At the recent Centurion Show in Tucson, I was asked to speak on the subject of how prestige jewelers could cope in today’s challenging and changing diamond market. After providing a quick recap of the many factors shaping the diamond industry today, I offered a seven-point strategy that I believe most retailer jewelers would find useful. In brief:

1. Know (and believe) that a diamond is not a commodity: Stress with your staff as well as your customers that every diamond is unique, every diamond seller is unique, and every piece of diamond jewelry is unique.

2. Build your brand in your local community: A good brand helps you attract a great staff, a great staff helps you attract the right clientele, and the right clientele helps you enhance your brand. By defining your niche and sticking to it, you build both your brand and your position in the community.

3. Use quality brands and combine them with your brand: First, build your brand, but recognize that incorporating other brands may make yours even stronger. Co-branding may not be for everyone, but many jewelers have reaped success with it.

4. Use the GIA grading system to build your diamond brand: Explain the attributes represented by each of the Four Cs: Color, Clarity, Cut and Carat weight. But remember, the key to the sale is not the Four Cs alone. It’s about what each individual diamond represents in the mind of your customer – love, romance, commitment, and the like – which only you can evaluate.

5. Differentiate your store and your brand from the rest: It all starts with you and your ability to sell yourself and your store. But it ends with consumers. Success depends on how they perceive you and your products.

6. Invest in the best people you can get: Provide both monetary and psychological rewards, and make every job in your firm challenging and fun.

7. Don’t forget the magic: Product knowledge is great and we all need it. But we have to balance it with passion and energy. Don’t ever lose that magic touch.

These are simple but powerful ideas for every jeweler to consider. Not all will work for every jeweler, but I hope a few might work for you.

Despite soaring prices for many types of gemstones, business at the various Tucson trade shows was spotty, with some exhibitors reporting gains while others saw declines.

Coming off a generally lackluster holiday season, exhibitors at the American Gem Trade Association (AGTA), Gem & Jewelry Exchange (GJX), Worldwide Gem & Jewelry, and Gem and Lapidary Dealers Association (GLDA) shows reported that business, after a strong start, was generally slower than last year. Part of the problem may have been that prices for many of the most popular gemstones were 20–40% higher than at last year’s shows. Dealers cited increased global competition for goods, declines in the U.S. dollar, and more aggressive pricing by miners and source-country dealers as the reasons.

Top sellers were better-quality, unheated blue and pink sapphires, emeralds, and – new this year – opaque/semi-opaque stones, particularly opals and cat’s-eye/star cabochons.

“In fact, this year may be called the year of the opaque gemstone,” said one AGTA dealer, who noted the greatly increased amounts of opal available at the various shows.

A number of dealers who reported increased sales believed that the diamond price hikes of the past several years have opened opportunities for colored stones, which offer a larger look for, in most cases, less money.

One major dealer at the AGTA show added that he’s seen many “new” retailers at the show looking for colored gems – particularly in the $1,000–$2,000 per-carat range.

“Retailers are finding they can get an awfully nice sapphire or emerald at that price, compared to a mediocre diamond, so they are willing to take more chances this year,” he explained.

The major talk of the show was the newly discovered blue tourmaline from Mozambique, which is similar in color to the Paraíba variety that, until recently, was found only in Brazil. A number of dealers at the Idar-Oberstein pavilion of the Worldwide show as well as Brazilian dealers at both the GLDA and GJX shows offered these tourmalines at widely varying prices for similar-quality material.

“The goods are so new to the market that no one has yet established a proper price yet. That’s why we have such big discrepancies,” said one Idar-Oberstein dealer.

In addition, a controversy over the name erupted during the shows because a number of dealers called the Mozambique material “Paraíba” or “Paraíba-type.” Some dealers of Brazilian Paraíba tourmaline objected, saying the name should be reserved for goods that actually come from that area of Brazil. However, others noted that much of the Brazilian tourmaline with that appellation is actually mined in areas outside Paraíba State. Still others say the debate is moot because the Mozambique material does not have the electric intensity of color that characterizes the best of the Brazilian goods, which carry the real price premiums.

Although several dealers had good stocks of the new African material, there was also debate about the size of the deposit. Those familiar with the source said that while the deposit was yielding large amounts of rough, a high percentage of the tourmaline shattered during the heat treatment that produces the blue color.

The number of dealers offering tanzanite continued to decline dramatically from the near ubiquity of three years ago. Major dealers of the gemstone said this was a result of the Tanzanian government’s efforts to ensure that rough material is exported only through authorized channels. In addition, the largest producer, TanzaniteOne, has channeled distribution of its rough production through a small coterie of “sightholders,” further limiting the number of dealers selling the gemstone.

“It’s still extremely popular,” said one major dealer. “And now, because all tanzanite is sold in an open, transparent manner, prices have become very stable.”

Business at the invitation-only Centurion Show, which caters to luxury retailers, was generally strong, though a number of diamond companies reported “sticker shock” at the higher prices for large, high-quality diamonds – particularly for goods over 2 cts. and for colored diamonds.

