BY CYNTHIA UNNINAYAR
SWAROVSKI LAB DIAMONDS
coming with copy and pics from JDC
EXCLUSIVELY AT JEWELRY DESIGN CENTER
COMING OF AGE
C enturies ago, when alchemists dreamed of transforming lead into gold, there were also those who tried tirelessly to convert common coal into diamond. While the former can only be done at a steep cost, creating lab-grown diamonds has become a fairly refined process that is comparatively affordable. Starting in the late 1700s, scientists tried unsuccessfully to create diamonds in the lab. That changed nearly two centuries later, with the work conducted by H. Tracy Hall, a chemist working on General Electric’s Project Superpressure. After several failed attempts, he succeeded in 1954, creating the first man-made diamond. Interestingly, in those days, lab-grown diamonds cost twice as much as mined diamonds. Today, lab-grown diamonds (LGD) have come of age. A surge of LGD manufacturers and jewelry designers is now creating collections featuring not
only colorless gems but also a variety of colored diamonds in affordable prices. Star power has helped to get the LGD message out. Celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio have endorsed them, while natural diamond producer De Beers has moved into the lab-grown category with its sub- brand Lightbox Diamonds. This is seen by many as a reason to believe that the mined (natural) diamond sector can happily co-exist with the LGD sector, perhaps with each staking out its own territory. Proponents cite two major advantages of lab-grown diamonds: they are priced lower than natural diamonds; and there are claims that they are more eco-friendly than mined diamonds. There is also an argument that LGDs are conflict-free. Whatever the reason for purchasing them, one thing is clear: lab-grown diamonds offer the same characteristics and beauty as mined diamonds. They have indeed come of age.
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