Wedding Blog

i wouldn’t care. more diamond for meeee!

Takara diamonds also sells man-made 100% diamonds. They come in fancy colors like pink, yellow, and BLUE *drooooool*

I have to wonder if the apollo diamonds will go up in value like real diamonds do. I didn’t get a DeBeers diamond. I pointed my fiance to one of the reputable onilne diamond dealers, and we got it was waaay cheaper than I would have it we had gone to Tiffany, Cartier or wherever. I’m fine with it being a no-name diamond!

I have several people telling me that diamonds are actually quite abundance in Africa, and what De Beers do w/ pay people to cover up those diamond mines to keep to supply limited, thus keeping the price high.

I prefer the cultured diamonds, since warring over diamonds has caused a lot of needless hardship for the countries in which diamonds are mined. DeBeers has a lot of business practices that are sketchy at best - I’d rather not support them.

Part of me feels guilty for wanting a real diamond versus a manmade one, but I don’t like the idea of a sterilized lab created one either. It seems to take the personality out of the gems. However, morally I find it appalling how DeBeers rules the diamond industry. Maybe other precious stones will become fashionable again!

Im not sure how I feel When my fiance and I started looking a while ago we looked at Mosinite which is similar I wasnt sure in the end and I guess Im not sure still My diamond however isnt a DeBeers one

Wow, i want a pink diamond! How cool is that!?
I wonder if manmade diamonds will decrease the price/value of natural diamonds…? Since diamond usually rise in value due to rarity… will this continue if there comes an overbundance of manmade diamonds? hum.. Thanks for the post!

Oh just to clarify, when I say I side with De Beer, I don’t mean it as in for the sake of their BRAND name. It can be a completely different company, even a no name one, my position is simply on the generic side of *mined/nature made diamonds*.

yeah, i think ceana said it best! girls, we gotta stop getting mesmerized by those nice, sparkly things. yeah, i know it’s hard..

There’s no such thing as a “De Beers diamond” per se. De Beers used to have a near monopoly on diamonds. But in the past decade or so, their market share has been erroding. De Beers sells uncut diamonds to a handful of wholesalers and then the diamonds pass through various wholesale/retail channels. There’s really no way of knowing whether a particular diamond came from a de beers owned mine once it hits the retail market.

De Beers as a retail brand (at least in the US) is a fairly new phenomenon — they opened the store on 5th and 55th a couple of years ago.

More info on De Beers is here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Beers

http://www.answers.com/topic/de-beers

Would i ever get a man-made diamond? … um … right after I buy a prada bag off the street (i.e. never)

I definately wouldn’t care. DeBeers is getting worried.

DeBeers is just another diamond cartel, feeding the world blood diamonds without remorse.

A great post about it: http://www.xanga.com/AristotleForDummies/509177023/diamonds-and-genocide-are-forever.html

I’m still rather divided on the issue–as a human I’m definitely against all the conflict revolving around DeBeers, but at the same time I sort of have to be on their side–high-quality mined diamonds are really rare, and if they can be reproduced in a lab that’s fine for some, but that really seems to take the “specialness” out of the stone. Personally, I always get a kick out of looking at my stone and thinking about how it was formed (beauty in nature, etc.). If I had a created diamond I would be missing out on that awe.

It’s sort of like created gemstones–I worked in a jewelry store for three years during high school, and when we started carrying created pink sapphires I was really excited ’cause they were soooo pretty, but then I started to look down my nose on them a bit, just because they were too clear, too big, too artificial-looking. In short, they lacked the unique and special look of natural pink sapphires. I still think they’re fine for anyone who doesn’t care or can’t afford the real deal, but I don’t think I’d ever be happy owning one.

I agree with the other poster who said that the appeal of diamonds are patially the fact that it’s a natual stone, and not manmade, but almost like a work of art. Also, keep in mind, not all diamonds are “conflict” diamonds, or blood diamonds. http://www.kimberlyprocess.com is a group of 99.8% of the global production of rough cut diamonds. Also certain diamond graders are including in the information cert. given when a certain diamond is bought the origination of the diamond, to know where your diamond is from. I doubt diamonds will ever be out of style or favor, because consumers seem to have short memories regarding conflict issues. Like there are some people who will drive an SUV instead of an energy efficient car, or some who will buy real fur as opposed to faux. There will always be a market for everything, whether some are opposed or not.