Several designers who wanted to maintain the pricy “bling-bling” celebrity look were setting large clusters of small diamonds to maintain some affordability.

But, said one major designer, “movie stars still wear big pieces, especially earrings. As long as that’s the case, they [large diamonds] will be in high demand.”

Russell Shor
Senior Industry Analyst

Rutilated quartz has become more popular in recent years and now occupies a distinct niche in the gem market. This, combined with its limited availability – almost exclusively from Bahia, Brazil – has led to a significant increase in price. As with other gem materials, this price surge has encouraged imitation by enterprising entrepreneurs.

During a September 2005 trip to Teófilo Otoni, Minas Gerais, two researchers from the Laboratorio di Gemmologia Geo-Land in Rome were offered the seven-stone parcel shown in figure 1. The suspiciously low price and a preliminary inspection raised questions about the authenticity of the stones, prompting the two to perform a more detailed examination.

The refractive indices were 1.544–1.553, typical for quartz. However, when the stones were viewed from the side, it was evident that they were doublets, with a thin layer of semitransparent rutilated quartz glued to a thicker backing of transparent quartz that contained little or no rutile. The fact that the stones were assembled was even more obvious when the samples were immersed in water, as shown in figure 2.

Although a trained observer would easily detect this falsification in a loose stone, the same observer might fail to identify the doublets after they were mounted, since there were no gas bubbles or other evidence of the glue layer when they were viewed face-up with a loupe.

This entry was prepared by Michele Macrì and Simone Macrì of the Laboratorio di Gemmologia Geo-Land in Rome. For more gemological developments from around the world, read the Gem News International section in every issue of Gems & Gemology. To subscribe, click here or contact Circulation Coordinator Debbie Ortiz. Call toll-free 800-421-7250, ext. 7142. Outside the U.S. and Canada, call 760-603-4000, ext. 7142.

Cathodoluminescence is the emission of visible light by a material when it is exposed to a beam of electrons in a vacuum chamber. Cathodoluminescence reactions can provide important information about a material’s growth and chemical composition. In the 1990s, gemological researchers began using this technique to investigate the differing internal structures of natural and high pressure/high temperature (HPHT) synthetic diamonds.

When the electron beam strikes a natural or synthetic diamond, impurities in the crystal structure often cause the sample to luminesce. These impurities tend to be concentrated along internal growth zones.

The luminescence patterns of natural diamonds are very different from those of their HPHT-grown synthetic counterparts. A natural diamond shows a pattern of layers, typically in a square shape, that reflect its progressive outward growth in the form of an octahedron. Many HPHT-grown synthetic diamonds show very different, cross-shaped growth structures that are related to their crystal shape, which is a combination of cubic and octahedral forms.

The Diamond Trading Company (DTC) DiamondView is an instrument that uses high-energy short-wave UV radiation to produce the luminescence. It can illuminate the sample without the need for a vacuum chamber, and it offers gemologists an additional means of distinguishing between natural diamonds and HPHT-grown synthetic diamonds. Click here for more information about the DTC DiamondView, which is sold through GIA Instruments UK, Ltd.

Step-by-step procedures to identify natural, synthetic, and imitation gems using highly specialized gemological equipment are taught in GIA’s Gem Identification course. In addition, gemstones can be sent to the GIA Laboratory for testing using equipment such as the DTC DiamondView. Click here for information on this course and other GIA programs. Click here to learn how to submit a gem to the GIA Laboratory.

The industry and the public can now access information about cut grades and how to vary certain proportions of a standard round brilliant diamond to obtain a better cut grade by using the new format of the GIA Facetware™ Database.

The GIA Facetware™ Look-Up Tables allow anyone to visualize how cut grades change as certain proportions are changed. The tables found within the “Estimating a Cut Grade” section of the microsite may be especially helpful to manufacturers who would like to know how to change proportion values to attain better GIA cut grades. Currently, the tables allow site users to vary table size, crown angle, and pavilion angle.

The tables provide an estimated cut grade by assuming default values for some of the diamond’s proportions, in addition to the diamond’s polish and symmetry assessments. Therefore, the estimated cut grade provided by the tables may not match the actual cut grade of a diamond with values different from these default parameters. Users should consult the GIA Facetware™ Cut Estimator for more precise cut grade estimations when these values differ from the default values listed.

To access the GIA Facetware™ Look-Up Tables, visit the “Estimating a Cut Grade” section of the GIA Diamond Cut Grading System microsite and look for the links at the bottom of the page.

Popular Seminar Interprets GIA’s Diamond Cut Language
More than 75 people learned an entirely new way of looking at diamonds during GIA’s two standing-room-only Diamond Cut Grading System seminars on Feb. 4 in Tucson. An additional tutorial was conducted on Feb. 5, so that more people could learn the language of diamond cut using GIA’s new system.

Seminar attendees used microscopes and diamonds to learn how to visually determine a cut grade and to communicate the effect of cut on the appearance of a round brilliant diamond.

GIA Instructor Jim Viall said the industry will be better able to sell diamonds based on this universal system. “It’s exciting to see so many people in the industry respond positively to something that’s been in research and development for so many years,” he said.

