January 2020 - Lab Grown Magazine

January 2020 | LG | The Lab Grown Diamond Resource Book 24 Today’s Methods While much more refined, the CVD and HPHT processes remain the core methods used in today’s lab-grown process. In the late 1990s, a third process called detonation synthesis entered the market.This method creates nanometer-sized diamond grains from a detonation of carbon- containing explosives to formulate a rough stone. A fourth procedure processing graphite with intense ultrasound has also been successfully re- ported to generate rough, but as of now, it hasn’t been deployed in any application. The above is an account of historical events in the life of lab-grown diamonds, but the story is far from over. Let’s take a look at how it is evolving. What’sTrending Some jewelry trends aren’t trends at all; they are too short-lived and thus can be called fads. Others enjoy years of popularity and some be- come constant, stable, evergreen. In the bridal domain, current popular looks that are thinner ring profiles, demi-fine designs, scaled-down and more simplistic pieces, as well as modern settings. And, a growing trend is towards colored gem- stones, namely sapphires, emeralds and rubies, being used in bridal, away from white diamonds. While this move into color is seen as small, it does signal an erosion of a legacy standard—the white diamond engagement ring. This is not such great news for either mined or lab-grown stones, but what if you could lever- age the diamond engagement ring demand with a lab-grown profitable twist? With today’s tech- nology, it is possible to focus on the color not the colorless . And by color, we mean fancy color lab- grown diamonds. Fancy color mined diamonds are quite expen- sive, so there could be added sales leverage by setting fancy color lab-grown diamonds in bridal rings. After all, wasn’t the idea behind lab-grown diamonds to reduce price, produce faster goods and offer customization? Now, imagine the delight and subsequent so- cial media shares of the elated consumer who just purchased a certified pink or blue lab-grown dia- mond as their engagement ring! In the mind of most young brides, can emer- alds, rubies, sapphires or opals compete with the time-tested love connection to diamonds and diamond jewelry? Does the perception or actual value of a fancy diamond supersede that of any other colored gemstones? The answers should be obvious. Since mined fancies are rare and offered in cuts, sizes and shapes the consumer may not want, customized lab-grown color can come to the retail rescue. >> Under the watchful bench-person’s eye, an emerald cut “Gentle Diamond” a branded 3.4-carat lab-grown stone is inspected. (Photo: Carat* London) Left: A 3.5-ct intense yellow, cushion-cut, lab-grown diamond fromNewDiamond Technology (Photo: NDT) Right: Ring set with a 3-ct fancy vivid pink lab-grown diamond by Ada Diamonds. (Photo: Ada Diamonds) A single crystal CVD diamond disk. (Photo: Creative Commons)