Scenes from JCK 2006

[belle]

the presentation aset is such a great idea! just what was needed. well done ags!

thanks sir john, for taking the time to share this years jck with us! what fun pics

 

[canuk-gal]

HI:

So far so good!! Thanks for sharing....

cheers--Sharon

 

[adamasgem]

Date: 6/2/2006 6:16:22 AM
Author: JohnQuixote
An aspect of the GIA system that makes great sense: Finish grades influence the overall cut grade only if they are visible. In this particular aspect, group consensus is that the GIA is more realistic than the AGS.

I''ll second that thought regarding polish...

 

[adamasgem]

Date: 6/2/2006 6:20:12 AM
Author: JohnQuixote
The hot topic.

I was surprised that GIA devoted over 10 minutes to painting/digging since, by their admission, only around 3% of all diamonds submitted have their grades determined by these factors.

I had a long conversation with both gentlemen after the presentation (I’ll share details I have permission to in an appropriate thread). Short story: I''m buoyed by their already-existing awareness of concern about niche-market premium makes, and willingness to continue discussions and work towards solution/understanding. More to come.

While I wouldn''t hold my breath regarding what (or how) they will change thier "opinion"(sic) on this, I also wonder how they will correct "bad opinions" already rendered.

I guess they might be getting the message????

 

[Mara]

thanks for the update JQ...it was interesting to see the GIA slides re their cut grades...i noticed that it was only listed as 'no painting', 'moderate painting' and 'severe painting'...and EX/VG/G correspondingly. so that makes sense that my stone which is probably moderate is a VG. but doesn't really support that GIA doesn't ding for slightly painted since according to that slide they do. the intrigue continues!

it's also interesting to see how they round ... frustrating that they round to .5 for crown angle and .2 for pav angle, at least the pav angle is a little less rounded, but .5? no wonder i can never use the #'s on their website for HCA...typically their crown angles are listed as 35.

lastly, I WANT ONE OF THOSE AGSO emerald cuts!! now there is something worth waiting for...maybe it will finally be easier to choose a stunning step cut stone and people will have more data to help them choose a beauty without too much help!

 

[partgypsy]

John, thanks for posting. It''s really interesting to see all the work that goes on behind the scenes, regarding measuring cut and the aim of making more beautifully cut diamonds.

I worked at a opthamologist office years ago, one of the first to be using multifocal IOLs (interocular lenses). There was alot of excitment about the potential to use both computer modeling and human studies to develop which IOL models worked best, reminds me of what''s going on here. Maybe because I''m a psychologist, always feel have to include the human element to best understand perception.

Here''s a stupid question. Is an asscher simply an emerald with bigger cut corners? Or does it have different cutting such as on the pavillion?

 

[dbgaap]

Thanks for sharing!! You did a good job, John, on the photos and captions. It''s so nice to see names & faces.

I lived in Las Vegas 1982-1990 and all the house /backyard pictures look just like my old house..... way cool... thanks!

 

[FireGoddess]

Thanks so much John - I really enjoyed catching up and seeing all the lovely pictures! Garry not doing the dishes but running dishcalc was very cute. Wink''s multicolor diamond ring is GORGEOUS!! I thought I saw a red in there.

 

[klavigne]

Hey John,
I was just wondering if the AGS did a slide show that showed what they were rounding to. It be an interesting comparison.
BTW, I loved the EC, when can I expect the market to be flooded with them

 

[strmrdr]

around 22 is my sweet spot.
It makes for well balanced windmills that are big enough without being too big and not too small.

 

[strmrdr]

cool pic but they should have lined up the diamond better.

 

[diagem]

Date: 6/2/2006 6:27:45 AM
Author: JohnQuixote
Much-anticipated emerald cut information. Cut guidelines have been released as of today to manufacturers. It is hoped that factories will begin using this information to find ‘sweet spots’ so when the AGS 0 Ideal Emerald Cut metric is released there will already be candidates.

Any info. you can share with us allready?

 

[WinkHPD]

Hey John,

Nice job with the pictures. I appreciate your sharing my joy at being highlighted by Peter.

While I am more used to pointing out others, it really was fun to be in the spot light for those few seconds. It is kind of you to share that with all of our pricescope friends!

