How to choose a piece of diamond

Every diamond lover should learn how to choose a piece of diamond. Most people have at least heard about the 4Cs in choosing a piece of diamond, although the inner intricacies are only appreciated by a few. In this post, I shall explain how I choose diamonds for my designs, and what advice I can give for anyone interested in buying a piece of carat size diamond.

The problem with every customer is Given a limited budget how should I choose the best piece of diamond available?

The price of diamonds differs in regard to their 4Cs: carat (How large is it?), clarity (How much inclusions are there inside?), color (How white is it?) and cut (How does it compare with the ideal brilliant cut?)

With the same budget, you can buy a larger diamond with many inclusions, with brownish shade in color, and without much shine, or you can buy a much smaller one with no inclusion (we call internal flawless), the whitest D color and the best cut (triple brilliant). In between there lies all decisions. And such decision ultimately depends on your knowledge and your objective.

Take knowledge for example. You have to know where the inclusion lies to see how much it will affect the design of the piece of jewelry. And can the particular design hide the inclusion? The same clarity grading will often times mean quite different things. A discerning eye on beauty is needed here.

Another example. Choosing the right color involves decision not only on the carat stone. If you are thinking of designing a piece with complementary smaller diamonds (which is usually the case!), make sure that your designer or jeweler can support you with small diamonds of similar color grade. You don't want a D color Internal Flawless (IF) carat stone flanked by H color SI stones - all have to go well together.

The cut of diamond is responsible for its brilliant and shine. It is not given by nature but done by human being - a skilled diamond cutter. Nowadays most round diamonds are cut as brilliant cut. It was first developed by Tolkowsky in 1919, but the modern brilliant cut was gradually developed and generally accepted after World War II. The best brilliant cut will give the best shine.

My advice is therefore buy the diamond with the best cut that you can afford. It really doesn't matter if you have chosen a stone with D color and IF clarity, if it is not well proportioned, you will forever have a dull, lifeless looking diamond. Moreover diamond cut appreciation is acquired taste,  You may not be able to differentiate the effects of different cuts if you are new to diamond. A piece of diamond is not a consumable item, when it is set into a beautiful design, you will begin to become its fan and gradually you will learn to appreciate how good (or how not so good) your diamond cut is.

A final word on objective. Is it your first piece of diamond or are you thinking of buying it as part of your legacy? If you have the former objective, a "mass-market" stone of average price can serve your purpose, but you have the latter objective, the most affordable high quality stone should be your best choice.

The proportion of brilliant cut diamonds

Art and craftsmanship

Today a student without the necessary craft skills can enter an arts school. He (or she) may not be able to draw when he is accepted, and he may still does not know how to draw when he leaves arts school. Rightly or wrongly creative and conceptual thinking has become the main criterion in the enrollment process as well as in the teaching curriculum. Though after leaving arts school, an arts student still has to pick up whatever craft skills that are needed for his career. After all he cannot become a creative director on day one!

Not so in the old days. Most if not all painters in the Renaissance had to make a living taking on painting jobs, most from the nobility. We call them artistic paintings nowadays, but their patrons bought them or commissioned the jobs for the rendered superior craft skills. It was not uncommon for famous painters during that period to prepare certain colors by themselves. And it would only be reasonable for a painter to keep those particular color ingredients as his trade secret, so that he could render his paintings differently from other painters in the trade. To be good at his trade, a painter had to deliver a better painting through better craft skills using better supplies and tools. Those master pieces that could stand the test of time will be those that were better both in terms of craft skill and creativity.

Recently I read about the story of late famous Chinese painter Qi Baishi (齊白石). His paintings are now periodically auctioned worldwide at astronomical prices. Master Qi's paintings demonstrably delivered superb craft skills and he therefore asked for higher prices for his paintings then his contemporaries. And like all clients, his clients liked to bargain for a better price. There are many stories about the business side of this famous painter.  For example it was said that when his clients entered his old studio in Beijing, they would first see a big sign: "I charge my paintings irrespective of friendship. Please respect yourself and pay according to my stipulated prices without bargaining" 賣畫不論交情，君子自重，請照潤格出錢。

And how did master Qi price his paintings or painting jobs?

There was one interesting story: he charged one dollar for one little chicken. Once a client asked him to paint five chickens and bargained to pay four. It had to be an old or important client, because finally he did paint five little chickens for him - with the last one half-hidden behind a tree!  Similarly he had a fixed charge for each shrimp. And when an old client begged him to paint one more for him. He finally agreed and painted one more for him. All shrimps looked lively and energetic except this last little one. "I will give this one for you free, because it is already dead", master Qi said.

