THE DIAMOND
THE DIAMOND
According to his ancient Greek name: Adamas, he is "indomitable". Although most of the time appreciated for its sharpness, its shine, its shiny round size which reveals its intense fire, the diamond appears to us in different forms and different faces.
THE diamond has always been a symbol of eternity, of purity, of hardness and of scarcity. This sublime gem is available in many colors and many forms with a strong character, which are distinguished from white diamonds with smooth beauty. Like any puzzles, the diamond differently awakens our curiosity and opens our eyes to the infinite number of treasures around us. We all have a good way to apprehend the beautiful and this article aims to open our vision of the beautiful pebbles. We will then realize that a diamond can offer us a colorful and surprise spectacle, to ultimately be beautiful, otherwise.
Diamond technical sheet
- Chemical composition : THEdiamond As we know it is a gem that once cut, dazzles us with its shine and its fire. But a long journey is done until this stage. This gem is exclusively composed of carbon, has the same chemical composition as graphite, only the crystalline structure differs: indeed atoms in a diamond are very tight against each other, unlike the graphite. It is this compact and regular arrangement of atoms that explains the hardness of the diamond: its resistance to shock and scratches. (The diamond is 10 on the Mohs scale, which goes from 1: Talc, dry soap to 10). Although being the strongest material andharder in the world, the diamond is not unbreakable. -
- Crystalline structure: Like spinelle and grenats, the crystalline structure of the diamond is cubic. The most common raw shape for a diamond is octahedron (2 addicted pyramids), however it is rare that the edges are perfectly symmetrical.
- Its formation : The conditions required for the formation ofdiamond are :
- a temperature between 900 and 1300 degrees - a pressure between 45 and 60 kilo bars
- the right combination of these 2 elements (otherwise the diamond would turn into graphite during its voyage towards the surface of the earth)
- An environment rich in carbon These conditions exist in very specific places of the upper mantle of the earth, between 140 and 190 km below the surface, the most conducive place being old parts of the earthly crust called celty.
- His age : The youngestdiamond had been discovered in Zaire in 1995 and formed 628 million years ago. The oldest diamonds that were discovered had formed 3.3 billion years ago.
Some forms of diamond differently ...
- The pyramid: Return to the sources, to the state of Caillou, without alteration, without intervention of the man. Philippe Tournaire sometimes uses raw diamonds in the form of a double pyramid, simply because in the end, there is sometimes no need to try to get manually what nature knows so nicely doing all alone. The forms of raw diamonds are sometimes so incredible and perfect, that there is nothing to add. The Louvre carousel of the Paris Large ring is also represented by half a raw diamond, a "pyramid". The double pyramid is not the only form that the diamond takes when it leaves the belly of the earth: it can just as well be similar to a cube, or other similar forms but less well defined.
The crowned rose or called "Dutch"
Pink sizes make Diamond a puzzle stone. This size that appeared in the 16th century is fascinating because it gives a new radiance to the diamond. It owes its contours to flattened crude diamonds and therefore makes it possible to use their potential maximum. Diamond roses are shiny by their triangular facets which converge in one point. In other words, the crowned rose is a faceted cabochon.
- The shiny round: Many sizes have preceded the famous glossy round diamond. Years ago, the caliber of a diamond was favored on its fire. Little by little, we realized that the proportions played a fundamental role in the beauty of a diamond. It is indeed thanks to the combination of facets cut in a very precise way that one can obtain an unrivaled fire. We went from 8 facets (Octaedre) to 58 facets with the shiny round. Over time, diamond techniques have therefore perfected. With the arrival of the glossy round waist by the Belgian tailor Tolkowsky in 1919, we managed to reconcile two essential elements: to keep a maximum weight of the crude diamond while obtaining an optimal shine.
Philippe Tournaire mainly uses round-burning diamonds, which can be set in round, square, triangles, drops ... because it is under this Round-brilliant size that diamonds have a maximum. It took more than 500 years to develop the size known to all today. This brilliant size will then give birth to many fancy sizes, such as pear, heart, marquise (or shuttle), emerald, triangular, princess, oval ... The fact remains that the glossy round waist is The one that has the most beautiful shine in the world. Other diamonds are used for their particular color, given by elements considered to be defects, but which in the end give diamond a unique and sometimes exceptional beauty. In this case, it is the imperfections of a gem that make all its charm.
