Diamonds and Gems

Diamond Price Bubble

2011-03-23T11:31:00.001-07:00

National Jeweler online published this editorial recently. I thought it interesting enough to share in light of the economy and people not thinking that diamonds are selling during these times.

Obviously they are:

Moscow--The head of Russian diamond mining giant Alrosa told Bloomberg Television that diamond prices are climbing faster than expected and could create a price bubble, just as they did prior to the financial crisis in 2008.

In a recent interview, Fyodor Andreev said the Russian diamond miner increased its rough prices by 5 percent at the end of 2010, and prices are up another 10 percent just a few months into 2011. In total, rough prices are now 8 percent higher than they were before the economic crisis hit in the fall of 2008, he said. (Bolding mine as I think this is crucial!)

He told Bloomberg that continually climbing rough prices, which sometimes top prices of polished gems, are a “dangerous signal” that the market will see another price bubble.

News of rising rough diamond prices--as well as an increase in polished prices--have been creating a buzz in the industry for a few months due to increased demand from both emerging markets, such as China and India, and recovering markets, such as the United States.

Last month, IDEX Online reported that De Beers rough distribution arm, the Diamond Trading Co. (DTC) increased prices at least 4 to 8 percent at its latest sight. And earlier this month, IDEX Online reported that polished diamond prices had recovered to near pre-economic crisis levels.

Title string for the blog here...

2011-02-01T04:17:00.001-07:00

The following conversation took place on a new diamond discussion board www.diamonddiscussion.com I think it has a lot of merit and deserves consideration. It surely is worth repeating and with the permission of the participants I share it with you.

Maarten de Witte

26 posts

January 27, 2011 2:44:54 PM MST

Buried in one of C.'s comment was the priceless phrase "lets face it (diamonds) are a luxury purchase that nobody really "needs".

Hmmm... I think this is worthy of a side-bar.
Is it possible that personal adornment is a human "need"? Why do even the most "primitive" cultures adorn themselves?

I am convinced that there is an ongoing struggle within us all between our sense of community and sense of self. We want to belong, yet we want to set ourselves apart.

Aren't these two "needs" part of the essential and existential whole?

Put another way... a wise man named Orly Solomon once made the following statement:
If you wear jewelry you'll look better. If you look better, you'll feel better. If you feel better, you'll be healthier. If you are healthier, you'll live longer. So, if you wear jewelry, you'll live longer.

Paul Slegers

17 posts

January 28, 2011 5:37:33 AM PST

Maarten de Witte said:

Aren't these two "needs" part of the essential and existential whole?

Put another way... a wise man named Orly Solomon once made the following statement:

If you wear jewelry you'll look better. If you look better, you'll feel better. If you feel better, you'll be healthier. If you are healthier, you'll live longer. So, if you wear jewelry, you'll live longer

We could even change that statement:

If you wear jewelry, you will feel better. Hence, you will perform better, thus you will make more money. So, if you wear jewelry, it will pay itself.

Live long

Ame

47 posts

January 28, 2011 3:22:22 PM PST

Report

*feverishly copies these statements and sends them in email to her husband*

I love Custom Work

2011-01-08T08:20:00.002-07:00

A friend of mine, David Geller, is a consultant to the jewelry trade. Here is an excerpt from a letter than he sent out this morning that I think is very appropriate to share with you.

Why? Because it reflects the thinking of so many in my trade and David points out where it conflicts with your wishes as consumers.

Why you shouldn't hate Custom Work

There is a website for bench/crafts people that I participate in every week. (neme removed)

Every day their blog has 30-50 posts from members from how to make jewelry, find or make tools and complaints like every other jeweler will do when sitting down with another jewelers friend.

Recently there was a heavy discussion about “I Hate Custom Work”. I thought you might be interested in the post I made there today.

---------------Post Starts Here-----------

After reading many of the responses I’ve seen a common theme here. The people who dislike custom have 3 main reasons why they don’t like doing custom work. They may have a single reason why they hate it and some (they may not know it) have more than one.

COMMON THEMES WHY YOU HATE CUSTOM:

1. You don’t have the skills to do custom.
2. You don’t have the patience or selling skills to take in custom work.
3. You under price it and there fore once you know in your mind “OMG! From this minute on I’m now losing money or working for free or working for a really small per hour wage” you then think, "I hate this”.

SKILLS:

The only things you can do to alleviate this is:
a. Take classes and learn the areas of custom you need complete your skill set.
b. Hire others who have skills you don’t (I did this as I’m not a good wax carver).
c. Job out the work to others who can do the things you can’t do. There is absolutely no reason to want to say “Oh, we don’t send anything out, it’s all done in house.” That’s silly. The customer has said “I want what I want”. So your job is “Get’r done”.

David goes on to say a lot more that is not relevant to my thoughts here.

As many of you know, my skills are in my head. I rely on other's hands to do the work. That could be why I think David is so brilliant in his suggestion that we hire others to do what we do not like to do, or that we do not do well.

If you are working with a jeweler to have something special done, you may want to have a talk with him/her to determine what their feelings are about custom work. If you find you are working with a jeweler who has the mindset of, "I hate custom work!" then perhaps you should keep looking.

Wink

The camera as a tool

2011-01-07T11:48:00.001-07:00

I had a long discussion with a client this morning about why when he brought in a diamond it looked different than what it had looked like in the camera. (He actually liked it better, which was a good thing, but he wanted to know why.)

I did a video some months ago that demonstrated a couple of things nicely for him, so I thought I would share it with you.

See the video here.

Enjoy!

Wink

Debeers to end advertising in the United States

2011-01-06T07:49:00.002-07:00

This article was published recently by IDEX. http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp It talks breifly about the problems that DeBeers is having steering itself through these difficult times and the fact that it will no longer be spending two hundred million dollars per year advertising in the United States.

Who will take the lead now? Will anyone step up, or will diamonds be gradually allowed to fade from the public consciousness? (I am betting this will NOT happen.)

Wink

How to use a loupe

2011-01-05T16:21:00.001-07:00

From here to Infinity: Complete

2010-09-10T09:15:00.000-07:00

Every time I watch this video I am amazed again at its openess in such a private world as the diamond cutting world.

Pre owned diamonds

2010-08-04T07:18:00.003-07:00

There is an interesting conversation going on over at Pricescope right now about how to tell if a stone is pre-owned. While this is not an issue with me, I realize that to many people it is, so here is just one of the exchanges happening there.

Wink

Beacon wrote: "If the cert were over two years old, I would assume the diamond had been owned before. This would not deter me, UNLESS the stone were a super high clarity, like vs1 or higher. In that case I would want a more recent cert to make sure there had been no damage during the time after the first certification. If lower clarity, then a careful inspection should be enuf to determine if the rating is still right."

This was my response:

Rather than assume, why not ask? I just sold a stone with a cert more than two years old that had never been sold before. It was just unusual enough that it stayed in inventory for some time.

For those instances when we take a stone in trade, the first thing that happens to it is that it is repapered to make sure that it is not damaged in any way from when it was papered before. I can certainly appreciate that some will not want a stone that was previously owned for any reason, and the best way for them to know this is to be sure to ask. I have the great fortune to work with a company that tracks each diamond from rough to finished, so it is easy for me to check.

Many dealers however are getting diamonds from a wholesaler and often the wholesaler himself will not know whether or not the diamond has been previously owned. Just because a diamond is coming directly from a wholesaler does not assure you of a previously unowned diamond.

Wink

Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action | Video on TED.com

2010-06-02T10:54:00.000-07:00

I do not normally post other people's videos, especially non jewelry videos on my jewelry blog, but this is so thought provoking that I am going to do just that.

If you have ever wondered why some people follow leaders and how to be a better leader, here is something to contemplate.

Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action | Video on TED.com

From here to Infinity

2010-04-19T06:33:00.003-07:00

Infinity Diamonds just released this incredible video. As a proud vendor of Infinity diamonds I wanted to share it with you.

Wink

Paul Slegers of Infinity Diamonds on Consistency

2009-08-29T12:57:00.004-07:00

In a discussion on Pricescope today Paul Slegers of Infinity Diamonds responded with the following post that I thought worthy of being posted separately.

I am a vendor of Infinity Diamonds and this is the type of reason why I enjoy working with Paul.

Going back to the original topic of Sara, I think that Sara and others are only touching part of the positive aspects of consistency.

In order to understand this, you need to think with a different mindset. Most contributors here are used to thinking about the product and the product only, where I think that processes are most important. Some of these processes involve the choice of retailers selling a line, and the level of service that they provide (Sara touched this aspect also), but also the production-process which delivers the final product is extremely important.

Here on Pricescope and on other consumer-forums before that, I have learned important aspects of product. Some of these aspects are the choice of the lab-report, the need for photographs of the actual stone, the ideal-scope, the hearts-and-arrows, later on also of the ASET, and the disclosure of maximum information about the stone, available at all times.

What many do not realise, is that all these features of the product do not define the product. They describe certain aspects of the product, with great tools, but all these tools have their limitations. In our attempts to educate people, we have a lot of tools to cover, but we often forget to emphasize the limitations of each tool. As such, the mistaken idea arises that the combination of these tools accurately describe the diamond.

