| Judging
Craftsmanship
The diamonds fit their settings perfectly. Often one has to
compromise on the size of the diamonds in favor of the color
or clarity.It's possible to spend days and months searching
the world to find diamonds that look exactly alike and still
not find them.
To
be so exacting can be a waste of time and money. What counts
is that the diamonds blend together well. Finding diamonds
of a carat or more in weight that look even approximately
the same can be a problem, so you should expect to pay more
for a matched pair of diamonds than for unmatched ones.
The diamonds are exceptionally well-set if.
Under ten-power magnification the prongs and beads all look
the same size and shape and have an aesthetically pleasing
appearance.All
the diamonds are set horizontally (not tilted) at consistent
and proper heights in their settings. Sometimes this is impossible
due to the sizes and shapes of the diamonds. To test for consistent
setting, tilt the piece of jewelry and see if the tables of
all the diamonds flash at the same time.
There are either no spaces between channel set diamonds or
else the spaces are of uniform size.There is just enough metal
to hold the diamonds securely, yet display as much of the
diamonds as possible. Achieving this balance is difficult.
A
ring is exceptionally well-polished if:
The metal is as smooth and reflective as a mirror unless it
has a matte or Florentine finish. Then the finish should be
of uniform quality.The inside of the ring is polished as well
as the outside of the ring. There are times when it is impossible
to polish inner parts of a ring. However, an exceptional polish
will show that a lot of attention has been paid to detail
even in hard-to-reach areas.
Jewelry
craftsmanship ranges from an unacceptable level to an ideal
level, with the quality of most jewelry falling somewhere
in between. Due to consumer demands for inexpensive jewelry
and pressure on jewelers to complete jobs as fast as possible,
the quality often approaches or even falls within the unacceptable
range.
It
is not easy to know where to draw the line between acceptable
and unacceptable craftsmanship. However, if you start examining
jewelry for the good- and bad-quality characteristics listed
in this chapter and comparing excellent pieces with average
or poor pieces,
Normal
for several
Patterns
are intentionally
Ring
that meets
Die-struck
mounting
Aesthetically
pleasing appearance
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