Back from India!
- Thread starter mandyd
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arjunajane
Ideal_Rock
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2008
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- 9,758
thankyou sweetheat, sorry for the slight threadjack along the way!!
although i don''t think anything can distract from your dazzling collection
mandyd
Shiny_Rock
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2004
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- 123
HI Linda
I buy only small diamonds in India like the ones that you see on both the danglers and the bangle settings. Although a huge amount of diamonds are cut in India, all the best ones are basically bought by western dealers. The average kind of diamond you can get at any jewellery store will be a VS1 H/I (more I than H I would think) and the cut will be far from ideal. Most stores only offer their own in house certificate that that tells you basically nothing. Since jewellers in India have operated on the trust system for centuries there is no demand from the Indian consumer for a certificate that outlines the exact dimensions of the diamonds like a GIA or an even an AGS. Recently they have come up with some sort of certification to appease the new generation but still asking the jeweller to provide a standardized certificate is perceived by many jewellers as an affront. So unless one has a lot of time and a lot of knowledge like Gary Hollowy and others who go diamond shopping in the back streets of Gujrat and Bombay and you are able to shop at the cutter himself it is quite futile to buy decent diamonds in the open market. Like gold the price of diamonds is decided in the international market and good diamonds are expensive. Even though diamonds are very popular in India and most everyone I know has boat lods of them, their quality if far from desirable because the price of good diamonds is out of reach for the average Indian. Due to lack of knowledge the consensus is that a diamond is a diamond just like gold is gold. It has been the advantage of the jewellers to push the "purity" angle such as VVS or VS in diamonds like 24 kt or 22kt in gold. Due to this mindset of the Indians that "pure" meaning VVS or VS is better and of course the size is what matters never mind the colour of cut, the jewellers have been getting away with murder. We all know what kind of diamond you will end up with if your only criteria is the clarity and size!
There are some high end shops in Bombay & Delhi and even Indian stores in the US, that sell diamonds they call Belgiancut which mean absolutely nothing but the term is used to sell less mediocre diamonds at higher prices. So unlless they start supplying proper GIA style certificates anytime soon I do not intend to throw my money away by buying any diamond over .010c. It''s not that they don''t have the fancy equipment to get all the numbers that we demand here, it is simply because it suits them not to do so. Even the jewellers themselves have so little knowledge. Most major stores had never heard of a an ideal cut or an H&A or even the existence of coloured diamonds! Basically the game ends at the cutters table who know exactly what they are doing, after that it is a free for all. When you buy a diamond from a jeweller in India you are basically taking another person''s word for it and that''s that.
It has been 28 yrs since I have lived in India and I have consciously learnt to push the envelope in the pursuit of perfection in everything in life and I demand the best whenever possible. I may not buy major diamonds in India but I love that I can still good workmanship for a fraction of the cost and time that is possible in the west. There still exists in India the old traditons of the "karigar"- the craftsman who can transform your diamonds into a breathtaking piece given the proper direction and design and the ones who can still embroider or weave fabric by hand like no other. These are crafts lost in the west due to machination. This is the reason I go to India every year and fulfill my little desires and at the same time I feel that unless people like me don''t encourage these traditions and give them reason to keep on going they will fade out too and no parent will pass down the craft to his children like it has been done for centuries. When I shop in India whether it is for jewellery or for clothes or any handmade item, if the craftsmanship is to my taste and liking I never bargain. I always pay whatever they ask for, which is usually double. How can I possibly mind when the price could never ever come close to anything I would pay in the west? Both sides should feel that they got a good deal and I feel this is my small way of giving back.
I buy only small diamonds in India like the ones that you see on both the danglers and the bangle settings. Although a huge amount of diamonds are cut in India, all the best ones are basically bought by western dealers. The average kind of diamond you can get at any jewellery store will be a VS1 H/I (more I than H I would think) and the cut will be far from ideal. Most stores only offer their own in house certificate that that tells you basically nothing. Since jewellers in India have operated on the trust system for centuries there is no demand from the Indian consumer for a certificate that outlines the exact dimensions of the diamonds like a GIA or an even an AGS. Recently they have come up with some sort of certification to appease the new generation but still asking the jeweller to provide a standardized certificate is perceived by many jewellers as an affront. So unless one has a lot of time and a lot of knowledge like Gary Hollowy and others who go diamond shopping in the back streets of Gujrat and Bombay and you are able to shop at the cutter himself it is quite futile to buy decent diamonds in the open market. Like gold the price of diamonds is decided in the international market and good diamonds are expensive. Even though diamonds are very popular in India and most everyone I know has boat lods of them, their quality if far from desirable because the price of good diamonds is out of reach for the average Indian. Due to lack of knowledge the consensus is that a diamond is a diamond just like gold is gold. It has been the advantage of the jewellers to push the "purity" angle such as VVS or VS in diamonds like 24 kt or 22kt in gold. Due to this mindset of the Indians that "pure" meaning VVS or VS is better and of course the size is what matters never mind the colour of cut, the jewellers have been getting away with murder. We all know what kind of diamond you will end up with if your only criteria is the clarity and size!
There are some high end shops in Bombay & Delhi and even Indian stores in the US, that sell diamonds they call Belgiancut which mean absolutely nothing but the term is used to sell less mediocre diamonds at higher prices. So unlless they start supplying proper GIA style certificates anytime soon I do not intend to throw my money away by buying any diamond over .010c. It''s not that they don''t have the fancy equipment to get all the numbers that we demand here, it is simply because it suits them not to do so. Even the jewellers themselves have so little knowledge. Most major stores had never heard of a an ideal cut or an H&A or even the existence of coloured diamonds! Basically the game ends at the cutters table who know exactly what they are doing, after that it is a free for all. When you buy a diamond from a jeweller in India you are basically taking another person''s word for it and that''s that.
It has been 28 yrs since I have lived in India and I have consciously learnt to push the envelope in the pursuit of perfection in everything in life and I demand the best whenever possible. I may not buy major diamonds in India but I love that I can still good workmanship for a fraction of the cost and time that is possible in the west. There still exists in India the old traditons of the "karigar"- the craftsman who can transform your diamonds into a breathtaking piece given the proper direction and design and the ones who can still embroider or weave fabric by hand like no other. These are crafts lost in the west due to machination. This is the reason I go to India every year and fulfill my little desires and at the same time I feel that unless people like me don''t encourage these traditions and give them reason to keep on going they will fade out too and no parent will pass down the craft to his children like it has been done for centuries. When I shop in India whether it is for jewellery or for clothes or any handmade item, if the craftsmanship is to my taste and liking I never bargain. I always pay whatever they ask for, which is usually double. How can I possibly mind when the price could never ever come close to anything I would pay in the west? Both sides should feel that they got a good deal and I feel this is my small way of giving back.
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