Learn About Diamonds

Your experience with Diamond Design Studio is much more than a one-time purchase; it involves building a long term relationship. In building this relationship, we recommend that you, as one of our valued customers, be educated when making this lifetime memorable purchase.

A diamond is judged by four distinct factors that combine in a number of ways to arrive at its value: Carat ... Cut ... Colour ... Clarity

In addition, at Diamond Design Studio, we also focus on components of a diamond that are not always known to the customer, in order to find the ideal diamond for you.

Carat

As with all precious stones, the weight (and therefore the size) of a diamond is expressed in "carats." One carat is divided into 100 "points" so that a diamond of 25 points is described as quarter of a carat or 0.25ct. A good quality diamond increases steeply as it becomes larger in size, as larger diamonds are rarer than smaller ones.

Cut

This factor is the one most influenced by man. The cut of a diamond will greatly influence its brilliance and fire (sparkle). It is the cut that enables a diamond to make the best use of light. Because there are many differing opinions regarding the "ideal" cut diamond, Diamond Design Studio has adapted the grading system developed by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA).

Colour

The best colour of a diamond is no colour - a totally colourless diamond that allows white light to pass effortlessly through it and be dispersed as rainbows of colour. The differences between one grade and another are very subtle as can be seen by the number of grades within any one category.

Clarity

Almost all diamonds contain minute traces of non-crystalized carbon - the element from which they were born. Most are not discernible to the naked eye and require magnification to become apparent. Called inclusions, they are nature's fingerprint and make every diamond quite unique. However, the fewer there are, the rarer the stone will be. Clarity, therefore, is the term that is used to indicate the extent to which the diamond you purchase is free of these natural phenomena.

IF: The term "Internally Flawless" is used for diamonds in which an experienced trained eye cannot find internal characteristics with 10x magnification.

VVS: The term "Very, very slight inclusions" is used for diamonds, with internal characteristics which are extremely difficult to find for an experienced trained eye using 10x magnification.

VS: The term "Very slight inclusions" is used for diamonds with internal characteristics which are difficult to find for an experienced trained eye using 10x magnification.

SI: The term "Slight inclusions" is used for diamonds with internal characteristics which are not difficult to find for an experienced trained eye using 10x magnifications. Inclusions in this grade are not visible to the naked eye of the trained observer.

I: The term "Included" is used for diamonds with internal characteristics which are very difficult to find for the untrained eye without 10x magnification.