Ethical Diamonds? Green Gold? Conscience and Consciousness?

The following is my opinion. If you find  factual errors, please make a comment and I will correct. If you disagree or would like to add anything, please feel free to comment. In any other case, if you feel like, please comment.

I had been entertaining to express some of my opinion about man made diamonds vs. earth mined ones. About Green metals ( recycled ) and other serious issues. 

What is ethical and sustainable? We are easily made believe many things if authoritative sources (like CNN, PAID advertisements, etc.) say them loud enough. However the real world is not so simple.(I admit I am trying to recollect the timeline from my head, correct me if I am wrong!) Ten - odd years ago the disturbing facts about diamond mining and trade surfaced. It took about 6 years for the UN, miners and traders and involved governments around the globe to offer a solution, that is known as the Kimberly Process. By now, 99% of the traded diamonds bears the stamp of KP. Currently only Ivory Coast is under embargo, which has no significant rough production. And there is debate about the Marange region, nonetheless, diamonds from these mines get approval by KP.

Does it tell you, that the subhuman conditions, oppression, murder, rape and torture ended in all the diamond mining countries?

Does it tell you, that a Kimberly Certificate is all we need to sleep well?

Did the KP do in effect more than sanctifying the trade of all diamond?

What do we do about all the other pressing issues?

Will new 200000 pages long regulations and a few thousand new stamping offices  solve all injustice and suffering? Maybe we need longer and stricter Codes?

Which one is mined by child labor?

Now, if you read this far, please continue and read my personal opinion as well.

It is easy to put our revolting conscience to rest by buying synthetics or Canadian or Australian diamonds. I have no doubt, that well intending individuals make a difference and they, the consumers had a major part in regulating diamond trade and forcing DeBeers to give up its monopoly.

So public pressure is GREAT! But, think about this too: Those regions in Africa live off their natural resources. Mining for gemstones is the only possible source of some income for millions of families. Change to these regions will only come with better economy, more wealth, better education, etc. SO in the future, some of these regions will hopefully shake off the raging madness of militant hordes and dictators. Maybe.

I am not trying to tell you what is right or what is not, I am only trying to show the other face of the coin.

And what follows is the THIRD face of the coin: Do you have any idea about the carbon footprint of the synthetic diamonds and other diamond " substitutes" (Oh God! don't even get me  started on this) manufacturing process? I don't but I bet it costs  tons of C emission to punch a few grams of C into a diamond crystal.

Let me point towards the FOURTH face of the coin: Diamond mining in Arctic. No doubt, the residents of those regions in Canada get more in exchange of their natural resources then the starving millions in Africa. But read upon this controversy a little (use Google or something) and you will see mischief in every corner, despite all the good intentions of citizens and governments and yes, even mining Co's. Tribal lands purchased for a few bucks, rivers and hunting grounds destroyed, etc.

And we barely touched the issues concerning diamonds. What about gold mining? What about the mercury poisoning of our oceans due to the extreme poverty and almost zero regulation in many gold mining regions? What about the inhumane conditions in copper or silver mines? 

How many millions are made on slave labor in gemstone mines? Who is pocketing those millions? 

What is purchased on that money? Rolls Rollces made of pure gold? Books for the children that somehow  reach the age of school? Machine guns to keep the slaves from revolting? A cow to give milk and livelihood for a family? Knives to cut babies out of pregnant women? A few gallons of clean water for a family to drink and cook and bathe?  Maybe we should pickup our guns and go there and force all of those countries to start assembly lines for our newest breed of fancy-talking-networking-everpresent-privacy intruding cell phones? Or have them start accounting firms? Or WHAT?

Where is the truth? What is right? Shall you buy mined diamond or not? I certainly cannot tell. The only advice I can give is to READ upon everything you READ and then make an effort to CONFIRM everything you had READ so far. And it still will be murky.

Because: IF WE DON'T EDUCATE OURSELVES, NOBODY WILL and our sons and granddaughters will live in hell, here on Earth.

In conclusion, please allow me to emphasize: I have no idea whether or not you should buy mined diamonds or synthetics, glass or emerald, recycled plastic rings versus gold. All I would like to ask from you is to be aware of the MULTIPLE SHADES of TRUTH and become more EDUCATED and more  INCLUSIVE as opposed to be more EXCLIUSIVE!