Master Qi Baishi painting at his studio in Beijing

Unique gem-stone: Sparkling opal

As a brand jewelry designer, I have the most freedom to create my collections every year. But like any jewelry designer, sometimes I will be fascinated by some unique gem-stones, and will create a new collection out of them. One example is my New age opal collection that was inspired by a lot of faceted opals that one of my Brazilian gem-stone cutters brought to me a few years ago. "Sabina, look at these sparkling opals, do you like to create a collection out of them?" Opals are usually opaque. I was intrigued by these sparkling ones.

After negotiating a reasonable price for these stones, I start doing my designs. By the way, as a designer, I also need to put myself in the shoes of my final customers, can they afford the prices of the stones that my stone dealers ask? On the other hand, I must also make a meaningful purpose from my suppliers so that they will be glad to bring me more interesting stones in the future. Having taking account of the softness of the stones, and their rarity, I created my New Age collection, and below is one of the Opal rings that I created, set with Opal, diamonds and colored sapphires.

Green G. - New age Opal ring

Gift-giving and fine jewelry

Fine jewelries are very personal. Watches are bought by brand, jewelries are bought to reflect a person's taste and personality. Sometimes that makes it difficult to buy a piece of jewelry as a gift. And the factor of culture also comes into the picture.

In Italy, a man buys jewelries for his lover or wife. About 70% of jewelries in Italy are bought by men for women.  Why? Because Italian men believe themselves to be romantic. I should know the taste and personality of my lady! So claimed the Italian men. Perhaps it is true. Italian women do not complain!

In Japan it is different. A Japanese man may buy a ring with a big diamond for his lover or wife. And she will be happy. But for designer pieces, the Japanese lady will take time to walk around the jewelers first. She has ample time for this important task because usually she will be a full time housewife. Then when the occasion comes, such as an anniversary, she will tacitly give hint to her lover or husband, which shop and which piece she likes.

American women like to buy jewelries by themselves. If she is a working lady, she will buy her own jewelry. If she is a full time housewife, she will indicate exactly what kind of jewelry she expects to get. Her lover or husband does not need to have any guess work.

Gift-giving for mothers or grandmothers is different. It is quite similar across cultures. A son or daughter usually choose diamond or colored gem stone in classic design with good craftsmanship. It is believed that the older generation prefer something of lasting value and not too fashionable. No complaint from the Mom too. She will be most delighted to receive any gifts from her children. Always no complain, as all good Moms do!

My all time classic Prestige Rose

Design and technical skills

Today's graphic designer must have a good working skill of professional creative software like Adobe's Creative Suite. Adobe tells us that the minimum Design Standard suite consists of the following pieces of software:

1. Photoshop: A pixel-based software that can do amazing things for images but is limited by the number of pixels in the original image.  As a result, it is most appropriate for photo editing (the amateur version is Photoshop Elements, or even an iPhone can do elementary photo-editing)
2. Illustrator: A vector-based software for images.  The benefit is that the image can be enlarged without losing its resolution, for more flexible output as well as for more detail editing, like a designer can zoom in as much as he wants without losing the details.  The core tool for the graphic designer.
3. Adobe In-Design: A vector-based software with lower functionality when compared with Illustrator but has added features for creating complex book layouts as well as for making PDF presentation.

Our architecture, our fashion designer, and, of course, our jewelry designers, all have to be proficient in their respective technical skills.  And things had not been different in the past.  During the period of the  Renaissance, when it was finally fully open or legit to paint personal portraits for the common people, painters and artists had to compete among themselves to win the most lucrative clients.  With the supporting industries like pigments manufacturing still budding, to deliver what markets called a unique selling point, painters in the 14th and 15th centuries oftentimes had to prepare special colors from natural ingredients by themselves, and keeping such formula as secret as today's Coke formula.

With progress in division of labor, in today's established design studios, some specialists will only be responsible for editing photos while others will only do vector-based graphic designs.  The art director may not be proficient in any technical skills but he will certainly need to be knowledgeable about their capabilities and therefore can instruct his subordinates to venture into solving technical design problems.  Such problems that he believes able to be solved, although he may be less than technical to solve the problem himself.

In today's jewelry workshop, a special-purpose telescope for micro-setting small gem-stones is a must.  A jewelry design like me need not (and usually not) be able to do the job as good as the best craftsman, but surely we must be able to create great designs that can challenge the technical skills of our best stone-setters.  In all industries, good designs usually demand the employment of the state-of-the-art technical skills.

