May 22, 2020
Chatham's Diamond Rainbow
Originally published July 2017. Editor's Note: Starting next week the ISG is presenting our new Chatham Gem Loan Program. We are finally getting this program off the ground and I wanted to share this article that first ran in 2017 on the first amazing donation to the ISG Student Reference Collection from Chatham Created Gems. These are among the study groups available starting next week. Rj
Stop for a minute and look carefully at the banner image above. A beautiful rainbow of colors. While this may look like someone's abstract artistic rendition of diamond colors, I can tell you for absolute certainty this is a real image of a rainbow of diamonds. I know because I took the photograph last night in preparation for our ISG Online Classroom meeting. Our topic was: Getting Deeper in the Chatham Created Diamonds, the parcel recently donated to us by Chatham Created Gems.
The above image is very real, and graphically demonstrates what we are calling Chatham's Diamond Rainbow.
Below is the full image from which the section above was cut. Here you can see the amazing rainbow of colors available with Chatham Created Diamonds. By using a fiber-optic backlighting I was able to capture the transmitted colors of these wonderfully created diamonds.
Below is the same line-up of diamonds but using the flash of my Canon XTi SLR camera. The transmitted color does not show as well, but the body color of the diamonds shows brilliantly.
Just for further clarification, I used the Canon EF-5 60mm Macro lens to capture the colors of the diamonds from each segment of the rainbow. (OK, I know I should be saying "spectrum" but I just like rainbow better....more romantic)
The subtle blue colors range from intense dark blue to a nice light sky blue. The colors are very uniform and the soft blue color of these created diamonds is virtually impossible to find with mined diamonds due to the rarity of boron in natural diamonds. Clearly an advantage with lab-created diamonds.
The fancy, intense yellow colors make this segment of our rainbow extremely beautiful. One of the features I found with the Chatham Created Diamonds is that the quality of the cutting and proportioning is excellent. This is why the diamonds are so intense and so brilliant because the folks at Chatham Created Gems have taken such care to have them cut and fashioned in such high quality. Naturally occurring inclusions in lab-created diamonds can be seen at left. Created diamonds are available with a variety of clarity grades.
Perhaps the most popular color in today's market is pink. Pink diamonds are in high demand, and naturally mined pink diamonds are so rare that the cost of buying a mined pink diamond is totally out of reach for the majority of the buying public. Seeing these lab-created diamonds at left makes the solution obvious, beautiful, and affordable.
The amazing colors of Chatham's Diamond Rainbow were only a small part of the total discussion last night if we posted all of the images this newsletter would be four times longer. However, as much fun as the scientific study of created diamonds may be, the beauty of created diamonds is even more fun, in my humble opinion, of course. So for now, I wanted to share with you the beauty of Chatham's Diamond Rainbow.
In the end, beauty and romance is what this is all about anyway. Stay tuned to this newsletter starting next week for the sign-up form to get your turn at studying these amazing Chatham Created Diamonds.
Robert James FGA, GG
President, International School of Gemology
Why not join us for the study of beauty and romance....oh and some scientific gemology study too! We are a fun group that loves spreading the love of gemstones around the world. Visit our website and learn more. https://schoolofgemology.com/
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