Diamond or Not Part 3: The Sources of Beauty

"If the price seems too good to be true, it probably is!" 

I intend this series as a practical guide for those who are - quite understandably - confused by the wide and wild variety of diamonds "diamond substitutes" and "diamond simulants". 

 

I don't even try to cover all the names, that advertisers put out there in their attempts to stir the already murky waters. 

All I am trying to do is to help you make informed shopping decision based on common sense. This - our  Common Sense  - is what is the target of various marketing efforts; most of which  are legitimate, reputable  and sell fair quality products. The difficulty for the consumer is to select products they are going to be happy with. 
Before we continue I prepared a few lists of  commonly used minerals, (trade) names, term  and concepts, that can be confusing and without full understanding, may lead to a regretted purchase.

Dispersion

The 4Cs
We are all familiar with the 4Cs of diamond buying. This sounds like a great and simple list of things to check. We are relieved when tough decisions are taken off our shoulders by easy to do methods, that will lead us infallibly to good decisions.

However, we are all (well, most of us) conspiracy theorists deep in our minds  and I would like to urge you to call upon that guy in your head, because the 4Cs can easily be abused to make inappropriate purchase! Does this mean the 4Cs are tools in  a conspiracy to get your money? No way, but they suggest that  value determination is easy and quantitative. Furthermore - in order to make it easy - the 4Cs are only a very limited set of value determinants put into a particular order, that does not necessarily reflect on the needs or goals of most buyers.

In light of the above, we can re-phrase our motto: "If it sounds too easy, it probably is".

So for now, let's forget about the 4Cs  and examine from a scientific viewpoint, what are the parameters, that determine the beauty of diamonds in particular and most gemstones in general.

We find gemstones beautiful, because what they do with the light. They take light, spin it around, bounce it off, break it up into elements - colors - swallow some of it and throw the rest back at us. We can say, that we enjoy the byproduct of the struggle of  gemstones with light. What we see is what the gems spits back at us! The parts that it does not want, make us delighted!

Ironically, in the places where gemstones  were born, there is usually little or no light. However some research say, that diamonds - particularly black diamonds - are the products of supernovae. Go figure...

However, diamonds and gemstones are not born ready to be set in a ring!  Their beauty has to be uncovered by skillful craftsmen, lapidary artists and diamond cutters. Here I offer my apologies to mineral enthusiasts, who find beauty in the rough, uncut form of gemstones and minerals. There is infinite beauty to be found in the natural formations, colors and inside structures of unprocessed or partly cut crystals! I am just focusing on a particular area in these postings, that's all.

In short, what does the cutter do? He/she creates light reflecting surfaces by removing material from the  crystal.  The cutter's selection of the part of the material and the geometry of the reflecting surfaces will ultimately  determine how successfully the gem will process light.

I think this is the time to review the 4Cs:

Carat

Clarity

Color

Cut

While the particular order in which these qualities are presented does not seem to bear much importance, I think that it is important!

So let me rearrange the above list:

Cut 

Clarity 

Color 

Carat

And now let's see what is behind each of these qualities, that determine the value.
Please note, that I use the word "value" quite often and we need to be clear about what is value as opposed to price.

Value is determined by the user. Price is determined by the market.

Value is the combination of qualities in an item, that makes us happy to own it. Some of these qualities are :
Usefulness
Beauty
Lifetime
Price

It is obvious, that most of the above are very subjective; what one person finds beautiful may be ugly for another. Some people find manual transmission very useful, while others would never drive a stickshift car. And so on.
Even Price is subjective, to the extent, that many items on the market are subject to bargaining: what some of us finds reasonable price, others will find too high or too low!

Read Part 2 here!

To be continued....

Diamond or Not Part 2.: The Most Important Characters in The Game.

"If the price seems too good to be true, it probably is!" 

I intend this series as a practical guide for those who are - quite understandably - confused by the wide and wild variety of diamonds "diamond substitutes" and "diamond simulants". 

 

I don't even try to cover all the names, that advertisers put out there in their attempts to stir the already murky waters. 

All I am trying to do is to help you make informed shopping decision based on common sense. This - our  Common Sense  - is what is the target of various marketing efforts; most of which are legitimate, reputable  and sell fair quality products. The difficulty for the consumer is to select products they are going to be happy with.

