very impressed by the sheer beauty and excellent craftsmanship of my necklace. Because I prefer to have variety in my jewelry, I own a bunch of necklaces. But I find myself wearing my new necklace all the time. I wore it when I visit the church, at my workplace, on special occasions, and even when I go on informal occasions with my friends. After a few weeks, I wanted add a few more Cartier jewelry to my collection.