The other day, my fiancé and I walked into a local B&M chain in search of wedding bands. Needless to say, a sales person was trying to convince a naive customer that a well-cut diamond is just as beautiful as the more expensive excellent cut grade. I was tempted to scream to the gentleman to run as quick and far as he could before he’d get swindled, but I elected to hold my tongue seeing as how I didn’t want to damage my relationship with the store.
Out of curiosity, I walked by to see for myself how the well-cut stone fared against the one beside it that was graded excellent. I can’t speak to any of the other Cs because I didn’t want to be intrusive. To my amazement, both stones did perform nicely under the bright store lighting, which made me furious. I’m glad the customer never turned around to look at me because I have a horrible poker face!
This experience got me thinking...could I simulate other lighting environments in a portable contraption so as to properly view a diamond at a B&M? If so, how could I simulate daylight, diffuse light (cloudy sky/shade), incandescent light, candlelight, etc. in a portable box that I could stick my head into and block all sources of store lighting. Besides crawling under a table, which not only look odd, but definitely get the attention of security.
Out of curiosity, I walked by to see for myself how the well-cut stone fared against the one beside it that was graded excellent. I can’t speak to any of the other Cs because I didn’t want to be intrusive. To my amazement, both stones did perform nicely under the bright store lighting, which made me furious. I’m glad the customer never turned around to look at me because I have a horrible poker face!
This experience got me thinking...could I simulate other lighting environments in a portable contraption so as to properly view a diamond at a B&M? If so, how could I simulate daylight, diffuse light (cloudy sky/shade), incandescent light, candlelight, etc. in a portable box that I could stick my head into and block all sources of store lighting. Besides crawling under a table, which not only look odd, but definitely get the attention of security.