Before we continue I prepared a few lists of  commonly used minerals, (trade) names, term  and concepts, that can be confusing and without full understanding, may lead to a regretted purchase.

I plan to update this list as I see necessary. However if you see or hear a term or an expression, that you would like to see here, or you feel it needs explanation, please feel free to contact me, or propose in the comments section!




A rare, fancy deep orange yellow diamond of ~ 0.7 ct.

Diamond: Carbon (C): is a mineral that has a very simple chemical composition; C. This means nothing else, but that diamond is the element carbon. More exactly an allotrope of carbon, a structural variation of crystallized carbon. Wikipedia has a lot to offer on this topic for those who are interested : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond .

CZ or Cubic Zirconia: :zirconium dioxide (ZrO2), CZ should never be confused with zircon ( see below ), because CZ in commerce is exclusively man-made, or laboratory grown, inexpensive, colorless and frequently cut and sold as diamond (downright crime) or "diamond simulant", which is perfectly legal - see my previous post. Natural CZ is extremely rare, practically non-existent. The process is continually improving, but there is considerable variation between products! Any man made thing is only as good as the process and the maker ( the laboratory in this case). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubic_zirconia


Zircon: zirconium silicate (ZrSiO4): a gem quality mineral, frequently mined, cut into beautiful gemstones and prized by jewelry and lapidary enthusiasts. It can be found in a wide variety of colors and certain varieties can be very valuable. It certainly is not an inexpensive gem if good quality. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zircon

Moissanite: silicon carbide (SiC). A mineral, that so far has been only found in meteorites, in the form of extremely small crystals, However, similarly to CZ, it can be grown under laboratory conditions and cut into gemstones. The process is patented and currently only a couple companies produce it.It has many advantageous features, that we are going to talk about later. Good quality Moissanites are produced by Charles and Colvard and Moissanite Co. However, there are "generics" out there and even the original products have different qualities. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moissanite

As a general guideline, even controlled processes result in differing quality products, therefore "good deals" should be very carefully questioned and examined!

The use of any of the following terms is legal. It shows compliance with the law about the proper disclosure of the nature of the product. Since I am not a lawyer, I do not take responsibility for proper description of the law, nor I can take the to research and discuss all the bylaws, not even dissect what products are regulated and what are not. The point is, that as long as a merchent honestly tells what it sells, it should be OK.

IF the buyer can properly interpret the disclosures!

"Diamond or other gemstone SIMULANT": This is a term, that deserves a separate paragraph. Simulant means, that the stuff is intended to appear to the unsuspecting observer as something else. Quite often clear or colored glass or plastic is used to simulate gemstones, including diamonds. However synthetic or laboratory grown or man-made minerals can also serve as simulants ( of diamonds or other valuable gemstones ). I still have a nice blue plastic "gem" that was sold by an - otherwise reputable - seller as Swiss blue topaz. No need to mention, that the reputation of that seller has gone with the wind in my eyes.


More interestingly, often natural gemstones are used as simulants: In these cases - without proper disclosure - exhausting the concept of criminal activity! An example can be spinel, that is often sold as (more expensive) ruby or sapphire. Again, that is a crime. Tourmalines sold as emeralds, and even wilder examples can be listed here, since the average consumer is not a trained gemologist, for many, a superficial similarity in color along with the word of the seller is enough. Often only the grandchildren find out , that the family treasure, Granny's huge ruby ring is a piece of garnet, worth maybe $200 or less.


Therefore a simulant has nothing to do with the simulated, chemical and physical properties are different, : the similarity is superficial, often the color is not even close!

Read Part 1. here!

Read Part 3 here!

OK, it is getting late, TO BE CONTINUED!

Diamond or Not

Diamonds have certain properties, that stand unmatched. This is not to say, that diamonds are better than any other natural or synthetic gemstone, it is only to point out the fact! Therefore when you are offered a "diamond alike" or "diamond simulant" or "diamond substitute" you are being lured into an area of drifting sand.

It is important that keep your objectives clear: There can be many reasons you do not want to buy a diamond, and just as many reasons you don't want any of the "substitutes". Consciously keeping your objectives in focus, head clear during the decision making process will make it sure, that you will be happy with your gemstone, whichever you choose.

