Etsy Shop www.etsy.com/shop/jewellerydesigner

I have opened an Etsy shop - there's only a few items in it at the moment. Please check it out. (theres a link on the left hand side of the page). It is a great place to buy handmade and vintage things. Very good for wasting your time on your lunch break!

Aprils Birthstone - Diamond.

All you lucky people who have Diamonds for your birthstones! 

Every diamond is immensely old. The youngest diamond is 900 million years old, and the oldest is 3.2 billion years old. Diamonds were first mined in India more than 2800 years ago.

Diamond is a mineral composed of pure carbon. It is difficult to accept that chemically this brilliant gemstone is the same as black opaque graphite and even ordinary soot. Diamond is the hardest natural substance so it can be cut or polished only by another diamond. The very word “diamond” comes from the Greek term “adamas” meaning unconquerable or invincible. Despite its extreme hardness, however, diamond is brittle and at 4,289 degrees centigrade, a diamond will completely burn up leaving nothing behind.

Diamonds are the most popular gemstone of all time. Diamonds used for jewellery are graded on the basis of colour—they are usually colorless, however, brown, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, red, gray, and black variations are also found depending on the impurities present. Grading is also done on the basis of purity, which varies from perfectly clear, extremely pure stones to those with many impurities and flaws. Every diamond is unique; no two are alike.

The word “carat” comes from the carob tree whose seed was used as the standard of weighing precious stones. Less than 5% of all the diamonds made into jewellery are larger than one carat. Each stone loses, on average, more than half its original weight during cutting and polishing.
Diamonds should be stored separately. They can scratch other jewelry as well as each other.Diamond is the official birthstone for April. It may also be given as a gem on the 30th and 60th wedding anniversary.

This picture shows the Hope Diamond, which is the largest (45.5 carats) blue diamond in the world.