A diamond looks grey - does that mean it's not well cut?

[Roz]

Take a peek at this - it was in a shop and not purchased. I loved the style (central stone brilliant cut (do you guys in America call it Round ideal or are they slightly different cuts?) and on either side - 2 heart shaped diamonds.

Call me a squinter if you like but doesn''t the diamond in the centre look grey compared to the neighbouring rocks?

?



You could say that''s an affect of the light from the flash etc etc but I am not convinced, it looked greyer in person too.

What does this mean? It was G VS2 so it wasn''t the best/worst statistically and it sparkled like a dream, but it still looked grey - was that the result of the cut?

 

[Garysax]

You''re probably seeing the setting underneath, meaning that a lot of light is not reflecting and is just going straight through. That is a bad sign and indicative of a bad cut. I don''t like the look of the stone very much.

I''m still getting the hang of this though so let''s see what the other "amateur experts" with more experience have to say. Or if the real pros decide to weigh in.

 

[Roz]

Thanks for being the first to stand up

All input is gratefully received. The Brilliant was 0.52ctw and the total of the hearts were 0.42 if that helps anyone contextually.

So that anyone can feel comfortable being rude about the stones I will not divulge the creator. I love the design and style of the ring it's just the stones that we weren't so happy with. Another option might be to buy 3 stones from one of our online pals from this forum and asking the original (nameless) creator to make the ring for us, although that may be a vain hope - this 'artiste' may not like that idea and the only way may be to 'steal' their idea (I'm sure it's been done many times before) and ask someone else to create the whole piece.

 

[valeria101]

Just a quick note... unless there is some intricate detail somewhere that doesn''t show in this picture, the ring seems to be a very classic three stone model that is hardly anyone''s intellectual property.

The choice of heart shaped sides is not very common, but this doesn''t mean you will not find many such rings both signed and not out there.

My 2c.


Btw: from the picture it is impossible to know why the center stone looks as it does. Directional lighting could be to blame for the ''graish'' look. What makes me think this is the case is the very bright look of the heart sides - this shape is typically shallow cut and not too brilliant - but it is just because of this that such stones look better than the best cut in very strong lighting. Photography can be quite biased about diamonds, as far as I can tell.


Hope some of this helps.

 

[DiamondExpert]

While it''s impossible to say anything for sure, it could be what''s called a top light brown (TLB) commercial grade stone...looks inherently colored to me, but may also just be filthy.

 

[Capitol Bill]

There could be any number of reasons for the perceived color, including the color of your clothing and the color of the ceiling and walls in the store. Difficult to say without knowing more.
Bill

 

[Garysax]

Listen to these two who posted above me, they've probably forgotten more about diamonds than I know.

All I know is that the stone looks grey in the pic and if you thought it looked grey in person then I wouldn't go for it, you made a good decision. Let your eyes be the final judge.

edit: for clarity

 

[Kaleigh]

Date: 1/25/2006 11:04:32 PM
Author: Garysax
Listen to these two, they''ve forgotten more about diamonds than I know.

All I know is that the stone looks grey in the pic and if you thought it looked grey in person then I wouldn''t go for it, you made a good decision. Let your eyes be the final judge.

Huh??

 

[Garysax]

Date: 1/25/2006 11:07:13 PM
Author: kaleigh

Date: 1/25/2006 11:04:32 PM

Author: Garysax

Listen to these two, they''ve forgotten more about diamonds than I know.


All I know is that the stone looks grey in the pic and if you thought it looked grey in person then I wouldn''t go for it, you made a good decision. Let your eyes be the final judge.

Huh??

Instead of me--two actual professionals weighed in above me with their opinion and I was trying to tell the OP to trust them and not me.

 

[Roz]

Thanks everyone for your input - and I know I don''t have much for you to go on - sorry.

I do appreciate that it could be the lighting but it looked grey in person - what concerns me is this:

Date: 1/25/2006 6:56:51 PM
Author: valeria101 What makes me think this is the case is the very bright look of the heart sides - this shape is typically shallow cut and not too brilliant -

If this is the case then it pretty much means no matter what I spend or how hard I look I won''t find a ring in this style without the middle stone looking greyer. Is this true?

 

[blodthecat]

Hi there!

I think you need to walk away from this one. It really doesn''t matter why, the bottom line is the stones don''t match.

Back to the drawing board !

Bloddie

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 1/26/2006 6:58:50 AM
Author: blodthecat
Hi there!