Telescope for micro-setting gem stones

Harmony and Design

When we designers speak of Harmony as a design principle, we usually mean a good design is expected to have all its parts fitted together aesthetically, or organically, resulting in delivering a focal point of interest in completion. Any element that does not contribute to the integrity of the whole shall be taken away. As with all endeavors involving human, it has to fit in with the taste of a discerning viewer, the reasonable man of our legal assumption. As such, the harmony principle faces the following areas of complications which unfolds itself when facing the taste of a discerning or knowledgeable human subject.

Firstly, too harmonious a design will be boring. Like music, when all the melody notes come from harmonious Major and Minor Chords, the piece will be sweet, but will become boring hearing it a few times. We need notes to generate dischord at the right time, to deliver surprise and suspense, in order to give us more lasting aesthetics. A designer job is the same as a musician, to create element of dischord to drive away the monotony of an expected comfort.

Secondly, people have changing taste within the definition of harmony, or people define harmony-in-practice differently. In the era of Kings and Queens, Prince and Princess, elaborate decorations would be considered to be harmonious designs. Beginning from the era of Bauhaus on the 1920-30s, in response to the immense possibility of mass manufacturing, people started to appreciate designs with the barest elements to define a new design. In our modern world in which the spirit of free choices runs supreme, designers have almost infinite freedom to tailor their designs to an increasing number of commercially viable niche markets.

Thirdly, the fast pace of the modern world makes people getting bored even more easily. Previously unacceptable disharmony become harmony, and designers are trying newer and newer approach to test and to extent the taste of the consumers. Music is one area where creativity runs at a wild pace. With the modern sound synthesizer, undreamed of sounds (chord, dischord or noise depending on one's taste) are being made everyday, some will forever be considered as noise, and some will be included into the main stream harmonic sound one day - becoming an acquired taste through frequent exposure!

Below is one of my Shangri-La ring, with the well-balanced centre stone set within the garden of a natural habitat of flora and funa, a mixture of chord and dischord. A lasting piece of art.

Sabina Lee - Shangri-La ring

Artist as cultural historian

When we visited museums around the world, we revisited our own culture or cultures of other peoples and nationalities, some of these cultures may be still living and flourishing, whereas, sadly, others may have been dead for a long time, on the latter the Inca culture comes into my mind. Oftentimes the artifacts were practical or decorative items made by the artisans and artists, the better ones were usually commissioned by royalties, or wealthy families who had the luxury to spend on more discerning things in life. Most if not all were not made to be preserved for the cultural heritage of the people. How could Mona Lisa have imagined her portrait would become the most important piece in Louvre today!  When things were unexpectedly heading towards the wrong direction, people would be too busy fleeing or fighting for their lives, and artisans would likely to be drafted as a last resort! One major exception to this order-of-thing is the Chinese scroll painting masterpiece: Along the River During the Qingming Festival - 清明上河圖。 It was meant to become a cultural heritage when it was painted. Let's first look at how it was being introduced in Wikipedia:

"It is a panoramic painting by Song Dynasty artist Zhang Zeduan (1085–1145). It captures the daily life of people and the landscape of the capital, Bianjing, today's Kaifeng, from the Song period. The theme celebrates the festive spirit and worldly commotion at the Qingming Festival, rather than the holiday's ceremonial aspects, such as tomb sweeping and prayers. The entire piece was painted in hand scroll format and the content reveals the lifestyle of all levels of the society from rich to poor as well as different economic activities in rural areas and the city. It offers glimpses of period clothing and architecture. As an artistic creation, the piece has been revered and court artists of subsequent dynasties have made several re-interpretive replicas. It is considered to be the most renowned work among all Chinese paintings and it has been called 'China's Mona Lisa.'"

The artist (張擇端) was a top royal painter of the (North) Song Dynasty. He spent 10 years to complete the painting. Apparently he was either commissioned directly by the Emperor himself or had obtained his royal approval in undertaking this time-consumption painting job. For what purpose was the painting meant to fulfill? It was done with a special cultural mission. The Song Dynasty was the most prosperous, most civilized and most cultural country in the whole world in those days. Scholars from far away places went to the capital to study the classics and her cultural heritage, so much so, some foreigners, after obtaining outstanding results in the nation-wide open examination organized by the Emperor, became high-ranking mandarins. The idea of doing the scroll painting was to immortalize the high culture of the Song Dynasty that the Emperor as well as his mandarins fully understood.

