#JOTW Update: My Tiny Fancy Colored Diamond Collection

[Treenbean]

ORANGE- It's the one pop of color you are missing. Plus the orange looks fantastic and bright and we can call it pumpkin chunkin.

 

[TakingthePlunge]

Gotta go orange.

On a side note do you have any pictures of that pear on its own?

 

[kenny]

Thanks all.
Honestly, I was set on the orange and it's nice to hear others concur.
Plus even though it is pure orange with no color modifier it is a small fraction of the price of that blue.

I think the collection is screaming out for orange because it is kind of blue-heavy.
Orange is the opposite or compliment of blue.

I'm hoping to take some more pics soon and will get some of the pear alone.
I can't explain why but this is so exciting.
I'm such a geek.

Wish I could add this baby. Pure red.

 

[Gothgrrl]

Put me down for orange. The color is amazing.

 

[rosetta]

orange, hands down.

 

[kenny]

Holee Crapolee, look what just sold.
That baby didn't last long, it was listed very recently.




Can you imagine what a 0.65 internally flawless pure intense blue round goes for?
I'm guessing over 200K.
Who knows, maybe double or triple that.

Looks like the cut wasn't too shabby either . . . well, at least for an FCD.
Many FCDs are cut very very wonky!

 

[poshpepper]

That orange is going to look great in your collection!

 

[minousbijoux]

Okay, Kenny, I gotta come clean and share my story. A couple of months ago, I went to your favorite online colored diamond vendor in search of an orange diamond (I do this periodically for kicks, as I've wanted one for a long time). Not a brownish orange diamond, mind you (been there, done that), not a yellowish orange diamond, but a pure pumpkin with strong color and no visible inclusions. Lo and behold, there was one! It was about 1 carat, vivid pure orange, maybe VS (can't remember, I only know that it was eye clean) and gorgeous . It said inquire about the price - I know you know where this is going.

So I emailed them to inquire. I received a quick email response which, at some length, explained about the rarity of orange diamonds, about how a modifier makes it less rare, how a pure one like the one I was interested in came along rarely and was almost impossible to find, that to find one with so few inclusions...by this time, I knew I was in trouble, knowing he was justifying the outrageous price to follow But I naively was thinking: "okay, so it won't be the $15k or so I was shooting for, but out of my price range at $50 - $100k." Talk about wishful thinking Guesses as to the price? More than $420k!! I thanked him profusely for his time and crawled away to hide...

So Kenny, YOU GO GET THAT ORANGE DIAMOND!!!

 

[Fly Girl]

Even before your post about a new diamond, I was thinking that my new desktop wallpaper could really use an orange diamond.

 

[kenny]

Okay, Kenny, I gotta come clean and share my story. A couple of months ago, I went to your favorite online colored diamond vendor in search of an orange diamond (I do this periodically for kicks, as I've wanted one for a long time). Not a brownish orange diamond, mind you (been there, done that), not a yellowish orange diamond, but a pure pumpkin with strong color and no visible inclusions. Lo and behold, there was one! It was about 1 carat, vivid pure orange, maybe VS (can't remember, I only know that it was eye clean) and gorgeous . It said inquire about the price - I know you know where this is going.

So I emailed them to inquire. I received a quick email response which, at some length, explained about the rarity of orange diamonds, about how a modifier makes it less rare, how a pure one like the one I was interested in came along rarely and was almost impossible to find, that to find one with so few inclusions...by this time, I knew I was in trouble, knowing he was justifying the outrageous price to follow But I naively was thinking: "okay, so it won't be the $15k or so I was shooting for, but out of my price range at $50 - $100k." Talk about wishful thinking Guesses as to the price? More than $420k!! I thanked him profusely for his time and crawled away to hide...

So Kenny, YOU GO GET THAT ORANGE DIAMOND!!!

Yes orange usually has yellow or brown modifiers.
Pure orange is not often seen.
Also I actually prefer this particular intense orange to the vivids oranges I've seen.
Some of the vivids strike me as brownish.
I've also been disappointed that some GIA yellow-oranges have some brown in them to my eyes.
Some of the orangy-pinks are beautiful too.

Yes, some of the FCDs get astronomically expensive in certain hues, saturations and sizes.
That's why I'm glad I have a good macro lens, extension rings and a bellow extension. Hahaha.
I still don't have a vivid stone.

Was it one of these?

http://www.fancydiamonds.net/view_diamonds/1968.htm

or this one with a report from Steve Hofer:
http://www.fancydiamonds.net/view_diamonds/972.htm

 

[acebruin]

it was probably this one:

http://www.fancycolordiamond.net/search/fancy_colored_diamond_details.cfm?id=6087P

let me tell you, i saw that in person and the color is AMAZING!!! i held it next to a yellowish orange, and it completely blew the yellowish orange out of the water as far as how orange it was... so did the price!

 

[acebruin]

kenny, your collection is coming along quite nicely...

 

[minousbijoux]

Yes, that is it! And to think you saw it in person! slobber, slobber...was it really pumpkin? Was it sparkly?

 

[acebruin]

i think they had a hard time wiping my drools away!

 

[Imdanny]

the orange.

Yes, the orange or brown. Variety!

 

[kenny]

i think they had a hard time wiping my drools away!

Where did you see this?

 

[acebruin]

i visited them back in June at JCK remember? i've never seen sooooooo many fancy colored diamonds before in my life!!!

