The Gemological Institute of America treats the grading of Lab Grown Diamonds exactly the same as Earth Mined using their 4Cs, grading scale as the basis for grading, a standard of evaluation created by GIA and implemented all over the world. When any diamond is submitted to any of the many worldwide GIA laboratories, it is first examined to determine if it is earth mined or laboratory grown. GIA diamond graders will examine it with the same intense scrutiny as earth mined diamonds. They then produce a GIA ‘Laboratory Grown Diamond Report’ that provides detailed colour, clarity and cut specifications. The report will also include a plot of the stone’s clarity characteristics. Using advanced testing methods, GIA graders can determine how a diamond was grown, either through the high-pressure, high-temperature (HPHT) method, or the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. This information is then included in the report. In addition to stating what method was used to grow the diamond. The Report also states whether there is evidence of any post-growth treatments. All diamonds, whether laboratory grown, or earth mined, can be treated using several methods to improve the colour of a ‘colourless’ diamond, usually heat treated, or other methods to acquire a better fancy colour, such as, blue, green, pink, or yellow. The GIA’s LGDR lets consumers know whether their diamonds have been treated. It is important to note that any treatment carried out on diamonds are permanent and industry accepted. As another added precaution to identify the diamond and protect consumers, GIA also laser-inscribes the report number on the diamond’s girdle supplies a statement that identifies the diamond as laboratory-grown.
Adamastar was conceived by two gemmologists, Bill Palmer & Ron Park who have been appraisers for many years running a successful appraisal laboratory in Auckland. Both are Graduate Gemmologists from the Gemological Institute of America, the premier college and whose grading nomenclature is accepted as the universal standard by most of the world’s gemmologists. It has been less than 5-6 years that lab grown diamonds have entered the diamond market after many years of development to achieve a man-made, gem quality diamond. Previously the process could not achieve the required level of colour, and clarity needed to compete with earth mined diamonds. Once this milestone was reached, a seismic shift has occurred in the diamond industry. The traditional earth mined industry has tried to denigrate what is a real threat to their dominance by trying to say earth mined is better and more ‘natural’ than lab grown diamonds. Both claims are wrong because lab grown diamonds are exactly the same and as for being ‘natural’, the FTC in America, (America’s equivalent to our Commerce Commission), has said that earth mined diamond sellers cannot use the term ‘natural’ to differentiate them from lab grown diamonds as they are essentially the same thing so one can’t be termed more ‘natural’ than the other. Adamastar believe lab grown diamonds are the future as they tick all the boxes, being more sustainable, more ethical, more environmentally friendly to the planet in their manufacture, and best of all up to 50% less to buy.
At Adamastar, we sell laboratory grown diamonds to clients and set them in their own bespoke jewellery designs. We understand that buying a diamond is a special stage in their relationship, so we like to take our clients on their own journey of discovery. Our clients learn everything, not just about the diamond and the setting, but they have the advantage of our vast knowledge and know-how. By working with our talented designers, jewellers, and setters, we create the perfect piece of jewellery, so the client’s experience is always better than expected. We make sure that the design is right, and the client is fully happy before we progress to the actual making of it. Since we do not carry the diamonds in stock, we may initially quote on a particular diamond, at a particular size and grades, but when we come to purchase it, due to perhaps delays in deciding, that diamond may no longer be available. In such cases we always go up a grade or a slight weight increase at the same price as quoted. So, it is always more and not less than promised. After we gain an idea of what the client is wanting, we discuss and advise the options usually by email, before giving a quote. At any time, we can meet in our relaxed and beautiful downtown office where we meet and can show off our beautiful, perfect diamonds. Once seen, always impressed. The excellent cut of the lab grown diamonds makes them stunning and their brilliance must be seen to believe.
Adamastar; know diamonds and are passionate about them. We have spent a lifetime looking at diamonds and understanding them. We want our clients to be fully informed about all aspects of diamonds and our knowledge can help cut through the technical maze of information. There is no other consumer product in the market that has the level of detailed scrutiny that diamonds are subjected to, including minute detailed grading, and measuring that a diamond is expected to meet to conform to market expectations. We are qualified Graduate Gemmologists with decades of experience in grading and valuing diamonds to GIA’s (Gemological Institute of America) high grading standards and we are ideally placed to make sure that the reports which come with the Lab Grown Diamonds we sell are accurate and do match GIA grading criteria. That coupled with our desire to make our clients happy, leaving no detail too small to satisfy our client with their requests for a dream ring. We never accept second best. Our craftsmen are the best around and we guarantee all workmanship. By matching quality mounts with lab grown diamonds we have the best jewellery available as there is nothing to compare with the high standards of lab grown diamonds which are the future on so many levels from price to environmentally sustainable and ethics, no chance of blood diamonds.