Car buying is an experience, that most of us have to face quite often, so I will use examples from this area to help the reader relate. What would you think if the car salesman offered you a  "Porche substitute", for example a Cadillac CTS because it has a 3.6 L engine, just like a Porsche 911? Wouldn't you get a spasmodic laughter if the salon offered Smarts as "Porsche simulants" just because they come in red?

Just to make it clear: I own a Smart and I am perfectly happy with it, although one day I may be able to get a Porsche, that is one of dreams. But I am content with my purchase, because I kept my focus and managed to call my car on its name.

In the following posts, I will compare some synthetic and natural gemstones, that can be great or bad choices as center stones or accents and often sold as "diamond substitutes".

 

It's not even red! 

Read Part 2. here! 

Customizable Unisex Ring

I am pleased to announce, that this design is now available in affordable alternative metals: Stainless Steel and Cobalt Chromium.

Custom designed music note rings of cobalt chromium

Originally I was commissioned to create a ring for a client that has sparked my creative impulses. The ring sounds simple enough, a concave 14k Palladium white gold band. My client wanted music notes wrapped around the band from a specific line of a song that has a very personal meaning to him.

Music notes ring. The music is laid out using a CAD software.

As I began working on the ring, I find myself thinking about all the other personalized patterns this ring could hold. From music notes, fingerprints and your handwritten inscription to anywhere else your imagination will flow.

14k Palladium White Gold, with hand cut florentine pattern

The ring as it is pictured here is a  10mm wide anticlastic band. The first picture is a CAD image that was used to lay out the music. The second picture shows the finished ring in 14k Palladium White Gold, with hand cut florentine pattern as background to the music.








Inquire or place your order on Etsy or on ArtFire!

March’s Topic: "Best Childhood Years Memory"

My Grandfather was a tacit man. He was a notary in the pre-war Hungary , then demoted by the Communist regime and served as a clerk in the city hall of Miskolc - he was lucky to find employment instead of deportation. All in all he was living an uneventful life when we "met". But inside his round, bald head there was another world, filled with distant , exotic places the latest advancements of science and technology and a talent and passion for woodcarving.

The only carving I have from my Grandfather, István Majoros. © Pal Gooz 2011 

He was the ideal companion for a child like me, who was living wild adventures in his head about exotic animals , treasure hunting and an unsatisfiable curiosity about how things worked. We both loved solitude and liked to share quiet hours, when we both - I believe -  lived our own intense second life inside our heads.

One of our favorite past time was to go to a magical place called Lillafüred, near Miskolc. The woods and the lake there  were inexhaustible sources of entertainment, constantly  feeding  my  adventure hungry mind , filled with Pirates, Indians, fairies, hidden treasures and long forgotten ruins of never existed castles.  ( There is a real one there, but that is not ruins, so does not count ).

Lillafüred : Palace, Hámori lake, and the surrounding forest

© copyright Civertan Grafikai StúdióCivertan

Sometimes we just walked the narrow paths between the woods , but from time to time, we took the small train that took us on scenic route to place called Ómassa ( meaning Old Smelter ).

 The train . (original: A LÁEV vonata Lillafüred állomáson by  VT )

 From there we would walk towards Újmassa ( New Smelter) to find the the ruins of the old blast furnace and forge that was built in 1813. ( Honestly , at that time I had no idea I would become a jeweler, melting metal in my own little furnace).

The Old Smelter at Újmassa   (Az újmassai őskohó by Szalax )

We would often go there with the the purpose that I would make drawings of the place, and we were equipped accordingly with sketchbooks and pencils and erasers. I loved drawing the old smelter. I have no idea why I was so attracted to that ruin. It may be that I always liked abandoned buildings which I could inhabit with the products of my fantasy. Additionally , the function and use of that smelter fascinated me beyond imagination. I wanted to understand how those people extracted iron from stone. Of course at that time - early 70ies - there was little explanation about the place. So I listened to the explanations that my Grandfather provided. Neither he, nor I were very well schooled in the chemistry and technology  of iron smelting, of course,  and his lectures always left gaps in my understanding. Maybe this was another reason I returned to the place so willingly every time.


Some days I had no motivation to do sketches and I went on expeditions to discover the building and the surrounding " jungle". In the surrounding forest people still produced charcoal and lime in the old fashioned way.