Wink

 

[FireGoddess]

Wink, when you get a chance, would you tell us more about your multicolor diamond ring? The colors, sizes, etc? Did you make it yourself? I''m fascinated.

 

[Kaleigh]

Date: 6/2/2006 9:59:04 PM
Author: FireGoddess
Wink, when you get a chance, would you tell us more about your multicolor diamond ring? The colors, sizes, etc? Did you make it yourself? I''m fascinated.

yes please do tell us more about it. John thanks for all the great pics and the behind the scenes info. Hope you all are having a wonderful time and have a safe trip home!!! Lisa

 

[MINE!!]

Very Very Very Very cool! Thanks for thinking of us and posting the awesome pictures.. WOW.. looks like such a fun time. I used to LOVE going to Vegas conventions!! WOW!! AWESOME!!!

 

[Paul-Antwerp]

And another day passed by. John will only be posting the pics tomorrow, I suppose, since he is exhausted after posting yesterday''s pics during the nightshift.

Myself, I am not such a picture-taking-guy, and as you can see in some pics, not even good as the subject of the pic. Therefore, we are leaving this to John. That is probably the only point in which we agree that he is better than us

Live long,

 

[adamasgem]

Date: 6/2/2006 4:16:58 PM
Author: KPL
Hey John,
I was just wondering if the AGS did a slide show that showed what they were rounding to. It be an interesting comparison.
BTW, I loved the EC, when can I expect the market to be flooded with them

KPL To my knowledge, for cut grade analyses, AGS takes the actual mesh data that defines the facets and wire frame model from the Sarin SRN or Helium files giving the best MEASUREMENTS of EACH facet angle and orientation, and does a 3D Ray trace, ENTIRELY different than the methodology of GIA which is parametric based on the non obvious rounding of the AVERAGES of the facet data parameters.

AGS puts AVERAGES of the facet angles and percentages, on their documents, but the rounding is STANDARD, like we learned in grammer school, if you state the number to one decimal point, then it is rounded to that decimal point, or the last digit presented.. no half-*ssed gueswork on anyones part; i.e. xx.5 means xx.45 to xx.549999 not xx.25 to xx.74999..

If they wanted to use "funny" rounding in their algorithm, they could internally in their software interpolation alorithms, but presenting that rounding as representative of the "true" averages of the diamond''s parameters is screwed up in my book.

 

[adamasgem]

Date: 6/3/2006 3:13:20 AM
Author: Paul-Antwerp
And another day passed by. John will only be posting the pics tomorrow, I suppose, since he is exhausted after posting yesterday''s pics during the nightshift.

Myself, I am not such a picture-taking-guy, and as you can see in some pics, not even good as the subject of the pic. Therefore, we are leaving this to John. That is probably the only point in which we agree that he is better than us

Live long,

I see you guys are up late, and really must be jet lagged...

 

[JohnQuixote]

Date: 6/2/2006 1:12:45 PM
Author: part gypsy
John, thanks for posting. It''s really interesting to see all the work that goes on behind the scenes, regarding measuring cut and the aim of making more beautifully cut diamonds.

I worked at a opthamologist office years ago, one of the first to be using multifocal IOLs (interocular lenses). There was alot of excitment about the potential to use both computer modeling and human studies to develop which IOL models worked best, reminds me of what''s going on here. Maybe because I''m a psychologist, always feel have to include the human element to best understand perception.

Here''s a stupid question. Is an asscher simply an emerald with bigger cut corners? Or does it have different cutting such as on the pavillion?

Thanks to everyone who thanked. You''re welcome of course.

We''re having a great balance of information exhange and fun.

A couple of quick answers: AGS reports to within 0.1 of a degree and 1% on their documents. Some of those numbers are averages of multiple facets.

DiaGem: I plan to post some graphics here in time, but some are hi-res. If you email me directly (John.Pollard (at) Whiteflash.com) I will send you the hi-res.

Part Gypsy: In a sense, yes. The Asscher family cuts the only ''official'' Asscher (Royal Asscher). They are identified on GIA grading reports as ''cut cornered square step cut'' rather than square emerald. The nickname Asscher has fallen into our lexicon to refer to square emeralds - but proper use actually should be reserved for RA.

 

[JohnQuixote]

Date: 6/3/2006 3:13:20 AM
Author: Paul-Antwerp

And another day passed by. John will only be posting the pics tomorrow, I suppose, since he is exhausted after posting yesterday's pics during the nightshift.