Earth mined diamonds are a gift from nature, but lab grown diamonds are a brilliant testament to human technology and intelligence. If you were fortunate enough to be wondering through a clear shallow stream somewhere, you might just stumble upon an unremarkable, irregular shaped pebble and if you knew what you were looking at you might realise it was a rough diamond you had just found. It would be a very lucky find. From that point on, the rough crystal begins a journey from there to the cutter whose job it is to bring out the hidden fire within the rough crystal. It has taken diamantaires generations of jealously guarded secret knowledge, of how to bring out the best optical characteristics of such an ‘unremarkable’ pebble and release the brilliance and fire of a polished, round brilliant cut diamond. With human ingenuity, now creating the crystal itself, there is a wonderful symmetry where artisans are skilfully further beautifying this all-man-made magnificent gemstone. A lab-grown diamond is a diamond for the future. It is environmentally superior to earth mined diamonds, using only carbon and electricity to manufacture them. Although much electricity is currently generated by coal, more and more electricity is produced by green generation, the future can only be brighter over the long term. The physical damage earth mining does to the planet is massive as it takes 250 tons of crushed rock to find 1.00carat of diamonds, usually by digging giant craters and creating massive tailings which are harmful to both fauna and wildlife.
Adamastar sell environmentally sustainable and affordable diamonds in quality New Zealand made jewellery. It doesn’t matter if a diamond is a billion years old, or a day old they both have the same features as each other, are of the identical chemical element (Carbon), and the same physical characteristic (Hardness), and when cut and polished into the same shape, have the same optical (brilliance and scintillation) characteristics as well. Let’s face, it a diamond crystal is just a crystal found in nature, just a rock made of certain common elements arranged in a particular molecular structure. A lab grown diamond is exactly the same in every way, only it has been made in a laboratory, using the same methods to create it an as earth mined diamond was, heat and pressure. It has been said, when purchasing an engagement ring the rule of thumb on how much to spent is about a month’s wages or salary. That equates to approximately $4,000.00. For that amount you could buy a 0.50ct earth mined diamond of F/VS2/Ex quality grades in an 18ct mount. But if the same $4,000.00 was spent buying a lab grown diamond, that $4000.00 would buy you a 1.00ct diamond of the same grades. That’s double the diamond size. If you were able to afford an even larger diamond and compare the price, the size of the diamond you would get would be even greater. Consequently, this places our traditional jewellers in a difficult situation when selling earth mined diamonds. Many are now trying to jump on the bandwagon and sell lab grown diamonds, but when they try to explain why they offer an earth mined at twice the price, when it is exactly the same, they have a problem. They can’t put down lab grown, otherwise they could lose a sale. They try to use the earth mined, ‘special origin’ argument, but that is a lot of money to spend when in truth, it may not matter.
Laboratory grown diamonds are real diamonds. They are made from the same chemical as earth mined, i.e., carbon, formed into the same crystal structure, and have the same optical properties, unlike look-a-like simulants like Cubic Zirconia or Moissanite, but actual diamonds, no different than those dug out of the ground which use environmentally unfriendly methods and giant mechanical equipment, which are not kind to the planet. It takes 250 tons of hard granite rock which is crushed and sifted to obtain just one carat of diamonds. The diamonds are then sent to cartels which control the flow of diamonds into the market to maintain the high prices they need to have, to sustain the mining of the gems. Laboratory Grown Diamonds are not easy to make. They require highly skilled technicians and very expensive machines to manufacture them. Once started the process can’t be hurried by forcing them to grow faster as this will cause the diamonds to fail and not be gem quality. As the manufacturer is also the seller, there are few if any middlemen to take their cut before it reaches the jeweller who will sell it. Earth mined diamonds can pass through many hands each clipping the ticket thus upping the price. It is a trail that has existed for hundreds of years, and the trade is reluctant to change. Laboratory Grown Diamonds are not tied to these traditions and are the future.
It is not correct to call Lab Grown Diamonds ‘synthetic’. Synthesis is the combining of different chemicals to create another material that looks like the one being copied. Examples of this is synthetic leather or synthetic rubber, used to look like their natural counterparts. From a scientific chemist’s standpoint, growing a diamond involves merely changing one form of carbon (graphite) into another form of carbon, (diamond), – exactly as with an earth-mined, and as such no synthesis occurs. So, the term ‘synthetic’ is chemically inaccurate for diamond, as a diamond is not made from synthetic carbon, and since no one has yet synthesised carbon, there is no such thing as a synthetic diamond. Recently in America, there has been a sweeping change in the FTC’s ruling on diamond description, (the same body as our Commerce Commission), It removed the previously specified term, ‘natural’ origin used by the earth mined industry to promote their diamonds as ‘superior’ when defining a diamond. Previously the FTC definition stated a diamond was a natural mineral consisting essentially of pure carbon crystalized in the Cubic system. Now the word ‘natural’ has been erased. The FTC has now ruled: “The Commission no longer defines a ‘diamond’ by using the term ‘natural’ because it is no longer accurate to define diamonds as ‘natural’ when it is now possible to create products that have essentially the same optical, physical, and chemical properties as mined diamonds.
‘Synthetic’ is also defined as ‘Not natural or genuine: artificial or contrived, fake, imitation’. Since lab-grown diamonds are the same as earth-mined, it is no longer acceptable to call only an earth-mined diamond ‘natural’ Both are in fact natural, so lab-grown diamonds can’t be called synthetic. ‘Synthetic’ is the preferred name used by the mining diamond industry to describe lab-grown diamonds, as they believe that the term ‘synthetic’ cheapens the product and promotes their view of the ‘fake-ness’ of lab-created diamonds, in their attempt to denigrate lab-grown diamonds and to create confusion between lab-grown diamonds (which are diamonds) and lab-grown diamond simulants (which are not diamonds).
