I am sure you all wear jewellery. It is something which makes you feel rich, expensive, and powerful. When you are talking about yourself being lavish, what are you talking about? Is it about having a breathtaking house, a stupendous car, having ample accessories or just simply having abundant money? Today, we are going to be talking about jewellery. Specifically, we will discuss the role of diamonds in jewellery making, the complexity of the process of manufacturing diamonds, and the value system that drives a strong and sustainable diamond business.
Wearing jewellery can express your social status, can show that you are up to date with the current trend and fashion, can express your personality, or can just make you feel contended.
Diamond jewellery has been trending in the fashion industry for decades now. Possessing diamond jewellery brings a sense of pride and richness into your life. What makes a diamond what it is. Is it just its appearance or is there more to it?
Diamonds are very rare. Miners move about 250 tons of Earth (ores and gravels) to find a single carat of diamond. Do you know that 250 tons is almost the combined weight of 50 male Asian Elephants? Further, discovery of the world's first diamond can be traced back to the Indian soils from the 4th century BC. This fact is already so mind-blowing. In addition, the diamonds found while mining go through a series of high-precision processes to take an awe-inspiring form. The value of the diamonds is judged by the 4 C's which are carat, clarity, cut, and colour. Let us dive into each one of the C's.
The carat of the diamond refers to the weight of the diamond. The higher, the better. The diamonds are also judged by their clarity, which signifies the purity of the diamond. Cut refers to the shape and the edges of the diamond. Further, colourless or translucent diamonds indicate absence of impurities and other chemical gases such as nitrogen and boron. If the diamond is pure and colourless, it is composed of only carbon atoms. The availability of such diamonds is quite rare because they are usually exposed to natural gasses. Diamonds come in different colours such as red, green, blue, yellow etc. Polished and colourless diamonds are rare and hence fetch a high price.
Now that we know how a diamond is judged, let us investigate the transformation of dusty rough stones transform into beautiful necklaces and bracelets.
Diamond manufacturing is both an art and a science. The city of Surat in Gujarat, India houses several large and small diamond manufacturing units; hence, the city is also known as the Diamond City. There are in Surat. There are three main processes while manufacturing a diamond which is Plan, Cut, and Polish. Let us look at the process of manufacturing a polished diamond and evolution of the manufacturing processes from past to the present.
The first step in the manufacturing process is planning. Plan development includes the process to cut a rough diamond into multiple stones. Earlier, artisans did not have access to computer technology and developed a rough stone-cut plan using their eyes only. Today, we have sophisticated software to identify how many diamonds could be obtained from a rough stone. Maximizing the quantity of diamonds that can be extracted from a rough stone is an art and science. The second step is cutting. Cutting is shaping the diamond in its appropriate sizes. Earlier, stones used to be cut using saws. Now, we have precision laser cutting to avoid and cracks in the diamond. The last step is polishing the diamond. Polishing is the final stage in the cutting process. By polishing a diamond, it is possible to obtain a very fine surface finish. Earlier, polishing was done manually. Now polishing is done using machines that can absorb the carbon dust. After completing these steps, the finished diamonds are used in making ornaments, bracelets, and necklaces, which are then shipped to retail markets near you.
Sometimes, customers may receive counterfeit diamonds, which is a criminal offence. You may be wondering; how can diamonds be fake? Today, there are synthetically grown diamonds in labs. Lab-grown diamonds (a.k.a artificial diamonds) are identical to earth-mined diamonds in several aspects, except for the fact that they are grown in a lab in a high-pressured environment. Lab-grown diamonds are made of pure unadulterated carbon. Professional jewellers and gemmologists cannot distinguish between a lab created diamond and a natural one just by looking at it with the naked eye. Hence, grading reports from certified agencies such as GIA are crucial. Graders use microscope to spot the tiny differences in its inclusions that indicate the process of its formation. You should always ask the jeweller for a grading report before you officially buy a diamond or a jewellery consisting of a diamond.
While we take pride in owning a piece of jewellery, we must also focus on the sustenance of diamonds. A single diamond takes up to 1 billion-3.3 billion years to form. Note that the rough stones are procured mainly from Russia and South Africa. While artificial and natural diamonds appear the same, diamond merchants possess a strong value system to establish trust in the mind of the customers.
This world is more than just manufacturing of diamonds. It is about the strong value system that drives individuals to set up a trust-worthy diamond supply chain. Morals are something which each person should have irrespective of their gender, religion, class, job etc. Morals are something that helps us get along with others. They are standards that help an individual choose for himself between right and wrong or good and bad. This understanding of morals is necessary for anyone to make honest, credible, and fair decisions and relations in their daily lives. Morals are what make humans humane.
In establishing a diamond business, we must be careful that the customers get fair price and a genuine diamond. With growing artificial diamonds, how can we build trust among the customers? We must ensure the products are certified by authorized councils. It is well said by Govind Bhai Dholakia (a co-founder of SRK exports) in his autobiography that Diamonds are forever, so are our morals. Without strong morals, an international diamond business cannot be established.
I want to conclude by saying, jewellery not only represents richness, but it also symbolizes security, wisdom, elegance, and prosperity. Note, "Beauty is who you are. Jewellery is simply an icing on the cake."
Disclaimer: This is a guest post by Aarav Roy, an 8th-grade student at the Ahmedabad International School, Gujarat, India.
