I don’t see why not. In fact, I’ll bet that was the most prevalent kind during their development.
But I see De Beers always running “industry essays” that claim a manufactured gem is less valuable because nobody wants a flawless gem. Obviously self serving in the extreme, because among mined gems “clarity” is one of the key determinates of price.
I assume that the price difference is simply a marketing error on the part of the gem manufacturers, who have less experience manipulating the market.
So, can they match anything natural? Can they put a famed “pink panther” flaw into a gem?
My feeling is that DeBeers is desparately trying to preserve an unethical market. I have heard they have been stockpiling gem quality diamonds for years in order to manipulate the market. Technology will sooner or later be able to replicate every flaw or contaminant and make synthetic gems indistinguishable from natural ones. And why should one care, anyway. Esthetically, the manufactured gemstones will be superior.
This laser etching of natural stones is a crock of shit. Who gives a fuck except for those who have spent $10,000 for a near flawless colored diamond of 1.5 carats. I remember some acquaintance relating his experience of his fiancee rejecting his engagement diamond that had been his grandmother’s.
I told him, that in 20 years, manufactured diamonds would be pretty much the equivalent of mined diamonds and that it would be almost impossible to tell the difference. This did not go over well, but I stand by my statement.
DeBeers has managed to convince millions of American women that a large nearly flawless diamond is worth 2 months of one’s salary. The world will be a better place when DeBeers goes out of business. Nevertheless, I admire their marketing strategy.
The game is pretty much over on the scientific front. Right now, it just remains to be seen how this new generation of synthetic diamonds (which really are no different than mined ones) gets handled by De Beers, the manafactuerers, the Gem associations, and the general public.
There are at least a couple of companies that can make diamonds that match real ones. The one that catches my eye the most is Apollo Diamond here in the Boston area. I am not sure their intent was ever to overtake the De Beers cartel. They often talk about made to order industrial diamonds but they claim they can make almost any diamond they want and have taken subtle shots at the existing monopoly. For now, they inscribe their diamonds because they are impossible to distinguish from mined ones otherwise.
“This enables Apollo to produce a wider variety of colored diamonds–including colorless, pink, blue, honey brown, and even black. Like Gemesis, Apollo inscribes its larger lab-grown gems to aid detection. A combination of spectroscopic methods–including infrared spectroscopy and photoluminescence spectroscopy–can normally be used to distinguish Apollo gems from naturally occurring ones, according to Wuyi Wang, a research scientist at the Gemological Institute of America in New York City [Gems & Gemol., 39, 268 (2004)].”
There’s some truth to that statement. Mr Montdore let me pick out my last birthday present at a jewelry store. I wanted a ring with a colored gemstone. The one I decided on had an inclusion in it. I chose it over other equally attractive rings that had no inclusions because I couldn’t be sure that they were not lab created.
Well, since nobody wants a flawless diamond, I’m sure they’ll reduce the price on this little puppy.
Seriously, who the fuck do they think they’re kidding? They’ve spent years inflating the prices of “flawless” diamonds and now they’re going to 180 and tell us how unique and precious our flaws are - more precious than flawless stones?! Hello…they’re called “flaws”, people! If they had felt that way from the beginning, they’d be called “features”, right? (Not that I personally give a shit - my mother’s diamond has a flaw that’s not visible to anyone without a scope and it’s beautiful, and they chose it because it cost them half what an unflawed stone of that size would. I would have done the same, had I chosen a diamond for my ring.)
They’re as bad a clothing manufacturers who spend all this time and effort emphasizing how flared legs provide balance and flatter our shapes and then try to ram skinny jeans down our throats - only worse, because people don’t spend tens of thousands on jeans or evaluate a loved one’s worth based on them.
Or perhaps just “De Beers”.
Where big money abounds, big tinkering also abounds. They can put the identical markings of natural gems and get them into the market. The Antiques Roadshow shows false maker’s marks every week.
Of course, what counts as a “flaw” depends on who’s asking. A crystallographer would classify a star in a sapphire as a defect, but to a jeweler, a star is an asset (and with good reason: The good ones are very rare and very pretty).
Remember when star saphires were a fad? I had one and they were popular gifts, like mood rings. Most of the star saphires out there are manufactured and look a lot more like tiger’s eye than a natural star saphire.