Cuts and Carat
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As defined by the Oxford Dictionary in a concise yet informative manner, the diamond is “a precious stone consisting of a clear and colorless crystalline form of pure carbon, the hardest naturally occurring substance, taken as a type of brilliance or excellence.”
The epitome of beauty in its purest form, the diamond is a symbol of affection, strength and fidelity. In its natural occurring state, the diamond is a gorgeous rock, whose beauty is hidden under impurities and is far from the diamond you often spot in jewelry. Mined, cleaned and cut, the diamond from deep under the earth is defined into the fashion icon that it is.
Meanwhile lab created diamonds which have taken the market by a storm, skip through the tedious tasks and are the next phase of diamond evolution. These lab diamonds are simply diamonds from another source. Created or grown by human beings, man-made diamonds possess the same qualities as diamonds from under the earth’s surface. In fact, they are chemically and physically identical. Unless you’re a seasoned jeweler armed with a microscope to read the barely visible numbers carved into the diamonds, we assure you, there’s no way to spot the difference between a natural and a lab grown diamond of similar cut, color, clarity and carat.
Before jumping into technicalities, let’s talk about lab diamonds, their impact and most importantly, their sustainability.
Having made a significant impact on the diamond industry in recent years, they were initially developed in 1954 by General Electric. However, at the time, they did not match up the natural diamonds as they do today. Through numerous process refinements and extensive research, they have emerged as a worthy competitor, and are a viable alternative to the environmentally harmful practices associated with mining natural diamonds. These captivating lab-grown diamonds, including stunning options like the Solitaire Lab Diamond Ring, share nearly identical characteristics with their natural counterparts, differing only in origin. Created within controlled laboratory settings, they are precisely what their name implies: lab-grown or lab created.
The making of lab grown diamonds is as beautiful as it is complex. For all our curious readers, here’s how they are made.
The fundamental approach to cultivating lab diamonds involves replicating the natural diamond formation process within a controlled laboratory environment. Although there are two distinct lab-grown diamond manufacturing processes, they both commence from the same stage—a diamond seed.
The initial process, known as CVD (chemical vapor deposition), involves placing a diamond seed in an environment saturated with carbon-rich gas at exceedingly high temperatures. This facilitates the accumulation of gas around the diamond seed, ultimately resulting in the formation of a lab-grown diamond. Remarkably, this process only takes a few months, a stark contrast to the billions of years required for natural diamonds to form, making lab-grown diamonds an excellent choice for Engagement Rings.
In contrast, the second man-made diamond production process, known as HPHT (high pressure high temperature), involves dissolving pure carbon in molten metal under conditions of elevated temperature and pressure. The carbon then adheres to the diamond seed. If you're familiar with baking, you can think of this lab-grown diamond production process as akin to making sourdough from scratch, including the cultivation of the starter culture.
Simply put, the negative externalities of mining for natural diamonds are incredibly high. Although natural diamonds are the most beautiful and brilliant materials in nature, its negative impacts dull the shimmer for those who experience the effects firsthand. It is vital to appreciate the existence of the lab diamond in a natural diamond dominated industry.
Here are a few of the harmful consequences of mining natural diamonds:
Natural diamond mining often involves clearing large areas of land, leading to the destruction of ecosystems and displacement of wildlife. The removal of vegetation and soil during mining can result in increased soil erosion and sedimentation in nearby water bodies.
Diamond mining operations release pollutants into local water sources, including heavy metals and toxic chemicals, which harm aquatic life and affect downstream communities. Moreover mining operations consume substantial amounts of water, reducing availability of essential resources for local communities.
To access diamond-bearing deposits, forests are often clear-cut, contributing to deforestation and having long-lasting ecological impacts.
Some diamond mines are associated with unethical labor practices, including child labor, forced labor, and exploitative working conditions. In certain regions, diamond sales have funded armed conflicts, leading to human rights abuses and instability. These are often referred to as "blood diamonds" or "conflict diamonds."
Miners and nearby communities can be exposed to harmful dust and pollutants, leading to respiratory problems and other health issues.Contaminated water sources resulting from mining activities can lead to waterborne diseases among local populations.