 

[T L]

Thanks all.
Honestly, I was set on the orange and it's nice to hear others concur.
Plus even though it is pure orange with no color modifier it is a small fraction of the price of that blue.

I think the collection is screaming out for orange because it is kind of blue-heavy.
Orange is the opposite or compliment of blue.

I'm hoping to take some more pics soon and will get some of the pear alone.
I can't explain why but this is so exciting.
I'm such a geek.

Wish I could add this baby. Pure red.

I'm not into the reds except for their rarity. I hear they don't sparkle that much, and don't look like diamonds should. I could be wrong. I would take a bright orange like the Pumpkin diamond over a red any day.

I saw a pure orange diamond at the "nature of Diamonds" exhibit earlier this year. Drooooooooooool!!! I could stare at it all day.

 

[LD]

Kenny - another vote for the orange - although in all honesty, the red you'll hardly ever find again!

You know what you haven't got? A chameleon? I adore mine, it's Mother Nature at her very most fascinating!

 

[T L]

Kenny - another vote for the orange - although in all honesty, the red you'll hardly ever find again!

You know what you haven't got? A chameleon? I adore mine, it's Mother Nature at her very most fascinating!

Did anyone see the red diamond ring that Liebish had for sale. I can't find it on their site anymore, but it was fascinating, and in high karat yellow gold. Sorry for the hijack Kenny.

 

[T L]

Holee Crapolee, look what just sold.
That baby didn't last long, it was listed very recently.




Can you imagine what a 0.65 internally flawless pure intense blue round goes for?
I'm guessing over 200K.
Who knows, maybe double or triple that.

Looks like the cut wasn't too shabby either . . . well, at least for an FCD.
Many FCDs are cut very very wonky!

Here's a beautiful ring that holds a beautiful 1 carat blue surrounded by pinks for around $200K.

It is fancy greyish blue though, not fancy intense blue, but that gives you an idea. I assume the above stone probably sold for around $200K like you guessed.

http://www.fancydiamonds.net/view_diamonds/3033.htm

 

[soberguy]

I agree with the orange.

 

[kenny]

 

[minousbijoux]

I'll take two please

 

[Asscherhalo_lover]

Kenny your photography has always impressed me so much! If you ever needed a second job to buy more lovelies I'm sure you could photograph people's jewelry for them!

 

[kenny]

Thanks, I'd love to do that.
I love what I currently do for a living but I'd photograph gems for clients in a heartbeat.
I just have no clue how I'd find clients.

Notice how this paricular light and environment absolutely killed the color of the Fancy light Bluish-Green diamond, in the lower-right corner.
You'd never guess it from this pic but that is a VERY sparkly diamond with gorgeous color.
I'll post other pics of it to show how pretty it can be in other environments and lighting.
Even the FCSs that are not chameleons are chameleons.

Photographing diamonds is hard enough, FCDs are harder.
Capturing the color of several different colors in the same shot is a challenge.

 

[iLander]

Ugh, Kenny, you're killing me! They're so beautiful!

THREAD JACK: Here's a question, Kenny; you obviously know that site inside and out, if you only had $5K, and you wanted a (relatively) big FCD, which one would you pick? Yellow is ok, pink would be fab (but it would obviously be smaller), brown ok, just so it's sparkly as heck.

 

[kenny]

Mmm shopping with other people's money.
How fun . . . . . .

Do you have a shape you prefer, or dislike?

If you want the richer colors you have to keep the weight down.
Do you want a smaller intense/viviv/deep, or a larger fancy or fancy light?

Also, sparkly has heck is hard to get in FCDs.
I lucked out with some of mine but they are NOT cut for light performance.

 

[iLander]

Thanks, I'd love to do that.
I love what I currently do for a living but I'd photograph gems for clients in a heartbeat.
I just have no clue how I'd find clients.

Macro photography is an excellent niche, you just need to let your market know that this is the business you're in.

Buy a mailing list of jewelers (jewelry designers, etc.), have some postcards made up (I like printing4less.com, they do good work) making it clear that you are a macro photographer (so people don't think you're selling diamonds), and send them out. Have the website to back you up, a portfolio to show clients, and you're off. Expect to do regular mailings, maybe 4X a year, and follow up with phone calls and appointments with your local jewelers. Go to Tucson in Feb, hand out cards/postcards to the jillions of dealers there.

Can you tell I'm in marketing?

Photography is not real profitable, though. Used to be, in the '80's we'd pay about $5K a day for a good photographer, now most photos are stock photos. That's another possibility; you could sell your photos to Corbis, or Getty. Again, not much money there, but still fun to make some change. You'd have to think of it as a hobby that makes you some fun money (to buy more diamonds!).

 

[kenny]

Ugh, Kenny, you're killing me! They're so beautiful!

THREAD JACK: Here's a question, Kenny; you obviously know that site inside and out, if you only had $5K, and you wanted a (relatively) big FCD, which one would you pick? Yellow is ok, pink would be fab (but it would obviously be smaller), brown ok, just so it's sparkly as heck.

Go to www.fancydiamonds.net

Click on the Advanced Search key, in the upper right corner.
Enter your colors and price range.
When I entered Pink, Yellow and Campagne, $4000 to $5000 and it returned 54 stones, from 0.11 ct to 3.4 ct.