#JOTW Update: My Tiny Fancy Colored Diamond Collection

[Imdanny]

I like how you can see the yellow one through the turquoise one and the pink one through the yellow one. I've made this my desktop. Yum.

 

[ooo~Shiney!]

Oh My !!!!!
Speechless.......

 

[chrono]

A great way to start the week with these gorgeous FCDs. I think my favourite is the purple pink, followed by the pear. Gosh, if I can have a full jpeg picture of your FCDs, they’ll make an excellent background picture for my monitor.

 

[Fly Girl]

I've made this my desktop. Yum.

Great idea. I just did the same thing with my desktop, and now Kenny's tiny diamonds look like huge museum pieces. Eye-poppingly beautiful.

 

[Imdanny]

I agree. It is kind of like a visit to the natural history museum.

 

[poshpepper]

Another pic of the green for Poshpepper.

Okay, now you have me drooling...

 

[BoulderGal]

Holy Moley Kenny!!!

I can't stop staring at the pear, and the lighter blue emerald. Your stones are truly breathtaking! Do you have plans for them? Other than drooling over them of course....

BoulderGal

 

[antelope1]

Love the collection, love it! And welcome back Kenny!

 

[swingirl]

WOW! WOW! WOW! What a beautiful collection! Nice photography, too. Glad to see you back.

 

[SB621]

I"m in love with the Fancy Light Bluish Green I'm willing to trade my soul for it...what do you say?

 

[Gothgrrl]

I am still on the look out for a really pretty pink.

 

[Arkteia]

You know Kenny... I want to see them. Just for one second!

 

[rosetta]

GAK!!



it's jaw-dropping!

that round green is my absolute favourite colour in the world.

 

[briolette]

They look so yummy! What a wonderful collection!

 

[kenny]

Hi Kenny!

Glad you're back, we seriously need more men on this forum, and all the trade guys seem to have disappeared, so we're happy to see you!
I adore the Fancy Deep Purple Pink, I am such a sucker for emerald cuts!
I'm amazed the Leibish guys sell so many FCD that you have to watch them so closely! It's like Gene's (Precision Gem) blog; grab it or it's gone! What are people doing with all these little things?
I wonder if colored diamonds are the engagement rings of the future? Will my great-grandchildren all have tiny FCD diamond rings, with matching magnifying glasses hung on necklaces? That would be kind of cool!
I love the connoisseurship of owning so many tiny, exquisite things. The level of detail and intricacy is astounding. Do you marvel at the skill of the cutters, when you look at them?
It's really a very unique collection, and I think it's just awesome.

Yes, we do need more men here.
Diamonds can be a boy's best friend too.

When I browse Leibish's inventory I see and 92 pages, 10 listings per page.
Some listing are for pairs or parcels so they must have over 1000 FCDs.
It's not so much that Leibish sells so many; it's that collectors are waiting for particular colors/sizes/shapes to show up, so if you see something you like grab it fast.
I'm waiting for a violet or a red I can justify buying.
They just got a GIA 0.22 ct pure red (pure red with no color modifier is astronomically rare) but I just can't bring myself to spend that much, although when Arglye mine in Australia runs dry in a few years I'm sure it's value will skyrocket more than anything else I have.

I think FCDs are catching on.
Maybe I just notice because it's my thing but I see more and more mention of them in the news.
Education leads to wanting one as we have seen in this thread, and some colors are attainable for us who have to work for a living.

Lastly, yes I DO marvel at these tiny exquisite things.
Believe it or not their diminutive size actually adds to the intrigue, especially with a suite of complimentary colors.
They speak to me, yet I have no words to express what they say.
I know diamonds are not an investment but I do see mine as a reasonable (small) part of an investment portfolio.
If stocks DO tank FCDs will be a hard asset, like gold, though admittedly not as liquid and not as easy to establish a value.

 

[kenny]

Re: Update on my tiny fancy colored diamond collection

Kenny, I think you might have started a new obsession here on PS !

I hope so.
PS could use some good energy right now.

 

[kenny]

Gosh, if I can have a full jpeg picture of your FCDs, they’ll make an excellent background picture for my monitor.

I'd be happy to provide higher res copies if anyone can figure out how to do that.
PS software shrinks every pic.
I wish y'all could see the original 14MB RAW image, full screen.
The detail is almost 3D.

For the photography geeks:
This macro shot was done at ISO 100, f22 for high depth of field with a 105mm Nikon macro lens and one PK-13 extension ring on a Nikon D200 body, on a very heavy Gitzo tripod.
This allowed the subject to fully fill the field at the camera (no later cropping) for use of max pixels.
I don't use f32 because even though you get even deeper depth of field the tiny aperture introduces a certain softness to the focus.
Mirror lock up was used to reduce vibration that becomes a problem at these magnifications.
Also a wireless remote trigger was used to I don't have to touch the camera, which introduces vibration.

Diamonds were placed on a piece of glass near a large window in the shade.
Then a cheapo hand-held LED light was moved around the diamonds during the long exposure.
(This technique is called painting with light.)
This added many sparkles (which are not too bright) and also caused some light that passed through that little deep blue emerald cut to appear in the other diamonds.

Lastly, I took around 50 pics and chose the one with the best balance of qualities. (IOW, cheating )
I'll take more when I get time.

 

[kenny]

Holy Moley Kenny!!!

I can't stop staring at the pear, and the lighter blue emerald. Your stones are truly breathtaking! Do you have plans for them? Other than drooling over them of course....

BoulderGal

Yes, I plan to wipe my own drool off them daily.
They really freak me out, I'm very lucky.

 

[Gothgrrl]

Just had to have another look at your collection.

 

[iLander]

They can try all they want, but nobody beats Nikon for a quality camera/lens. Don't you think it's great all the old lenses fit on the new digital bodies? Love that! Otherwise, I'd have to throw out $$$ in lenses . . .

I'm sure you saw these, a three-fer: http://www.fancycolordiamond.net/search/fancy_colored_diamond_details.cfm?id=6124

 

[T L]

It should be noted that not only FCD collectors and consumers buy from Leibish, but many big names in the jewelry biz as well from what I've heard.

 

[kenny]

I'd like to get everyone's opinion please.
If you were going to pick one new color to add to the set which would you pick?

Fancy Vivid Blue - same weight as the pear, 0.16 ct.
Fancy Intense Orange- also same weight as the pear, 0.16 ct.
Fancy Vivid Green-Yellow - 0.23 ct.

Ignore the fact that these may eventually end up in separate rings.
Rather, think of how they colors look together as a collection.

 

[arjunajane]

the orange.

 

[Rae~]

Purely for variety of colour, I'd go for the orange.

And btw, kenny, I your collection.

 

[maebelle]

Another vote for orange! I love the combo of blue and orange, and you certainly have enough blue

 

[isaku5]

Fabulous collection!!!!!

Welcome back!!! You were missed!!

 

[T L]

The orange, you have blue, and it's rarer than the yellow.

 

[davi_el_mejor]

While the orange is delicious, I think for the collection, the VGY fits better.

Actually, just get both... it's not like you've never done that before

 

[T L]

Another vote for orange! I love the combo of blue and orange, and you certainly have enough blue

Only Kenny can have too many natural blue diamonds!!

 

[chrono]

Orange, for the rarity factor, plus the fact that it balances out the other colours you already own in your collection.