By Mauricio Minotta

Some of the gem and jewelry industry’s top leaders recently attended GIA’s International Executive Council meeting in New York City. President William E. Boyajian briefed them on the state of the Institute and executive team members from the GIA Gem Laboratory shed light on the upcoming cut grading system.

The annual meeting is designed to encourage dialogue between members of the industry and the Institute, which helps GIA executives determine how to modify or improve the services it provides.

Boyajian opened the July 26 meeting saying 2003 had been the Institute’s best year ever due to stellar progress in each of its major divisions. The GIA Gem Laboratory continues to lead the way: The insatiable demand for its services has led to expansions at its New York and Carlsbad locations.

The Education department broke its own record with GIA Distance Education completion rates among the highest in the United States, he said. The increased demand for GIA Education has spurred moves to larger facilities on both the East and West coasts. The New York school recently moved to Madison Avenue and 39th Street, where it doubled in size, and GIA Los Angeles transferred to a much larger facility in Culver City, Boyajian said.

“We’ve also just opened GIA India in Mumbai, where the industry is growing at a tremendous rate,” he said. “And we’re looking into expanding GIA London, since demand for our Graduate Gemologist program there is extremely high.”

The Development and GIA Instruments divisions have also shown marked increases in productivity over the last year and Research continues its work to stay ahead of industry challenges, he said. GIA researchers are working on advances in cultured pearl treatment detection and grading, and the roll out of the round brilliant cut grading system, which GIA hopes to introduce by mid-2005 on all its Diamond Grading and Diamond Dossier Reports.

“We really believe our role is to establish standards that can be reproduced in the industry,” Boyajian said.

Preliminary details of the upcoming cut grading system were provided by Thomas C. Yonelunas, CEO of the GIA Gem Laboratory, and Thomas M. Moses, vice president of Identification and Research Services.

The proposed cut grading system for round brilliant diamonds is the culmination of years of research, during which diamond cut appearance aspects such as brilliance, fire and scintillation were analyzed through computer modeling and observation testing. The system also takes into consideration aspects such as the weight and durability of a diamond (e.g., overweight diamonds and those with extremely thin girdles), and the craftsmanship of the finishing process as seen in a diamond’s polish and symmetry. The system was validated and fine-tuned by more than 70,000 human observations, Yonelunas said.

In its research, GIA discovered that every facet in a round brilliant contributes to the overall appearance of a diamond and that historically recognized proportion sets used for “ideal cut” diamonds are just one of many sets of proportions that can produce pleasing diamonds, Moses said.

“It’s really the interrelationship of the proportions that is important. From a manufacturing standpoint, this provides diamond cutters with much more flexibility,” he said.

The cut grade for round brilliants submitted to the GIA Gem Laboratory will be based on a three-part quality system that focuses on face-up appearance, weight and durability and craftsmanship, Moses explained. The exact nomenclature to be used has not been determined.

A graphic illustrating the interrelated properties of the round brilliant, including expanded proportion information, will be included on the reports, as will text that clearly explains the Four Cs.

A few in attendance voiced their concerns on the grading system’s immediate impact on the industry, particularly at the retail level, however, most agreed that the cut grading system is a big step forward.

“I believe the customer deserves this information,” said Lee Michael Berg, president of Lee Michaels Fine Jewelry. “This will allow us to be on the same playing field where everything will be disclosed. Now the consumer will get 100 percent of the information rather than 80 percent as we’ve done for years.”