How Fine a clarity do I need in a diamond to be eye clean??

Today I had a client come in that was looking for a nice diamond. He wanted a diamond that would be a nice color and fine enough clarity that he would not see any internal inclusions within the diamond. He then proceeded to ask me if I had any diamonds that were either Flawless or VVS1 in clarity because someone in another store told them that sometimes you may see inclusions, with the naked eye, without magnification, in a diamond that has been independently certified as VVS2.

So what does this mean to you? VVS1 or VVS2 means very very slightly included, and this is further broken down into 2 catagories, 1 or 2. I know that these acronyms, like VVS, sound strange, but they are very explicit in their description of a diamond. These inclusions are generally so tiny that even magnified 10x, it may difficult for a trained eye to locate, so how is it possible for the un-aided, un-trained eye, to see these inclusions? Plain and Simple, it is not possible. The information that was given out was just wrong.

Here is a breakdown of the GIA scale that all diamond dealers follow world wide

In my experience, depending upon the size of the diamond that you're viewing, most people will say that even down to SI1 or SI2, the diamond will be "eye clean". Now it's up to you to decide what you are happy and content with when it comes to your diamond.

I hope this clears that up for all of you that are searching for diamonds.
Congratulations, you just passed your first class in Diamonds 101!

Help!! My ring is stuck, what do I do??

I know that you've always liked your rings to be tight, but now your fingers on the verge of turning blue and you don't know what to do to get your rings off. Of course you've already tried soap, but you found that it was slippery and not effective enough to remove your ring. Then you tried oil, which was too slippery to get a good grip on your ring, so this too failed.
So what's the solution?

Try spraying your hand with Windex! Windex has an oil base to it, and if you've put a towel down under your hand so that the windex isn't all over everything, you can easily grab your ring, and often it will slide right off! Amazing!

What do you do if the Windex trick doesn't work? The next option would be to raise your hand over your head for a few minutes, and if you can stand it,either hold a piece of ice in your hand, or put your hand in a bowl of ice water as well. This will decrease the blood flow, and as our hands get cold, they tend to shrink. This 3-prong approach of raised hand, ice and windex should do the trick!

One last note, windex, having an oil base, will leave a residue of oil on your jewelry so be sure to clean it after you done this or you will very quickly have very dirty rings!

Check out my other blogs for good advice on how to clean your diamond rings.

Saved the best for last, in the immortal words shared in the movie, My Big Fat Greet Wedding....

Toula Portokalos: I woke up with this huge zit this morning.
Ian Miller: Where?
Toula Portokalos: [points to spot on face] There.
Ian Miller: I had a huge zit this morning!
Toula Portokalos: Really? Where?
Ian Miller: [points to his face] Well, it was there, but it's gone now.
Toula Portokalos: Why?
Ian Miller: I put some Windex on it.

Push Presents... What do I do?

You mean to tell me you don't know what a push present is? Traditionally, when we give a "push present", we're giving our wives a present to commemorate the birth of a child. Once upon a time, every husband showed up to the hospital with a pair of stud earrings, but times have changed. Many still buy stud earrings, or perhaps some other earrings, but more and more, I'm seeing people custom making pieces for their wives, and often these pieces of jewelry are engraved with special messages, the birth date of the child, perhaps the weight of the child, etc. What type of pieces you may ask? Lately we've been making custom pendants, with room to engrave your special message on the back.

This is an example of combining the birth stones, in this case a large oval cut purple Amethyst, with the gift. This particular pendant, made in 14k White gold, is designed so that they made remove the chain, and hide the bale in the back of the pendant, and then it may be worn as a pin.

This one combines a design, the lady bug, with the chosen decor that was used in their new daughters room, along with beauty and and style. Made in 14k Rose gold in the shape of a lady but, and on the back is engraved the date, weight, size and name of their daughter. What ever you do, a gift like this will always be appreciated, with this gift being one of the most cherished throughout your lives!

Help!! My white gold ring turned yellow.

Ok, Let me just put this out there... There is no such thing as white gold!OH,but you bought a white gold ring? Well, the reality is, pure gold is a bright yellow metal when you dig it out of the ground. We have to make white gold, and we do this by mixing metals, commonly known as alloying. In the case of 14 karat, this means that when you mix the gold and the alloy together, you end up with 58% of a yellow metal and 42% of a white metal (the alloy). So, if you think about it, when you make 14k white gold, you really have a whitish metal, not the pure white metal that you saw when you picked up your engagment ring or jewelry from your jeweler, but is this really the color that you want? Of course not, you want pure white, just like platinum, after all, that's what you bought. Most white gold engagement rings and jewelry have been Rhodium plated. Some people refer to this as dipping their jewelry, but this is really an electo-plate process that puts rhodium, a bright white metal in the platinum family, as a cladding over the gold engagement ring. Rhodium adheres beautifully to gold, but over time, it will wear off, and when it does, you may think that your ring turned yellow, or you may just think that it needs to be polished. Either way, when you have your engagement ring re-polished, your jeweler should add the rhodium plating back on to your ring and it will appear new again. It's an amazing transformation that resolves the question of your ring turning yellow, and I'm sure you'll love it!

Help! I've become allergic to my rings?

I'm often asked what someone can do when all of a sudden they've become allergic to their jewelry. I've heard complaints about rashes, itchy skin, etc, but is this really the problem? The culprit may not be a skin allergy, it may be a question of how to keep your ring clean!

I have found that if you do the following, you may be able to alleviate the problems that you are experiencing. First, one warning, this method works very well for diamond jewelry, but I don't recommend this for jewelry that has Emeralds, opals or pearls, as this may harm these types of stones, so please take note.

It may be possible that your ring is just very dirty underneath, and this may be what’s affecting your skin. I would try the following and see if this helps.

Take a glass of warm water, put a couple of drops of Dawn dish soap in the glass (not joy, Palmolive, Ivory, etc, only dawn) and let your ring soak for about 10 minutes. Dawn's advertised grease cutting agent seems to work quite well with diamond jewelry. Pull the stopper in the sink just in case you drop your ring on the next step. Take an old, soft toothbrush, and gently scrub the ring, inside, outside, bottom, underneath, etc, while holding it under the faucet, until you can visually see that everything appears clean.
Be sure to let your rings dry completely before putting them back on, and do not wear them at night, which gives any new gunk underneath a chance to dry so that it won’t react with your skin.
Try this for a few days and see if the problem doesn’t clear up!
So simple, yet very effective.