*Open Studio Visiting Creative, Marc Knobloch is the Vice President of Aron Knobloch Inc., a third generation, family owned diamond and diamond jewelry wholesale firm that has been selling diamonds for over sixty years.  To read his Bio, click here

Best Diamond for Your Project…

In this, the follow-up article to “Jewelry Artist’s Guide to Diamond Buying (Part One- Beginner)”, I will address the issue of a jewelry project budget and how diamonds fit into it.

In my first article, I mentioned that you, the artist/buyer, are the one who determines your budget and not the diamond seller.  Make sure you know that final number when speaking with a diamond merchant and adhere to it.  However, there is one minor clarification that needs to be made to that thought.

You DO need to keep in mind that your budget dollars may not match up to what you expect to get in diamond color/clarity.  This is where you need to trust your diamond merchant to guide you.

A good diamond merchant will work with you to bring the price of the diamonds up or down to match your budget by adjusting the color and/or clarity.  There usually is not enough room to adjust the diamond size because it’s dictated by your design.  In addition, small adjustments in size usually do not impact the diamond budget significantly one way or another.

In working with clients, I like to suggest that to stick to their diamond budget, they keep the color level the same but drop the clarity.  Another option I like to offer is raising the color significantly and then dropping the clarity in an equally significant fashion.  Since diamonds are priced “per carat” and the color/clarity level figures heavily into this price, the adjustments I’m suggesting can make all the difference between having exquisite diamonds in a jewelry piece or adding an “acceptable” diamond to your art.

Adjusting the clarity level is possible because most of the clarity levels are indicative of inclusions (flaws) that are not visible to the naked eye and are only visible with the aid of 10x magnification (usually via a tool known as a “loupe”).  While some artists may want a very high clarity, this is usually via a misconception that they need to have a high clarity.  Artists should realize and take comfort in the fact that a diamond’s clarity simply can’t be seen with the naked eye (with the exception of clarity levels I1, I2 and I3 which I will discuss in another article), therefore can be less of an issue when purchasing.

The nice thing about dropping the clarity level significantly is that you can keep the color the same or even raise it.  Since diamonds rely on visual “naked eye” beauty and color is something that the eye can see without magnification, I suggest you focus your price-per-carat dollars on the diamond’s color as much as possible.

Have you had diamond-buying experiences? Were they good?  Are you thinking of purchasing diamonds for your work? Please leave your comments and SHARE this article by clicking the buttons below. Thanks!

You may also like:

Time Management Strategies That Play Nice

Marketing your Art Business using Retail and Wholesale Sneezers and Brand Advocates

Should You Create Art or Create to Sell?

For more helpful tips and art business information, dive into:
Open Studio ~ Creative Mentoring!