There are two approaches to diamond jewellery: The traditional approach is to
find a great diamond or perhaps a stone that has been passed down through
the family, and then try to work out a way to wire it onto a finger. This led to the
kind of minimal setting that has become the classic solitaire in which the stone
is held high and there is as little gold work showing as possible.
In this style the stone is all.
The second approach, and perhaps the more modern one, is to use a stone to
enhance a beautiful design. In this case it is the piece of jewellery itself that is
the focus and the stone is a part of the impact rather than being the whole
point of the piece. A glance at the work on this site will tell you that we favour
the second approach and so our attitude to diamonds is that they should look
great to the naked eye and enhance the beauty of the piece rather than be of
the highest possible intrinsic value. These are the criteria on which stones are
judged and we will indicate those we think to be more important.
Stone weights are measured in carats with 100 points making one carat. A stone
could be described as .025ct, 25 points or 1/4 carat; they all mean the same thing.
One thing to watch out for is that because of the relationship between volume and
diameter, a stone that weighs twice as much as another one will not look twice as
big. Have a look at the table below:
Therefore you have to buy an extra 65 pts
to go from 3mm to 5.9mm.
Colour, we would say, is perhaps the most important factor that bears upon
the appearance of a stone. Diamonds can be anything from a brilliant, hard white
to a deep muddy brown. The colour is graded by letter with the very best stones
in the D-F range.
Once again you can pay a great deal more for an almost undetectable improvement
in colour so we use the G/H range which is higher than most of the stones of
comparable size on the market but without paying the huge premium for the
slightly whiter stones
The shape of a stone is critical to how the stone performs. Diamond is an amazing
material as not only is it the hardest material known to man but it also has a very
high refractive index. This means that light coming into the stone is bent to a
degree that makes it possible to bounce it around and send it back out of the top
of the stone rather than just zipping straight through
as it would with a piece of glass.
To achieve this, though, the shape, or 'make' of the stone must be just right in order
to direct the maximum amount of light back out through the crown of the stone.
The quality of the polish also has a bearing on how much light makes it back to the eye.
Natural stones contain small imperfections called inclusions. These are little bits of
other minerals that contaminated the diamond crystal as it formed and show up as
anything from large dark or white blobs to tiny specks that can only be seen under
high magnification.
How big but also where the inclusions are dictate the value and appearance of a stone.
If they fall within the table facet (the large flat surface on the top of the stone) then
they mar the appearance much more than if they are lost in the facets around the
edge or 'girdle' of the stone where there is so much dancing light that they are hidden.
Once again the very purest material commands the highest prices but our attitude is
that if you can't see the things with the naked eye then why pay more? The clarity
does have a bearing on the overall performance of the stone in the same way
that light is reduced by coming through a dirty window, so we do use only very slightly
included stones around the vs. (very small inclusions) mark.
Conclusion
For our money (and yours!) color and cut are the most important. we want the piece
of jewellery to look stunning to the naked eye and be affordable rather than making
you something that can only be appreciated through a jeweller's eyeglass. There are
times when you will want a very special stone and want to know that you have the
best and we can arrange this if you contact us directly but for the jewellery that we
are supplying through this site you will receive what we consider to be the very best
balance of quality and price.
Rings | Gold Rings | Bracelets | Bangles | Necklaces | Earrings | Cufflinks | Collections | Commissions | Diamonds
Jewellery as art | Quality | Fiddling | Metals & carats | Jewellery with substance | Shipping | Terms & conditions
Browse our modern jewellery
and other pages with useful information