I think you need to walk away from this one. It really doesn''t matter why, the bottom line is the stones don''t match.

Back to the drawing board !

Bloddie

Completely agree Bloddie - and this could be for various reasons.....

 

[valeria101]

Date: 1/26/2006 6:43:56 AM
Author: Roz

Date: 1/25/2006 6:56:51 PM

Author: valeria101 What makes me think this is the case is the very bright look of the heart sides - this shape is typically shallow cut and not too brilliant -

If this is the case then it pretty much means no matter what I spend or how hard I look I won't find a ring in this style without the middle stone looking greyer. Is this true?

No... I hope not.

For once, even heart shaped diamonds can be nicely cut. Usually it is the jeweler making the setting who sources the stones, so it may help to choose one who believes in fine diamond cutting. Probably this forum is not the last island of 'cut nuts' in the jewelry world.

Now that it is clear that the center diamond looked gray in person not just in the picture, well... I suppose it could be gray: either with extensve cloud-like inclusions of just grayish - some are tinted with gray rather than yellow. Neither kind is too common as far as I know, but you could get lucky.

I am not an expert - this is as much as I'd know for myself.

 

[diagem]

I see a very blurry picture, i dont know how people can comment just by looking at this picture.

There are loads of reasons for a diamond to look grey, it could actually be of a grey tint and still be graded "g", and it could be the cut, and maybe even the setting..., but looking at this specific picture, it will be imposible to judge... (my humble opinion only...)

 

[Lorelei]

We are just commenting that the diamonds in the picture don't appear to match and this could be for a number of reasons, such as the colours being off, dirt, grease, lighting etc, it is impossible to truly judge I agree, but we were asked for comments and just doing so out of interest of helping the original poster. For that matter you can't really judge any diamond accurately from a picture - and most of us are just armchair " experts" after all and sometimes endless speculating can be useful as you may learn something from it

 

[valeria101]

Date: 1/26/2006 8:10:31 AM
Author: DiaGem

I see a very blurry picture, i don''t know how people can comment just by looking at this picture.

Point taken

It looks like this thread would end up listing all that could possibly make any diamond look darker in a ring - without actually explaining anything about the particular item that started the discussion

At least can be done blindly. Strange enough...

 

[Roz]

Date: 1/26/2006 8:23:42 AM
Author: valeria101
It looks like this thread would end up listing all that could possibly make any diamond look darker in a ring - without actually explaining anything about the particular item that started the discussion

At least can be done blindly. Strange enough...

Yeah and to be honest that''s really what I was looking for - any reasons why it might look darker. At $11,000 it''s definitely one to walk away from

but I still love the style so it''s comforting to hear from Valeria that there''s still hope for this style.

When you mentioned that it wasn''t a common thing to have 2 hearts either side of a brilliant I wondered whether the shallow cut of the hearts and their whiteness was the reason for this design just not really working. So I am encouraged again

 

[mrssalvo]

Roz,
here''s a picture of a 3-stone ring from Whiteflash that has yellow heart sides. I would think you could have them changed to white easily enough. is this what your after, without the engraving?

 

[diamondsrock]

I have a .54 center with .20 pear sides and my center stone, in some lighting environments, definately looks darker than the pears. The cut of the pears and their small size makes them very white but not brilliant or sparkly. They don''t give off light the way the center round stone does. The two different styles of cutting are very obvious under certain lights and I do sometimes see that affect you see there. I wouldn''t call it grey, just darker. However, under most conditions the center stone outperforms the side stones every time as it is very brilliant and bright. It has made me consider replacing the pears with maybe better cut pears or round stones so they all have the same effect. I have come to the conclusion my center stone is a somewhat shallow brilliant stone. I think it''s depth is something like 59%. There are trade off for this, it''s very very bright in some lights (almost like it''s glowing in the dark) and somewhat dark in others. I''ve been trying to take a pic of it but they all come out blurry. So I think maybe what you''re seeing is the two different cutting styles together and the visual differences.
However, who knows? Maybe the stone does have a gray color. It''s not unheard of.

 

[diamondsrock]

Roz I just read your post. Are you saying they were asking $11,000 for this ring? That price is outrageous! If I understood you correctly and If the center is .50 roughly you could do much better on that price!

