DON’T FORGET ABOUT THE SIDE DIAMONDS

You finally pick out your center diamond.

It’s big!

It’s beautiful…

And now you have the joy of picking out the perfect mounting for it.

You may spend weeks and months on the center diamond, but do you even know what the quality of the diamonds in the mounting are? (see picture)

Side quality matters!

The quality of diamonds in your mounting is almost as important as your center stone.

Here’s why: Color, clarity, brilliance, shine and sparkle.

The last thing you want to do is to set your beautiful diamond into a mounting (usually called semi-mounts) with inferior diamonds. A colorless diamond, up against near colorless side diamonds can make those side diamonds look yellow.

Mixing colors will pretty much guarantee that your diamonds won’t match.

In fact, they’ll contrast badly and make your side diamonds look old and dirty. So make sure you match the stones in your mounting to the quality of the diamond you put in the center.

Match the clarity:

If you have a VS clarity diamond with an E color, make sure your side stones are VS, E as well. It makes a big difference when you put the entire package together. You’d be surprised at how much better the mounting will look.

Likewise if your center diamond is not so high in clarity. You don’t want the sides to outshine the Center. If your center diamond is a nice looking I1 clarity diamond with I color (they call these sailor diamonds–Get it, “I-I captain!”), get I clarity, I color in the sides also.

What is the side diamond quality?

Funny thing is, most jewelers don’t even tell you what the quality of the side diamonds are… Unless you ask.

And even then, they may scamper and loupe them.

The reason they don’t tell you up front is because most side diamond quality is poor. Usually I clarity, I color.

Here’s a rule of thumb:

If the diamonds in the sides of the mounting are high quality, the jeweler will make sure they tell you. They will be proud of that quality. But if the quality is low, like the I, I, then chances are they’ll never even bring up the topic.

So what can you do?

Make sure the quality is listed on the tag or ticket.

Make sure you get an appraisal with it listing the quality of all the diamonds.

And always make sure you loupe those side diamonds with a 10x powered jeweler’s loupe to see for yourself the quality and to make sure those diamonds aren’t full of inclusions or even cracked.

Match the side diamonds to your center diamond and you will add beauty and sparkle and always enhance your center stone.

I would strive for a diamond quality of at least SI1, G-H.

That way, they’ll look good next to almost any quality of center stone.

Cheers! :)