Welcome to Shelley's Jewelry blog! My name is Joette Humphrey. I cannot believe that I have worked at Shelley's for more than 20 years! I will be blogging about (what else?) jewelry! So if you have time to comment on the blog or ask me a question that is jewelry related, I'll try to respond. If I don't know the answer, I can probably find it! From time to time, other employees or even our owner, Stan Shelley, or maybe our company president, Deb Lewis, will be posting on the blog as well. Needless to say, we LOVE jewelry, and since most women also love jewelry, I hope you'll follow us as we navigate the blogosphere.
For my first post, I just want to comment on diamonds. It makes sense to choose this topic because that's what we sell the most of and that's what we are trained to know. Plus, the diamond is also the birthstone for April! Lots of people ask me what my favorite gemstone is, and they always expect me to say a colored gem, like ruby or sapphire, but when I say DIAMONDS, they always agree. Not that I don't like rubies and sapphires... I love them as well!
Every one knows about the 4 Cs of diamonds... cut, clarity, color, and carat weight. When cut is mentioned, people often think that it means the shape. Is it cut into a round diamond or a square diamond? But, no, cut really refers to the proportions of the cut, and that's what creates the sparkle. So how do you evaluate cut or know that you are getting a good deal? Color, clarity, and carat weight are pretty easy to decipher, but how do you know if it's cut well? My advice is to LOOK AT THE DIAMOND! Does it sparkle? Are there any "dead" spots where light is not reflected? If you love it and think it's gorgeous, chances are your friends will too. That's why I don't understand people who buy diamonds off the internet. As a dealer, we would NEVER buy a stone that we couldn't look at first.
Some interesting facts about diamonds:
1) Diamond is the hardest substance on earth. A true statement, but that refers to resistance to scratching. If you take a hammer and hit a diamond, it will shatter!
2) The largest diamond in the universe was discovered in this century. It weighs 5 million trillion trillion pounds and is 50 light years from earth. Scientists named it "Lucy" as a tribute to the Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds."
3) The largest gem quality diamond ever discovered on earth was found in 1906 and named the Cullinan Diamond. The largest diamond cut from the big stone weighs over 1,000 cts!
4) Over 99% of the world's diamond sources now come conflict free sources.
Diamonds have their own vocabulary:
1) Brilliance--when light enters a diamond and is reflected back as white light, we call it "brilliance."
2) Fire--some light that enters the diamond is separated into spectral colors and is reflected back as colored light. We call it "fire."
3) Scintillation--the sparkle that you see when a lady moves her hand while wearing a beautiful diamond..
Please leave your comments and let us know if you have any jewelry topics that you want us to discuss!
