GemConcepts Blog
An Epitome on Colorless Diamond Rarity & Values – present & future
There has been a lot of noise lately in regards to values of diamonds, more specifically with respect to lab grown diamonds (LGD) and their recent descending speed. For some odd reason.., diamantaires, mainly from the mined side of the spectrum, can't hide their...
Antique Emerald Pinky Ring Spiraled by Nine Unique Historic Diamond Cuts
Introducing our fifth Pinky Ring in a series. For this ring, we upped the ante bringing it to another level for both its uniqueness and design complications. Merging between old-world gems, diamonds and their superlative proportions into an innovative and modern three...
Double Cut or Old English Star Diamonds (sometimes called Mazarin)
Beginnings In general, whenever it seems we are discussing or reading about diamond cuts and styles in their historical context, the subject usually covers pretty much the same few coveted antique styles, like for example the antique Old Mine Cut, a cut most...
Three Dimensional Optical Symmetry – The Naked Truth
Prologue In my last article “Diamond Cutting Philosophy Painted in Colors”, I touched upon a new philosophy, a unique insight into diamond cutting uncharted waters for many, if not most. (I am not aware of anyone implementing such techniques). A different methodic...
Mughal Cut Diamonds – The Search Continues
A couple of weeks ago (Jan 28, 2022), I came across a LinkedIn post by Rui Galopim de Carvalho on the famous Orlov Diamond, one of a *handful surviving specimens of the ancient Mughal style faceting. In the post Rui referred to an article by Anna Malecka published in...
Old Mine Cut Diamonds Guide
Old Mine Cut diamonds are antique diamonds formed and cut from ancient times to the end of the 19th or beginning of the 20th. century when more uniformed round brilliants came about. More relevant Old Mine Cuts are antique diamonds that were cut en brilliant style (58...
Diamond Cutting Philosophy Painted in Colors
Prologue I have practiced quite a few cutting methods over my 35 years of diamond cutting, but it was exactly 20 years ago when a major event triggered my mind to think differently. It was my first official journey developing a new diamond cut…, a faceting design...
Modern Mogul Cut Diamond – a Fast Forward (R)evolution
Introduction - Revolutionizing of the Mogul Cut Diamond~ For those who have been following my recent Lab Grown Diamond (LGD) journey “Mughal (Mogul) Cut Diamonds - Reviving the Mountain of Light!” which tells my experience on the interpretation of the historic Mughal...
Mogul Cut Diamond – Reviving the Mountain of Light!
The Mogul Cut Diamond (also known as Mughal) is one of the most ancient diamond faceting techniques. It is a direct alteration from the more popular rose cut (style) as we know, but with taking material mass and form as primary consideration. One of the most famous...
Lab Grown Diamonds – Realizing an Opportunity
This present article is aimed to document my latest journey with Lab Grown Diamonds which are also called synthetic diamonds. Personally I prefer calling them Man Made Diamonds simply because humans are involved throughout two whole production chains eventually...
French Cut Diamonds guide – A forgotten cut with rich history
French Cut Diamonds can be traced back to the 14th-Century. The origin of the name isn’t completely clear, but the most common assumption rests on the fact that the cut was more popular in France than other nations at a certain point of History.
Ctrl – Alt – Delete — Diamond Industry Restart
Diamond Industry Restart A few months ago, when the word Corona still had a completely different meaning for me, we as a society started to notice that something was cooking. Literally overnight, the name Corona was replaced by a different connotation which today has...
Diamond Kozibe
Diamond Kozibe effect is relatively a new term and is based on a very old cutting procedure dating back to the beginnings of diamond cutting. The actual meaning behind the name Kozibe comes from the methodical optical reflections derived from the open and polished...
Diamond Angles
Diamond angles or slopes are just one designed element of the overall architectural plan for a diamond. The angles and their placements are responsible for the way light travels through a diamond medium and what will be perceived by the viewers enjoyment. Cutting a...