 

[ecf8503]

Here''s a mounting for a RB center and heart sides:

Michael Beaudry semi mounting. Handmade platinum and 20kt gold. Needs 1.0ct center diamond and 1/4 ct heart shaped sides. Size 8 Retail $3,500.00 Price: $1,000.00

 

[valeria101]

Date: 1/26/2006 8:53:29 AM
Author: Roz


When you mentioned that it wasn''t a common thing to have 2 hearts either side of a brilliant I wondered whether the shallow cut of the hearts and their whiteness was the reason for this design just not really working.

No... I''ve never heard that sort of argument - after all, hearts are better than trillions and baguettes, on average. It is said theyare harder to fit next to a round wihtout leaving a gap between the stones. And the setting needs to be custom made - unlike many three-stone settings that come ''off the rack'' cheaper.

But neither of that is much of a concern as long as you trust the jeweler of you choice can make the ring to your satisfaction.

How about this?

And ... sorry for the ott side... but couldn''t locate any other example with an oval fast: Link to oval with heart shaped sides

 

[mrssalvo]

hehe, ana, you and I posted the same picture from WF

and that Michael Beaudry from Pearlmans is a steal if you like the beaudry style

 

[Roz]

Date: 1/26/2006 9:06:48 AM
Author: diamondsrock
Roz I just read your post. Are you saying they were asking $11,000 for this ring? That price is outrageous!

Yes I thought so when I was there, but now I've been looking online to try and re-create (and improve) it and I totally agree. It was £6,700 which is (I've just checked) actually £11,964.42 - so actually more like $12,000

And yep - centre stone 0.52, hearts 0.42 tot!!

The last thing I want to do is have 'im spend that much and people think that they are commercial grade diamonds

I think you guys are guiding me very well. I originally really liked the idea of the hearts being almost as big (in terms of the top, not in terms of the depth or ctw) as the centre stone.

But maybe if the side stones were smaller, and not right next to each other then the colours might look better too (but I'll get one of our pro guru's on this forum to match me 3 stones together I think

)

Thanks everyone, I'm off to research some of the things you have pointed out to me - thanks again

Would someone be so kind as to post the link to whiteflash's

Try as I might, I can't see where to find it on the website - I can't see it under three stone rings

 

[valeria101]

Date: 1/26/2006 9:32:37 AM
Author: Roz


It was [...] more like $12,000. And yep - centre stone 0.52, hearts 0.42 tot!! The last thing I want to do is have 'im spend that much and people think that they are commercial grade diamonds.


Those could be D-IF & best cut for quite a bit less... Crazy stuff!

... I'll get one of our pro guru's on this forum to match me 3 stones together I think.

AT least I wouldn't dare match the sides from pictures - they should come matched. In fact, pairs of sidestones are cut to match and this is an item more readily available to jewelers than loose. As for matching a pair of hearts to a round - that could be done virtually. My pleasure

Would someone be so kind as to post the link to whiteflash's [ring]. Try as I might, I can't see where to find it on the website - I can't see it under three stone rings

It is among the three stone rings listed in the 'Whiteflash gallery' (towards the bottom of the right-hand menu on their website.

.... Why do I know this off the bat??

 

[valeria101]

Date: 1/26/2006 9:32:37 AM
Author: Roz


I originally really liked the idea of the hearts being almost as big (in terms of the top, not in terms of the depth or ctw) as the centre stone.

Like that too - and with a relatively small centre stone, it would make sense, because tiny heart shapes look pretty glassy. So making them relatively small to a half carat center diamond would probably not lead to a brilliant result (pun intended). With a larger center stone... whichever works. Honestly, I wouldn''t know where to set the ''critical weight'' for a heart shape diamond - maybe 30 pts (each)? Sure enough - there could be exceptions across the board: both very well cut and bright smaller ones and (sure that) dead large ones. I haven''t had much luck finding the first kind of exception (small & lively), only the other (large & dead).

But maybe if the side stones were smaller, and not right next to each other then the colours might look better too

The ''not right to each other'' is considered a ''fault'' of design. Honestly, this means little - what you like counts. But you may hear this. It should be more difficult to actually line up the stones without a very visible gap between them - but ''difficult'' doesn''t have to mean ''more beautiful''. Up to you...


Btw: thanks for listening. I hope all this is not annoying. Yours is an interesting ring (plan).

 

[Roz]

On the contrary, you are being a massive help!! Thank you so much for the input.

I have lots to think about there. I need to do more ''shopping'' but I think I have already found the design I would like