Diamond Shapes

Transcripts

Ronnie Mervis: Hi, I am Ronnie Mervis, from Mervis Diamond Importers. I would like to talk to you about shapes of diamonds. When the diamonds come out of the ground, they are in, what we call rough form, they look like pebbles and they have to be cleaned up, we have to cut off all the excess diamond which we don't need. We have to cut them into the beautiful shapes that are so popular today. So we are going to talk about a concept called Shape. Shape is very different from cut. Cut is something we will talk about later and cut relates to the way the diamond exhibits light. What we are talking about now is simply form. The most popular form is the evergreen round, and here it is.

This is a round brilliant cut diamond. Like the name implies it is round it is the most efficient of all the diamonds in terms of treatment of light and it gives you the most brilliance for your money.

Most brides, most of the times traditionally have gone with round cut diamonds, but things are changing. It will always be popular, because it's a beautiful shape, but there are many others and I would like to talk to you about them all.

Starting from my right, which is your left, let's start with this one. Beautiful shape, take a look at it, this is a radiant diamond. It is the member of the square family, it is a eight sided and it has four major sides, two longs, two shorts and then the edges are clipped in each of the corners to give you that extra facet and so it has eight shapes.

Very popular, the Radiant cuts -- the brides like them and you will see a lot of them. Here we have the Marquise, spelled Marquise, long, point in each side, French word, very popular shape, Marquise. Now I have got to emphasis to you, that no matter what diamond shape you select, it's the matter of personal choice.

No diamond shape is really better or worst than any other; none is specifically recommended or unrecommended. Even though what I say might seem slightly contradictory, because I told you previously the round is the most brilliant of all, the others are almost as brilliant and for all technique, for all practical purposes, nobody can see the difference.

So, shape is just a matter of personal choice. Here we are coming with an Asscher. This is a new one. Well actually its an old one which has become new again. Just like in fashion, items go out and then come back, the Asscher was designed about 70-80 years ago and it has now come back in full force. Asscher is spelled Asscher; you can see its a rectangular shaped diamond with concentric faceting on the inside. You will see a lot of Asschers, when you look around.

Here is another somewhat newey, its called the cushion, beautiful diamond shape and if you remember when you used to sleep in your grandmothers old pillow, it used to be big and deep and puffy, the cushion is somewhat like that. It has a huge -- huge wrong word, it has an underbelly which makes it sometimes look a little smaller for its size than you would expect and that's because it is deep and puffy. It's the cushion, hope you had a good view of the cushion. Next we have the pear, just like a pear, sometimes known of the teardrop. When it is a pendent, dually worn point up, like a teardrop on the finger it points down. Pear shape has been around for as long as you can imagine and it will be around for that long too.

Here we have a Princess; the Princess is the sister of the Radiant, not the ugly sister and not the more beautiful sister, just a sister. The Princess and the Radiant which I showed you earlier on I am going put them side by side are almost the same, except the Radiant has the corners cut-off and the Princess doesnt, the Princess is a pure four-sided stone.

Now we are coming to cousin Emerald. This is not a green emerald as in emerald colored stones, but its an emerald shaped diamond, because its cut in the same mode. Emeralds have been around for ever and they will be around for ever too, very popular. Now this stone is a little different from all the other stones that I showed you up till now for very important reason. Most of the other diamonds -- all of the other diamonds that I showed are cut to exhibit the maximum fire, and flash, and excitement that you can get out of the diamond. It's all about excitement.

The emerald is cut with a different concept in mind. The Emerald cut is meant to present coolness, calmness, tranquility, almost like a frozen lake. So, the Emerald cut does a different job, its the exact opposite of excitement, its calmness. Emerald cut diamond for calmness.

The reason why it is different is because the bottom of the diamond, the pavilion is cut with a different concept in mind, where as the pavilion of the round stones are with cone shaped pavilion, the pavilion which is at the bottom of the Emerald cut, its a step cut and that is what gives it the calmness.

And guess what, and especially for the lovers out there and especially at Valentine's Day, which is almost everyday, not just in February gentlemen, here we have a heart. We have a beautiful little heart with a lovely cleavage, laser touch at the top. So, it is the heart for the lovers, and remember that there are lovers at all times of the year, not just at Valentine's Day. Here we have an Oval, like it says, oval, its a very intelligent stone, because its sort of a round stretched out, like a stretched Limo, it is a stretched round but, when we stretch it you see it getting longer and therefore it appears to be bigger, but you don't see it getting slighting narrower, so, you see the extra length, you don't see any of the slight narrowing and so, what you get, is a bigger look for the same money. And it's a beautiful soft, feminine shape stone.

There are we back to the round, this is the one I showed you first and it happens to be bigger than all the others for no reason, other than that it just happens to be a little bigger than the others and we have seen it before, so I am not going to spend too long on it.

Then we have the one that I brought up last because it's more of an accent stone or than a main center stone. This is a Trilliant; its a three sided triangular shaped diamond. So, it has an obvious word trilliant. Trilliants are occasionally used as a center stone, but mainly they are not. They are principally used as two side stones supporting the center. There are more shapes; I didnt bring them all out, because of the limit of how much we want to show you at one time. We really don't want to confuse you, here we have eleven. So, it is gives you a basic idea and I'm going to sign off, give you a little time to think about it.

But don't go away, please come back, because we are going to be talking about something very important next and that is, four c's which is what you should really know in making a decision of how to buy a diamond.