Scientists who are trying to achieve the quality that natural diamonds exude, have met with little to no success. Even though the process of mining diamonds is not an easy one, naturally mined diamonds have an industry as big as $80-$100 billion. Diamonds are all the way more precious as it is used in rings creating an eternal bond of love – engagement rings. No doubt we can say that now, there are more refined processes in the recent years for manufacturing man-made diamonds. The level of extreme pressures and temperatures beneath Earth’s core creating natural diamonds can now be stimulated with developed and advanced machinery and manufacturing processes.
In 2011, Lindsay Reinsmith and Jason Payne were getting married and were in search of the perfect diamond ring, just like any other couple. But they ran into a big time problem, a sort of a first-world environmental problem. The couple, who were not comfortable using mined diamonds, wanted something more vegan, ethical, and sustainable for their engagement ring.
Reinsmith knew that tracking the origin of natural diamonds would become a boiling process. But she also wanted to make sure that the gem used in her engagement ring did not have any human rights issue or environmental damage issues related to it. This led the couple to set on a quest searching for perfect man-made diamonds. Eventually, they understood that this was a difficult feat.
What next? Well, the couple then decided to create their own man-made gems, and thus Ada Diamonds was born. Ada Diamonds is set up in Sunnyvale selling customized jewelry created by using man-made diamonds; basically, it is the baby of a power couple who preferred conflict-free diamonds over mined ones.
Ada Diamonds- Reinsmith and Payne’s Baby grown out of Love
This diamond couple creating man-made gems strongly believes that fresh new ideas aided by powerful technology can certainly revitalize the gem industry. Jason Payne says that his baby- Ada Diamonds offers meaningful diamond jewelry to the world by offering a combination of innovative designs, superlative craftsmanship, and cutting-edge technology.
Named in the honor of Countess Ada Lovelace, this company created by the husband-wife team operates like a premium Champagne house. It selects the crème-de-la-crème from the supreme diamond growers worldwide and creates all its elite jewelry in the United States.
The power couple promises to brighten the world, not just the customer’s world. This man-made diamond business launched in September 2016 with more than 100 bridal and fashion pieces of the collection. This ranged from a variety of simple pendants and studs to even the most intricate premium jewelry. Ada Diamonds offers a unique, almost online, high touch concierge program wherein the jewelry is made-to-order for the clients and the collection is fully bespoke.
Diamond Couple’s Signature Lavoisier Process
Lavoisier process is the company’s signature process wherein an individual can supply ‘donor’ material to Ada diamonds, as most of the physical objects contain ‘carbon’, the keystone ingredient for creating truly bespoke diamonds. The company sends a small graphite container, which is known as ‘crucible’. You can fill the crucible with anything that you like. Customers’ crucibles are filled with various items ranging from fabric, wood, baby teeth, ashes, corks, flowers, photos, to even locks of hair. Now isn’t that something really interesting?
After this, the crucible goes through a process through which the contents are ‘cooked’ down into pure carbon. This carbon is then placed into a high-pressure and high-temperature diamond press. This whole process can take up many weeks for the final output, and it is twice the rate in comparison to any other regular lab-grown diamonds. Yet it almost 20 percent less expensive compared to a diamond mined from the crust of the Earth.
Moreover, as Ada diamonds work with their clients on an individual basis for creating intricate pieces of jewelry, it can cater to demands and exact specifications like clarity, carat weight (up to 5 carats), colors and even the cut. Given the highly advanced technologies, the white diamonds of Ada have comparatively fewer defects and impurities than Earth mined diamonds. Also, they have almost the same crystal structure, optical and physical properties, and chemical compositions as mined diamonds. In fact, they are even 99.999 percent pure carbon which makes them stronger, brighter, and of course whiter than most of the mined diamonds from Earth’s crust.
So, all the lovers and safe environment advocates, now you know which diamond is apt for your dream proposal, don’t you?
Quality? Zero Compromise!
Payne says that there are some reasons due to which these custom-made diamonds are a tad-bit expensive. Processing and purifying the donor materials to high-purity graphite have additional fixed costs attached to it. Additionally, as the novel materials are introduced into the growing cells, the growth cycle failure rate also increases. So, more growth cycles are necessary to make sure that the rough diamond is properly grown which can satisfy the request of their customer.
Moreover, it is necessary to cut the rough diamonds according to the specifications of the customer. This can lead to the need of discarding almost 75 percent or more weight of this rough diamond.
Payne and Reinsmith do not believe in compromising and this why they take utmost care of each creation be it custom-made jewelry or their featured collections. Payne says that they can create anything that their customers’ can imagine.
A Luxurious Connection
This power couple has not just given high-end bespoke diamonds to the world but also created custom jewelry for premium automobiles like the Rolls Royce and Koenigsegg. Ada has created bespoke custom jewelry especially for Rolls and named this collection the ‘RR’ collection. It includes dainty diamond necklaces and earrings for women and exquisite diamond tie pins and cufflinks for men. It also supports this automotive’ events by styling product specialists at auto shows, photo shoots, and other such happenings.
Another high-end automotive car, the Koenigsegg Agera RS sports car which is named ‘Naraya’ featured Ada diamonds. Inlaid in 18-karat gold, 155 yellow lab-grown diamonds created the unique nameplate for this supercar. It also went on to bag the top honor at 2016’s Salon Prive Supercar Show, which was held in Blenheim Palace.
Featured collections from the power couple’s abode like lab include- Bridal (really, this does not need any description), Ada (bringing creations of skilled jewelry artists from the world to life), Daily (a collection designed for the weekends or workplace), Delicate (petite designs at $500 for special occasions, any achievements, or holidays), Strong (bold rings, necklaces, and other accessories made totally out of microscopic diamonds), and Signature (well, certainly Ada’s premium impeccable designed jewelry made out of the best diamonds on earth). With an array of such exquisite collections, confusion is bound to happen while selecting the perfect piece of jewelry.
Breaking Apart From Mined Diamonds
Is the world going to accept lab-grown diamonds with as much love as it exudes towards the mined counterparts? Well, that remains to be seen. But there are certainly a few noticeable points that we can throw light on. It can be considered a victory in a real sense for human rights, environment, and diamond supply chain transparency with the lab-grown diamonds. The process of mining natural diamonds is of course energy intensive and also invades the ecological systems. Not only that, it also affects fragile ecosystems of the globe.
Whereas, diamonds grown at this power couple’s lab are sustainable and vegan, meaning they are conflict-free and manufactured in controlled environments. Also, customers can be rest assured about the origin of Ada’s bespoke jewelry. These distinctive pieces of intricate jewelry are created very much in our nation itself, with the help of advanced technology, brilliant artistry, and harmless raw materials. Well, it definitely protects the environment along with costing lesser than its natural counterpart, and it does not even fail to deliver spectacular pieces of jewelry for any occasion.
Regarding the future of lab-grown gems, Payne believes that it is not necessary to displace or move the natural diamond-mining industry. He says that the most important aspect is improving the size and purity of such lab-made diamonds, that too for scientific and computational purposes. He says that a time will come some years down the line when a transition of computer chips being fabricated on such lab-grown diamond wafers in place of silicon wafers will happen.
Even though it takes years for lab-grown diamonds to disrupt the natural diamonds’ market, this power couple is progressing towards a rock-solid future beyond any doubts.