The reality is different however. If a stone passes the test of a tool, it indicates that the stone is better than a certain minimum-level. For example, if a stone has an Ideal cut-grade by AGS, this only means that the stone has passed the minimum-level chosen by AGS to describe the stone as Ideal. Within that grade, there are still a number of variations.

Also, if a stone passes the minimum standards of H&A, this is not complete information, since the crispness of the H&A-pattern is an important differentiator between stones, but is not part of the minimum standards of H&A. From my side, I have not only learned from these minimum-levels of information on PS, but I combine this with the experience and common sense of generations of the best diamond-cutters in the world. This is necessary, because science has not yet completely cracked the formula that makes a diamond work. As such, I do not have objective data to prove what works, but I guess that I do have the experience to make it work.

In this regard, we are proud that we did not have to change our formula when AGS and GIA introduced new cut-grades, and the ongoing scintillation-studies by AGS will also have no effect on our formula. What I am trying to say in a complicated way, is that our formula for cutting our diamonds is ahead of its time, where the majority of cutters is only adapting (constantly) to newly arising needs.

Back to process.

In our operation, we spend a lot of energy in the particulars of the cutting-process. This approach is totally different to one of product-quality-control. In the latter, one compares the final product (or at a sub-step in production) with a quality-level that needs to be achieved. The result is that everything that passes the minimally needed quality-level passes, since it is good enough. In our approach, I may have been influenced by my father, who used to be working at Ford Motor Company, where he was part of a quality-improvement-team. This team introduced the then new Japanese quality-improvement-methods into Ford's manufacturing process, and, there, I learned that quality is not a matter of checking it afterwards only, it is much more a matter of adapting production-processes so that quality is an automatic result.

It is our attention to the process that creates our Infinity-brand with diamonds that dazzle consumers and that our retailers are proud to carry. I am often surprised how some consumers describe certain unique aspects of our stones. I know that these aspects are a result of our process and they can only be observed in real-life, as the currently available tools cannot show these.Actually, that is why I think that consistency is important. Our consistent process guarantees a product that also delivers benefits beyond the abilities of the current cut-assessment-tools.

Live long,

Paul SlegersInfinity Diamondswww.CraftedByInfinity.com

I found this fascinating and I hope you enjoyed it also. You can read the entire thread on Pricescope by clicking on the title. As always, the discussions there are lively!

Wink

Facebook | Justice for Campbell Bridges

2009-08-15T07:05:00.000-07:00

I received this from a friend of mine, Jacques Vorhees, former owner of Polygon. I met Campbell many many years ago and was sad to learn of his death. I would want this passed on even had I not known him.

Wink

Facebook Justice for Campbell Bridges: "Campbell Bridges, discoverer of Tsavorite and renowned gemologist was murdered on August 11th, 2009. He was ambushed and killed by known claim jumpers and bandits on his mining concession in Tsavo. Many of the killers names are known by his son, Bruce Bridges, by their first and last names; yet the Kenyan government has been providing little support in apprehending the criminals involved. The Kenyan media is stonewalling the media coverage locally and attempting to bury the story. We need to rally people together to promote this story in major media outlets and demand a US led investigation, since Campbell was a US citizen. We want the criminals that perpetrated this brought to Justice so that his family can find peace.
Please sign our petition here - http://www.thepetitionsite.com/130/justice-for-campbell-bridges

Thank you,
Karl Channell"

Gem Trace

2009-08-14T17:26:00.003-07:00

A friend of mine is about to open a really cool service. Gemtrace.

Here is a copy of the text on his front page.

What is GemTrace

GemTrace creates a correlation between the diamond registry numbers laser inscribed on the girdle edge of diamonds with their registered owners. Until now it was not possible to identify the owner of a diamond or colored gem by the lab report number which is routinely inscribed on the girdle edge of many diamonds.

By registering your laser inscribed diamond with GemTrace you increase the odds of your diamond being returned to you in the event that it is recovered by a law enforcement agency. Our database of registered diamonds may be searched by law enforcement agencies, retail jewelers, pawn shops and the public without cost.

In the event that a search is conducted and a diamond is identified as being registered in our database, the diamond will be identified as existing in our database and the person or agency who initiated the search may contact us to arrange for return of the diamond to the registered owner. The identity and personal information of registered owners is not released, we act as the intermediary agent to expedite the return of the recovered diamond, colored gem, or jewelry item.

Until now it was not possible for a law enforcement agency to quickly identify the registered owner of a diamond based on the inscription of a lab report number on the girdle edge of a diamond. The lab report number inscribed along the girdle edge of a diamond was merely intended to provide a correlation between the diamond and the diamond grading report which was issued for it. GemTrace makes it possible to quickly identify the registered owner of a laser inscribed diamond. Register your laser inscribed diamond with GemTrace today!

I really hope that this takes off for him, I believe that it provides an incredibly useful service for diamond owners.

Wink

Facebook | HighPerformanceDiamonds

2009-08-11T11:16:00.000-07:00

Facebook HighPerformanceDiamonds: "HighPerformanceDiamonds We had our first client come in and order a pendant and earring set from her gems purchased at the Judith Whitehead round table. I am very excited to see how these look mounted. It turns out that one of Judiths friends who sets a LOT of her gems lives thirty miles from me in a city called Caldwell, Idaho.

You can see some of her wonderful work at http://lisettethierry.com/."

When I have time I will post a picture of the gems and the drawings that Lisette did.

Recut diamond from 1.66cts to 1.47cts.

2009-08-09T13:07:00.008-07:00

Facebook HighPerformanceDiamonds: "Here are three diamonds. The one on the top is as it was, a 1.66ct diamond that was well cut for when I bought it in 1978. But now we know more about cutting and have so much more brilliance available to us than we did before. The two photos on the bottom show it as it is now. One was taken at 1/30th of a second with f22 aperature, the other at 1/30th with f32. As you can see, it is much more spectalar now!" I also posted this on my Facebook page where you can see many other fun things about diamonds.

You can see the video there, or also here: http://www.screencast.com/t/IMEHfu8w

2009-08-04T16:10:00.001-07:00

2009-08-04T15:55:00.001-07:00

2009-07-20T11:14:00.001-07:00

Memorial

2009-07-13T17:58:00.000-07:00

My wife sent me this, as a former Marine it made me cry.

Thank you Mr. Clemente for posting this.

Wink

We're hearing a lot today about big splashy memorial services.

I want a nationwide memorial service for Darrell "Shifty" Powers.

Shifty volunteered for the airborne in WWII and served with Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st Airborne Infantry. If you've seen Band of Brothers on HBO or the History Channel, you know Shifty. His character appears in all 10 episodes, and Shifty himself is interviewed in several of them.

I met Shifty in the Philadelphia airport several years ago. I didn't know who he was at the time. I just saw an elderly gentleman having trouble reading his ticket. I offered to help, assured him that he was at the right gate, and noticed the "Screaming Eagle", the symbol of the 101st Airborne, on his hat.

Making conversation, I asked him if he'd been in the 101st Airborne or if his son was serving. He said quietly that he had been in the 101st. I thanked him for his service, and then asked him when he served, and how many jumps he made.

Quietly and humbly, he said "Well, I guess I signed up in 1941 or so, and was in until sometime in 1945 . . . " at which point my heart skipped.

At that point, again, very humbly, he said "I made the 5 training jumps at Toccoa, and then jumped into Normandy . . . . do you know where Normandy is?" At this point my heart stopped.

I told him yes, I know exactly where Normandy was, and I know what D-Day was. At that point he said "I also made a second jump into Holland, into Arnhem." I was standing with a genuine war hero . . . . And then I realized that it was June, just after the anniversary of D-Day.

I asked Shifty if he was on his way back from France, and he said "Yes. And it's real sad because these days so few of the guys are left, and those that are, lots of them can't make the trip." My heart was in my throat and I didn't know what to say.

I helped Shifty get onto the plane and then realized he was back in Coach, while I was in First Class. I sent the flight attendant back to get him and said that I wanted to switch seats. When Shifty came forward, I got up out of the seat and told him I wanted him to have it, that I'd take his in coach.

He said "No, son, you enjoy that seat. Just knowing that there are still some who remember what we did and still care is enough to make an old man very happy." His eyes were filling up as he said it. And mine are brimming up now as I write this.

Shifty died on June 17 after fighting cancer.

There was no parade.

No big event in Staples Center.

No wall to wall back to back 24x7 news coverage.

No weeping fans on television.

And that's not right.

Let's give Shifty his own Memorial Service, online, in our own quiet way. Please forward this email to everyone you know. Especially to the veterans.

Rest in peace, Shifty.

"A nation without heroes is nothing."

Roberto Clemente

1.17ct E-VS1 video

2009-06-19T03:27:00.002-07:00

So, seen any incredible diamonds lately? How about this one?? It is an incredible Crafted by Infinity Diamond. 1.17 E-VS1.

Enjoy the sparkle!

