July 2020 - Lab Grown Magazine

July 2020 | LG | The Lab Grown Diamond Resource Book 18 To advertise call (888) 832-1109 | July 2020 19 esteemed board members, expansive confer- ences, and maybe even large budgets. Then, there’s the LG side. There are only two because the LG industry is new, and the reason these two groups are not top-of-mind is because the magnitude of money and influence of mining operations simply overpowers them. Small-to-mid-sized LG companies are some- what lost in the diamond to LG-diamond strug- gle since they only have their own research and testing to formulate their business plans. Add the fact that for colored LGDs, most of the marketing money is pointed at two mega brands — Element 6 and Swarovski — and their digital expansion and pop-up stores that are lit- erally popping up everywhere. This isn’t an insurmountable challenge. The precious metals sector only has one large as- sociation per metal. Platinum interests have the Platinum Guild International and gold lovers have the World Gold Council. You’d be hard pressed to name one natural di- amond group that welcomes LG-focused mem- bers. That noted, I see you reaching for those rose-colored glasses, but please keep them off for now. It will allow us to reveal what’s been staring at us and fix what needs to be fixed. A Helping Hand In today’s technology world, there has been a world-wide shift. It’s called open-source soft- ware (OSS). This collaborative, community- minded type of public software invites devel- opers to study, use, change, and distribute the software to anyone and for any legal purpose. By comparison, the jewelry industry is very closed source. Trust is lean, and competition is fierce. Yet the same is true for the software industry. Why then, does an open software plat- form—inviting others in the same field to access and even change someone else’s work—now universally commonplace and profitable? Peer- to-peer integration is a formula to success. While sharing jewelry knowhow is alive and well in the jewelry industry, it’s found only in small, pocketed, and non-promoted places such as the Jewelers Helping Jewelers on Facebook, or an up-and-comer @TheDiamondFacts on the same platform. The more the LG supply chain devel- ops in a vacuum, the more sucked up and ► A bi-product of the flux process, emerald crystals by Chatham. (Photo: Chatham) One of the first emerald grown by Carroll Chatham, circa 1935. (Photo: Chatham) Ruby grown by Chatham illustrating the deep density of color at the rough stage. (Photo: Chatham)