Understanding How Fancy Diamonds are Graded
For many years, virtually every buyer of diamond jewelry sought stones of the purest, clearest white. While many buyers do still incline in this direction, awareness has grown of how much diamonds of other shades have to offer. For example, many jewelry buyers today rely on specialists like http://www.diamondenvy.com/ to provide them with pink diamonds or stones of other, equally appealing shades.
Known as "fancy diamonds" in the trade, these stones also have a fancy grading scheme of their own. While any kind of off-white coloration is considered a flaw when it occurs in otherwise colorless diamonds, fancy diamonds are prized partly for how colorful they are. Instead of a strict scale that docks points for the presence of color, then, fancy diamonds are judged against a measure of how well they embody and adhere to any of a number of particular hues.
Whether basically pink, purple, yellow, or brown, a fancy diamond will be measured, first and foremost, according to the intensity of its color. This is a relatively straightforward measurement, and it is the one that most jewelry buyers are advised to pay the most attention to. A diamond graded as "fancy intense pink," for example, will be virtually dripping with that color, while one judged "fancy light pink" will have only relatively subtle coloration.
Beyond the basic measure of intensity come a number of other distinguishing marks that help to flesh out the description of a particular stone. Among those stones broadly classified as "pink" will be some judged to be relatively light in tone, while others are darker. As with clear white diamonds, fancy diamonds will also be assessed according to their basic clarity, shape, and fluorescence, if any exists.
The upshot of all of this complex, precise grading work is that it is fairly easy, for those who understand the system, to get a good idea of a diamond's quality and value. Shoppers who browse selections of fancy diamonds like those at http://www.diamondenvy.com/colored-diamond-jewelry/engagement-rings.html can otherwise come to feel overwhelmed, but a basic grounding in the grading system used usually helps dispel this feeling.
As can be seen at the diamondenvy website, in fact, having an understanding as to how fancy diamonds are graded can open up whole new opportunities. Unlike the clear white stones that were taken as the norm for so many years, diamonds of this have a wide range of character and their own particular kinds of beauty.
