What makes a JP Diamond? (Part 1: Introduction)

Introduction

I'm going to talk about what makes a diamond a part of the JP collection, why we only choose to sell these kind of diamonds, and out of all the diamonds in the world, why these?

The Beginning

Some of you may know, my father has been in the jewelry line for more than 40 years. I remember the days where he used to throw me a set of tweezers and diamonds in the size of 0.01 and tell me to find the inclusions on those diamonds. Not cool Dad!

Anyway, it became more of a chore than enjoyment, I really did not understand the point of it. Black spots, white spots, clouds, cracks, chips etc. The fact they were not certified made it worse; I could not cheat and look for the plot inclusions. Later i realized the importance that diamonds both in the same set of VS2 range, can look entirely different, one being much better than the other(which makes a much better buy). Why does this exist? If you set through one of our appointments you'd know this already.

As time passed by, I became ultra super spectacular spectacularly bored of looking for inclusions in tiny miniscule diamonds. I started looking for other things to pick on diamonds, and i used to show my dad

"HEY. WHY ARE THESE 2 DIAMONDS LOOKING SO DIFFERENT?" - i'm writing this in caps because i was very loud when I was young.

He used to tell me "it's the make of the diamond.... the make"

 I didn't really understand that. Diamond dealers used to pop by my father's desk and say " this diamond, wonderful make, wonderful material"

I later learnt that make referred to the proportion of the diamond, material meant where the rough was from.

I started picking out diamond which had as close "Specs" on a certificate as possible. One always tend to look more brilliant than the other. Though on the tags they had the same price. General mentality of a kid would be "that ain't fair!" or rather "THAT AIN'T FAIR!"

The Learning Phase

Back then, what was used to measure the Light Return of the diamond was called the firescope. It's still available today, but just less popular than the Ideal Scope or Aset Scope. I learned abit from a few dealers here and there, about the light return of a diamond. You learn this in GIA too, but not in that much detail, there isn't tools either to measure light return in GIA since they are all proportion based grading.

So there is much more to it that just the certificate of a diamond. More things to understand than the simple 4 C's that any jeweler or sales assistant can tell you about. Which brings this question; Why?

Right now, there are poor, fair, good, very good, excellent. Can you imagine if there was:

Poor, Fair, good, very good, excellent, extremely excellent, almost perfect, super ideal?

This would cause a real big problem in the market, excellent diamonds would not sell for the good profits that people are currently making, very good cuts will fall out of even consideration, and super ideals would have prices sky rocket so high because of it's rarity and difficulty in cutting them. So the industry leaves it as it is. What works for them, works. As long as profits are good for them, they don't want to change a thing. AGS tries to help in this area and came out with the platinum light report. Even so, the Ideal cut grade has a large quality variation, not as much as GIA's excellent though.

The Ideal Scope

The first time I got my Ideal Scope, I started looking through all the diamond in my father's old inventory. From what i've learned, white = leakage. And man, was there alot of leakage. Many years ago, diamonds were not exactly polished or cut for maximum light return. There was so little education on this that Cutters maximized weight and focused on other aspects like increasing the clarity.

Finally, there was one diamond in Towlkosky's proportions that made the cut of a nice ideal scope. The light return was great... and then i noticed the arrows were crooked, I took out the hearts and arrows scope and turned the diamond around and...

BAM! Honestly, what on earth is that. Can you believe back in the day, they used to call this Hearts and arrows? In fact, you still find many jewelers and diamond dealers calling this hearts and arrows.

The Quest To Find the Perfect Diamond

The question pops in mind, can a diamond, have great light return, superb hearts and arrows symmetry, and simply, be the best 57 facet diamond possible? The fact that 2 diamonds of the same "spec" certification can look so different, must mean that there's endless of reasons how a cut can affect a diamond's appearance.

I used to jump from shop to shop, locally and internationally, to see if such diamonds exist, to my dismay most "hearts and arrows" diamonds were more or less like the above. A little better, or much worse.

To be continued! here: http://jannpaul-diamonds-paul.blogspot.sg/2012/07/what-makes-jp-diamond-part-2the-basic-4.html

JANNPAUL FAQ

What is the average diamond size people purchase as proposal rings in Singapore?

0.5-0.7

What size should i get as a proposal ring? What should my budget be?

The common saying of "3x your salary". I don't believe in that, i believe you should get what you feel would look good on her or try to do some research and ask her friends or drop hints to figure out what she wants!

4 C's! What should my priority be?

1. Cut/Carat

2. Color

3. Clarity

Color and clarity is interchangeable.  But definitely priority Cut. Cut benifits not only it's overall brilliance but the other C's as well. It helps a diamond appear whiter face up, mask up inclusions and avoid deep cut diamonds that makes it look much smaller than it's actual carat size.

