Do they really look like this?

[Meeshoo]

I don't mean to be negative but I really want an answer to this question .......

Yesterday I had to stay in all day with a sick child and so took the opportunity to watch GemsTV online. Online you get to see still photos of the item being auctioned in the video above it. What I noticed was how dreadful the photos were (especially of diamonds). All the diamonds (even those in Lorique pieces) looked grey, dull, included and lifeless. Ok, I can accept that in the cheaper items the diamonds will be like this (and I bought some diamond pieces from RocksTV when they first started that were exactly like this) but are they really that bad in the more high end items?

If not, then who on earth takes the photos? I know that diamonds aren't the easiest to photograph in the world but surely these photos are a marketing tool? Shouldn't they be good? I'm NOT suggesting tampering with the photos but if the diamonds aren't like this then anybody looking at these photos for the first time (and knows anything about diamonds) won't touch their pieces with a bargepole and that includes the Lorique range. A still shot of one of the Emerald Lorique's shown yesterday is attached - do you see what I mean?

I know that GemsTV and RocksTV are setting diamonds at a lower pricepoint but I've never seen such awful diamonds and if you compare them to TJC's standard range they're a million miles apart. In every single one of the diamond pieces in the diamond hour yesterday the photos were horrific. Ok, you could see they're weren't brilliant "live" either but they certainly didn't look like the coal dust in the photos!

What am I missing?

 

[jacqualina]

I saw the ring in your picture and the emerald did look beautiful. I think Steve said that the diamonds in Lorique pieces are VS quality and they do appear to have a 'twinkle' on tv.
However, one of my major gripes with Gems/Rocks is the quality of diamonds on most of their pieces, which appears to be total rubbish most of the time to me and their almost obsessive use of them. So many items seem to be studded with oodles of teeny weeny murky stones, even pretty stud earrings bizarrely often have one minute diamond attached to them. For me this just spoils the piece by cheapening the look. It's even more irritating when the presenters wax lyrical about the fabulous big stones when it's plain for all to see how heavily included they are and very small to boot.
I would love to see more classic pieces, far more genuine solitaire items and as for their Lorique.... I've never been even remotely tempted by any of the pieces as they are way too ornate for my taste. If I were to spend £3-£5k on a piece, I would want fewer, larger diamonds to compliment the main stone. Hmmm, I seem to be describing TJC Iliana jewellery here!

 

[Sapphireblue]

Hi Meeshoo

I watched Gems yesterday and I agree with your comments about the diamonds.
The Lorique diamonds in your picture looked dull on my TV.
Gems aired two Lorique emeralds that were very similar in style both studded with small diamonds.

byw

I now have channel set DE VVS 7 diamond ring with a good platinum weight made in the UK for a very reasonable amount. Thank you for giving me the confidence to go a get one made up.

Sapphireblue




Sapphireblue

 

[Frazzled]

Answer to Gems Post 18/07/2010 – Diamond quality

"In 9k we have generally been using I1/2 G or H colour. Having said that a lot of pieces also have SI diamonds G or H color. It usually depends on the lead gemstone with 9k and how rare/expensive it is.

With 18k we use a minimum of SI although most of our 18k ranges feature VS E-F colour diamonds.

I will check with our technical team as the info box on the website when a game is on air should tell you these details."


Any questions though please feel free to email me [email protected]

Regards

Sarah Bennett


I don't watch Gems that often but have never personally seen diamonds described as above. Would have thought they would shout it from the rooftops to compete with TJC?

 

[Sacha]

Hi Meeshoo

I watched Gems yesterday and I agree with your comments about the diamonds.
The Lorique diamonds in your picture looked dull on my TV.
Gems aired two Lorique emeralds that were very similar in style both studded with small diamonds.

byw

I now have channel set DE VVS 7 diamond ring with a good platinum weight made in the UK for a very reasonable amount. Thank you for giving me the confidence to go a get one made up.

Sapphireblue

I can guess where you had this made Sapphire as Meesh also very kindly pointed in their direction and had something
very similar to yours made up for me.....:heart::heart:

I also saw a gorgeous and very expensive Lorique on the telly last week and was checking its details on the web (just being nosey!) and was surprised to see how dull it looked, no vibrant emerald green and grey dull looking diamonds....as I 've seen in so many of the pieces shown on their webpage. As you say Meesh, hardly an incentive to buy!

 

[Meeshoo]

I really was trying to give the benefit of the doubt and was hoping that it was just poor photography and camera work but I1 or I2 quality diamonds are the sort of rubbish that you'll find in Argos pieces. Actually, scrap that, you probably find better in their designs! Well, I'm not surprised to hear that these are what's used in the 9k range BUT the other pieces that have SI or VS quality diamonds certainly don't look like they do. Even on screen yesterday in the Lorique pieces they didn't look great. There are two reasons for this, either they're very poor quality SI or VS diamonds OR the colour is wrong.

With SI diamonds you can get eye clean very sparkly white diamonds, then you can get ones that look like coal dust.

I understand the need for cost control but if Lorique is selling at 50% more than other channels for the same thing, then the diamonds really need to match the quality.