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Industry News: GIA Finds Lab-Coated Natural Diamond; CJDG Launches Cindy Edelstein Memorial Auction May 03, 2017 (0 comments)
CVD-Coated Natural Diamond Proves Crooks Always Find Ways To Deceive
New York, NY—Just weeks after GIA announced plans to launch a new synthetic diamond detection device for widespread trade application, its New York lab announced it had come across a new wrinkle in the battle to keep diamonds honest: a natural diamond with a CVD synthetic coating. (Left: The 0.33 ct Fancy blue diamond was confirmed to be a composite of CVD synthetic type IIb diamond overgrowth on a natural type Ia substrate. Photo by Sood Oil (Judy) Chia. Image: GIA)
Coated stones—diamond and otherwise—are nothing new. Off-color diamonds have been coated to make them appear whiter for more than 50 years; a sudden plethora of diffusion-treated corundum also raised concerns early in the 2000s, and in 2005, GIA published an article about a fancy intense purple-pink diamond that was discovered to have been coated and originally likely a pale yellow.
The difference is that earlier coatings were made from other compounds, not synthetic diamond. But this stone had a thin layer of CVD synthetic diamond—undisclosed, of course—that gave it the appearance of being a fancy blue.
A lab note in GIA’s summer edition of Gems & Gemology journal published Monday says a few things tipped its scientists off: the 0.33-ct. diamond displayed both nitrogen and boron defects, and the stone showed as both a Type Ia and IIb. It’s rare enough to see boron in a natural diamond, says GIA, and rarer still to see both boron and nitrogen together in one stone. Then, the Type Ia/IIb split personality is almost unheard of; this was only the second diamond ever that GIA saw with that characteristic.
Read GIA’s detailed report here.
CJDG Cindy Edelstein Memorial Auction Goes Live Online May 15
Hermitage, PA—The Contemporary Jewelry Design Group (CJDG), in association with the COUTURE Show, announces the inaugural Cindy Edelstein Memorial Charity Auction will go live online beginning May 15, 2017.
This online auction of jewelry donated by CJDG members will be open for bids until 4pm Saturday, June 3. At 6:30 pm on June 3, the winning bids will be announced during a cocktail event at the Wynn Resort, in the Sunset Hallway outside the COUTURE ballrooms.
Proceeds from the auction will be donated to Jewelers For Children and to the Women’s Jewelry Association Cindy Edelstein Scholarship Fund. For many years, Edelstein ran a similar auction in Las Vegas; this auction is both a tribute to her and a way for CJDG to give back to the jewelry community.
The auction site, currently in preview mode only, is http://auction.cjdg.jewelry. Bids open May 15 to consumers and everyone in the jewelry industry. Winning bidders do not have to present at COUTURE.
CJDG thanks Andrea Hill and StrategyWerx for their donation of the programming for the auction site. For more information, please contact Marylouise Lugosch, executive director of CJDG; marylouise@cjdg.jewelry.