Wink

Crowning Glory

2009-06-19T03:17:00.002-07:00

I thought you might enjoy this video of a particularly nice ring we recently finished.

Wink

Leaving for Antwerp

2009-06-07T14:29:00.001-07:00

I will be going to Antwerp on June 15th courtesy of my diamond supplier, Infinity Diamonds. I was selected as their retailer of the year for my outstanding contribution to the Infinity Brand and for my sales of their wonderful product.

I will be tweeting under the name HPDiamonds and adding a lot of videos to the blog as I travel.

Wink

Peer review of Cutting standards by AGS

2008-04-20T16:39:00.002-07:00

Here is part of the continuing conversation about cutting going on the Polygon site. This is the response to a gentleman stating that Tolkowski had the advantage of peer review when he wrote his thesis on diamond cutting in the early 1900's.

Turns out that the AGS had extensive peer review, even if they did not make a lot of noise about it!

Wink

Bill, I hate to correct you on this, but you are wrong. As
you know I chaired the Gemological Sciences Committee during
the time we were coming up with the cut grade system for the
AGS Laboratory. Let me tell you about peer involvement and
review.

First, the chairman of the committee has a Ph.D. in
inorganic chemistry with an extensive background in research
at the university level (just happens to be me).

Second, the committee consisted of jewelers with scientific
backgrounds, cutters, retailers, suppliers, lab people, etc.

Third, in keeping with scientific protocol we approached the
problem from two standpoints-theoretical and experimental.

Fourth, our experimental work was guided by a Ph.D. in
optics who heads up optical research at one of our nations
finest universities.

Fifth, our theoretical work was carried out by a team of
scientists from a foreign university well known for work in
this field.

Sixth, also in keeping with scientific protocol for
acceptance of scientific developments and material for
publication we employed a peer reviewer to look over the
shoulders of what the other two groups were doing(augmented
by work done by employees of the AGS Laboratory). We were
adamant that no system would be implemented until such time
as the peer reviewer put in writing that our science was
impeccable and that we were clear, from a scientific
standpoint, to go public. That peer reviewer was a
distinguished professor in optics at a different university
and editor of a major journal in that field.

Seventh, so much for the science. What all that yielded was
mountains of paperwork with both theoretical calculations
and actual measurements on the behavior of light in crystal
systems. The results were made graphic in contour diagrams
that showed the different dimensions and angles that
represented the maximum return of light, taking into
consideration a multitude of environmental factors. Now,
here's the kicker, during the years we studied those
experimental/theoretical diagrams, one person on the
committee kept reminding us over and over again with
statements like, "yes, that particular configuration does
seem to handle light better than others, BUT will that stone
appear to be beautiful to the eye."

I should also point out that it took the committee several
years to arrive at the AGS cut grading standards.

One amazing discovery came out of all that work. After all
the science is applied to the system, when one looks at the
areas on the contour diagram where light seems to be handled
best, right in the center of that area sits Mr. Tolkowsky's
ideal cut.
What all this leads to is the circumstance that when a
jeweler is getting ready to show a customer a diamond that
has the AGS triple zero designation, and even before the
paper is opened, he can be assured that the diamond has been
cut to the most exacting of geometric proportions and that
it will be beautiful to look at.

Perhaps others on this board with knowledge of how the other
laboratories arrived at their cut grading standards would be
willing to share that with the rest of us.

Chris Bramlett

A discussion about H & A cutting

2008-04-19T18:38:00.001-07:00

This is one of the best dissertations I have ever seen on the term Hearts and Arrows. It was made by a friend of mine, John Pollard and it was his second ever post on Polygon. Even the professionals who post there were impressed with what he had to say, and I offer it to you for your reading pleasure.

You can see our selection of fine Hearts and Arrows quality cut diamonds at Hearts and arrows cut diamonds.

Enjoy the read, it is a good one.

Wink

Quoted from http://www.polygon.net/cgi/en/Desktop.ViewDiscussionChannelsFull/DocSearchParams.Paging.PageNumber=1/DocSearchParams.Paging.ResultsPerPage=500/DocSearchParams.UpdateLastVisitedDate=true:

I don't like the term "H&A" because it's been turned into a
gimmick. I prefer the term cut precision, since that's what
is necessary to acquire the "H&A" pattern in rounds (other
patterns appear in different shapes); the facets aligning so
precisely with their opposites that the reflections overlap
when seen in reflective viewers.

From a production standpoint it's best to get your
priorities straight:

1. Just because a diamond shows the "H&A" pattern (no matter
how precise) does not mean it has premium light performance.
Light performance is far more important for appeal. If I
had only two diamonds, an AGS Ideal (performance) without
strict H&A...and a diamond cut to H&A precision with
geometry that did not produce top light performance...I
would certainly elect the one with top light performance as
a "better" diamond in terms of appeal (not cut precision).
Fortunately these days you will usually (not always) find
that "H&A" diamonds have pretty good c/p angles. This
is simply evolution.

2. In diamonds with top light performance the benefits of
precise cut precision ("H&A) in rounds are contrast and
consistency in performance. Cut precision increases
contrast between light & dark areas, appealing to the
natural edge detection hard-wired into human physiology,
strengthening intensity and evaluated in our top systems as
"contrast brilliance" (AGS) or "pattern" (GIA). For those
who have not read the landmark paper in last September's
"Optical Engineering" it's fantastic. Coupled with
appropriate table, c/p angles and lower halves the net
effect is intensity in scintillation as well as broader
spectral flares (an issue of taste of course). These
effects are maximized in near-Tolkowsky configurations but
if the lower halves are too short, or the table too large
the diamond can take on too much obscuration (AGS) or
obstruction (GIA) - penalized in those systems. On the
other hand, some people prefer the random look of asymmetry
over precise H&A diamonds, just as others prefer other
shapes. Diamond beauty is always subject to taste.

3. Diamonds with a level of optical symmetry 'close to' what
purists consider H&A can mimic the optical effects... As
our evaluative devices and cutting equipment have improved
over the last decade there are diamonds produced with
better-than-average optical symmetry that are simply a
by-product of blocking to top proportions sets; what some
cutters call a "happy accident." This is where controversy
reigns: Diamonds displaying the highest levels of optical
symmetry; those crafted to the top levels of cut precision
and the original Japanese standards for supersymmetry
on-purpose, are valued by enthusiasts and collectors for
their ultimate craftsmanship, as much as any effects on
performance... This is no different than people who value
IF for rarity, not a tangible visible difference over lower
clarities.

It's unfortunate that there is no authoritative definition
of how tight cut precision must be in order for a diamond to
be officially called "H&A." Every dealer or manufacturer is
defining them by his/her own standards. Dealers who
don't have access to rarified top cut precision will define
the "happy accident" stones they can get as "H&A" (looky
looky). The purists band their steins on the bar and cry
foul. This causes confusion for consumers. With no
concrete definition the situation is akin to sellers in the
early 1900s inventing their own "A" and "AAA" grades for
color to one-up the guy next door. Until the GIA set forth
standards for color and clarity it was chaotic...as it is
for "H&A" dealers today. Logically, the purists take great
pride in the fine-make craftsmanship they respect and value
- as they should, it's remarkable work! But the purists are
far rarer than those willing to "make a buck" by turning H&A
into a gimmick. People selling "whatever" under that label
are diluting what could be a really cool niche product.

In a perfect world I think H&A marketing would focus on top
light performance as the priority, amplifying the optical
benefits (which can be a taste factor) and rarity in cut
quality (the most precisely cut H&A diamonds are rarer in
terms of cut precision than D is in terms of color). To me
the finest H&A diamonds are a subsection of round brilliant
- for which we have several successful makes whether you're
talking 60/60, near-Tolk, high-crowned or antique cuts
which were predecessors to the modern RB. People are going
to like different looks and some will have a taste for one
round over another, just as others may like squares or
fancies. Different strokes for different folks. There's
enough business out there for all of us - if you can find
out what makes your customer tick.

John Pollard

Blogging Course

2007-12-20T18:15:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine from whom I have taken some meaningful courses has just decided to write a blogging course and is offering free copies of it to those of us who post about it on our blogs.

Since it is obvious that I need help with my blog I am going to share this information with you.

I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

The best blogging techniques.
How to get traffic to your blog.
How to turn your blog into money.

I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.

Seems pretty cool to me, so here it is, and I hope you enjoy it.

Wink

How to Tell Quality Jewelry from Cheap Imitations Chapter 5

2007-07-11T15:26:00.000-07:00

Milgrain

Milgrain should be straight and even, not wavy and uneven. Here is a picture of what it should look like.

Bezels

Bezels are generally pretty easy to judge. They should be smooth and not wavy. They are sometimes hard to photograph well due to the reflections and the way that the light plays over them. What looks like a small burble at 2 o’clock is actually where the reflection of the ceiling light stops.

Conclusion

We have looked at many quality issues in this report, how to judge the weight and heft of a ring, the finish, the prongs and their many issues, what makes a quality channel set, bezels and milgrain.

