Jewelry Diamonds Information

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There's something so exciting about these incredibly large and perfect stones. Sometimes they have well-documented histories and we know where they came from and who owned them and when. But others have a past that's not as well-known, and that only adds to the romance and mystique surrounding them.

One such diamond is called the Portuguese Diamond and is a 127-carat, cushion-cut diamond, shaped in an octagonal emerald shape. It's nearly flawless. While it's called the Portuguese Diamond, with a story that it was mined in Brazil and became part of the Portuguese Crown Jewels, there's really no true documentation that says definitively that that’s where the diamond was mined. Must of the diamond's history is pure legend and conjecture. One can only imagine who wore this incredible stone!

One part of the diamond's history that is well-documented is that in February 1928 Peggy Hopkins Joyce traded a $350,000 pearl necklace for the diamond and $23,000 in cash. According to New York newspaper accounts, it was mounted on a diamond-studded platinum choker to be worn close around the throat (probably the same necklace described above).

There’s something so exciting about these incredibly large and perfect stones. Sometimes they have well-documented histories and we know where they came from and who owned them and when. But others have a past that's not as well-known, and that only adds to the romance and mystique surrounding them.

Miss Joyce performed in the Ziegfeld Follies, and had six husbands, at least five of whom were wealthy. She was said to be almost as fond of jewels as of men. Sometime prior to 1946 Miss Joyce placed the diamond on consignment to the group of jewelers mentioned above, in an unsuccessful attempt to sell it.

Harry Winston acquired the Portuguese Diamond from Miss Joyce in 1951, and for the next several years it traveled the country as part of his "Court of Jewels" exhibition. In 1957, Winston sold the diamond to an international industrialist, who then traded it back in 1962. In 1963, the Smithsonian acquired the Portuguese Diamond from Mr. Winston in exchange for 2,400 carats of small diamonds.

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While quartz is the most plentiful mineral on earth, it also provides endless fascination and beauty for experts and casual observers alike. It is found in nearly every geological environment and is at least a component of almost every rock type. It is also the most varied in terms of varieties, colors and forms.

This variety comes about because of the abundance and widespread distribution of quartz. A collector could easily have hundreds of quartz specimens and not have two that are the same due to the many broad categories.

Quartz is usually clear, but in granite it is also cloudy white or grayish in color. It can also be dark (as in smoky quartz). Many gemstones are actually less common colored varieties of quartz. Examples include purple amethyst,yellow citrine, and pink rose quartz. Because quartz is so resistant to weathering due to its chemical composition and atomic bonds, it accumulates as the other minerals in a rock erode. Light colored beach, Aeolian and alluvial sand is composed of mainly quartz grains.

The use of Crystals for crystal healing or gem healing, has been linked to mental, physical, spiritual health, charkas' energy, whose Healing Power followers of the New Age, Psychic Healing and Atlantis and Crystal Healers have long revered for relieving pain, stress, depression, anxiety in the mind, body and spirit. Spiritual Healers believe this approach to alternative medicine is essential for ensuring health.

For Spiritual Healers, no stone is as essential to their craft as quartz. Embodying all the qualities they seek, it is the quintessential healing crystal. Part of this faith they place in Quartz comes from its scientific properties that make it useful in electronic devices. From this one truth, Crystal Healers make huge leaps in logic.

They believe that its crystal formation can align the harmonies within the human body, that they can "program" the crystal easily, that acupuncture needles coated with quartz are more effective, and that it has the ability to receive and send energy.

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In ancient Egypt, glazed quartz served as a substitute when no high quality examples of Turquoise could be found. The Greeks had originally named quartz, krystallos, the word for ice, but this soon came to mean any crystal. In China's Ming Dynasty, quartz often showed up as stone in jewelry work. In Pre-Columbian America, explorations of Mixtec graves have uncovered quartz use for ear jewelry.

In European history, Queen Elizabeth I’s court spiritualist’s crystal ball was Smoky Quartz, which is also the national gem of Scotland, whose national scepter included a large Smoky Quartz on its top. In modern times, it was the first crystal used in radio transmission and reception and was essential in the development of computers.

Clear quartz is of the traditional healing stones believed to draw out pain and amplify healing energy. Crystal Healers use clear quartz in rituals meant to treat convulsions, diarrhea, dizziness, exposure to radiation, general pain, hemorrhages, headaches, hypochondria and kidney diseases.

