Jewellery
What to look for in Diamond Jewellery
The two magic words Diamond jewellery open up a totally different world in
our minds. A world where two other names shine like the stone mentioned.
One is Belgium and the other is India. Antwerp in Belgium is the place on
earth, where the maximum trade in diamonds and diamond jewellery takes
place.
The other name is India because India supplies the diamonds and the skilled
workers who create the shine in the stone. Majority of these workers comes
from the Indian state of Gujarat in western India. Majority of the diamond
mining in India is done in the Golconda region and in some parts of Goa.
Diamonds are a girl's best friend, so it is said. Well, in that sense, diamond
jewellery ought not to lag behind. Womankind has been enhancing their
beauty using various techniques throughout the ages, and diamond jewellery
has been foremost in their shopping list, most likely competing with gold
jewellery at the top position. Coming to think of it, a diamond requires
something to hold it in place or hang it from, and gold does just that and adds
its own luster as well. Therefore, diamond jewellery is more of an ornament
with diamonds set in gold.
For buying diamonds, some information gathering and some amount of selfeducation is required. A diamond is a stone, which has been cut and polished.
The price of the diamond is in its cut and polish. There are four C's to be
considered here. This is the Cut, the Clarity, the Color and the Carat weight.
The Cut of a diamond gives it its most important characteristic. A properly cut
diamond will reflect light totally and the light will seem to come out from its
very heart. A poorly cut diamond will leak light from its lower surfaces and
therefore, look less brilliant. This improperly cut diamond will either be a deep
cut or a shallow cut. A proper cut for a diamond will be either an ideal or fine
cut. To help the buyer, diamonds are graded and priced according to the ideal,
the premium, the very good, the good, and the fair & poor cuts. It now
becomes a personal preference and a budgetary decision to select a diamond
based on its cut.
The next important characteristic is the Clarity. This defines the flaws in the
diamond. Some flaws occur within the stone, since it is a natural formation.
Others are blemishes caused during cutting and polishing. Diamonds are again
graded as per the amount of blemishes in them. There are six grades such as
F, IF, VVS1-VVS2, VS1-VS2, SI1-SI2, and I1-I2-I3. F grade are the flawless
type which is the most rare and expensive.
Color of a diamond refers to the absence or presence of trace amount of color
that is inherent in the diamond and never changes. It is graded according to
the GIA's professional color scale, starting from the colorless D, the most
expensive and going down the alphabets to Z.
Carat weight is a unit of measurement used to measure diamonds. One carat
can be equated to 200 milligrams. Larger diamonds weighing more are rare
and therefore, more expensive. So, next time you buy diamond jewellery, go
armed with all the above information.