Obviously there is more. It is important to the long term satisfaction of a piece that you take the time to inspect your purchase and ask questions. Oftentimes jewelry is purchased with a first impression, heart reaction. To enjoy your jewelry for years to come and see it as a treasure for a lifetime, take the time to carefully inspect it prior to purchase with these things in mind. You will be far ahead of the average shopper in determining if the jewelry you are looking at is of high or low quality. If you find problems, give the jeweler or manufacturer the opportunity to make it right. Remember, mistakes do happen and many can be repaired easily if being done by someone used to dealing in quality. However, a poorly made piece is something no quality bench or reputable jeweler wants to revisit. Be an alert, discriminating shopper.

Enjoy your shopping.

Wink Jones

How to Tell Quality Jewelry from Cheap Imitations Chapter 4

2007-07-10T14:14:00.000-07:00

Channels

Channels should be even, with straight lines and nice crisp corners. There should be no waviness to the line of the channel. The stones should be close to one another, but not actually touching girdle to girdle unless they are square or rectangular cut. Round diamonds that are actually touching are a recipe for chipping at the contact points. They should look to the eye as if they are very close to one another or even like they are touching, but they should not actually be touching. A big problem when one stone is jammed slightly overlapping another is this requires tilting one or both stones and is very likely to result in chipping of one or both stones with wear.

Good channel work

In the above pictures notice the straight sharp edges of the channel, the slight gap between the round cut diamonds and the absence of a gap between the princess cut diamonds.

If you look closely you can also see the sharp square corners at the bottom of the channel in the ring with the princess cut diamonds.

In the pictures on the next page you will see some rings that were NOT as nicely done.

Poor Channel Work:

And the UGLY!

The following ring was incredibly poorly done. This ring ended up being completely remade by a different craftsman. This ring is a perfect example of all the “little” things that can go wrong with a good design. It is important to ask a jeweler about their system of quality control. This ring was actually delivered to a customer. It came from a source indifferent about quality control both from the bench that made it and the jeweler who sold it to the client who brought it in to us for appraisal.

Next is one of the worst rings I have ever seen. We had a bench that wanted to do some work for us, so they sent us this piece. Needless to say, they never did any work for us.

It does not pertain to channel setting, but it is a “Perfect Storm” of monumental screw-ups that are worthy of being seen just for the “knowledge” that this “stuff” is out there.

Just to aid your recognition. The problems of this ring start with the entire shank being wavy and not straight; the bead set diamonds are not set evenly; the center stone is set crookedly from the top and at a tilt from the side; they used a round head for the square stone, letting the head be visible from the top; and it has the ever present porosity and poor finish that is often seen on lower quality rings.

How to Tell Quality Jewelry from Cheap Imitations Chapter 3

2007-07-09T15:12:00.000-07:00

Prongs

Prongs are another thing to check. They may be difficult to see in photos. It is something worth looking at up close, either at the store or when you receive your ring. You may want to invest in an inexpensive loupe to look at prongs, or if at a store, use theirs. (By the way, any store that will not let you use their loupe is probably a good store to leave.)

You want to look for several things when looking at prongs. One, they should be nice and thick in proportion to the stone that they are holding. The prongs need to be properly cut to provide a good seat for the stone. That is to say, they should nestle up to the stone without large gaps. The seat must not be too big or too small, and the cut must not extend too far into the prong, or the whole tip of the prong is at risk for popping off and allowing the stone to go free. Here is a picture that depicts both proper and improper seating.

Check too to ascertain that the stone is actually set straight. Hold the ring perpendicular to the girdle of the stone and look to see that the stone is level with the ring from both front and side angles. While a small variance may be acceptable because stones are set by hand not a laser guided machine, a large variance is not acceptable. Look for side view photos whenever possible.

Here is an example of a difficult setting job - three stones, each needing to be set at a different angle, by hand. While the visual look is perfect, it is possible to see a slight variance on the angle of the two outside stones. This variance was deemed acceptable to all concerned as the visual affect of the ring is stunning.

Lastly, prongs should sit flush with the top of the stone, without leaving a gap to catch hair or snag fine knits and silk items. This ring was sent back to the bench for repair. Mistakes are going to be part of the fact of every day life. Catching those mistakes and making prompt repair is an indicator of the mark of a good jeweler. We do our best to catch and fix any mistakes and take our bench to task when necessary. Jewelers who ignore or deny their mistakes or are unwilling to repair them may be someone you would be best off not using.

How to Tell Quality Jewelry from Cheap Imitations Chapter 2

2007-07-09T09:12:00.000-07:00

Finish

Finish is another of those things that you can look for. Here is an actual picture taken from a website of one of the rings offered for sale.

As you can see even in the photo, there are many defects that can be seen in the finish. As long as the web site is using real photos of their rings, you may be able to disqualify many of the rings from their photos. Many sellers mislead potential customers by using “stock photos.” These can be pictures of similar designs done by other manufacturers, or themselves but with larger stones or better craftsmanship than the piece being offered for sale. Unscrupulous vendors may also use CAD or computer generated images as stock photos. These do not show the finish or craftsmanship because they are hypothetical drawings versus actual images of the finished jewelry.

Contrast this to the high polish and quality finish on the ring below. Both the outside and inside of the shank surfaces are polished so highly that you are seeing reflections of the lights and windows of the room that the picture was taken in.

No question here which ring was better quality, but also which offered the better value for your dollar.

How to Tell Quality Jewelry from Cheap Imitations Chapter 1

2007-07-08T15:18:00.000-07:00

This is the text of a free report I will be offering in exchange for signing up for my newsletter on my sites http://www.winkjones.com/ and http://www.freecz.com/. I will share it with you on my blog chapter by chapter. It should be on my sites in a few days if you want to read the whole thing...

What to look for when buying fine Jewelry

This short guide is intended to be a resource for you to use when looking at jewelry, whether in a bricks and mortar store, or on the internet. It will help you to quickly separate the obviously bad from the good, but may not be sufficient to allow you to separate the good from the better and the better from the great. You may need the help of a professional appraiser to make those distinctions.

As a jeweler/appraiser I am constantly asked to look at something purchased elsewhere, and often must be the bearer of bad news. This report is the result of having to tell people far off often that it will cost more to repair their poorly made jewelry than it will to build another piece correctly.

I hope that armed with this report you will be able to make better informed decisions, before you spend any of your hard earned money.

Weight

One of the most obvious things to look for is the heft or apparent weight of the piece. Here is a typical offering from some of the home-shopping networks and their web sites:

Poorly manufactured, lightweight rings

Rings made by Designs by Vatche

Notice in the first picture how the shanks are hollowed out and that the prongs are thin. The pieces poorly made, will be light in weight and, in this case, they are a complete rip off of a popular design house, Designs by Vatche. Notice how much thicker the shank of the Vatche ring is, and that it is solid with a slight comfort fit curve to the inside of the shank. Notice how much thicker the prongs are, and how much better built they are. Even the cathedral portion of the shank, rising up to meet the diamond is much heavier and better formed. The Vatche ring not only has far superior quality but will wear better, be more comfortable on the finger and will withstand any future necessary repairs much better.

Vatche rings are designed to last, versus the short term wear you’ll get from light weight imitations. They will cost more, but in my opinion, if you are looking for something wearable for more than a few months, the extra durability, comfort and life expectancy is actually the greater bargain.

Cutting matters!

2007-06-25T08:30:00.000-07:00

Here is an interesting photo, taken by a friend of mine who has graciously sent me a high resolution copy along with permission to size it for use on my blog and websites.

It is an excellent visual representation of what actually happens when light enters a poorly cut diamond like the one on the left, and what happens when light enters an extremely well cut diamond like the one on the right.

I know which one I want to own. Which one do you like? REMEMBER, your fingers can not sense or enjoy the light leaking out the bottom of the poorly cut stone. Neither can your eyes!

Wink

Intricasies and risks of diamond cutting

2006-04-30T14:45:00.000-07:00

I received this from my cutter the other day. It has since been published as an article on Pricescope. Since I ended up buying a large part of this parcel I though you would enjoy knowing about how these bargains came to be.

The intricacies and risks of diamond-cutting

This is the story of a parcel of rough diamonds, which we bought in February.

1. The beginning – assessing the value of rough

This February, we were offered a very nice parcel of Botswanan rough. The size of the stones ranged from 2.60 up to 4.60 Carats, 42 stones in total. With most of the stones being makeables, thus returning only one polished stone, we were looking at the possibility of cutting about 42 stones with a finished weight between 0.70 and 1.75 Cts.

The color of the stones was very hard to estimate, since the rough seemed to have a lot of colors in the surface. Talking to other cutters, we learned that this is normal with rough from Botswana. However, we tried to estimate the exact color of the stones. If we would give a D color the value of 1, E the value of 2, and so on, up to J the value of 7, we estimated an average color of this parcel of 4.58, or an average of G-H in color.

These stones also contained a lot of naat, and inclusions, which were difficult to judge, and we estimated the average clarity of the parcel as SI1. Figure-wise, with IF being 1, VVS1 being 2, and so on, we thus estimated this parcel at an average clarity of 6.