I can understand that whole “work of art” arguement, but the man-made diamonds aren’t perfect, either. Further, the cut of the diamond is entirely divorced from the creation process, and is as important to the look as the color and clarity (which is, after all, the major parts that are influenced by the creation process).
And I have a diamond. Because my finance really wanted me to have a diamond. I did educate him a bit on what to look for. Man-made dimond would be fine, but I’d rather have had no stone than CZ. YMMV (Your mileage may vary)

Even though I like the way diamonds look, I didn’t want one for social and environmental reasons. I don’t want diamonds and gold as a symbol of love if the blood of innocent people are on it — as is often the case. Nor do I want to fund terrorists.

I also disagree with De Beer’s marketing campaign. As a kid, I remember it was “two month’s salary” for a diamond…now the commercials say three months! I agree with Ceana and K!

Anyways, my FI had a different dilemma when he proposed - rather than worrying about carats, he was worried he wouldn’t be able to find something that would be environmentally and socially acceptable to me.

For wedding bands, I’m pushing for wooden rings - I like the warm colors!

http://www.touchwoodrings.com/
Flawed Kimberly Process - http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/diamond/kimberlindex.htm
Blood Diamonds - http://www.amnestyusa.org/amnestynow/diamonds.html

A few notes here that I think the readers/commenters might find interesting:

1) The man-made diamond VS DeBeers diamond idea is misleading. Up until recently DeBeers was on the forfront of CVD diamond research. They’ve spun off much of their research (see ElementSix) probably because CVD diamonds just don’t pose much danger or offer much value to the gem market right now. The day may come, but it will be in the future.

2a) The cost savings in producing gem-quality CVD diamond is far overrated. It is true that the components - electricity, methane, hydrogen, etc - are all super cheap. However, the machinery is millions of dollars, the work force is super pricey (PhD’s + some B.S. holders), and the output incredibly low. Never forget that Apollo will sell their gems for what they can get - market price - not what they cost to make. Don’t expect any significant savings anytime soon.

2b) Besides, diamond is a cheap material. Paying Africans a few dollars a day to dig them up is cheap. Getting them cut and ready for sale…more expensive. Building a store, hiring personel, paying insurance, etc - that’s costly. CVD diamond growth doesn’t skip any step except for the easy part, getting the rock out of the ground.

3) None of this means CVD diamond won’t have a place in the gem market. Today it has been proven possible to grow single crystal diamond over 5″+ diameter evently. It has been proven possible to grow diamond at 100um/hr and higher. If you could do both - which no one can, yet - you could grow slabs of diamond thousands upon thousands of carats in weight. This would allow CVD diamond growth to produce massive diamond gems. While I do not exepect CVD diamond growth to lower gem diamond prices for the .1-1 carat range anytime in the next fifty years, it is entirely possible that they bring very high carat diamonds down in price considerably.

In conclusion, never forget that there are more than thirty [i]million[/i] carats worth of gem diamond mined out of the ground every year. We’ll hear a lot of noise about Apollo & co., but make no mistake, these companies can’t hope to produce even a tiny, inisignicant fraction of the total diamonds that enter the market anytime soon, and until they can, don’t expect prices to change significantly.

When looking for my anniversary ring I went to every reputable online store (mondera, bluenile, etc) and sent e-mails telling them that I wanted a diamond but it could not ever be associated with DeBeers. Not one could tell me that they could provide this promise. They were very honest about it, one company stating that they purchased from DeBeers. I looked into Canadian mined diamonds from the major mines up there but there’s issues with worker problems at the Ekhati mine and then the question was about the environmental harm of mining.
A lot of diamonds I see are cut to maximize size and weight which leaves them with horrible proportions and a lot of light leakage (ie your stone won’t shine nicely). My husband had a choice: custom cut sapphire ring or an Apollo diamond ring (the sapphire was 300 dollars cheaper than the Apollo diamond). I would have been happy with either and was leaning towards the sapphire personally (I did design it!) when he decided to buy the man-made diamond. It is cut beautifully and is incredibly sparkley for an emerald cut. I doubt I could find something cut this exquisitely anywhere (short of the wonderful lapidary who was going to cut my sapphire) and I’m glad there’s not a hint of blood on it nor did any money go to DeBeers.

When I bought my engagement ring for my fiancee I didn’t think this symbol of love could stand for anything but a lifetime of happiness. I was appalled to discover a shadowy legacy of poverty and suffering in the conflict diamond trade. Knowing the history of the diamond, my fiancee and I didn’t want it to stand as a symbol of our love. We decided to donate it. Part of being a responsible citizen is living your life so that you’re contributing to the world and not just taking.