How are Diamonds Made?

Wholesale diamond jewelry is really a value-added product in which loose diamonds have been placed into a one-of-a-kind gold and silver setting, such as a ring, necklace, or tiara. Typical jewelry wholesalers do not sell to the general public, simply because of the nature of the wholesale business, which focuses on large quantities. Most people cannot afford, or have little inclination to acquire large amounts of certified loose diamonds unless they are one of the following:

1. Professional Jeweler/Craftsman: These are the skilled artisans who create attractive settings from gold and silver in which loose diamonds are set. When working with natural stones. They may be independent retailers themselves, or provide products for jewelry retail chains.

2. Investors: While this should seem self explanatory, it is worth pointing out that unlike gold and silver, diamonds are not traded or subject to the same kind of speculation as most typical commodities. Those who collect certified loose diamonds usually have different reasons for doing so.

3. Jewelry Retail Dealers: If such a store or company has its own in-house jewelers (most do), they are virtually always on the lookout for the best deals on certified loose diamonds that have been analyzed and appraised from weight, color and cut. If not, they will purchase finished, wholesale diamond jewelry for resale to the general public.

How Diamonds Are Made

There are actually two kinds of diamonds, both of which may be natural – created in the earth as a result of geologic processes – or artificial, created under laboratory conditions. Furthermore, diamond may be of “gem quality,” which is used in wholesale diamond jewelry, or “industrial quality,” for use in cutting machinery.

In either case, the key is preternatural amounts of heat and pressure. When carbon is subjected to pressures of 45 – 60 millibars (45,000 – 60,000 times normal air pressure at sea level) and heat of at least 2300 degrees F (800 degrees hotter than the melting point of structural steel), its molecular structure changes from a flat, hexagonal pattern to a box-like one. It is this particular structure that gives diamond its hardness as well as the octagonal shape of the rough stones.

Cutting The Stone

The value of wholesale diamond jewelry is dependent on the cut, which is something that jewelry wholesalers look at closely. Until modern times, diamond cutting in preparation for the creation of wholesale diamond jewelry could be accomplished only with diamond, due to that substance’s hardness. Not only that, but the process was uncertain and involved an extreme amount of nerve-wracking, painstaking precision.

Today however, diamond that is used in wholesale diamond jewelry is cut with lasers, using computer-aided design. Nonetheless, it is still a precision process that requires not only creative vision, but precision mathematical calculations as well. It is why the creation of wholesale diamond jewelry is as much science as it is art.