Quickly estimating the weight of each finished stone gave us a final estimated weight of 47.90 Carats, thus a yield of 34.65% from the rough.

2. The decision – to buy or not to buy

On the basis of the above estimation of the outcome, we calculated the final value of the polished, and compared it to our cost. Seeing that we would end up with a lot of stones with a highly desirable color-clarity-combination, and that we foresaw a profit of 15% on this parcel, we gladly bought the parcel.

The decision was quickly made: we had to buy this parcel.

3. The result of cutting

After cutting the stones, we always estimate the stones ourselves before shipping them to AGS. These were the results.

In weight, we ended up with a total finished weight of 48.94 Carats, thus a yield of 35.40%, which was a tad higher than the expected 34.65%.

In color, we estimated the final color (in our figure-system) at 4.53. We had estimated a color of 4.58. Roughly, we could say that we ended up exactly with the average G-H-color, which we had predicted.

In clarity, we had predicted a clarity of 6, which stood for SI1 in our system. After cutting, we estimated the final clarity at 6.21, thus a little lower than SI1.

All in all, we were very happy with the outcome, although the slightly lower clarity already lowered the $-outcome of our parcel by 6%. Still, we did consider this a good buy, especially since we are very comfortable with our estimates before sending to AGS, and we generally get the same results on our grading reports.

4. The final grading of AGS

To our astonishment, the grading of AGS seemed to have become a tad stricter than we were used to in the past. These were our results.

In color, in stead of the predicted color of 4.53, we received an average grade of 5.12, thus an average of H in stead of G-H. Generally, we have the experience that AGS gives a slightly better color-grade than our estimate, and this difference is very surprising to us.

In clarity, we predicted a clarity of 6.21, and AGS graded the parcel at an average grade of 6.58. Normally, we are used to AGS grading clarity slightly stricter than our prediction, thus this does not surprise us at all.

However, where we generally get a somewhat stricter grade on clarity, and a slightly better grade on color, we now got a stricter grade on both.

When looking at this dollar-wise, the picture becomes problematic. Before sending the stones to AGS, we estimated our return to be 94% of our original prediction. With the resulting AGS-grades, our return now is only 83% of our original prediction.

We had estimated to turn a profit of 15% on this parcel. Now, it turns out to be a loss of 5%.

5. Conclusion

It is frightening to see how a slight error in the estimation of rough can make such a big difference in dollars.

Now, this is not something to mourn too much about, since sometimes estimates can be incorrect in the other direction too, and this would lead to unexpected profits.

And, the good thing is, that we now do have a number of very interesting stones available, in highly desirable colors and clarities, and these should be very easy to sell.

I have many of these stones, from .93cts to 1.56cts and they are all of them incredibly beautiful and great values in hard to find sizes. We will be sending the list out to our email newsletter clients and putting the list on our site in the next few days. If you are looking for diamond in these sizes that is affordable, you will want to call us at 1 800 524-7904 in the near future!

Wink

P.S. Look at the incredible dispersion in the the 1.56ct shown above. One of the things I love about Paul's stones is the fantastic dispersion.

I lost a Dear Friend today

2006-04-12T13:46:00.000-07:00

I know that this is not jewelry related, but it is Wink related and I feel like sharing.

I had to put down my old black lab, Flusher, this morning. I have known for months that our last hunting season was going to be the last for us. He was fourteen or so years old, which is pretty old for a lab and although we walk him a couple of miles or so every day he has been slowing down more and more.

Last year when coming out of the cattails with a duck you would have thought a train was coming through, his breathing was so loud. Still, he taught the new pup how to find a bird that went down in the thick brush, which might have taken her another year or two to figure out by herself.

My wife always worried that he would die in the swamp where we hunt, I always secretly wished he would so I could just bury him there where he spent the happiest hours of his life. Alas, it was not to be. This morning he could not even walk all the way back to his pen to eat breakfast after his walk and my wife called to tell me it was time.

I left work, came home to find him again ambulatory, threw the bumper for him a few more times. He would hustle to it in his awkward semi-rigid hobbling gate, winded after even the five yard tosses I made, stand over it for ten to twenty seconds then pick it up and slowly walk back to me with his last retrieves.

This once proud and commanding speciman of all that is good about a labrador was all done on this plane and I shall miss him. I have many wonderful memories though.

One year for Thanksgiving I went alone with him to the swamp where we sat and waited paitently for hours for a duck or two to come by. Nothing. Nada. Suddenly he stood up and looked behind me. A lone mallard had set its wings and was coming in. It was the only duck we saw all day, and without Flusher I would not have seen it until long too late.

Another year we were sitting quietly with my wife and a friend looking out in front of us to a beautiful empty blue sky. He started looking around, first one direction, then another, and acting very strange. At first we saw nothing, then a few specks here and another few there and suddenly the sky was full of thousands of ducks, two, maybe three or even four thousand ducks decending towards the large swamp that we were in. As they came lower and lower the sound of their feathers whistling in the wind became first a distant whisper then an almost tumultous vocal singing. The song would change, raising and falling in tempo and in sound depending on whether they were decending, turning, circling for one more look, or raising to look here and there over the swamp for that perfect landing place. Birds were landing all around us, and eventually on us. Swoosh, near silence, shish, sigh, swoosh, swoosh, sigh, splish as they finally settled into the water in a short skid to sitting from flying.

When the birds took flight and dissapeared we sat and talked long after the retrieves were made about what an incredible experience it was to have seen so many birds all at one time and in one place. What an exciting moment, and what a treasure that I have this memory of my friend to warm my heart as I think of him now that he is gone...

Winkie don't do that!

2006-04-10T13:43:00.000-07:00

Just got a phone call from Fedex.

Our client in (country name deleted) had us send him a new Vatche ring. Told Fedex that there should be no customs since it was a repair, not a new ring. Fedex called us to verify.

Dang Dude! I am not going to risk fines, bad publicity and possibly jail time to help you not pay your fair taxes.

Wish I could say it was the first time such a thing had happened, or that I thought it would be the last, but if I would lie to your government, why would you think I would not lie to you?

There are a lot of things Winkie don't do, helping anyone cheat the government of their city, state, or country are three of them.

Wink, who likes to sleep nights

From Nice, to GLORIOUS!

2006-04-06T14:34:00.000-07:00

I am going to share some before and after stone pictures with you today. Here is the beginning. I have been talking with a delightful gentleman for some time who wanted to give his fiance a nice yellow sapphire as that is what she has told him she wants for an engagement ring.

He sent me this fairly attractive yellow sapphire. As you can see, it has a nice yellow color, but the make is off. It has a big window in the center of the stone and you can see an inclusion fairly easily.

As you can see the stone is actually a little "lopsided, with the culet way to one side of the center of the stone where it belongs. It weight 5.95cts but much of the weight was "fat" in the bottom of the stone and actually detracting, not adding to the beauty of the stone.

Here is a view of the stone looking at the width of the stone. Here you can see that the table is not parallel to the girdle, and is at a fairly significant tilt. For weight retention purposes, you will see that Richard Homer, the genius who recut this nice stone and made it a true GEM did not do much, if anything to correct this minor error. He was able to use his knowledge of light and how it travels within a stone to create and balance the look this gem deserved without removing a significant portion of the top of the stone to do so.

I am going to show you the recut width view now so that you can more easily compare the two photos. I see that I photographed the original view from one end of the stone, and the recut view from the other. Oh well! You can still see the tilt to the table, but look at the improved color, even from the side of the stone.

From here you can see that the culet is once again in the center of the gem, where it belongs. If you look carefully you can see that Richard has thickened the girdle on one end so that the pavilion of the gem can be cut in proper alignment to look wonderful when seen from above.

Okay, so here we have the beginning,
And here we have the end. Which would you rather have? Notice that the brownish hue is mostly gone from the stone and the window of course is closed, which makes the inclusion readily visible in the before dissapear in the after. The dark areas of extinction are gone too, and now the stone is lively and bright.

See you next week...

Frequently Asked Questions

2006-04-02T14:04:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the questions that we regularly get from our clients. Not sure if this belongs in a Blog or not, but hey, just page down if this is not interesting to you...

We would also like to hear from you. Do you have any questions about how to buy a diamond or how to find a quality jeweler? If you have a question you would like answered, please send it to me at
Wink@WinkJones.com so that I can answer it for you.

Q: Why are you located in a little town like Boise?

A: I love to kayak, hike, camp, and just plain enjoy being out of doors and away from the maddening crowds, so do my wife and children. I think our lifestyle has a lot to do with us being so happily married for more than 30 years.

Q: How do purchases through you work?

A: Very easy. I can take your personal check, your credit card, or cashier's check. Once the funds are in my bank, I send you the product for twenty-one day inspection on diamonds and other gems. (Once you tell me the stone is yours, it IS yours! As a broker, I buy these stones for you, and do not wish to have to raise my prices by keeping a large inventory.)

Q: What is the guarantee?

