looking for online diamond retailer with decent pricing

On Sat, 24 Feb 2007 20:55:39 +0000, Abrasha wrote:

The rough diamonds Todd Reed uses is not suitable for cutting.

1) How do you know this?
2) Do you have the same knowledge of those used by Codena?

mbstevens wrote:
On Sat, 24 Feb 2007 20:55:39 +0000, Abrasha wrote:

The rough diamonds Todd Reed uses is not suitable for cutting.

1) How do you know this?

I am quite familiar with Todd's work as well as the person. He is a
friend of mine.

And I know diamonds well enough to be able to make this judgment. For a
person with my level of experience with diamonds, it is obvious at first
glance to know that the rough crystals that Todd uses for his work are
not suitable for cutting into anything useful. They are all off color
and heavily included.

Of course, anything CAN be cut into a faceted diamond, if you want to go
through the trouble and the expense of doing that. After all, they are
doing that with "black diamonds" these days. It will just not yield
anything better than a stone with a color that is off the color scale
and so full of inclusions that an I3 classification does not even
describe it.

2) Do you have the same knowledge of those used by Codena?

I am not familiar with that person or his (her?) work. I have only
found the name online in connection to books he wrote.

--
Abrasha
http://www.abrasha.com

On Sun, 25 Feb 2007 08:22:31 -0800, in rec.crafts.jewelry mbstevens
wrote:

On Sat, 24 Feb 2007 20:55:39 +0000, Abrasha wrote:

The rough diamonds Todd Reed uses is not suitable for cutting.

1) How do you know this?
2) Do you have the same knowledge of those used by Codena?

Like Abrasha, I'm unfamiliar with Codena's work, but know Todd Reed's work
(though not the man) because one of the local jewelry galleries I do occasional
work for carries his work. While some of his pieces do also use traditional
facetted gem diamonds, most of those rough diamonds he uses are far more
valuable as mineral specimins with their nice textured cubic crystal shape, than
they would be if cut and polished. He's also got a few facetted diamonds which
seem to be cut from equally "non-gem" qualities. They're generally interesting
odd colors, totally included, and of a clarity (or lack thereof) level that one
could describe as almost opaque. They'd be just as pretty cut as cabochons or
carved. It would not surprise me if this type of material is sourced and
distributed outside of the DeBeers organization altogether, or may be been
stones cherry picked from lots of otherwise industrial diamonds. Dunno. They're
pretty though, and you can often find a few dealers selling such goods on ebay,
or at the various gem shows. Marketing seems more in line with lapidary/mineral
dealers than with diamond dealers...

You can seegood images of Todd Reed's work on his website:

http://www.toddreed.com/OCring.cfm#

Peter

Of course, anything CAN be cut into a faceted diamond, if you want to go
through the trouble and the expense of doing that. After all, they are
doing that with "black diamonds" these days. It will just not yield
anything better than a stone with a color that is off the color scale
and so full of inclusions that an I3 classification does not even
describe it.

I actually got to see one of those. Is there an "VVI4"?
A relative, for some unknown reason, bought an engagement ring at a
Chain Store. He was visiting and asked if he could look at it under my
microscope.
I set it up for him, focussed it, and said nothing, stepping aside so
he could look. It was a marquise cut, with lumps of carbon (As in
"coal" or "Graphite") sitting right in the middle of the table, with
scattered particles all the way to the girdle. When he pressed me,
'Well, what do you think?" all I could diplomatically say was "It's
not a CZ, for sure!".
I do not "do" diamonds, and could not even guess its grade, but if
cornered, would probably call it "Industrial" because I really have
seen cleaner diamonds in the turning tools I had bought. Oh, the
mounted diamond tools were Color "Z" if there is such a thing, you
know, not a good fancy yellow, but one that could be flatteringly
described as "bile". But at least it was called "industrial".
Now, here is one case where he may as well bought it sight unseen on
the Web. It could not have been worse.
I hate those situations.
If I ever gave something like that to my wife, it would be "Back To
The Monastery".

On Sat, 24 Feb 2007 20:55:39 +0000, Abrasha wrote:

mbstevens wrote:
On Fri, 23 Feb 2007 02:00:05 +0000, Abrasha wrote:

Wanna invest in diamonds? Educate yourself and fly over to S. Africa
or Antwerp and buy a few hundred carets of rough...
Unless he is an invited guest to one of the diamond clubs, he won't be
able to. Buying rough diamonds is only for the selected few. Besides,
what is he going to do with the rough?

I don't know what the OP would do with roughs, but they are used in
jewelry by Carles Codina and Toddd Reed. I surmise that this is a
conceptual stance about cubes that look rough and ordinary
actually being valuable -- or maybe these jewelers just like the looks of
them.

That's not the kind of rough the above poster was talking about. He was
trying to suggest to get rough the than cut and polish into finished stones.

Hence the caviet: "I don't know what the OP would do with roughs, but..."