The seminars, divided into two parts, included a wide representation from the industry; retailers, wholesalers, and diamond dealers attended.

“I learned how to determine and speak the language of cut to the consumer using empirical mathematical measurements,” said Rui Galopim De Carvalho, International Colored Gemstone Association (ICA) Ambassador to Portugal. “The results of GIA’s Diamond Cut Grading System confirm pragmatic research, and GIA did a great job of putting these new criteria for grading cut into practice for the trade.”

Click here  to learn more about the GIA Diamond Cut Grading System.

For information on future Diamond Cut Grading System seminars, please contact Education Admissions at 760-603-4001 or e-mail GIA Education.

Gems & Gemology Recap Features Special Presentation on Gübelin
Andy Lucas, product manager for GIA Education, spent over an hour covering some of Gems & Gemology’s major articles from 2005. He presented information about Lucent treated color diamonds, characterization and grading of natural yellow diamonds, the political and economic forces shaping today’s diamond industry, Zambian emeralds, and Maine tourmaline.

Lucas said the type Ia treated natural diamonds from Lucent Diamonds Inc. can be detected through standard gemological testing (Spring 2005 G&G). Some of the features to notice when distinguishing these pink-to-red through purple-red to orangy brown stones are graphitization of mineral inclusions (probably olivine and garnet) and internal stress features, etching of cleavages or surface areas, color zoning, and fluorescence. Their treatment process involves HPHT annealing, irradiation, and low-pressure annealing at relatively low temperatures.

A Summer 2005 article reported that yellow diamonds made up more than 58 percent of all the colored diamonds submitted to the GIA Laboratory for grading between 1998 and 2003. Lucas added that more than 98 percent of these yellow diamonds were shapes other than round brilliants. He said the key in color grading yellow diamonds is bracketing, using examples of known color to assign a proper position in color space. Lucas also said that colored diamonds should be observed in the face-up position with a plane of focus located near the table facet and not deep into the stone, so the grader observes the overall blend that constitutes the predominant single color ("characteristic" color).

As reported in the Fall 2005 issue, some of the economic and political forces shaping today’s diamond industry include: changes in diamond sources and the market, conflict diamonds, technology, treatments and synthetics, and restructured cutting centers.

Specific points from the article included:

• De Beers has undergone major restructuring and market philosophy changes while facing increased competition from companies such as LLD Diamonds.
• Governments of pr oducing countries are increasingly setting up polishing operations and marketing their diamonds directly to maximize local benefits.
• Technology advances such as automatic bruting machines and optical measuring instruments have increased efficiency while cutting labor costs.
• New treatments such as HPHT and combinations of HPHT, irradiation, and annealing have become even more of a challenge for gemologists to identify.
• Synthetic diamonds are now more available in the marketplace.
• With low labor costs and a skilled workforce, India has become the world’s leader in diamond cutting.
• China and India show great future consumer market potential.

Lucas then invited Edward Boehm of Joeb Enterprises to talk about the remarkable life of his grandfather, Dr. Edward Gübelin, the eminent gemologist who passed away in 2005. A feature article on the life and legacy of Dr. Gübelin was published in the Winter 2005 issue.

Boehm movingly shared some of Gübelin’s most treasured moments during his seven-decade career in the gem and jewelry world. He said his grandfather was one of the first to travel to Burma both before the country closed its doors to foreigners and after it opened them again. Boehm also described some of his grandfather’s gemological inventions and said that many of these would be on display at GIA in the future.

School of Business Instructor Explains the Use of Color to Tap the Young and Restless
Marketing gemstone jewelry to “the young and the restless” can tap into a group of well-heeled, free-spending customers that represent one of today’s best consumer demographics, said Dr. Tim Malone, associate professor of the GIA School of Business.

Speaking at a Feb. 5 seminar, Malone explained that “the young and the restless” are divorced women and men 35 to 45 years old who are approaching their peak earning years. These consumers are very favorably disposed to jewelry – much more so than their married or never-married counterparts.

While men and women in this category have different shopping patterns and preferences, 90% of those in both groups who earn more than $75,000 per year rate jewelry and watches as a top gift item, both giving and receiving.

Malone explained how the right colored gemstone jewelry can tap into the preferences and desires of women and men in this demographic group.

For example, surveys show that blue is the most popular color, chosen by 40% of respondents. The next favorite was purple, preferred by 14%, with green (12%) and red (11%) rounding the top four. Not surprisingly, pink was highly favored by women but deemed effeminate by men.  

Beyond likes and dislikes, colors can provoke feelings. Red was deemed a power color by both sexes. Additionally, a significant percentage of the women who favored pink said they found it therapeutic.

Shapes can also evoke feelings. Oval is preferred by both women and men because it offers a sense of pleasure. Women find round shapes reassuring, but men deem them feminine and weak. Squares fell lower on the preference scale because they were associated with predictability among men and hardness among women.

Evoking such feelings, Malone said, is very important because people buy to advance their happiness more than for the practical benefits of owning a product. “It’s about the experience, how a product makes them feel.”

“Color is nonverbal communication, and retailers can sell based on the symbolism it evokes,&#