Diamond Quality Guarantee – You can be assured of receiving beautiful, genuine, quality diamonds from Winfields. All our diamonds are “graded” by universal standards of clarity, color, cut and weight, and each gem you purchase from Winfield’s is accompanied by a grade and value certificated report from an industry recognized, reputable gem lab.

Authentic Colored Stones Guarantee– We unconditionally guarantee all colored stones to be accurately identified and weight and color description included. Stones are genuine unless specifically noted as synthetic or a simulant. Any treatments we are aware of will be noted. Stones such as sapphire and ruby, are heat treated unless specifically noted to be natural color and not heat treated in their description. Other stones such as blue topaz are found so rarely in natural blue that all blue topaz are considered irradiated to give them their color.

Recipient Inspection Guarantee – We want you to be pleased with your stone choice. Therefore we offer a pre-purchase inspection option. Upon receipt of payment security authorization, we are happy to send loose stones for your inspection. You have a twenty-one (21) day right to inspection and return and full refund of any deposits for any reason. Once a purchase decision is made, all sales are final and not subject to return or refund.

Total Satisfaction Guarantee – Gold and platinum jewelry carries a 100% “we’ll make it right or your money back” satisfaction guarantee on workmanship. Our craftsmen hold very high quality standards which we expect and you receive or we will remake the piece for you at no charge. Workmanship is warranted for one year.

Custom Made Heirloom Treasures Guarantee– We use only master craftsmen of the trade for custom made pieces. We offer the same 100% satisfaction guarantee on workmanship for custom pieces Workmanship is warranted for one year.

I also can help you with insurance through Jewelers Mutual, a company that works exclusively with jewelers. The rates vary state to state, but are usually lower than your homeowners. Once every two years you have the jewelry inspected by a store who works with Jewelers Mutual and resubmit your premium for another year's coverage.

Every purchase from Winfield's is accompanied by an appraisal that you can use either with Jeweler's Mutual, or with your homeowners if you prefer.

Q: How do I know you are going to be there tomorrow?

A: I have been here all of my life except for eight years with the Marine Corps that took me to Vietnam, and Brazil where I became enamored of the gem trade. I will be here as long as I live. You can check me out with the Better Business Bureau or the Chamber of Commerce, neither has ever had a complaint filed against me.

Q: Why are your prices so much better than others?

A: Because my thirty years in the trade have enabled me to find out who are the best suppliers, and to gain their trust and confidence. My word is my bond in a wonderful business that is still done on a handshake, and I am known both nationally and internationally by people I can count on to provide me with the best product at the best values, so that I can pass those tremendous values on to you!

Q: Why are you so easy to buy from?

A: Quite frankly, because I love what I do. I get up every morning excited that I get to help people like you pick out the glorious gem that will become the symbol of the love and honor with which you regard the recipient. Take a look at a few of the many testimonials that I have received and you will know what keeps my batteries charged!

Q: Can I legally buy from you withoiut paying sales tax?

As I write this I am not required to charge sales tax on any purchase that I send out of state. This does NOT excuse you from the requirement in your state to report and pay sales tax on your purchase if your state collects sales tax. Currently only an extremely small percentage of people do report their out of state purchases when filing thier state income tax forms, and there are still a few states that do not have sales taxes.

However, since there are literally BILLIONS of dollars worth of unpaid sales taxes at a time when state governments are desparate for funds I think you can expect some time in the near future that the states will begin to require that we vendors desclose who are clients are and what dollar amount was purchased. If this happens, it will NOT be optional for us to disclose, so please factor this in when making your purchases. You may get away with it for a few more years, but eventually you will have to start paying sales taxes on purchases on the internet.

Wink In The News

2006-04-02T13:21:00.000-07:00

Here is a fun story from my not too distant past...

Last Monday while talking with a client I heard a lot of commotion in the hall and people talking about a flood. I looked out the window and sure enough my building was an island.

There was a burst water main at the head of the triangle my building is on and there was a LOT of water surrounding my building.

I decided to go for it and made a "First Decent" of Main St in Boise Idaho and am still the only kayaker in the world to do so. Film at eleven. Well, actually the film was at ten in Idaho, but I made two stations and have well over 100 clients call me or stop me in the street to share a laugh with me.

The building had over ten inches of water in the basement but fortunately was between tenants down there so no major damage was done to anyone's business, but the building will need a complete rebuild in the basement as the water ruined all of the walls as well as the carpets.

After my 80 seconds of fame the broadcaster said, "Well, I learned one thing from that. Always take your kayak to work."

Pretty good advice as far as I am concerned...

Wink

Note: I first told this story on Pricescope on the day that it happened. I just wanted to share it with my blog readers since kayaking is near and dear to my heart

Who do you trust?????

2006-04-02T11:42:00.000-07:00

I was reading Pricescope yesterday and there was an interesting thread that talked about a certain individual who is always disparaging everyone other than himself who sells diamonds.

Several of the posters are upset about this guy's tactics, and the fact that so many people seem to listen to him. He gets great publicity and obviously has learned how to use PR to his advantage, but still finds it necessary to disparage any one else in the world who sells diamonds.

So, who do you trust?

I could tell you to look for testimonials, but this guy has a ton of them, even though he is a convicted felon who defrauded some investors who bought diamonds from him. So do all of the sites he complains about, heck, I have a bunch of them too.

So, who do you trust?

I could tell you to look at sites like Pricescope that are wonderful discussion boards primarily for consumers to go and find out who is trust worthy and to learn many things about diamonds and gems.

But hey, the person being talked about in that thread says that all Pricescope vendors are evil and that if you trust them you are as stupid as they are. If you believe him, that would be bad advice. (Personally I think going to sites like Pricescope is excellent advice, but then, I am one of those stupid misguided Pricescope vendors.)

So, who do you trust?

NO ONE. Don't trust anyone until you have done your homework. Then, trust but verify. When buying diamonds of over 1/2 carat insist on a lab grade on the diamond, preferably from one of the better labs such as GIA, AGS or PGS. I have had great results with all three of these labs, although it is no secret that I am currently at odds with the new GIA cut grading system. I have had not as reliable results with EGL and I just plain do not accept anything with an IGI paper on it as they have been consistently stinkers as far as I am concerned. A few of my colleagues tell me that they are cleaning up their act, and if so I will be pleased to see it, but many of the big players who use them use them BECAUSE they are lax, not because they are accurate as this enables them to buy cheaply and sell dearly to the detriment of their clientele.

Go to sites like Pricescope and read the discussions there and do searches for vendors in your area. Call or email the vendors that you are interested in talking with, and basically interview them for your business. Be quick to cut any who do not make you feel special.

Research what you are looking for and then go talk with your local jewelers. Many of them will be competitive with Internet pricing, especially if they know you have been on the internet looking and learning. It is always nice if you can get your jewelry done locally, as it relieves the anxiety of needing to ship things here and there, and it is nice to see your work in progress.

If you have a question about a vendor, you can usually ask on the diamond discussion boards and get many responses about good, bad, or indifferent experiences with the various vendors.

And of course, you can always trust me...

Why So Cheap??? (Why does yours cost more?)

2006-03-30T13:29:00.000-07:00

Many times I am asked why my jewelry is more expensive than xyz jewelers. Sometimes the quality is so bad that it can be seen on the pictures of the website, others it needs a closer examination. Here is a case study of a ring that was sent to us after purchase from one of the "cheaper sites" Our client was not happy and wanted to know if she was being too picky, she also needed to have the stone tightened as it was loose.

Personally, I thought she was being not too picky at all, and I wanted to take this opportunity to share a few of the problems with you. As you can see here, the channel work is sloppy. I have circled some of the problem areas, and you can easily see that the entire ring is poorly polished. Although some of these defects are not easily seen with the eye, the cumulative affect is less than it should be.

The next problem that you might want to be looking for is poor setting of the stones in your ring. Proper technique is to cut a seat into the ring that will vit the outline of the stone and provide a snug and secure "chair" for the stone with the gold lowered nicely over the stone so that it does not catch in your silks, or your hair!

It is easy to see in this photo that the prong is not properly lowered, so the prong will be catching your silks, your knits and your hair or the hair of anyone who's head you might rub. (This blog does not promote or necessarily condone hair rubbing, but recognizes the right's of those who wish to rub...)

You can see, out of focus, additional problems with the channel that are not circled in this photo. This is unfortunately fairly typical of much of the work that is done cheaply overseas where price, not quality is the first concern. It must be fairly noted though that some of the craftsmen in Asia are outstanding when they are allowed the time to do the work correctly. This is not their work, but rather emblematic of the houses that produce mass merchandise volumes at very low prices.

The prong on this side is even worse. Although the top of the seat was properly finished, the bottom was just sort of scouped out so that it does not come into contact with the stone until quite low. This will result in the stone being constantly loose as there is no way to snugly secure the stone so that it will not constantly come loose the first time it is worn.

We will go into more potential problems in another post, but when you are looking for super quality you will normally pay a little more than the mass merchandice houses, but the resulting look is well worth it.

Wink

WHAT DO YOU WANT???

