Advertise on this blog!

Give your shop some inexpensive and great exposure by advertising on my blog! Please email me an ad no larger than 200 x 200 or I will make a one button (frame) ad for you free of charge.

These are promotional rates...they won't last forever!
One week: $2.50
One month: $7.00


Email me if you're interested and I will send you a PayPal invoice for the amount. Thanks, Lori

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Open Your Heart--PRIZE REDEEMED!

If you're a Risky Beads mailing list subscriber and today is Friday, 1/30/09 or later, and you found this, you probably just won it. Email me at riskybeads [at] gmail dot com with your name and address to confirm that you're the first to find it and it's yours!
Someone got here first and claimed the prize!! Thanks for peeking in! Stay tuned to this blog for the huge giveaway kicking off on Sunday! 11 sellers are pitching in!

-Lori

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Choosing The Cut of A One Carat Diamond Ring

There are many different cuts of one carat diamond rings to choose from. The cut essentially refers to the shape that the diamond is cut into – unless you are in the diamond or jewelry business, but this shape has a great impact on the much the one carat diamond ring sparkles.

The most popular one carat diamond ring cuts are heart, marquise, oval, pear, princess, round, trillion, and emerald cuts. The shape has an impact on how much the diamond sparkles, but the actual cutting itself – when the diamond cutter actually cuts the diamond into a particular shape – also matters a great deal. If the one carat diamond ring is poorly cut, it will lose its sparkle.

However, in the one carat diamond ring industry, the cut of a diamond doesn’t refer to its shape at all. Instead, this is a reference to the stone’s depth, width, brilliance, durability, clarity, and other aspects of the diamond. Common cutting problems include a missing or off center culet, misalignment, a diamond that is too thick or too thin, cracks, or broken culets.

When shopping for a one carat diamond ring, you should of course choose the shape that you like the best, but then look at several different
one carat diamond rings of that shape to find the one with the best cut – the one that sparkles the most, in all types of lighting.

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How One Carat Diamond Ring Prices Are Determined

Pricing most products is quite easy. Determine how much it costs to make the item, how much it costs to market that item, and then mark it up by 15 – 30% or more. Simple, right? Well, pricing diamonds isn’t quite that simple. There are many factors that are considered when one carat diamond rings are priced.

One Carat Diamond Ring prices are determined first by adding the cost of the rough diamond, the cost of cutting the diamond, and all other costs necessary to turn the rough diamond into a marketable diamond. Depending on the importance of the diamond, an independent company may be called in to certify the grade of the diamond based on color, cut, clarity, and weight.

At this point, the one carat diamond ring becomes more expensive each time it changes hands, until it finally reaches a retailer, where the price is raised a bit more. Before reaching the retailer, however, the diamond must travel from the mine, to the cutter and polisher, to the independent grading company, and then to the Primary market. Once it has reached the primary market, it will be purchased by diamond dealers and wholesalers, and from there it will be sold to retailers.

As you can see, the earlier you can purchase a diamond in the process, the lower the cost of the diamond will be – but not the value. The value is based on what the diamond will sell for in the market place – through a retailer.

If you own a one carat diamond ring, and you have no idea how much it is worth, you can have it appraised, but the appraisal may not be accurate. You will be better off obtaining a certificate through GIA – Gemological Institute of America. With the information on this certificate, you can use a cutter’s guide to accurately determine what your one carat diamond ring is worth.

There are also many one carat diamond ring price calculators available. These can be found on the Internet, and many diamond dealers use these as well. You must realize, however, that before you can accurately price a one carat diamond ring, without a Diamond Grade Report, you need to know quite a bit about diamonds, such as different cuts, clarity, color, and weight – and how each of those aspects adds to the value of a one carat diamond ring, or decreases the value of the diamond as the case may be.

Again, you will be better off if you get a Diamond Grading Report on the diamond, and use that information to look up the price in one of the guides that the diamond cutting industry uses. This will give you the most accurate value of the one carat diamond ring in your possession, or of the one carat diamond ring you are considering purchasing.