Rose quartz is used for treating cardiovascular health, fertility, headaches, kidney disease, migraines and sexual dysfunction, as well as those disorders occurring in the throat, ears, nose and sinuses.

Rose quartz is the essential stone for increasing love and for times of extreme emotional turmoil, such as divorce, bereavement or career set backs because it helps to remind the wearer of the importance of self-love. It stimulates the body's love centers and can result in peace and fidelity in committed relationships.

As one of the most important crystals for attracting love it does emotional maintenance clearing out emotional baggage, converting negative emotions, and calms hot tempers, all of which prepare us for love. The stone is also recommended for improving mental discipline and making one more responsible, and for meditation and mental tranquility.

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Who doesn't love rose quartz in all its varying hues of pink? Rose quartz takes its name from the flower because of its translucent and delicate pink color caused by traces of iron, manganese or titanium. Rose quartz is usually very large - meaning that it doesn't form crystals.

Rose quartz is found in Madagascar, India, Germany and several areas in the USA. Much rose quartz was extracted from a famous site near Custer, South Dakota, but now, most of the world's supply comes from Brazil. Rose quartz is one of the most valued varieties of quartz. The pink to rose red color is unique.

The color of rose quartz is still not completely understood. It has been said to be due to a number of different minor impurities present in the rose quartz including titanium, manganese and even colloidal gold.

However, recent studies using micro-analytical methods have discovered that the color of massive rose quartz is actually due to microscopic mineral fibers in the rose quartz. X-ray diffraction tests on these microscopic fibers yielded patterns similar to the mineral dumortierite, suggesting the possibility of a totally new and as yet unknown fibrous mineral causing the color in massive rose quartz.

The rare transparent crystals of rose quartz owe their coloration to aluminum and phosphorous impurities. Their pink color is photosensitive and can fade in sunlight.

Rose quartz is often called the 'love stone'. It is associated with forgiveness and compassion and can create a wonderful calming influence. It is soft and delicate inspiring feelings of love and friendship. Rose quartz is aid to help remove repressed anger and hatred and is said to remove negative influences such as jealousy and avarice.

It is said to aid the spleen, kidneys and circulation system. Rose quartz also eases sexual and emotional imbalance and can also improve fertility. It makes a lovely gift as it is a symbol of love.
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It's hard to imagine that a mineral with a name as mundane as corundum yields gems as exquisite as the ruby and sapphire, or even that these two stones, so different in color and mystique, are actually the same mineral family.

Lucky you if your birthstone is sapphire (September) or ruby (July). These are among the richest-colored of all gemstones with a romance and history as colorful as they are. Rubies are actually rarer than sapphires, and only red corundums are called rubies. Any other color is a sapphire.

When grading colored stones, the density and hue of the color are part of the evaluation, and it's the richest, deepest colors that are the most prized. In rubies, the most prized variant of color is called pigeon's blood.

Large gem quality rubies can be more valuable than comparably sized diamonds and are certainly rarer. There is a relative abundance of smaller, (1-3 carat,) blue sapphires compared to the scarcity of even small gem quality rubies, making even these smaller stones relatively high in value.

Stones of Burmese origin generally command the highest prices. The vast majority of rubies are "native cut" in the country of origin. High value ruby rough is tightly controlled and rarely makes its way to custom cutters. Occasionally, such native stones are recut to custom proportions, albeit at a loss of weight and diameter. Custom cut and recut stones are usually more per carat.

Sapphires exist in all the shades of blue from the deep blue of evening skies to the bright and deep blue of a clear and beautiful summer sky. Sapphires also come in many other colors, not only in the transparent grayish misty blue of far horizons, but also displaying the bright fireworks of sunset colors - yellow, pink, orange and purple. So sapphires are really and truly heavenly stones, although they are being found in the hard soil of our so-called "blue planet".

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The cut of a diamond refers to the way the stone is shaped and polished, how the facets are arranged and how deep or shallow it's cut. There are various cuts of diamonds that refer to that, many of them patented. Both Asscher and Princess diamonds are square-shaped diamonds, but they are vastly different in how the facet are cut and arranged.