2006-03-29T11:33:00.000-07:00

Please write to us with any questions you would like to see answered in our blog at wink@winkjones.com We want this to be fun for you, and are always willing to look at your questions to see if they would make a good article for our blog.

We are new at this, but are enjoying the heck out of it, we hope you are too!

Wink

What to look for when buying color

2006-03-29T05:23:00.000-07:00

Let's go for a little education today. This will be a short tutorial on what to look for in buying a colored gem. I will be talking mostly about the importance of cutting in the colored gems today. A more complete tutorial can be seen at Pricescope. The article there is one that I wrote about four or five years ago and is in a great deal more detail.

What we are looking for when we buy colored gems to wear in jewelry is beauty. The color itself can provide much of the beauty, but cutting will definitely add, or detract from that beauty. As you can easily see in this amethyst, the color is okay, but the cutting makes absolutely no use of the color. It is basically a lifeless lump of purple quartz, suitable for life in a fish tank, but not really for use in nice jewelry.

Here is a great example of what can be done with good use of cutting.

This "okay" light green beryl (the gem family that both aquamarine and emerald are found in) is transformed from merely pretty to extraordinary by the recutting artistry of Richard Homer. I think it is interesting to note that the cutting affects not only the sparkle and pizzas of the stone, but the eyes perceived color. Because the stone is now well cut the light is traveling through the stone and absorbing more light. This results in a prettier and more saturated color, even in the lighter stones. Here is a sapphire that we chose NOT to recut with the unique concave faceting that Richard Specializes in because it is already so saturate that to further saturate the stone might tip it over from its already incredible color to a stone that now appears too dark.

This 5 carat plus sapphire is already magnificent and although we did repolish away about a carat of it when we bought it, we went with the traditional flat faceting that would enhance the look of the gem, without the complete remake that might actually have lowered the value of the gem if it became too dark appearing. (The stone is not quite as dark as shown, sapphires do NOT like to share their beauty through photographs. It took a professional photographer to get this close to its actual beauty, a price well worth spending to be able to have this gem always in my photo gallery after it is sold.)

In short, what you should look for when buying a faceted colored gem, whether it be ruby, sapphire, emerald, aquamarine, amethyst or any other colored gem is how well did the cutter maximize the beauty of the gem. Did some native cutter slap a few facets on to make the edges sparkle and leave the center dull and open, or did a master play with the angles and facets to make the stone really sing and dance in the hearts of the viewers?

I will leave you with this traditionally faceted blue topaz, a very inexpensive stone according to most, that was tweaked with a little magic to result in this exquisite snowflake that is created by frosting the facet edges of the crown (top) of the gem. Even with the cost of the custom cutting this was a relatively inexpensive topaz and with the custom hand made mounting made a wonderful gift for a lucky lady a Christmas or two ago.

That's it for today, enjoy!

Wink

There's Lies, and then there's DARN lies

2006-03-28T08:49:00.000-07:00

I saw this on a competitor's site a few weeks ago. It made me very cranky then and after having been promised that it would be changed one of my friendly competitors brought it to my attention this morning and I see that it has not.

Quote:

WELCOME

PRICESCOPE VISITORS

We will beat any internet competitor's lowest advertised price on any diamond seen on pricescope.

All diamonds seen on pricescope are available to us. You will receive the absolute lowest price from us......guaranteed!!!

Once you know the diamond(s) that you are interested in please fill the following chart. XYZ Diamonds will contact you very shortly. Or, feel free to call 1 555-555-5555 and discuss the details of any diamond(s) that you have seen listed on pricescope. If calling outside of normal business hours (eastern time) please leave all the details concerning the diamond(s) and we will call you back shortly. Thanks.

Please note that XYZ Diamonds will not be responsible for any errors in pricing made by pricescope. All diamonds are subject to availability.

End Quote:

What a crock. Yes, they can get some of the diamonds listed on Pricescope, but there are many diamonds and lines of diamonds that they can not touch, such as the Cut by Infinity diamonds that I carry, or the A Cut Above diamonds by WhiteFlash. Of course, if you are looking for one of those diamonds, well they are subject to availability, of which they have NONE!!!

It saddens me to think that the American public is so easily duped, yet this company have been doing this type of thing for many years, so obviously a large enough portion of the public is this easily duped or the "fine folks" who tell these lies would have long since gone out of business. There business model is to list huge "inventory" lists of diamonds that they do not have and have never seen on their site, and if you want one of "their" diamonds they will have it drop shipped to you. They never see the stone, they never inspect the stone, and they take the word of the vendor that the stone is as specified, when in fact often it is not.

My hope for those of you reading this blog is that you are smart enough to spend a little time getting educated about the finer points of buying a diamond and make your own decision. If that company has the diamond you want and are willing to shave $10 off the price to make the sale, then wonderful. But if you want one of the truly best cut diamonds on the planet, then they will not be able to acquire them and you might actually have to pay 3-5% more for the diamond. The extra price also brings extra service, and of course the extra quality of the best cutting available for the diamond that you are buying.

Not every one will want only the best cut diamonds, but if you do, you will need to look at them with people who actually have them, not people who dropship diamonds they have never seen to people who are not qualified normally to know for sure if the diamond is in fact what it is touted to be.

As you might guess, this is one of my pet peeves. Sigh, I think I will get over it, but I will leave you with this little example of why you might want to pay a little more and be happier with your purchase.

A client called me from here in Boise. He had been searching on the internet and found three diamonds, all H&A that he wanted to look at. He agreed to pay me a slightly higher price for each stone, plus the cost of postage and insurance to bring them in and return the unbought stones. I believe the total was about $300 more for the stone he bought on a stone of more than $10,000 so less than 5% and shipping and insurance on the unbought diamonds, another $100 each round trip. Let's call them diamond A, B and C in the order in which he thought he wanted to buy them. I called the diamond owners of the diamonds, not the sites they were listed on. I specifically questioned each dealer about the stones and stressed are the diamonds Hearts and Arrows quality cutting.

"Oh, yes, they are AGS 0 cuts."

"But are they H&A?"

Oh, yes, they are AGS 0 cuts.

"I understand that, but are they H&A as well as AGS 0 cuts"

"Oh yes."

To make a long story short, diamonds A and B were not Hearts and Arrows quality cutting. Diamond C that he almost did not let me bring in to save the $100 in shipping and insurance costs was the only legitimate H&A cut in the batch, AND it was the least expensive of the three stones by several hundred dollars. So my client, buy spending a little more for service, actually saved money in the long run, and will never have the "experience" of finding out somewhere down the road that he did not get what he thought he was paying for.

By the way, when we sat down, I put all three diamonds before him to let him choose, and he immediately gravitated towards the H&A cut diamond as being the most sparkly of the three. Sometimes you can tell, sometimes you can not. Me personally, I think it is always wise to let your eyes do the walking. If you can not be in a place to let YOUR eyes do the walking, then maybe you want to be talking with someone who has good eyes and is willing to let their eyes do your walking. It is up to you, but please do not be fooled by someone willing to lie and say that they have access to all the diamonds listed on Pricescope, when they are NOT EVEN CLOSE to be able to access all of the diamonds.

Wink

When Bad Things Happen - Part Deux

2006-03-27T10:58:00.000-07:00

If you did not already read part one, please drop down a notch and read it before reading part 2. It will be hard to appreciate the difference if you do not see both the before and after pictures.

Here is the main concern, the 2ct plus diamond ring that was inherited from our client's mom. Hard to believe that this beautiful ring was repaired from the horribly damaged ring in our last post.

If it strains your credulity this is a good thing, as we simply could not ever have made it look good again, not really good. Using the original ring as a guide we actually made a brand new ring for our client. First we had to repair the minor chips around the edge of her diamond, and this is the result. A worthy effort!

The 5 stone ring was much easier and was in fact quickly repaired to its original beauty. None of the stones were damaged, which made it even easier.

The tanzanite was a total transformation. Since it was going to require extensive repair to the stone we decided on getting a Richard Homer recut. He not only completely repaired the stone, but transformed it from beautiful to FANTASTIC. This picture is a poor representation of what he accomplished, but you will see the idea.

Here is the finished pendant, perhaps a better view of the stone and certainly a major transformation from the original badly bent up pendnat mounting. From looking at that mounting in the before picture, it is hard to imagine it ever actually holding such a beautiful stone as this.

I hope you enjoyed seeing the ability of modern jewelery to repair not only the metal, but the stones in a damaged piece of jewelry. Diamonds, rubies, sapphires or tanzanites are easily recut and repaired if there is a sufficient amount of the original stone left to work with. Contact your local jeweler if you have any problems, or feel to contact us at www.winkjones.com if you like.

Wink

When Bad Things Happen

2006-03-27T08:20:00.000-07:00

Imagine that you are a houseguest. Your hostess has left for work and you decide to be a gracious guest and do the dishes. You put the dishes in the sink, run some water to fill the sink then pour the contents of a cup of soapy water into the sink and start rinsing dishes. Once you have the dishes all rinsed and in the dishwasher you pull the plug in the sink and start the disposal, only to stop it almost immediately when you hear a horrible noise.