Light clothes of a diamond full of surprises
Even if diamonds Abound around the world and even if a mother nature is generous in terms of the treasure that man strives to find, it is certain that the diamonds of beautiful colors are rare. These diamonds are atypical and deserve to be highlighted. It is important to emphasize that color diamonds exist thanks to their impurities, which managed to infiltrate the gem during its training.
The American Gemmology Institute GIA invented a color scale applicable for jewelers from around the world. This scale makes it possible to determine the different degrees of color for a diamond. It goes from D to Z, D referring to exceptional white + and Z being the color given to a light yellow diamond. We can then think that letters A, B and C are reserved for diamonds even whiter than white, that a lucky one may discover one day! Who knows what nature has in store for us?
Beyond the letter Z, we move to a completely different color register, this time much more pronounced. For all gems, it is the impurities out of their way during their training that explain their color. It is then that in many cases, the inclusions - sometimes even microscopic - of a gem finally played in its favor.
Among all the unclean elements that exist, the atoms of nitrogen, boron and hydrogen get a path leading to the crystalline structure of our dear diamond ... It is no longer white: it becomes the diamond differently. Sometimes very pretty, sometimes less. It's up to us to know how to select them. Nitrogen is the most common elements responsible for color in gems. The boron is the least common and is present in the blue-gray diamonds only. You will find below some examples of famous diamonds in exceptional colors.
Yellow-brown
The colors of diamond the most common are the brown and the YELLOW. But some stand out from others by the intensity of their color: like the diamond Yellow-Brun Eureka for example. Diamonds remain pebbles that we still collect nowadays on the ground. The first diamond to have been discovered in South Africa in 1867 illustrates this image well: a young boy playing on the banks of the Orange river (near Namibia) found a pretty pebble. He did not know when his discovery would upset the history of the diamond ... He played bones with his new find, in all care. Then the pebble passed into expert hands and was identified as a diamond of 21.25 cts, yellow in color tinged with brown and was baptized Eureka.
Blue green
THE Blue, green diamonds are also rare. Two famous examples are the intense blue hope, the Green Dresden. The Hope is an intense blue diamond which was discovered in India in the 17th and today weighs 45.5 cts. It has long been associated with curses, because many of its buyers have had a tragic end. Since 1958, he has been in the exhibition at the Smithsonian Institute of Washington, where curious people around the world can admire him. Its color is largely due to the presence of hydrogen. The Green Dresden was discovered at the start of the 18th in India and weighs 40.70 cts. It is unique in the direction or the green color which sublime is very uniformly distributed, unlike the usual green diamonds with color areas. Green diamonds are curiosity. Their color is due to a natural irradiation. It is said that the Green Dresden and the Hope are very linked to their weight, their importance in the history of gems, the intensity of their color and their rarity. They were also exhibited together at the Smithsonian Institute of Washington at the end of 2000. He now stayed at the Albertinum Museum in Dresden, capital of Saxony in Germany.
Pink, orange and red
The Argyle mine in Australia produces most of the pink diamonds worldwide. A fine example is the Pink diamond, Hortensia fishing. It weighs 20.53 cts. First an integral part of the jewels of the French crown, he is now on display at the Louvre museum. Orange and red diamonds are so rare that scientists are not sure of the exact cause of this extraordinary color. But there is a lot of chance that it is the result of a combination of atoms other than carbon and structural anomaly. The golden jubilee is considered the largest orange diamond cut in the world. It weighs 545.67 CTS, was discovered in South Africa in 1985. It was cut in the shape of a cushion at 148 facets. It is now on the specter of the royal family of Thailand. Red Moussaief: triangular size, this superb red diamond was discovered in the mid -1990s in Brazil. It weighs 5.11 cts. He was found by a Brazilian farmer and then arrived in the hands of the American jeweler Moussaief, hence his name.
Black
Black diamonds called "carbonados" owe their color to minerals such as hematite and magnetite which are an integral part of their crystalline structure. They are mainly found in the Republic of Central Africa and Brazil. The “Black Orloff” diamond helped to make known and appreciate black diamonds. (For the record: it was discovered in the 18th in India and now belongs to a rich collector. It weighs 67.5 cts) The world is full of wonders to discover again and again, sometimes with a different eye from that with which We were taught to look. "Diamonds differently" as their name suggests, allow us to adopt a more wide vision in the face of the beauty of what nature has to offer us. Through a workshop dedicated to this unrivaled gem, Philippe Tournaire offers you the opportunity to see and tame these treasures of the world in its pure state, or sublimated by master's hands.
Give way to your imagination and your dreams thinking of diamonds differently!
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