Cut also refers to the shape of the diamond. The shape is often determined by how the molecules of the crystal are arranged. If it’s an octahedron, it will be cut as a round brilliant, and often two round brilliants can be cut from the same original crystal. Other crystal configurations, such as macer, will be cut as marquise or oval diamonds.

The modern round cut brilliant stone has 58 facets, or 57 if the tiny bottom facet, the culet, is omitted. The Princess cut is unique in that it's a square diamond with pointed corners.

Many diamonds, even square and emerald cut diamonds will have rounded or cut-off corners, because contrary to popular opinion, a diamond can chip or scratch if it knocks against something at the wrong angle. It's a bad idea to try to scratch a mirror with any diamond!

An emerald shaped diamond is a rectangle cut with longer, flat facets. It's a good cut for a diamond that's exceptionally clear. If it's not, then an emerald cut diamond can appear cloudy.

The Asscher diamond is similar to an emerald shape, except it's square. It's cutting resembles a spider web when viewed from above.

Other diamond shapes are self-explanatory. A pear- or tear-shaped diamond is exactly that. It's an oval that's wider at one end and curves to a point at the other end. An oval is a perfect oval. The marquise-shaped diamond can maximize the carat weight of a stone because it's a longer and flatter cut, yet highly faceted. The marquise comes in a variety of length-to-width ratios.

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Some of the world's most spectacular diamonds and other gems are located in the National Gem Collection in the Museum of Natural History in Smithsonian Collection in Washington, D.C. In the collection are diamonds known to almost everyone, such as the Hope Diamond, as well as other large diamonds and other precious gems and jewelry.

In the National Gem Collection are examples of spectacular minerals and crystals, as well gemstones and jewelry. You can see a beautiful purple quartz amethyst crystal, or the mineral azurite, which is a bright blue copper compound mineral.

You can also see a huge green beryl crystal. Beryls are the mineral family that includes emeralds, aquamarines, heliodor and morganite. It's almost as exciting to see the raw crystal, as it is to see the finished product when it's been cut and polished.

Some of the finished pieces in the Smithsonian Collection include the crown Napoleon used for the second Empress, Marie Louise. It originally was made of 700 carats in diamonds and 79 emeralds. The emeralds have been replaced with Persian turquoise cabochons.

You can also see the 182-carat Star of Bombay star sapphire that was given to Mary Pickford by Douglas Fairbanks and a brilliantly colored black opal. Black opals are the most valuable of the opal family of gems.

There are also extraordinary examples of quartz crystals, including a 7,000 faceted clear quartz egg! Part of the Smithsonian's collection includes pieces of jade and turquoise used in other cultures.

This includes a collection of Zuni Indian turquoise jewelry and jade lanterns carved from nephrite for the Chinese emperor Chi'en Lung in 1750. A more modern piece is the Dragon Vase, carved from a rare piece of lavender jade.

But of course, the most dazzling items in the collection are the individual gemstones and jewelry that have been owned by royalty through the centuries.

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The Victoria-Transvaal is a 67.89-carat, brownish-yellow pear shaped stone. It was cut from a 240-carat crystal that was found in the Transvaal, South Africa. The first cutting produced a 75-carat 116-facet stone that measured 1 x 13/8 inches; a recutting retained the same length and width, but reduced the depth to better proportions, making it more brilliant.

The diamond has been featured in several Hollywood films, including a Tarzan episode from 1952 titled Tarzan's Savage Fury, and in leading exhibitions in the United States and Canada.

The necklace was designed by Baumgold Brothers, Inc, and consists of a yellow gold chain with 66 round brilliant-cut diamonds, fringed with ten drop motifs, each set with two marquise-cut diamonds, a pear-shaped diamond, and a small round brilliant-cut diamond (the total weight of the 106 diamonds is about 45 carats).

The configuration of these stones makes them look like small angels! The necklace was donated by Leonard and Victoria Wilkinson in 1977 to the Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C.

Other colored diamonds in the Smithsonian Collection include the 8.30-carat Shepard Diamond. This stone is from South Africa, and was acquired by the Smithsonian Museum in exchange for a collection of small diamonds that had been seized as smuggled goods by the United States Customs Service. The diamond is named for the Smithsonian employee who helped facilitate the transaction.