Omigosh! You reach through the sink into the disposal and pull out two horribly mangled rings and a pendant, sadly recognizing the pendant you gave to your hostess only a month ago as a very nice thank you gift. You also recognize the ring that your hostess has to hold the diamond she inherited from her mother, only the diamond is not in the disposal.

If you are not getting sort of a sick feeling in your stomach, you are not imagining very well, try harder!

Now, imagine your panic. You frantically call the plumber who comes out right away, (you were VERY persuasive!) and takes apart first the trap where you did not find the diamond, then looks with a flash light through the pipe and there, about an inch away from dropping forever into the sewer lies the diamond, several inches away from the opening of the pipe. Discussions are had, a coat hanger is found and bent into a narro crook and carefully, ever so slowly extended into the narrow pipe, knowing that one miscue and the diamond will be lost forever.

Finally the plumber pulls slowly and sighs with relief, the diamond is coming back. It is chipped, omigosh! It looks pretty good, but there is a chip on one side. Now, where is that tanzanite?

Why it was trapped in the disposal, and it is damaged too.

What in the HECK do you do now???

Out of time for now, must get to work, more later...

Wink

Buying gems in Thailand Part Deux

2006-03-26T10:45:00.000-07:00

The gentleman seated is the buyer's agent that I spoke about, this photo will give you an idea of the mob scene that we were subjected to for several hours in the morning, and again in the afternoon after lunch, although we did have seats in the upstairs bourse in the afternoon and there was lots more air to breath, although the din was even louder than it had been in the morning. Buying gems at the weekly market is not for those seeking solitude or quiet!

You may remember that I was excited to purchase a beautiful colored blue zircon that was poorly cut in my last post. I did not get around to telling you why.

One of the main reasons that I wanted to go to Thailand was to buy poorly cut gems that had extra weight in the pavilion (bottom) of the stone. This would allow me to have them recut by Richard Homer into gems of spectacular beauty for a fraction of the price of having to buy the gems already cut.

This would allow me to sell them for less than I would normally have to sell them for, and still make as much or more money than I would selling them at the higher price. In fact I sold several of the gems that I bought to wholesalers for the same price I sell them to my clients for, and they sell them to jewelers who sell them for way more than I do. I look at this as sort of a major win for me, and also a major win for my clients, whether they be wholesalers or end users. Plus I get to travel to one of the most friendly places on earth. I really loved the Thai people, they were warm and hospitable to me and my associates and it was truly a pleasure to be there.

Of course, we were not the only buyers there. We met buyers from all over the world, including Sri Lanka, where some of the gems actually came from. At the bottom of this post there is a picture of an indian buyer that we talked with. Even though I was exstatic at the prices I was paying, he was somewhat put off that we were paying so much. Since we were "paying too much" we had been offered some of the stones that he might have bought had we not been there. Mostly though we were not competing as the stones he wanted were usually different than what I wanted. He bought several parcels of hundreds of carats of mele (very small stones, usually less than .15cts, often as small as .005cts each) for manufacturing lines of jewelry at his factory in India.

Anyway, also at the bottom of this post you will find the blue zircon that I talked about above. It is shown in a composit photo containing both the before and the after. You will notice the substantial color change that is seen from the before to the more saturated and intense color of the after. This is a result of Richard Homer's artistry. You can see many more of his gems at www.concavegems.com. If you want one of his stones you can contact me or deal directly with Richard. If you go directly with Richard, be sure to mention my name as he will give you a 10% discount for doing so.

In fact if you want to visit my colleagues page at www.winkjones.com/colleagues you can visit many fine sources of both gems and diamonds.

During the course of the day we bought, just the five us, well over $100,000 worth of gems and we were without doubt the smallest buyers there. I think the buyer's house does VERY well with it's 5% commission.

Wink

Buying gems in Thailand

2006-03-26T08:33:00.000-07:00

Today we will take a short visit back in time to a trip I took about three years ago to Thailand. It was both business and pleasure, as my wife came with me to celebrate our 30th anniversary, which had been only a month earlier.

The small package shown here on the left is the result of a quite interesting procceedure that was in fact the highlight of the trip for me.

Early in the morning, five buyers including myself piled into a shared van and drove about 3 hours from Bangkok to a small city called Chantiburi. It was a fascinating drive as we drove out of the big city of Bangkok and were quickly into rural areas. We saw lush greens, some fertile farms, and even areas where the houses were built on pilings so that the floors would be out of the water during the rainy season. You would almost have to have traveled yourself to understand the juxtoposition of the very poor next to the land of the prosperous, a shocking contrast that is rarely seen in this country.

On arrival in Chantaburi we were taken to a buyer's office. This was a very fascinating experience for me. The main floor was completely full, so we were taken to a room in the downstairs where the five of us were seated along the back wall. Each of us had a pad of paper, you know the kind, maybe 24 or so inches wide where you can rip off the top sheet when you have gotten it covered in notes. We also had a loupe, a pair of tweezers, a stone scoop and a calculator at each position. The five of us were seated on one side of the table, literally elbow to elbow and on the other side of the table sat the buyer's agent, who spoke English sufficient to our needs.

He asked each of us what we wanted to look at first and then turned to the door at his back and hollered out what each of us were looking for. Instantly fifty or sixty people crammed into the room and started thrusting stones at us, each in its own plastic bag if we were looking for larger stones, or in parcels of small stones if we were looking at smaller stones. I was looking for a nice blue zircon first and almost immediately someone reached a hand over the lady in front of him and dumped a parcel of stones onto my pad.

I turned to the buyers agent and said I had no interest, how did I tell him? He said scoop the stones and put them back into the bag, wave him off. I did. The lady he had shoved aside stood patiently and then thrust her hand into my face with a stone of gorgeous color but hideous native cutting, exactly what I wanted. I turned to the buyers agent and asked how do I ask the price?

He said, just point to the calculator. By the time I had turned back to her to point to the calculator she already had it in her hand and was entering in a number. I knew this from discussions with my companions on the way to Chantiburi to be the price per carat, in baht. I had to divide the number by the conversion rate to get the price in dollars, then divide that in 10 and then convert that back in to baht to show her my offer. I was trembling in my boots like a rookie poker player with a big hand hoping to get paid. (Okay, so I wasn't wearing boots, but you know what I mean.)

She looked at my offer, screamed something at me which I choose to translate as "You Crazy!" and input a new number into the calculator. I did the math again and found she was asking about 15% of her original price, a price well below what I had expected to pay so I offered 12% and a deal was struck.

I turned again to the buyer's agent and he told me to fill in one of the little offer sheets that I had. I did. He took the sheet, wrapped it around the plastic bag that we had put the stone back into and wrapped the whole thing in toilet paper and then wrapped that both length and width wise with scotch tape. I initialed the tape, he gave me one copy of the offer, kept one for himself and gave her the other and she took the stone and scuttled through the mob and back into the outer room. I asked where she was going with my stone and the buyer's agent said to be patient and look at more stones until she came back. I did.

A few minutes later she came back into the room and handed the offer to the buyer's agent. He looked at me and said my offer had been rejected, the owner of the stone was demanding $x for the stone which was about 14% of what I was originally asked. I countered with 13% she went back out of the room and came back a few minutes later with an acceptance of my counter to her counter. At that time she left the stone with the buyer's agent who sent it upstairs to their gemologist who would verify that it was indeed blue zircon and that it was natural blue zircon. This was the case for all stones, they guaranteed the identity of the stone, and that it was natural, not synthetic, but made no guarantee of whether or not any stones had been heat treated or diffusion treated, we had to know enough about buying gems to know this for ourselves. In the event that they were wrong, we actually had full recourse, which is why were there. The buyer's agent receives a 5% commission on all stones bought, paid by the seller.

I did similar transactions two or three times over the next hour when the guy next to me finally turned and said, "Would you knock it off?! You are paying too darn much for your stones and waffling when they come back with a counter offer, you are ruining things for the rest of us!"

He went on to advise me that once I had agreed on a price to let it go if I did not get it for that price. Soon I either got or did not get the stones at the original price, as word quickly spread as to who could be bluffed and who could not.

Enough for now, we will continue this next time

Wink

Welcome to Diamonds and Gems, the Blog for WinkJones.com.

2006-03-25T14:24:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our world. Here you will find the world of diamonds and gems as we know it. Pictures galore and discussions about diamonds and many of the fantastic gems that we use in the creation of jewelry,

It is our hope that you will come back often and visit us often. We will discuss our buying trips to exptic places and the latest information about diamond cutting, gemstone treatments and what ever else strikes our fancy.

You are always welcome to ask questions and leave comments, especially if there are things that you are interested in that we have not yet mentioned. If comments start to get rude or abusive then we will moderate them, but if courtesy prevails then we will let you post. We have left on the requirement for you to enter in a word that you see to prevent commercial spam from being left by machines.

Just for fun, here is a lovely orange diamond that I bought in Antwerp with my wife a few years ago. We got to see the crystal the day before it was cut and listen to the story of how it was bought. She now wears it proudly many times a year.

Wink