Diamonds...


A Girl's Best Friend

By Tracy Taylor

Jewelry is a girl's best friend gift that will warm the heart of your sweetheart. diamonds are wonderful any time of the year but they make a special appearance for Valentine's Day when they're set in heart-shaped pendants, rings with hearts and made into earrings that have dangling diamonds hearts.

Diamonds are graded or rated according to the 4 c's: cut, color, clarity and carat weight. Cut mostly determines what we'll call the "sparkle factor," the amount of twinkling the diamonds do when held in the light. When a diamond is cut well, it catches the light in a very specific way and gives the greastest sparkle factor.

To prove this correct, look at a diamond heart-shaped necklace that is very inexpensive and compare that to one in a fine jewelry store that costs more. Odds are that the very inexpensive one won't have anywhere near the sparkle factor of the higher priced one. This doesn't mean you have to spend vast amounts of money on a diamond Valentine's Day gift, unless you want to, but it does mean that you might want to set your sights on the higher quality piece with greater sparkle factor, even if it is smaller. There's something extra special about diamonds that sparkle like the sun off a lake on a sunny afternoon.

The other factors you'll need to be aware of in a diamond purchase are the color of the stone. A whiter stone is often considered more beautiful and the extra whiteness adds something special when it catches the light. The clarity describes the number and type of "inclusions," bits of foreign matter in the stone, and any surface blemishes.