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Diamond beauty

Going Gaga for Heart-Shaped Jewelry

By Amanda L Colborn In honor of Lady Gaga’s recent engagement (and her heart-stopping diamond ring), we’re celebrating the heart symbol and the heart cut diamond. Did you know that we can trace the heart symbol all the way back to the Ice Age era?  It’s true. Cave paintings have been discovered with this symbol that trace back to the Ice Age. Though we do not know what this symbol meant to the cavemen who drew them, we do know that it was important enough for them to often paint it on the inside of their cave walls. The mysterious symbol

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How do you sparkle?

By Amanda L. Colborn How do you sparkle? You’re likely familiar with the 4 C’s of Diamonds: Cut, Clarity, Color and Carat – however, there is another very important aspect of diamonds to keep top of mind: Sparkle! Sparkle, or Scintillation as it is also known, is the play of white and colored flashes of light seen when the diamond is viewed in motion.  Viewable with the naked eye, sparkle is the life of the diamond. Sparkle does have two different aspects, flash scintillation and fire scintillation. Flash Flash scintillation is the dynamic pattern of white sparkles observed across a

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4 Reasons Diamonds are Not Expensive

By Preston Wallace, CGA, K-Jon’s Jewelery Customers walk in my door every day and say “Wow! $8,000 for that?  Diamonds are expensive!”  But they’re not.  I know what you’re thinking: I’m crazy, right?  No, I meant what I said, and no, I’m not crazy.  If you consider what diamonds are, how we get them, and what their value does over time, I think you’ll agree that diamonds are NOT expensive.  Here are 4 reasons why: 1. Diamonds are Rare On average, one million diamonds must be mined to find one 1ct diamond.  Think about that!  Diamonds are extremely rare, especially

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Smart Phones & Diamonds

By David C. Rotenberg, Certified Gemologist Appraiser DID YOU KNOW that your smart phone can make your diamond shopping experience easier? Now I don’t mean surfing the net, I mean actually looking at and comparing diamonds. Professional Jewelers like American Gem Society Jewelers have a tool called the ASET (Angular Spectrum Evaluation Tool) which will reveal a well cut diamond, or a not so well cut diamond. What you want to see in a diamond with the ASET device are symmetrical patterns with lots of red which shows brilliance, some blue which is contrast and some green which is light

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Considerations Cutters Take When Shaping Diamonds

Today’s blog post is written by American Gem Society member, By Marc Nanasi, from NEI Diamond professionals swear that Cut is the ‘C’ which has the most influence on a diamond’s beauty,and interestingly enough, it is also the only C that is controlled by humans (a diamond’s color, carat weight, and clarity are dictated from the rough stone found in nature). What most people don’t realize about cut is the extensive amount of consideration that goes into the cutting process.  Cut can influence a diamond’s value by up to 50%! The decisions which have the largest affects on the final

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