Largest Blue HPHT Synthetic Diamond in GIA Lab

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A 5.03 ct Fancy Deep blue HPHT synthetic diamond was examined by GIA (left). Faint but sharp color zoning was observed (middle, field of view 4.77 mm) along with small metallic inclusions and a cavity at the girdle (right, field of view 2.19 mm). Ph…

A 5.03 ct Fancy Deep blue HPHT synthetic diamond was examined by GIA (left). Faint but sharp color zoning was observed (middle, field of view 4.77 mm) along with small metallic inclusions and a cavity at the girdle (right, field of view 2.19 mm). Photos by Sood (Oil) Judy Chia (left) and Kyaw Soe Moe (center and right)

The largest faceted colorless HPHT-grown synthetic diamond reported to date is a 10.02 ct E-color, VS1-clarity specimen, cut from a 32.26-carat piece of rough, was reported by IGI Hong Kong in 2015. The diamond was grown by NDT, or New Diamond Technology, is one of the founding members of the new International Grown Diamond Association. Recently, large colorless and near-colorless HPHT-grown diamonds by the Russian company have been investigated by GIA laboratories. The sizes ranged up to up to 5.11 ct. In January 2016, GIA’s New York laboratory examined a 5.03 ct fancy-color HPHT-grown type IIb synthetic diamond produced by NDT. this is the largest faceted blue laboratory-grown diamond studied so far. 

The notes from GIA's lab report stated that the 5.03-carat diamond exhibited a number of traits characteristic of diamonds grown using the high-pressure, high-temperature (HPHT) process, including color zoning and a cuboctahedral growth pattern. The stone was graded a VS1, fancy deep blue. 

"This emerald-cut synthetic diamond was color graded as Fancy Deep blue. This is a very attractive color with no other color component, a prized rarity among natural type IIb diamonds (the Blue Moon, for instance, was graded as Fancy Vivid blue). When viewed under a microscope, faint but sharp color zoning could be seen, indicative of the uneven impurity incorporation of HPHT synthetic diamonds. No strain was observed under crossed polarizers, indicating a very low dislocation density, which is also characteristic of HPHT-grown diamonds. It had VS1 clarity, with only very small metallic inclusions and a cavity observed at the girdle. Fluorescence and phosphorescence images collected using a DiamondView instrument revealed the sample’s cuboctahedral growth pattern, another feature of HPHT synthetics. The long-lasting chalky blue phosphorescence was further analyzed using spectroscopy, and the emission was found to originate from two broad bands centered at approximately 500 and 575 nm (figure 2, right). These bands have previously been reported in NDT’s type IIa and IIb HPHT synthetic diamonds (D’Haenens-Johansson et al., 2015). "

The evaluation of a lab-grown blue diamond of this size is considered by the researchers to be so significant that they opted to publish Lab Notes online ahead of the next quarterly edition of Gems & Gemology.  

To read Lab Notes GIA.edu

Hemmerle Exhibit at the Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial

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Hemmerle earrings, amber, patinated bronze, iron, pink gold, red gold: Photo Courtesy of HEMMERLE

Hemmerle earrings, amber, patinated bronze, iron, pink gold, red gold: Photo Courtesy of HEMMERLE

Hemmerle will be participating in Beauty—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York from 12 February – 21 August 2016.
The bold, unostentatious creations included in the exhibition demonstrate Hemmerle’s dedication to craftsmanship, exceptional quality and innovative material combinations.

This fifth instalment of the Triennial exhibition series is dedicated to beauty and celebrates design as an endeavour that engages our full senses. Featuring work from over sixty voices in the global design scene, Beauty expands the discourse around the power of aesthetic innovation. The exhibition will be accompanied by an illustrated publication.

Hemmerle is a fourth generation, family run house at the vanguard of jewellery design. Each jewel is unique and as original as a work of art. Today, Christian Hemmerle runs the business with his wife Yasmin and parents Stefan and Sylveli Hemmerle. The family travel across the world treasure hunting for rare materials from Mughal-era brown diamonds to found materials like ancient carved jade.

Hemmerle’s creativity is driven by materials and the design process begins with a particular stone or object. The family then work around it, impeccably matching gems for colour and building up unusual textures and form. Hemmerle is drawn to experimenting with new materials; in a pair of earrings included in the exhibition, jasper and aquamarines are paired with concrete. Hemmerle worked with cement for days, experimenting to get the perfect shade of grey and a brushed texture on the concrete.  In a ring, bright orange topaz has been set in pink gold, the metal corroded with chemicals to create holes in the surface.

Nature is an endless source of inspiration to Hemmerle and included in the exhibition is a eucalyptus brooch from Nature’s Jewels, a nature inspired jewellery collection and accompanying book published in 2014. Exquisitely modelled in brass, bronze and gold, glistening spiky diamonds inventively add to the realism of the eucalyptus. A pair of real shells are used in charming snail brooches, the bodies of the creatures crafted in white gold and yellow-brown diamonds. In another pair of earrings, a bee rests on intricately layered piece of honeycomb made from amber and patinated bronze.
 