Imagine 1 C benefiting 3 C's!

What design should I look for? I'm Clueless!

Will she be wearing it as a daily wear or occasional?

Daily Wear - Requires you to get a more durable setting, less fancy and strong on the prongs. As she will be constantly on the go with the ring, try to go for a simple classic setting that is lasting through wear and tear.

Occasional - You have much more room to play with. This is now entirely up to you whether you want to pave the ring with small diamonds or create a custom special design.

Super Ideal or Solasfera? I'm stuck!

Get both! Haha. It really depends on you.

JP Super Ideal Round: The most balanced hearts and arrows diamond, this is the safest and most classic choice that performs extremely well under any lighting environment.

Solasfera: 10 hearts and arrows, out of all the diamonds i've seen in the world, i would say under a spotlight environment, nothing comes close to it's performance. Under fluorescent lighting, it's light return does aid it's color to make it appear whiter than it seems(a F color looks closer to a E face up)

 The only drawback you may ever consider is when purchasing a really small Solasfera like 0.3 it may look over contrasted. Then again, it looks even more scintillating when the diamond is so small.

 Why do you like the Brellia so much?

Years back, people said it was impossible to cut a square or cushion shape diamond to achieve the same optical performance as the round hearts and arrows. The first time i saw this diamond, a 0.6 little cushion, i immediately fell in love with it. You just won't find any other diamond that looks this special.

What do you think about luxury brands like Tiffany / Cartier etc?

I think some of their stuff is really great! I really do hope that bigger brands emphasize more on their cut quality though. It's very possible to buy a diamond ring from a private jeweller at 1/3 the price and when you place the 2 rings together the diamond ring from the private jeweller look way better. It's hard to put a "price" on branded jewelry, it's not like branded handbags where their designs and logo's allow you to recognize it immediately.

However, some of the patented designs are really cool!

What do you think about local chain store diamonds?

Most of the local branded diamonds are actually re-branded diamonds. E.g: brilliant rose is aka the Leo Cut. I would say some of them are pretty alright, but some are priced so high that I honestly feel the international brands are more worth it. Can't really comment more haha.

How frequent should I return to do a prong check?

On the safe side, I would check every 7-12 months. Depending on how frequent the user is wearing the ring. It's always better to be safe than sorry! Last thing you want happening is to lose that diamond. We offer free prong checks and cleaning while we are at it. Feel free to drop by anything, we are more than willing to help!

I've worn my diamond for a month, and it looks duller and duller, what is happening?

Dirt and dust gets trapped/stuck easily onto your diamond and the prongs. This makes your diamond appear lack luster because the dirt is blocking light in and out. A good wash will return it back to the first time you got it!

What advice do you have for a diamond rookie or someone who is new to this and wants to get a ring to propose?

Research as much as possible. Read up online what makes a great diamond! Remember, you're spending each hard earned cent on every facet of that diamond, and i'm pretty sure you want it to look great on your partner's finger. Don't be fooled by strong halogen lights in various shops, always use diamond tools such as scopes to view the diamond first.

The thing is, even after so many years in this industry, I can't purchase a diamond just by looking at it. I still require scopes and loupes, so you should too! When i first started, i made some stupid purchases, diamonds with crooked arrows, unsymmetrical hearts, minor light leakages. While for the same price, i could get something perfect if I took the time to research more.

The diamond purchasing process is actually a really fun one, you will remember this process for the rest of your life!

Diamond Buying: ASET or HCA?

If you have a look at this video above, you can clearly see what the "REDS" "GREENS" & "BLUES" signify in a diamond.

During the time when I had the opportunity to serve clients, i noticed many people asked "So... what is the HCA score of this diamond?" or

"I found a diamond online with a HCA of 0.6!"

Because scopes are not easy to analyze for beginner buyers, most people only remember the range numbers of the HCA score, which is great for a start!

However, purchasing a real solid diamond requires you to look at both of them.

IF we only looked through the ASET only:

To someone new, diamond A and diamond B would look good to them. Reason being they only recognize light leakage which is found in diamond C.

Diamond A however, is a shallow cut which is over contrasted despite all the plentiful "reds". This is where the HCA comes in handy because they penalize shallow and deep cut diamonds.

IF we only looked at the HCA:

We would not know the actual light performance of the diamond. Many things could go wrong, such as poorly cut girdles, broken arrows, uneven areas of light leakage. Etc. Etc.

The best way in choosing a diamond is using the HCA only as a filter tool. Pick out those in the ideal range, and after, analyze them with a ASET scope and H&A scope.

IF you're good at the ASET though, you can forgot the HCA :)

Happy Diamond Hunting, and remember: What you pay for in a diamond is every facet and every carbon. Make sure that diamond is perfect, make sure every cent is worth it. And make sure that diamond is cut to the highest possible standard.