On Sun, 25 Feb 2007 22:15:36 +0000, Abrasha wrote:

I am not familiar with that person or his (her?) work. I have only
found the name online in connection to books he wrote.

He uses roughs that mostly appear considerably larger than those Reed
uses, and of generally lighter colors. Their clarity is impossible to
tell by the photos.

Peter W.. Rowe, wrote:

It would not surprise me if this type of material is sourced and
distributed outside of the DeBeers organization altogether, or may be been
stones cherry picked from lots of otherwise industrial diamonds. Dunno. They're
pretty though, and you can often find a few dealers selling such goods on ebay,
or at the various gem shows.

This is where you can find them:
http://www.diamondrough.com/contents.htm Check out the site, many photos.

Or you can contact Todd Reed directly. He goes through thousands of
carats of these in all sizes a year.

--
Abrasha
http://www.abrasha.com

On Feb 25, 5:15 pm, Abrasha wrote:
mbstevens wrote:
On Sat, 24 Feb 2007 20:55:39 +0000, Abrasha wrote:

The rough diamonds Todd Reed uses is not suitable for cutting.

1) How do you know this?

I am quite familiar with Todd's work as well as the person. He is a
friend of mine.

And I know diamonds well enough to be able to make this judgment. For a
person with my level of experience with diamonds, it is obvious at first
glance to know that the rough crystals that Todd uses for his work are
not suitable for cutting into anything useful. They are all off color
and heavily included.

Of course, anything CAN be cut into a faceted diamond, if you want to go
through the trouble and the expense of doing that. After all, they are
doing that with "black diamonds" these days. It will just not yield
anything better than a stone with a color that is off the color scale
and so full of inclusions that an I3 classification does not even
describe it.

2) Do you have the same knowledge of those used by Codena?

I am not familiar with that person or his (her?) work. I have only
found the name online in connection to books he wrote.

--
Abrashahttp://www.abrasha.com

Sigh.....that is because he is not a he at all..he is a she...Her name
is not "Codena". Her name is Anjanette Clisura The website for her
company is: http://www.diamondintheroughjewelry.com/ Chunks of rough
set in cut. Selling for scads of greenbacks. Mostly mutton dressed as
lamb if you ask me.

Next time please double check the name before posting mb. Especially
if you are attempting to challenge Abrasha...lol.

I have spent the last two weeks hanging out with Todd at the shows.
His stones are not even remotey suitable for faceting, although he
does use some traditionally cut diamonds as accents.

-Minkie

On Mon, 26 Feb 2007 08:07:00 -0800, in rec.crafts.jewelry "minkiemink"
wrote:

Sigh.....that is because he is not a he at all..he is a she...Her name
is not "Codena". Her name is Anjanette Clisura The website for her
company is: http://www.diamondintheroughjewelry.com/ Chunks of rough
set in cut. Selling for scads of greenbacks. Mostly mutton dressed as
lamb if you ask me.

Next time please double check the name before posting mb. Especially
if you are attempting to challenge Abrasha...lol.

I have spent the last two weeks hanging out with Todd at the shows.
His stones are not even remotey suitable for faceting, although he
does use some traditionally cut diamonds as accents.

-Minkie

And yet there apparently IS someone named Carles Codena, who's written several
books on jewelry making, and seems to be a teacher of it somewhere in europe (?
not sure I recall right. Found that with a quick search yesterday which I may
not be remembering right...) But that name doesn't seem linked to any web sites
showing jewelry with rough diamonds, at least not as found by Google...

Peter

On Mon, 26 Feb 2007 16:12:22 +0000, Peter W.. Rowe, wrote:

On Mon, 26 Feb 2007 08:07:00 -0800, in rec.crafts.jewelry "minkiemink"
wrote:

Sigh.....that is because he is not a he at all..he is a she...Her name
is not "Codena". Her name is Anjanette Clisura The website for her
company is: http://www.diamondintheroughjewelry.com/ Chunks of rough
set in cut. Selling for scads of greenbacks. Mostly mutton dressed as
lamb if you ask me.

Next time please double check the name before posting mb. Especially
if you are attempting to challenge Abrasha...lol.

I have spent the last two weeks hanging out with Todd at the shows.
His stones are not even remotey suitable for faceting, although he
does use some traditionally cut diamonds as accents.

-Minkie

And yet there apparently IS someone named Carles Codena, who's written several
books on jewelry making, and seems to be a teacher of it somewhere in europe (?
not sure I recall right. Found that with a quick search yesterday which I may
not be remembering right...) But that name doesn't seem linked to any web sites
showing jewelry with rough diamonds, at least not as found by Google...

Peter

I have the book by Carles Codina in front of me now. A very nice book, by
the way.

"Carles Codina i Aremgol has been an independent jeweler for most of HIS
professional career, as well as a professor in the Jewelry Design
Department of la Escuela Massana in Barcelona for more than 12 years."

There is also a picture of a MAN that is supposed to be Carles Codina.


arnold


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