Hemmerle bangle, garnets, white gold, silver: Photo courtesy of hemmerle

Hemmerle earrings, tourmaline, rubellite, spinels, sapphires, white gold, copper: Photo Courtesy of Hemmerle

A dedication to colour has defined Hemmerle’s work over the decades and included in the exhibition is a pair of mismatched earrings; one made from rubellite and pink sapphires and one from tourmaline and orange sapphires. Both are intricately engineered and balanced to contain movement through the copper and white gold framework. An open-ended Harmony Bangle with its seamless closure is made from purple garnets carefully colour-matched. A Harmony Bangle inspired by Egypt joined the permanent collection of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in 2014.

Found materials create a dramatic back drop for rare stones and are worked into a contemporary design. In earrings, two mismatched cameos face each other swinging in white gold frames set with diamonds. A necklace strap is created by knitting hand hewn agate beads in the round over silk and hung with a luxurious piece of ancient carved jade.     

With Beauty, Cooper Hewitt shows that aesthetic innovations exist in our experience of an object. The exhibition celebrates objects and practices that are exuberant, ethereal, intricate, or even sublime. Objects of beauty provoke immediate reactions and demand judgment to exalt experience as a living, unfolding exchange between people and things.

Beauty — Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial
Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum
2 East 91st Street, New York
Exhibit Dates: 12 February – 21 August 2016

Hemmerle's Website

Hemmerle ring, topaz, pink gold, copper: Photo Courtesy of HEMMERLE

Ron Arad Rocks!

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Ron Arad, Hot Ingo, 2016, Earrings, silver & red laser sintered polyamide, edition of 100

24 February - 8 April 2016 Louisa Guinness Gallery will be hosting Ron Arad Rocks!; a solo exhibition of new jewellery by internationally renowned artist, architect and designer Ron Arad. The exhibition will offer unique and editioned works including necklaces, bracelets and earrings made from silicon, laser sintered polyamide, quartz, gold and silver.

 Ron Arad (1951) is among the most respected and influential designers working today, he is celebrated for his fluid, curvaceous style, crafting deceptively simple, highly skilled pieces from materials such as aluminium, bronze and steel. Arad's work cannot be easily categorized as he is constantly reinventing the everyday object, transforming it into something daring, witty and provocative. Bookshelves wind their way up walls, tables curve up corners, chairs unravel like ribbon, all retaining their essential function while questioning their perceived limitations. His penchant for playful but daring designs is also reflected in Ron's jewelry work. 
 
Far from the precious stones the title suggests, Arad's Rocks series are made from solid silicon. Though the silicon is soft and pliable to the touch, each piece appears heavy and dangerously jagged; the effect is of bare shards of glass hanging a breath from the wearer's skin.  Not until the viewer has the piece in their hands are they able to detect Arad's sophisticated manipulation of silicon. Far from smashing and threading glass, he chips away at a plain of prepared silicon, shaving each fragment off. 

NAJA, FREE HAND, 2015
vermeil with amethyst, smoky, rutilated or quartz lens

The impression of opaque or colored glass is created by dropping lengths of colored or graphically patterned silk into the silicon, adding an ingenious layer to the optical illusion. Sculpted by the hands of the maker each work is unique varying in shape, color and form.
 
The Hot Ingo earrings and Hot Ingo Necklace derive from Arad's early experimentation with laser sintered polyamide and rapid prototyping in Not made by hand not made in China launched in Milan over a decade ago. One step in the artist's long exploration of what computers and machines are able to achieve, the necklace and earrings take their name and inspiration from Arad's long standing friend and collaborator Ingo Maurer.
 
"I have always been inspired by Ron's work," says Guinness."I am astonished by his consistent ability to solve practical problems with simplicity, intelligence and aesthetic panache. Take Naja not only beautiful and wearable but an ingenious solution to the middle aged drama of short sightedness."
 
Naja, the final series, is a magnifying glass pendant made of a solid quartz lens, surrounded by a serpentine coil of silver or vermeil. The work is named after the distinctive "be-spectacled" markings on the hood of a Naja cobra. Not only a beautiful object, artwork and jewel, with a typically Aradian twist it can also be used to decipher a cocktail menu.

Ron Arad Rocks: A Selection of New Jewellery on view 24 February - 8 April 2016 at the Louisa Guinness Gallery
FIRST FLOOR, 45 CONDUIT STREET LONDON W1S 2YN


Images COPYRIGHT © 2016 LOUISA GUINNESS GALLERY

Van Cleef & Arpels: Midnight Nuit Lumineuse watch

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Photo courtesy of Hodinkee

Van Cleef & Arpels' innovative Midnight Nuit Lumineuse was inspired by the glittering of of the stars. The scene depicted in the watch unfolds against a background of aventurine glass and diamond stars, and various constellations are traced out in the white miniature painting. Then, as if by magic, it lights up in a remarkable way.

While the scene is inspired by the wonders of nature, the watch itself is a marvel of human ingenuity. The illumination is thanks to the use of the piezoelectricity phenomenon. The phenomenon of piezoelectricity has been studied since the 18th century. The term refers to the ability of certain materials to accumulate an electric charge when they are subjected to mechanical stress. This is the first Poetic Complications™ watch that creates a luminous motif illuminating the dial. The Midnight Nuit Lumineuse watch contains a strip of ceramic which, when caused to vibrate by the movement, mechanically generates electrical energy. This is used to power six electroluminescent diodes which – on demand – back-light the six diamonds visible on the dial. I think we can all agree that the effect is magical!