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How One Carat Diamond Rings Are Cut

In their most natural form, a one carat diamonds are – well – quite ugly. They have no luster or shine, and in fact, look like nothing more than broken glass. A diamond must be cut, and then polished before it actually becomes a thing of beauty.

One carat diamonds are cut with saws, into round shapes. From the rounded shape, other shapes may be cut, such as heart shapes – but the shape is less important than the quality of the cutting that is being done. If the diamond is poorly cut, it will lose light, and it will not sparkle and shine very well. Each facet of the diamond must be carefully cut into the geometrical shapes that allow the diamond to sparkle and shine, then the entire diamond is cut into a specific shape, such as an one carat emerald cut diamond or a one carat princess cut diamond.

Once the cut is done, the one carat diamond is put into a dop, which resembles a cup with another one carat diamond – only a one carat diamond is strong enough to smooth the edges of another one carat diamond. Once the diamond has been cut and shaped, and had the edges smoothed in the dop, it is polished on a scaif or a diamond polishing wheel.

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How One Carat Diamond Rings Are Mined

We seldom think about how the one carat diamond rings we wear came to us. Natural diamonds, as opposed to synthetic diamonds or fake diamonds, are mined from the earth. There are currently two methods of mining diamonds: Pipe Mining and Alluvial Mining.

When pipe mining is used, the diamonds are extracted from the earth through volcanic pipes. These are not man-made pipes. These are natural pipes in the ground. Shanks are put into the ground next to the pipes, and tunnels are driven into the deepest parts ofthe pipe. The diamonds are not sorted out at the mine. Instead, huge rocks that are full of diamonds are brought out of the mine and moved to a screening plant for separation.

The Alluvial mining method is done in riverbeds and on beaches. Walls are built to hold back the water and the sand on the bank or beach is moved with a bulldozer until the level of earth that diamonds can be found in is reached. Again, the diamonds are not sorted here. Instead, the sand that contains the diamonds is bulldozed into trucks, and taken to screening plants.

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One Carat Diamond Ring Certificates

A one carat diamond ring certificate is also known as a Diamond Grading Report. This report comes from the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), and you should require this report when you are purchasing a one carat diamond ring.

With a diamond certificate, you can verify the color, cut, carat, weight, and clarity of the one carat diamond ring. You don’t have to worry about a diamond dealer telling you anything less than the truth, because the certificate comes from the GIA – not the dealer. You may be required to pay for the certificate, but the cost is usually low, and in many cases, it will help you negotiate a better price on the diamond – or keep you from purchasing a lower quality diamond altogether.

If you buy a high quality diamond, and then later decide to sell the one carat diamond ring, you will need to have the certificate, or you will have a hard time selling it to someone else. Furthermore, you can use the Diamond Grading Report to look up the wholesale
value of the diamond in question. Use the guide that is used by the diamond cutting industry.

With the Certificate, or Diamond Grading Report, there won’t be any doubts when you are trying to purchase a diamond. You can
easily find out what the diamond is worth. This will prevent you from overpaying, and it can prevent a seller from under-charging as well.

A copy of the Diamond Grading Report should be given to your insurance company as well, when you insure the one carat diamond. ring This
provides absolute, unquestionable proof of the value of the diamond should it be stolen in the future. Insurance companies cannot argue with the report.

Avoid diamond dealers who seem reluctant to provide a certificate! Also avoid sellers who tell you that a certificate diamond will cost you more – the only additional cost should be the cost of the certificate, which is low. If the dealer doesn’t want to provide a certificate, then you don’t want to do business with that dealer.

Don’t accept certificates from Gemological Laboratories other than GIA. There are many fly-by-night Gemological labs these days, but in the end, GIA has been established as the most respectable and trustworthy – not to mention oldest – of the lot. So avoid dealers who don’t want to use GIA for certification purposes as well.

Don’t buy an expensive one carat diamond ring without paying the extra cost of the certificate. If a dealer tries to convince you to make the purchase without the certificate, or if they want to use a company other than GIA, you can be sure that the dealer has probably greatly inflated the price of the one carat diamond ring – they have something that they are hiding from you.

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