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Diamonds 101: A crash course

6/1/2018

26 Comments

 
Diamonds are exquisite no matter if you’re on the receiving end of a gift or simply treating yourself after a business deal well done. Since I land in Cape Town in a few hours, the home of the Mining Indaba I thought it fitting to put together a crash course on these sparkly gems.
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Origins
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Besides tzaziki, garos and wear white parties, those wonderfully gregarious Greeks are also responsible for coming up with the meaning behind the name diamonds, ‘adamas’ which means unbreakable or unchangeable – a fitting metaphor of love for yourself or for another.
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But how do you measure a diamonds worth? For once, bigger is not necessarily better. Rather, it’s about following the 4Cs. This refers to cut, clarity, colour and carat.
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Cut

The cut does not refer to the shape which may be pear shaped, round or emerald but rather the way that the diamond is cut which gives it that mesmerising, hypnotizing effect that has otherwise level-headed ladies saying “yes!” to “the” question and by “the” question I’m not necessarily referring to a marriage proposal *hashtag dubai*, *hashtag I don't judge* - but I digress. The dimension and angles at which it is cut at is what determine how the light will reflect off the diamond leading to its brilliance. Grading methods for cut include ideal, premium, very good, good, fair & poor which ranges from the maximum amount of light reflecting from within the diamond outwards to only a small portion reflecting from within.
 
Clarity

This indicates the lack of inclusions or blemishes in a diamond. If you take a look at the different diamonds, you will notice that some may have tiny flaws or birthmarks which occur of its long formation process of millions (or billions) of years. The highest grade, reserved for the rarest and most valuable diamonds, is flawless (FL), showing no inclusions and blemishes. The next level down (IF) is internally flawless, meaning only blemishes and no inclusions then VVSI, means very, very slight inclusions which are difficult to see under magnification even for a trained eye. Next down is (VS) very slight, (SI) slight and then down to I, which refers to obvious inclusions which affects the diamond's brilliance.
Colour

This refers to the presence or absence of slight colour in white diamonds. Due to the rarity of diamonds which are truly colourless generally speaking the whiter a diamond, the greater its value. Okay but hold up for a minute and keep in mind that this does not apply to fancy colour diamonds which are which are very rare and very expensive. These are actually more valuable for their colour. Out of all diamonds, red diamonds are the rarest. To grade the whiteness of a diamond, most jewellers grade according to GIA’s professional colour scale that begins with D (highest ranking) which is colourless to Z which is a pale yellow or brown.
 
Carat
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This “c” comes from the carob seed which early diamond traders used to measure the weight of the diamond. The carat measurement was adopted in the U.S in 1913 and is now used worldwide. Basically each diamond is divided by a hundred points which equals the same at 0.2 grams.
 
I hope you enjoyed my little crash course, if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment.

See more Cape Town lifestyle posts here.
See more Dubai lifestyle posts here.

Read: These are some of the Best Luxury Property homes in Cape Town.
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26 Comments
Jess_campsbay
6/4/2018 02:33:05 pm

Found your blog through Instagram. Nice articles :)

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Razan
6/5/2018 04:52:20 am

Love it Shana. So your here? Lets catch up before you leave. xxxx

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Shana Bergsma link
6/5/2018 05:52:16 am

Thanks guys ❤❤

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Luna S
6/26/2018 09:08:30 am

Aside from knowing that they are gorgeous, I've never known a lot about Diamonds. Thanks for sharing this to help us all learn more.

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Juli link
6/26/2018 09:16:00 am

This is so awesome that you shared this, I love diamonds!

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Backpacking Series link
6/26/2018 11:22:46 am

Thank you for this informative post! Will not forget the 4Cs about the diamonds. You have put it out so clearly and concisely :)

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Marcel Joshua kannampuzha link
6/26/2018 12:18:02 pm

thank you for the insight. those diamonds look lovely.

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vaishali sharda link
6/26/2018 04:10:02 pm

These 4cs have made it even harder for me to find a perfect diamond for myself..:P

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Neil Alvin Nicerio
6/26/2018 05:11:24 pm

Thanks for this very informative post. Honestly, all I know about diamonds is it's made from carbon and is measured in carats. Thanks for providing me more knowledge.

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Shana Bergsma
6/27/2018 11:14:22 am

You're welcome!

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Yaswanth Jayakumar link
6/26/2018 06:32:54 pm

Very helpful and handy guide covering the basics. Great to build from here.

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Shana Bergsma
6/27/2018 11:15:08 am

For sure. Part two coming soon!

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Sarbjit singh
6/27/2018 06:16:00 am

That is so technical stuff !!! Never looked diamonds this way !!! As a student of science I just know about the carbon atoms in diamond and that it is measured in carat. Very informative !!!

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Aiai link
6/27/2018 01:00:11 pm

wow diamond. this kind of information wowed me haha didn't know where diamonds came from. all I know is they are beautiful lol

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Heather link
6/27/2018 02:09:17 pm

This is great info. I know nothing about diamonds but this helps.

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Aleese Hughes link
6/27/2018 03:27:22 pm

I LOVE diamonds, but I've never looked at them with the eye you seem to have! Interesting article!

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Julie link
6/27/2018 04:50:49 pm

Very interesting, I never would have thought of this information pertaining to diamons. Being the person who sets the clarification on the diamonds would be so difficult for me but it seems pretty neat!

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Mag link
6/27/2018 08:27:42 pm

Very clear introduction to diamond basics. The history of diamonds and how a the demand was created is also interesting to learn about.

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Adaezeboltbethel link
6/28/2018 05:16:55 am

This is informative never knew these thing about diamonds and your great explanation skill makes it easy to understand

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Kate Andrews link
6/28/2018 06:40:37 pm

Where was this resource when my husband was designing my engagement ring??? This should be shared with any guy or girl looking to get something special for their significant other.

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Namrata Sinha link
6/29/2018 02:26:43 am

I like the way you have given the detailed informative post about diamond. There are many information which I was not aware of. Thank you for the post.

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blair villanueva
6/29/2018 03:30:22 am

Marilyn Monroe is right - Diamond is a girl's bestfriend.
When your ex husband gave you a diamond ring, never return it coz the ring will lift you up!

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Ntensibe Edgar Michael link
6/29/2018 05:38:04 am

WOW....a lot of questions come to mind but I'll leave at this, for now. Thank you Shana, for sharing.

Much love.

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Angela Hoyos
6/29/2018 07:56:07 am

I actually know very little about diamonds, well until now! Thank you for this now I can appreciate them more... I'm not really a jewelry person, I mean I do love costume jewelry but my "fancy" pieces just stay tucked away in my jewelry box.

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Niki
6/30/2018 04:40:53 pm

This is a nice article, I don't know anything about diamonds, so it's useful!

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Simerbir Singh
7/1/2018 09:30:03 am

I didn't know about this. Thanks for sharing and letting me know.

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