It was unfortunate that Song was then faced with militarily powerful states up North, coveting the resources in Song. First came the downfall of the Northern cities, and the whole administration fled to the South crowning a new Emperor (the old one was taken hostage in the North). A new capital was established in the South of Yangtze, in the city of Hangzhou. Despite military defeat, South Song, as it was called by historians, continued to flourish culturally and commercial, so much so, the Emperor had extra resources to pay hefty ransoms to the Northern invaders annually. And Hangzhou, like the previous capital Bianjing depicted in the painting, continued to become the New York or Paris of the world, culturally and commercially speaking.

The new Mogul power proved to be too ambitious to be satisfied with ransom-taking. After the fall of the South Song Dynasty, the new Mogul Emperor liked the scroll painting so much that he kept it as his treasure in his Royal Palace. And probably because of it, he vowed to recreate the culture as depicted in the painting, whether or not he was successful in doing so is another story. Fate had it that the scroll painting fell into different hands, some of them top painters of their time. And they loved it so much that they imitated it and recreated almost exact copies of the original. So much so, there was the original now in Beijing's National Musuem, and the the best copy (painted in Qing Dynasty) was also considered a natitional treasure at Taipei's National museum.

Had it not been the beauty of the scroll painting, this important document on China's cultural history, depicting the best cultural city of the civilized world would not have survived up to this day - not one, but two paintings. The following video is on scroll painting number two, a cultural treasure in Taipei's National Museum.

Pattern – the mother of all designs

Everybody can make his or her own pattern using the simplest of software like a Photoshop Elements. You draw a line-shape on paper, scan it, open your Photoshop, rotate it, say 45 degree left, to make two different shapes, add color to the enclosed areas, duplicate your two colored shapes, and finally arrange them to fill out the space. Now you have created your own unique pattern.

For famous patterns, in Hong Kong, one does not need to go all the way to mention Andy Warhol’s repeating Marilyn Monroe or Campbell Soup. Calligraphy graffiti by late self-proclaimed “King of Kowloon” Mr. Tsang Tsou Cho made his famous patterns around the city for years, and the one in Tsim Sha Tsui Ferry Pier is now protected as monumental. His first major commercial recognition came when Sotheby's auctioned a board, painted by Tsang, for HK$55,000 on October 31, 2004. Pattern is for everybody.

We see patterns every day when we open our eyes in the morning, our pillow, bed sheets, our wall papers and our pajama. It is the key element in fashion design, in some product design, in our environmental decoration. Many fashion apparels are chosen just because of the more attractive pattern of their fabrics. Kids select their own snowboards and helmets by comparing different patterns. In a cosmopolitan city like Hong Kong, hoardings in construction works, in particular those of shopping arcades, are oftentimes decorated with attractive patterns, making an otherwise unsightly site looks interesting, and any inconvenience to the pedestrians made more bearable. Pattern is the mother of all designs.

Designers give us many patterns, nature gives us more. The black and gold spotted coat of a leopard makes her sexy, whereas the two black patches surrounding her eyes make the giant panda lovely. The variety of multicolored patterns of marine lives in coral reefs is a major reason behind an average citizen's effort towards their conservation, and motivated many to spend a day or two taking a short experience scuba diving course for a closer encounter with those colorful living patterns.

I love interpreting nature’s patterns in many of my jewelry designs. For example in my rose-buds ring below, I built a pattern out of a rose bud and its twig.

Sabina Lee - Rose buds ring

Mona Lisa’s smile

Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci is the most famous painting of the Musée du Louvre in Paris. Everyday thousands of viewers were mesmerized by her smile. On extremely busy days, the museum staff steadily ushers viewers past the painting in order to keep the crowds moving at a steady pace. Therefore if you have visualized yourself standing in front of Mona Lisa for hours while contemplating the meaning behind her smile, you would be disappointed. In fact, pausing in front of her is often not permitted because it interferes with crowd control.

Have you, like me, wondered how Mona Lisa managed to keep the same smiling face for days that presumably would have taken Leonardo Da Vinci to finish the painting? What was her inner experience during the time of da Vinci’s artistic creation? And where lies the art of da Vinci, I mean presumably the painting was not just an exact recreation of nature - which can be done much better with today’s photographic technology.

Today, we usually don’t have the experience or luxury of having a painter to paint a portrait for us. When we took pictures for our passport or other photo IDs, we delivered a blank look, trying to conceal any possible inner emotion, lest our inner self might be revealed to an official who might look at it with suspicious eyes one day, our jet-lagged smile might just be interpreted as concealing some sinister secret. And therefore most ID pictures look unattractive and we don’t want to show them to our friends.

