Colored Diamonds and Colored Gems
Browse Loose Diamonds
The possibilities for purchasing fine jewelry pieces includes more than traditional
white diamond jewelry alone. Diamond jewelers commonly carry a wide selection of
pieces featuring any number of colored diamonds and precious colored gems. These
styles provide more options to reflect your mood, compliment a particular outfit
or suit personal color preferences.
Colored diamonds
When thinking of diamond jewelry, many assume choices are restricted to pieces featuring
colorless or white diamonds. This is not the case, however. Over 300 naturally occurring
colored diamonds have been identified. Of these, there are subtle variations of
shade for any one color. The possibilities are virtually limitless. In fact, colored
diamonds come in a rainbow of colors ranging from pink to black and practically
any shade in between.
When considering colored diamonds, it is important to understand the difference
between treated and naturally occurring color. There is a great difference in quality
between these stones. Treated or artificial colored stones can be entirely man-made
or can be manufactured from a natural diamond of inferior quality. Naturally occurring
colored diamonds, as the name implies, have no manmade elements, are more rare and
are of superior quality. When investing in diamond jewelry, it is always preferable
to select naturally occurring colored diamonds.
Precious and semi-precious gems
Like colored diamonds, colored stones are available in every shade of the spectrum.
These stones boast bright, dazzling colors as well as more subdued shades. Jewelry
designs featuring colored stones can be as captivating and sophisticated as any
diamond jewelry.
Both precious or semi-precious gems are available as colored stones. In addition
to the diamond, precious stones are the sapphire, ruby, and emerald. These stones,
as the name implies, are difficult to come by in nature. They are popular for their
striking colors of blue, red and green, as well as the quality of the stone. Sizable
precious stones with truly good color are very rare. For this reason, natural gems
with small imperfections or synthetic precious gems are common in jewelry designs.
Semi-precious colored stones include any gem other than a diamond, sapphire, ruby
or emerald. These gems are available in all shades of the spectrum and can add a
splash of color to any piece of jewelry. Although there are many types of stones
in every color, commonly used semi-precious colored stones include :
- brown – tiger’s eye
- yellow – citrine
- turquoise – aquamarine
- red – garnet
- blue – lapis
- green – jade
- black – black onyx