Charcoal pile ( Public domain) (This photo was taken by someone else, somewhere else)

 On some other occasions, we just sat there, silently, side by side with my grandfather and was  enjoying the almost supernatural beauty of the place. We would be sitting there for an hour or longer, speaking very little, that left enough time for our minds to wander wherever it was taken by our imagination. 

The Old Smelter at Újmassa

© copyright Civertan Grafikai StúdióCivertan

 Those were the times of peace and freedom.


           Please visit my friends' blogs, to read about their memories:

          Andes Cruz: www.andescruz.wordpress.com
          Kathleen Krucoff http://mysticalmythicalmetalwork.wordpress.com/

          Laura Flavin: http://modernbirdjewelry.blogspot.com/
          Wendy Kelly: http://www.wendykianakelly.com/
          Stephanie Nocito Clark http://thethinkingsofacoldweathergirl.blogspot.com/
          Brad Severtson: http://hammeringoutaliving.blogspot.com/
          Andrea Bell: http://feathersfreesiasandfishingtackle.blogspot.com/
          Natsuko Hanks: http://jewelrybynatsuko.blogspot.com/
          Shaun Young http://shaunyoung.ca/
          Beth Cyr http://bcyrjewelry.blogspot.com/

Website Building Adventures of a Greenhorn

  Then came the moment of truth- some 4 years ago - when I could not avoid the confrontation with the monster called Internet: I needed a WEBSITE!

  This series will tell  what I learned ( hint: very little) during this time. It may be very useful for those who are similarly clueless in the jungle where bloodthirsty Domains ( Worldwildwebiscus domainicus var. comii, var. orgii etc.) and highly ranking Google officiers fight each other for survival every day. Don't even ask about the many other horrors of the place....yet.

  I am a hardcore DIY guy. I go into every challenge headstrong and I am not afraid of learning new things in order to achieve my goals. But setting up a simple website makes me sweat, have nightmares and so far has defeated every one of my attempts. Maybe not this time!

It sure looks like a costruction site hard at work. If only I knew what I am doing...


   How hard it can be to put up some information and pictures about my work , then sit back and allow Google to lead visitors to my site? At least how hard it could be for a person who  - at his early twenties - learned programming in Basic and Pascal, simply because he refused to make things manually , when a computer could do the same thing more precisely and faster. Sure enough I spent more time learning the basics of computers and then the not so basics of programming, than I would have with doing the chores manually.

Intermezzo: The first computer I encountered was a Commodore 64 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64 ) . This little thing featured a staggering amount of memory ( 64 kilobytes ;  compare today's 2 gigabytes = about 3 million C64s , hehe)

   But - I thought at that time, nearly 3 decades ago - that learning programing would be a lesson well worth in the future. Hehe, I had not the vision to see how quickly digital technology would grow over my head!

    For the first few years I was doing OK. No internet at that time, at least not in Hungary. There were a few guys messing with bulletin boards (do not even ask what they were- I read this word in magazines). But really no internet - no problem.

    I wrote a few smaller applications for fun or for making life easier where a lot of calculation had to be done. At that time I  killed computer viruses with my bare hands.  (that spread on floppy disks - remember those? )We were in the DOS era and I had free acces to the pityfully small amount of system data: so when I saw funny text appearing, I just deleted those things.

   Then Windows came, but I still had much of the hardware and software under control. If  I needed a new controller, I purchased one and installed.

   Internet exlpoded into my life and I took the new terms like pills: web, browser, e-mail.

   My computers escaped  my control - I don't even know how to give myself full administrator rights to my Windows 7. The firewalls and virus scanners have complete control over my my life. When they say things like this: "Warning! A program is trying to access the internet !  Do you want to  allow cegerata.exe  to acces the internet ", I am speechless.  Mostly for the reason I have not a clue of what I am opening my virtual doors to.

  Sure, I still can unplug and plug in most of the hardware - if I can figure out what I should buy . The latter part is the real challange these days. I am not trying to say that my mental capabilities have significantly decreased, rather my priorities changed. That is OK, I guess.

I think , at this moment, that my website will look something like this. Unless I change my mind. Or scew up big time. Or something.

To be continued at a date that I will determine flexibly...=) Love and Peace to All