When we take casual pictures, like during Christmas parties, we try to deliver the best impression and try to immortalize it onto the mind of future viewers of our picture. I noticed most of my friends’ smile on their social pictures almost look exactly the same, irrespective of the setting, occasion, environment or the mood when he or she was taking the picture. We conceal and we deliver what we believe to be our best image. And some will be proud to tell you that “I look much prettier on camera!” or "People say I'm photogenic" And the speaker will be happy. Which statement can be translated as “I can deliver the best of me when someone takes a picture of me.” And seemingly we have all turned into a modern day Mona Lisa with our best smiling faces. Or is it so? Let's speculate a bit on the psychology of Mona Lisa.

Assuming that we share the same human psychology, I would say that the facial expression of Mona Lisa would have continual subtle changes through the days when her portrait was being painted. She would most likely be fresher in the morning, getting a bit restless as the hours pass, perhaps pondering about the chores on next evening’s dinner when some important guests would be coming over for a casual meal, day-dreaming for nothing in particular…etc etc. What was in her mind at that particular moment would have affected her facial expression subtly. And such subtleties most likely couldn't escape the discerning eyes of the artist. The more the artist could empathize with his human subject as a living passionate person, the more information he would get, and the more likely he would be confused as to how to paint just one image instead of the many images that have impressed on him.

The personal rapport between the artist and his subject is very important for the artistic creation process. Fair to say when a painter/artist did painting job for a fee, he really had no choice, he had to do it good no matter whether he could stir up creative rapport with his human subject. He had to do it right, and better yet, his human subject would like to have himself or herself “Look prettier on canvas”, like our modern photogenic neighbors!

In order to do create something as lasting as the Mona Lisa painting, something more must be there. In my previous post “Look at your loved one the Picasso way”, I discussed Picasso’s approach on seeing and drawing his loved ones. For one thing, Picasso was not selling portraits, and therefore he could have the freedom to choose an artistic technique that he believed could fully deliver his passion towards his human subject. Working within his constraint of having to deliver a good looking realistic portrait, da Vinci had to deliver everything with only one singular perspective. And our painter/artist had to capture every emotion and passion he had with his human subject and deliver it with one singular expression. A facial expression not of a single fleeting moment that will better be captured by a modern camera, but facial expression that captures the eternity of the artist’s passion towards his human subject, recreated through his brushes on canvas.

And that makes the true art of the Mona Lisa painting, same for Leonardo da Vinci, same for other artists doing realistic human portraits.

Mona Lisa

The soft power of the Dragon

Dragon in Chinese culture and mythology has always been said to be a symbol of power, royalty and masculinity. Or is it really so? I tried to find an answer in I-Ching (易經) when I decided to design my Dragon collection. I-Ching is the oldest and most authoritative oracle book in China. Nowadays people continue to read and marvel its wisdom, mostly not so much for its supposed Divine or mythical power, but to the fact that it contains rich elements of Chinese culture. In those day, even the most venerated Confucius spent years studying I-Ching, and elevated it to one of the Five Classics (五經) in his teachings. I-Ching has the following to say on the Dragon in its first oracle, the all solid line Qian (乾) Oracle (my translation from Chinese):

Being the budding dragon, one should stay deep under water and don't show off.

Being with a second stage strength, one shall appear at the field, and fortune will come its way through a good mentor.

Being at level three, one contributes and busily working hard; one should be careful to contribute diligently, but not making big mistakes!

Being at level four, one should be courageous enough to express one's uniqueness and ability in actions.

Being at level five, the Dragon has become a true leader in the sky, and shall meet with other Dragons there.

Being at level six, being one of the best Dragons, one will be lonely and will regret being there!

初九：潛龍，勿用。

九二：見龍在田，利見大人。

九三：君子終日乾乾，夕惕若，厲，无咎。

九四：或躍在淵，无咎。

九五：飛龍在天，利見大人。

上九：亢龍有悔。

The Oracle expressed a most important element of the Chinese culture: Impress upon others only at the right moment and with the lowest possible level of assertiveness appropriate to the situation, even for one as powerful as the Dragon. Power should be softly apply and should be in an approachable style.

Although such wisdom was created in the old Emperor-Dynasty period, it also makes some good sense, perhaps more so, in our modern liberal society, where we have to respect the feelings of our neighbors. It makes good sense to be humble, at the right moment. And it is soft power, rather than hard power. Feminine rather than masculine.

When I designed my Dragon line of jewelry, I tried to figure out a meaningful cultural sub-text of the Chinese dragon, and I concluded: A dragon is to be soft and happy! Here comes my Happy Dragon.

Sabina Lee - Happy Dragon