Diamond Cutting – The Sawing Process
There were numerous historical events that shaped diamond cutting evolution leading to why diamonds are cut today to their present fashions and proportions. One significant event was the industrial revolution and the new machines and tools it helped develop in order...
Diamond Facets – The windows to light
The beginnings: Diamond facets - a window into a diamond The first optical diamond facets ever applied onto a diamond was when table cut (fig. 1) diamonds started appearing in Europe around the 14th Century. The large table facet which characterized the table cuts...
Miners Diamond
What is Miners Diamond Since writing our “Old Mine Cut Diamonds - a complete informative guide”, quite a few people have asked me, “...then what is a “miners diamond” In this short article, I am going to try to delve a bit deeper into the world of “old mine[r] diamond...
Diamonds Fire
After touching on diamond brilliance in our previous article, we now are going to delve a bit deeper into what creates the colorful fire phenomena in diamonds – the Fire, which we all desire from our diamonds.
Diamond Brilliance, what is it really?
Diamonds have entered our collective consciousness as objects of beauty, luxury items to charm and captivate. Their lustrous brilliance is mainly responsible for this historical phenomena. In the old days, before polishing was invented Point Cuts (image 1) were...
Diamond Girdle – A cutter’s compass
Diamond Girdle - Introduction and history The Diamond girdle tell a lot about diamonds and their cuts. To the average observer, girdles simply display the division between the top and the bottom sections of the diamond. As a matter of fact, the girdle plane is one of...
The Tiffany Yellow Diamond – Up Close
It must have started somewhere around 2002, when I first discovered that the marvelous and Historic 128 carat Tiffany Yellow Diamond was on permanent display on the main floor of the Fifth Avenue Tiffany flagship store. I was pleasantly surprised that I could actually...
Bespoke orders, a tale of seven Old Mine Cut diamonds
A short story telling of a unique order just about to be completed, the order calls for seven matching quarter carat Old Mine Cut diamonds, in warmer J-K-L colors not necessarily for a lower price but more importantly to match a certain jewel design. Why unique you...
Diamond Culet – The Hole in the Middle
Introduction to Open Diamond Culet Diamond culets have many stories to tell, their story subjects depends on the relative period the diamond was crafted or polished. Unfortunately such stories ended with modern cutting advancement and for the last century, diamond...
Diamond Design, still stuck in 1919
Throughout history, the concept behind diamond cutting was to shape and facet them for their subjective beauty based on the optical knowledge of the different era’s. Diamonds were mainly purchased and collected by royalty…
Old Mine cushion cut Diamonds VS. Modern cushion cut Diamonds
Introduction to Old Mine Diamonds Old Mine Diamonds, what are they actually? In my opinion, “Old Mine” is a 20th century nomenclature given to all older diamonds cut in the brilliant style no matter their shape. More often used with shapes resembling the Peruzzi...
Cutting Fancy Color Diamonds – Vintage vs. Modern Designs
Have you ever wondered why large cape yellow round brilliant diamonds seem to have all but disappeared? In this article, we’ll reveal why that is and what it means by explaining the cutting of fancy color Diamonds. A long time ago cutters learned that re-cutting warm...
Not All Diamonds are Cuttable, some don’t get to sparkle
The Diamond cutting process is much complicated than one might think. Unlike all other gemstones, Diamonds are considered the hardest material/substance on earth. Cutting & polishing a Diamond is sometimes even impossible!A Diamond planner & cutter needs to be...
How I Discovered the Regent-Pitt Diamond Spark
The year was 1999. I was hard at work developing a new Diamond cut for the marketplace. In the final days of the 20th-century, most available Diamond cuts were basic, known generic cuts that had been marketed one way or the other for the last century. Some of these...
Colorless Antique Diamonds – not a myth
A while ago as I read in one of the more popular Facebook forums about the jewelry industry that most antique Diamonds were of lower (warmer) colors because most originated from the (then) newly discovered South African mines in the later part of the 19th Century....