Buyers: Beware

These pictures are probably familiar to you already, and it's the most important things to have when purchasing a diamond.

Since this is the first time i'm able to speak out freely to viewers, i'd like to address an on going issue, not only in Singapore but internationally as well. I came to know of this from feedback of clients as well as suppliers attempting to perform the same "trick".

The Common Scam:

Super Ideal Cut diamonds Are not common, in fact very rare. As consumers these days become much more aware about the importance of the Cut of a diamond, retailers and jewelers find themselves at a lost of what to do with their diamonds not cut perfectly. 

So what do they do?

SITUATION:

Let's say you are looking at a 0.55 E VS1 diamond. You want a perfect Hearts and Arrows Super Ideal Cut with no blatant light leakage or uneven girdles. The Jeweler takes out a diamond and shows you a diamond and the certificate which clearly states 0.55 E VS1.

THE SCAM: 

Here is the part which everyone forgets or ignores: How do you know, that diamond is not a 0.56 D VVS2, simply shown to you with a certificate that states 0.55 E VS1?. The Scopes look great, H&A, IdealScope and ASET. It looks very white, inclusions are hardly visible.

You're happy and you place a deposit on the diamond. When your ring is set upon your collection, You would not notice the minor detail difference as you viewed it the first time. The Seller gets away with a profit of 1 Color, 1 Clarity 0.01 Carat, Non-Super Ideal cut + on top of that the original profit. Chances are, you are not going to remove that diamond from the setting to view them through the scopes. But you have clearly overpaid.

 

PREVENTION:

When purchasing a diamond, always, ALWAYS request that the diamond you are looking at, is 

 immediately shown with the laser inscription on the girdle. Watch out for any "swaps" in between. From the time you ask "May i see the number on this diamond?" The Jeweler may simply swap the original diamond again, and show you the number. 

 So always make sure, the diamond you are looking at through scopes and certification, is the actual diamond.

Creating a Collection: Brellia Band Part 1

I'm going to start off my first post with a preview of a new collection I have been working on.

Just a heads up, these new collections will be available once our website is up and ready. All this will also follow with a facelift of JANNPAUL. I promise all this will be out soon!

Lets take a look at this ring i'm working on, it's still WORK-IN-PROGRESS

This is a black and white collection that i've been on about for awhile, the combination of rose and white has that angelic royalty aura to it.

Black and white for the men, of course.

A White ceramic ring, approximately 6-8 mm wide, with Mini Brellias at the edge surrounded by rose gold.

The 2 holes that you see will allow the ring to turn into a necklace when you swing a chain through the holes.

Check it out:

This is really cool, because from the side view you can actually see from top table to the bottom culet of the diamond. And when you wear it as a ring, you see that wonderful face up Cushion Brellia's. Currently i'm considering if it should be a symmetrical or asymmetrical design, as you can see the diamonds are only on the edge of the band.

The biggest problems I face with these kind of "cool" designs is that it's almost impossible to resize, which means if you put on or lose alot of weight, you may have to remake the entire ring. This is the tradeoff for designs like this.

Taking A Step Back

Hello!

Most of you guys know me, whether you have seen my videos, or I have personally served you.

To those who I have had the honor to help create that special engagement ring, I gratefully thank you for allowing me to take part in that!

Over the years, JANNPAUL has grown so much that our team had to move into specialization. Each of us has taken a sector to concentrate on. New clients will seldom see me around anymore because i'm now in charge of diamond and technological research. New cuts, new innovative designs, you will see them all here in my blog first hand!

The JANNPAUL Blog

Our team sat down and discussed to each create a blog to let our followers and new clients understand a little of what goes on behind JANNPAUL and the role each of us play in JANNPAUL. We understand that our website is still not up (which is really a big challenge since we have SO MUCH information to put up!) and the only means of understanding our company is currently through our facebook. Hence, this blog will feature everything that we do!

What you will expect in each individual blog

Jann: He will be updating the process of design customization, the Pro's & Con's of certain settings that jewelers try not to disclose. Check him out if you want to see the many possibilities how a ring can be customized from a simple seed of an idea!

Paul: New research and development in our company, you will find it first hand under my section. Really cool designs, new diamond cuts, and i will be answering frequently asked questions on anything to do with... diamonds!

Casey: He will be covering as many personal projects as possible if you want him to. He's in charge of basically... everything. If you want to know what happens after you purchase your diamond, where it goes, how your ring is crafted, make sure to check this section out.

David: Our rockstar has traveled the world frequently with me to trade shows, he will be sharing his views on what diamonds / designs / companies locally and internationally is actually worth considering, even if it is not ours! Remember, this is a blog, anything goes :)