If you have not yet met a diamond slice, then you are in for something extraordinary. This angular slice I chose for the delicate, intricate and almost snowflake like fractured carbon feathering captured inside. It's so beautiful. Diamond slices were the first diamonds to turn me from a diamond industry hater, to a true diamond lover... they duck out of the whole "Four C's" conversation, and defy any snobbery of color and clarity, in fact they relish in being the very opposite of the quintessential "flawless" stone. Diamonds are an extraordinary stone. They are the strongest of the bunch and have an unfathomable history. In order for a diamond to exist, an immense process has to take place… and a few billion years. Carbon Molecules are trapped about 100 miles beneath the earths surface, and exposed to extreme heat and pressure - about 1500 degrees Celsius or 2700 Fahrenheit to be precise- and about 725,000 lbs per square inch of pressure - to put that in perspective, it’s the equivalent of over 4000 grown men standing on your foot. This heat and this pressure change the structure of the common CO2 atoms, and form a diamond. That still leaves them 100 miles beneath the earths surface however. We owe it to volcanic eruptions that explosively catapult our coveted treasures to the earths surface in magma, which layers up and cools into the rocks that we now mine for diamonds. It's no small feat. And a diamond slice shows it's story. These slices start as large, highly included and/ or opaque rough diamonds, that are sliced using a laser into slices 1-3mm thick, the surfaces polished and sometimes mildly faceted near the edges, with the edges left rough as the natural stone was found. They are dainty shards of mottled and intriguing, glass like slices, containing their own little galaxies of a story, each one being completely unique to the next, and they sparkle like the diamonds that they are! I hand pick each slice individually, seeking out slices of light and reflection, with something striking about them. I will sift through hundreds of stones to find my few and won't work with anything I am not in love with. I then immerse them in wax and create either facets or texture around them, designed move with the natural shape of the stone and then set it to cast, another process of heat and pressure where anything can happen, the result being these glittering shards of history framed in delicate gold frames. I use very dainty 14kt diamond cut chain that is both delicate in appearance yet strong, and sparkles with all its faceted and reflective edges. I spent two years sourcing the right chains and am in love with these. They have three jump rings for the clasp, allowing the chain to be worn at three different lengths, 14, 15 and 16 inches. No two stones are ever the same. If you would like to see several stones and available pieces please email me at [email protected] or DM me @TERNYC and I would be delighted to show you! JM x