Myself, I am not such a picture-taking-guy, and as you can see in some pics, not even good as the subject of the pic. Therefore, we are leaving this to John. That is probably the only point in which we agree that he is better than us

Live long,

Now don't be modest, Paul. We agree that you do waffles better.

Otherwise, the debate rolls on!

Next to the lovely ladies all us 'gents' look a bit scruffy.

 

[belle]

more pictures please!
(and interesting jck info you can share)

 

[WinkHPD]

Lisa and Firegoddess,

That ring contains (if memory serves me correctly) 2.50cts of colored diamonds (all treated) and one small white diamond to establish proper contrast. It was the second ring that I ever made and one of my favorites. At the time I made it gold was about $70 per ounce and I think I paid about $1,800 all total to make that ring. It never sold so after five or six years I broke down and bought it for myself.

I have several rings that I wear and love, but this is probably my second most favorite next to my blue eightstar wedding ring. One fun thing about this ring is that so many jewelers stop me to tell me how much they love it. It is embarrassing how poorly some of the diamonds are cut, but back in 1975 there was not as much available in well cut stones, even in whites and no way were they available in the kinds of goods that were treated to give them color.

Thanks for asking, it is a fun ring and fun to think again about the time I made it and how much it cost, that was SOOOOOO much money to me!

Wink

 

[WinkHPD]

I hope John puts up more pictures again. I have to say that our time together has been a LOT of fun, and tomorrow I get to physically meet Brian the Cutter and Leslie. Brian and I have been "friends" for years, although we have never actually met. Same with Leslie, only for not quite so long. It seems impossible that I only actually met John Quixote last year as we too have been friends for much longer than that.

If I listed all of my heroes that I have spent time with this week I would sound like a very pretentious name dropper, but I will tell you that this is the real reason I come to Vegas, for the educational information and the opportunity to pay homage to my heroes. I do not know if you can begin to imagine the feeling of being with the great people of my profession and getting to sit and talk with them. To me it is the elixor of life and a renewal of energy and dedication to become an even better gemologist/jeweler so that I can be worthy to join them again next year.

I consider myself truly blessed to work in such an incredible industry where the great ones welcome one and all into their midst and openly share their information and experiences with one and all.

Someone asked where was the brotherly love between Phil and Peter. I can assure you that it is alive and well. Peter came to Phil''s presentation and introduced several of us to Phil before the presentation began. They went out to dinner together that evening and both spoke well of one another during their presentations. Peter mentioned to us that he wondered what were the odd of two brothers running the two major labs. He decided it must be genetic. If so it is a good trait!

By the way, even though the two labs have some strong dissagreements between them on how things ought to be done, they are still friendly with one another and recognise that each is bringing things to the table and that is a LOT of agreement between the two systems as well. This was emphasized during Michael Cowing''s presentation and I think it bears thinking about.

Back to work, there is someone in line waiting to use this computer, I have tied it up long enough.

Wink

 

[aljdewey]

Date: 6/2/2006 6:01:05 AM
Author: JohnQuixote
We tried to persuade Garry to do the dishes, but he wasn’t fooled (he’d already run a simulation in DishCalc).

HAHAHAHAH - ROTFLMAO.......DishCalc. Hee hee.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

John,

You posted a picture of Mrs. Yantzer and didn''t ask for a hand-shot???

(Glad y''all are having fun!)

 

[JohnQuixote]

Date: 6/3/2006 6:27:29 PM
Author: diamondseeker2006

John,

You posted a picture of Mrs. Yantzer and didn''t ask for a hand-shot???

(Glad y''all are having fun!)

LOL DS. What was I thinking? You are right of course...

Your wish = our command

Mrs. Yantzer''s delicate finger is lovingly graced with a 2.24 carat fancy deep brownish-yellow modified barion cut.

 

[JohnQuixote]

The rings are from Precision Set. Believe me when I say Deborah is the epitome of class. I''ve always thought halos are cool... This just confirms it.

 

[JohnQuixote]

Last night we enjoyed some great Mexican food and drink. It was spicy... Just like us.

 

[JohnQuixote]

Afterwards, we fit 6 people into the car and saved cab fare. We did this just so we can pass the savings on to Pricescopers of course.