Excerpts from "A New Market for Colored Synthetics" : JCK, January, 2001

Synthetic Fancy colored diamonds are not only politically and ecologically correct but also just the ticket for those who want a fancy colored diamond but can’t afford a natural stone, says Alex Grizenko, president and CEO of Lucent Diamonds.

“It’s truly a diamond”, says Grizenko of his fancy synthetics (Ultimate Created Diamonds), reiterating that synthetic diamond is the same substance as natural diamond but made in a laboratory rather than by nature. 

Given the current popularity of colored diamonds, Grizenko is hopeful that his new synthetic stones will create a new diamond market. Who would make up that new market? “Jewelers who look at the marketplace and ask, ‘How is it going to change, and how can I find myself at the right place at the right time when it does change?’” Grizenko says.

Darrel Olson, owner of Jewels by G. Darrell Olson in Phoenix, is one. He recently opened a store in Sedona, Ariz., which has a small population of affluent residents and artists.  Olson is promoting Grizenko’s Lucent Diamonds.

“ We don’t carry any synthetics, other than Chatham emerald, and diamonds are a large part of our business.  We thought we would use the new lab grown, lab-created diamonds to interest the public in coming into the store,” says Olson.  He expects the diamonds to sell.

“It’s a thing of beauty.  They have intense color. You know women are more interested in the beauty.”

Proving Pedigree. The European Gem Lab (EGL) in New York gives Grizenko’s synthetic diamonds complete diamond grading certificates, which include origin. This helps take the jeweler off the front line in terms of risk, says Grizenko, who maintains that jewelers should not “be placed in a position of liability”.

Grizenko acknowledges that for some buyers a certificate won’t matter much. “But jewelers have a wide client base, and for some, it will be important to have a piece of paper from a lab that says what they are admiring is a real diamond.,” he notes.  “It’s critical for the industry to separate the natural from the synthetic, the treated from the non-treated. If products have similar pricing…then it doesn’t matter. But if the natural costs $150,000, and the same fancy color in a created costs $7,000, then it does matter. In order to protect the balance of the industry, you cannot have misrepresentation of the gem.”

“We’re selling beauty in our business,” says Olson. “The expertise will remain the same.  You make your client knowledgeable about what they are buying.  You create the interest for them to come in and look.”  --  Gary Roskin, G.G., FGA

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