Princess Cut Diamond – The Unique Shape

After round brilliant, princess cut is the next most preferred diamond shape. This unique cut has been liked highly because of the brilliance it emits. This shape is moreover chosen by buyers who prefer unique looking jewelry especially unique engagement rings.

Princess Cut Diamond

This shape is simply a square shaped diamond with sharp corners and high amount of brilliance. This brilliance is the result of extra faceting and an attempt to create something similar to an upside down triangular pyramid. The princess cut diamond has wide pavilion facets at the culet and narrowed ones towards the girdle. It was created in the 1960s and became popular in the 1970s. It is also recognized as square modified brilliant since it consists of the sparkle of the round brilliant cut and the shape of a square. However the princess cut has a lower amount of brilliance as compared to the round shape in order to gain its square shape.

The setting of the jewelry should be such that the corners of the diamond are protected from any kind of damage. Minimum of four prong setting is required to hold this diamond safely. The sharp corners can get chipped or scratched with a slight hit or smack. To avoid this, many jewelers or manufacturers “chamfer” the corners such that the shape doesn’t change or create “clipped corners”.

The price of princess cut diamond is lower than that of round brilliant ones. Reason behind this being that in princess cut moreover the original rough diamond is retained since this cut doesn’t need to be smoothed to gain attractiveness unlike the round shape.

While choosing a princess cut diamond, the color and clarity features have to be taken care of. The ideal color for this cut would be above I whereas if you are looking out for an affordable diamond color, then H or I would be the ideal choice. For a decent clarity, VS2 or SI1 can be chosen comfortably.

Heart Diamonds – The Fancy Cut Diamond

Heart diamonds are the ultimate gift for Valentine’s Day. A Sparkling heart shaped diamond helps you to express your love for your special someone with grace, elegance and romance.

Although they are hard to find, because of their increasing popularity, retailers and manufacturers are giving them more importance and trying to bring them in large numbers.

This fancy-cut diamond reveals the bow-tie shadow effect although high quality stones exhibit this effect minimally. They typically contain 59 facets.

When fixed in prong setting they look more marvelous than in any other jewelry setting, since the beauty of the shape gets noticed easily with this setting. Usually five prongs would be required to hold the stone. Two prongs will hold the lobes, another two to hold the sides and a V-shaped prong holding its pointed tip.

They are moreover popular with solitaire rings and solitaire pendants. They also look stunning in stud earrings and as diamond ring side stones too. Check out some of the different types of jewelry adorned with a heart shaped diamond:



Solitaire Ring:

Image Source: http://ringoblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/heart-solitaire-ring.jpg


Solitaire Pendant:

Image Source: http://www.overstockjeweler.com/images/I/overstockjeweler_1943_52309453.gif

Side stone Ring:

Image Source: http://www.ritani.com/productimages/1237819700_1RZ1235AAHP.jpg


Stud Earring:

Image Source: http://www.rothemcollection.com/pc/catalog/heart_diamond_earrings_w2_870_general.jpg

Identifying the right heart-shaped diamond:

The brilliance of these diamonds differs on their depth. Deeper the diamond, the more brilliance it has. Diamond with more depth although sparkles with brilliance, but may look smaller than its ideal size. Flatter diamonds have lesser brilliance and radiance. Hence heart shaped diamonds should be chosen carefully.
Also, while purchasing heart shaped diamonds, one must be sure that the top lobes of the stone are even.
The two halves should be well-defined and should look symmetrical at least for a naked eye.
The color of the diamond should be given special attention while choosing such diamonds. If it has low-quality color, then it may be noticeable from the corners of the cut.