An extremely rare red diamond resides at the Smithsonian as well. This is the De Young Red, a 5.03-carat, brilliant cut red diamond. The main kite-shaped facets on the crown are divided in two, giving the stone more brilliance than a standard round brilliant cut.

The stone is not pure red but has a slight brown hue, which makes it appear like a fine red garnet and indeed, it was once purchased as such at an estate sale.

It is the third largest red diamond in the world, after the Moussaieff Red (5.11 carats) and the Red Diamond (5.05 carats).

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Color Treated Diamonds

Many people are starting to favor the fancy, vivid colored diamond gem stones over the traditional transparent, or white, diamond. Some diamonds are found in their natural colors when they are mined, others become colored by gemologists and jewelers during a treatment process.

In order to make them more affordable to the average consumer, companies have begun color treating diamonds of lower grades in order to take a less desirable yellow or brownish tinted diamond and make it into a beautiful, brightly colored diamond.

Colored diamonds can be treated by a process called irradiation, which uses a high heat system to alter the color of a diamond. Other diamonds are treated by painting.

Fancy Colored Diamonds

While many diamonds are inspected and valued based on their colorless qualities, there are people who prefer the fancy colored diamonds that come in vivid hues of greens, yellows, reds, pinks and all the different colors in between.

Some colored diamonds are that way naturally. If a diamond has nitrogen in it, it often has a yellow tint to the stone. If the gemstone has been effected by radiation, the gem may turn green.

Other colored diamonds have been treated to obtain their color, and this allows people with lower budgets to purchase the fancy colored diamonds. Gemologists have found ways to alter the colors of diamonds to get any shade or hue desired.

The grading process for colored diamonds is slightly different than that of the transparent diamond. First, a colored diamond is graded based on the primary hue, the blue or pink or red color that makes up the majority of the diamonds color. Second, they are graded based on the intensity of that color. A very intense, naturally colored diamond is more rare than a less intense diamond, and therefore more expensive. A treated diamond will cost less than a naturally colored diamond in most instances.

Synthetic Diamonds

Most diamonds are found and mined by miners, but more recently, scientists have come up with ways to create synthetic diamonds. While a synthetic diamond is still a "real diamond", they are created within a laboratory instead of by nature in a mine.

Colored Diamond Names

Because fancy colored diamonds come in so many different shades, it can sometimes be difficult to interpret the name of the diamonds color. Often, you'll find two colors labeling the shade of a diamond, such as greenish blue. Each name has a primary color description, and some have a secondary color description.

If a diamond is called "blue diamond", you can tell it will be a blue shaded diamond gemstone. If the diamond is called "greenish blue", you may wonder what that means. Is the diamond blue, or is it green?

The color that is described with the "ish" at the end is considered the secondary color, and the other color, in this case blue, becomes the primary color. So a greenish blue diamond is mostly blue, with specks of green seen throughout the stone. If you come upon a diamond labeled "brown red", then the diamond will have equal amounts of both colors seen through the stone.

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Diamonds form between 75-120 miles below the earth's surface. According to geologists the first delivery of diamonds was somewhere around 2.5 billion years ago and the most recent was 45 million years ago. The carbon that makes diamonds comes from the melting of pre-existing rocks in the Earth's upper mantle.

There is an abundance of carbon atoms in the mantle. Temperature changes in the upper mantle forces the carbon atoms to go deeper where it melts and finally becomes new rock, when the temperature reduces. If other conditions like pressure and chemistry is right then the carbon atoms in the melting crystal rock bond to build diamond crystals.

There is no guarantee that these carbon atoms will turn into diamonds. If the temperature rises or the pressure drops then the diamond crystals may melt partially or totally dissolve. Even if they do form, it takes thousand of years for those diamonds to come anywhere near the surface.

It takes millions of years to make a diamond. When you own a diamond, you own something which is a legend in the making. It has not been made in a factory just the other day. A diamond comes from the bosom of the earth. More interestingly not all the diamonds mined are made into jewelry.

Only one fourth of the diamonds that are mined are made into jewelry. Every 100 tons of mud produces one carat of a diamond. And this one carat is not one stone! It could be anything from 0.005 ct to 1 ct. because much of the original stone is cut away in the process of cutting, shaping and polishing the diamond.

Diamonds come in different rough shapes. The next time you look at your diamond, think about the amount of time, energy and resources have gone into making that one.

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