Eightstar Video - accurate depiction?

[dandoboy]

On the Eightstar website , there is a video link of The American Star diamond in a pendent (left bottom corner of the screen). If you haven''t watched it, please do. If you have watched it, please watch it again. Is the video of this diamond characteristic of what Eightstar diamonds look like in general? I really like how it looks, but don''t see the ''dark arrows'' that some people have knocked in the past. It really sparkles when turned from side to side.

Comments please...

 

[kenny]

Arrows become more visible with certain lighting conditions and the viewing position must be centered over the top of the diamond.

I have seen Eightstar next to a primo H+A and a Solasfera, all side by side under jewery store lighting and outside in the shade and full sun.

I prefered the Solasfera, which was priced perhaps 20% or so above the non-branded H+A.
The Eightstar was about double the price of the Solasfera.
IMHO Solasfera is the best value of superideals.

If money is no object and you like the Eightstar, buy it.
It is georgous.

 

[Rhino]

Hi Dando,

Kenny is correct. It really depends on the lighting environment. Not always will the arrows appear black. Matter of fact most of the time they will not unless you are particularly in hemisphere lighting and your head is blocking light from behind. But then once the diamond is tilted, by by black arrows. I can tell you from experience that 8*''s are absolutely gorgeous stones. If after weighing all your options and you desire them most, go for it. Wink is a fellow colleague that features them and shares in my passion. He can tell you things about them unique to his perspective. If you are intrigued, it wouldn''t hurt to drop him a pm/email.

Kind regards,

 

[WinkHPD]

I have held that diamond in my hands, both before it was mounted and after and I can tell you that the video no where near shows the incredible beauty of that diamond. It did capture fairly well some of the incredible dispersion released from within this diamond by the incredible cutting.

The dark arrows often show up in photography because they show the head shadow which is important to create contrast and when you get a camera close to take a good close up picture it tends to accentuate that contrast. In live motion you will rarely see the dark arrows, but rather that on/off ping ping sparkle and scintillation as the diamond moves.

Wink

 

[WinkHPD]

Hey Rhino!

Thanks for the kind words bud! You and I are both blessed to be in a business where we have "arguments" about which beautiful thing is more beautiful and by whose standards. When I started studying gemology more than 30 years ago I had no idea I would have so incredibly much fun spitting such tiny hairs, nor that thes tiny hairs could make such a difference in the look and beauty of a diamond!

Wink

 

[valeria101]

Date: 10/11/2005 9:49:59 AM
Author:dandoboy

Is the video of this diamond characteristic of what Eightstar diamonds look like in general?

I got a tiny, grainy video image with rather weird color throughout (not just on the diamond). So... no, hopefully.

Somewhere in the first half of the video someone throws an interesting remark: ''it is hard to believe this is real''. I believe that part!

IMO, choosing among H&A is not so much a matter of ''quality'' as of taste. I hope these diamonds are not standardized enough just yet so as to look identical like a batch of syntetics. As far as I know there is still room for choice among ideal rounds and this is hopefully bound to get better. Different consistent brands of traditional and fancy rounds are a start, and perhaps the non-branded H&A are a bit better leaving some room for personal choice among top quality goods.

Just my 0.2

 

[lawmax]

I also had the chance to hold the American Star and it is literally a breath-taking experience. I knew it would be for me, but what was interesting for me was to see some independent appraisers who are very highly regarded in their industry have the same experience of awe after all of the large diamonds they have seen in their careers.

The shots of the diamond in the video do not do the diamond justice at all and the people seeing the diamond in person had the real and amazing view.

The reactions however, are typical and priceless!

lawmax

 

[WinkHPD]

Hello lovely lady Lawmax. How nice to see you again.

Wink

 

[Capitol Bill]

Wow! That 13 carat American Star has been in a lot of lucky hands (mine included)! To try and describe it''s affect on me would be like trying to describe the feeling of visiting a famous museum and being up close to a painting by one of the masters.