Diamond mining operations can displace indigenous communities and disrupt their traditional ways of life. In some cases, diamond wealth has not benefited local communities, leading to economic inequality and social tensions.
It is the existence of these issues that pushed scientists to recreate this worldly wonder in the lab. Bypassing most of these externalities, lab-grown diamonds, including stunning options like the Lab Diamond Pendants, are exactly the solution the world was looking for. Mining as mentioned moments ago, has a devastating effect on the environment but lab grown diamonds don’t come from mines. This eliminates all mining related concerns and ensures that lab grown diamonds are sustainable for the environment. Another issue in the natural diamond industry is the supply chain. Lengthy and ill organized, the chain of supply that mined diamonds go through is heavy on the environment as it changes many hands and adds to air pollution. Lab diamonds on the other hand don’t need to be transported to a lot of different places and this reduces costs and pollution. In terms of sustainability, lab-grown diamonds are as durable as natural diamonds, and they are just as resistant to chipping, maintaining similar levels of quality, making them an excellent choice for Lab Diamond Earrings. This durability ensures that wear and tear are comparable in both cases, without any compromise in quality, unlike some cheaper alternatives. Lastly, the primary resource used in the production of lab-grown diamonds is energy, often derived from renewable sources, with minimal adverse effects on the environment.
*can contain trace elements upto 0.05%. This can happen in both scenarios since in mines there are other elements present, while in lab grown diamonds ( In the HPHT process) there might be traces of molten metal present.
Next up is an overview of the 4Cs of the diamond world, the standard for grading lab grown diamonds.
A lab grown diamond's cost depends on its characteristics commonly known as the "4 C's". The 4C's - Clarity, Color, Cut and Carat - of a man-made diamond are the principal descriptor and help determine a diamond’s value. Of all the "C's", clarity is habitually assumed to be the most important factor, but color and cut (especially cut) have a more profound effect on the appearance of a lab grown diamond.
At Cuts and Carat, we believe in being as transparent in our dealings as a D grade (100% colorless) man made diamond, and an important part of achieving this goal is to ensure that our customers are aware of the product they are buying from us.
Let’s start with the CUT because the cut always comes first, at least in our company’s name.
The cut of a lab grown diamond is essentially its proportion, evenness and polish; the factors which directly speak to the craftsmanship of a particular diamond. While lab growns come in numerous shapes, it is their cut that imparts the actual shine and glamor to your favorite shape.
Each time you compliment a lab grown diamond on the symmetry of its facets, the depth of its shape and its majestic ability to reflect, you are technically complimenting a well cut man made diamond.
An added benefit of an expertly finished lab diamond is durability. Although the diamond is the hardest substance, it is essential that it is crafted in a way that does not take away its ability to outlive its other counterparts, (making it fragile and brittle) and a good cut ensures this very thing.
The CARAT of the lab diamond is probably the most talked about C ever. The biggest contributor to its price, the carat in simple words, is the unit of weight of the man-made diamond which directly affects its size.
One carat today is equal to 0.2 grams or 0.00705479 ounces which is about 1/10th as heavy as a paperclip and 1/13th as heavy as a US Quarter. Isn’t it baffling just how precious a lab grown diamond is, that people worry about the tiniest deviation in its weight?
The 3rd C is CLARITY, which refers to the absence of flaws in a lab diamond called inclusions or blemishes. As the names suggest, inclusions are the inner characteristics and blemishes are the imperfections on the diamond’s surface. The scale measures purity and rarity of a lab grown diamond. Most imperfections are not visible to the naked eye and usually start to show up under 10x magnification, a magnification you and I won’t ever see our own gorgeous lab diamond under.
COLOR, self explanatory and obvious, is the shade of the diamond. Lab diamonds are quite diverse and come in a variety of different colors naturally but most diamonds people seek tend to be colorless or transparent because of their ability to disperse light.
We refer to the color/ transparency of a man made diamond from a scale of D-Z. This method ensures that jewelers all over the world weigh the properties of lab diamonds on the same scale so that each lab grown diamond is priced at its true worth!
We hope we answered your questions and helped you form an understanding of the lab diamonds we sell and you might buy. Keep in mind and repeat after us, “Lab grown diamonds are but mined diamonds born from an ethical source.”