And as for getting all of the "arrows" to appear dark all at once -- good luck! As already mentioned, it''s very difficult to get a diamond to reveal dark arrows in most lighting conditions. I actually held this stone in natural daylight and then in a purposefully darkened room with very little light coming in. In both lighting conditions it shimmered and threw off white light and fire like some mystical stone from a Tolken novel. Truly amazing!
Bill Scherlag

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

hi all

It is an interesting discussion.

Sergey holds the idea that a larger diamond should have more facets or some symmetry deviation designed to creat more 'virtual facets' or 'windows' with which to be able to see more lights in such a big stone.
Take a princess under 1/2ct for example - most of the facet interaction is below the size what our eyes can resolve. but as the stone gets bigger, there is an ideal size for sparkles (that can vary person to person) and by using the same # of facets for all stone sizes, we for go quantity of sparkles for size of sparkle.

To establish this ideal size of sparkle and the choice of, say, 8 sparkles that are 1/2 the size at any one glance VS 4 sparkles of twice the size at any one time is one of the goals of our Cut Group's proposed Master Stone Study.

We would like Pricescope junkies to participate in that study at some point in time. Maybe we will get that conference planned next year?

 

[WinkHPD]

Hi Gary.

I want to be in the room for that study. That will be a bright sparkly day!

Wink

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

You seat is resevred Sir Wink

 

[Rhino]

Is there going to be another Moscow Summit? I will not miss the next one for the life of me.

 

[JohnQuixote]

Date: 10/12/2005 10:18:31 AM
Author: Rhino
Is there going to be another Moscow Summit? I will not miss the next one for the life of me.

The next International Diamond Cut Conference will likely be in India, or the US.

 

[samhahn]

Wouldn''t any super ideal cut diamond of that size and color show similar appearance as the American star~? Granted it showed great amount of brilliance, I am pretty sure 13+ ct rb cut by SC, WF, or Solas would show similar characteristics as well if there were "Americian Star" of their own~ Personally I would love to see 13+ ct 8star, SC, WF, ans Solas side by side although I don''t see that happening in my life time~

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

This 15ct D IF H&A''s looked great.
But it pprobably could have done with a leo or Solsa treatment.

 

[lawmax]

Hi Wink and all,

http://www.robbreport.com/Articles/Style/Jewelry/Jewelry-Ice-Sculpture-2.asp

This is page 2 of the article. Gregory Sherman, who is a highly regarded independent jewelry consultant/appraiser who teaches gemology at the California Institute of Jewelry Training in Carmichael (Sacramento County), CA was quoted as follows:

“Nobody else works with a diamond’s individual optical characteristics,” says Gregory Sherman, a diamond appraiser based in New Jersey. “If you compare the brilliance, dispersion, and symmetry they achieve with even the best stones from prestige houses, it is like going to the Met versus listening to a high school brass band.”

I was there to see his reaction to the American Star and he was in awe.

Here is the rest of page 2 of the article:

"While several other brands tout patterns of hearts or arrows as proof of superior cut, von Sternberg explains that those forms are produced by instruments that measure only the eight main facets of the stone, unlike the Firescope, which evaluates all 57 facets. “The facets must have a symbiotic relationship with each other,” says von Sternberg. “This is much more important than any formula. This is the true gemology.”

An EightStar cutter is trained for several months and can spend as much as an hour and a half aligning each facet on the top of the diamond with its opposite on the bottom, continually employing the Firescope to check his or her work. EightStar’s master cutter is von Sternberg’s wife, Alison, who says it takes three to four days to complete an EightStar stone compared to the three to five hours required for cutting what is known in the industry as a “hearts and arrows” ideal-cut diamond.

According to von Sternberg, the laborious process addresses the optical quirks of each diamond, but because of EightStar’s limited production, only a few hundred stones can be on the market at any given time.


Here is the photo that was in the article and the caption reads, "A rare blue diamond cut to EightStar proportions displays the hallmark eight-rayed-star pattern."