Search Colored-Stone.com:

This month's issue

Contact Customer Service

Colored Stone Back Issues

Do U 'C' What I 'C'?

The C1-to-7 color grading system developed for champagne diamonds works equally well with zircons and any other colored stone known for champagne colors and earth tones.

By Raja Shah, Color First, Tampa, Florida

The C1-C7 Color Grading System

I have long maintained that many colored stone species with large arrays of color lend themselves to color communication systems as readily as colored diamonds. While this can be viewed as an attempt at standardization or commoditization of our unique industry, I believe it can also piggy-back on the millions of dollars for promotion and product education that the diamond industry spends annually. Large segments of the trade and buying public have become accustomed to purchasing diamonds with the aid of simple color-classification systems. Rather than spend huge sums it doesn’t have, the colored stone industry can freely harness widely used diamond color-communications systems for its own purposes.

Recently, while discussing this notion with David Federman, Colored Stone's Editor-in-Chief, he asked me—as an experiment—to apply the existing champagne diamond color-grading scale to natural zircon: the colored stone variety that visually resembles champagne diamonds. He said that such a C1 through C7 system developed for brown diamonds nearly 25 years ago had helped to foster a thriving market for champagne diamonds with annual sales of $5Bn. "If you can adapt this scale to colored stones," he told me, "I believe the colored stone industry can develop an equally thriving market."

Federman is of the opinion that applying an easy-to-use color classification system such as that developed for champagne diamonds gives consumers and jewelers a simple basis for comparison and facilitates better communication between suppliers and retailers. "That can only be good for the market," he added.

I told him that natural zircon was the gem most suited for application of such a color communication scale because its hues and appearance were identical to those of champagne (and cognac) diamonds--at a fraction of the cost.

"Prove it," he said, "and we will publish the results in GemMail."

‘C’-ing is Believing
What you are about to see are un-retouched pictures of natural zircon that show how an existing color communication system that is widely accepted for champagne diamonds can be applied to a colored stone variety. Our seven stone series here parallels the seven-stone series that Argyle publicizes and which jewelers around the world regularly use.

Such an existing C1-C7 color-grading system can be easily adapted to any colored stone species that occurs in those colors (e.g., quartzes and topazes). All I am doing here is demonstrating the application of an existing system, and trying to expand the universe of stones that can be thought of when someone asks for a champagne colored gem.

As for those who say, let's invent a completely different system, one that doesn’t borrow from diamonds, I'll quote Federman: "Why re-invent the (color) wheel?"

Feedback is cordially invited.

C1		C2
C3		C4
C5		C6
C7

This was also sent out to our Colored Stone GemMail newsletter subscribers. Want to receive the latest up-to-date information on the gemstone industry? Sign up for our free Colored Stone GemMail newsletter.

e-mail the editors of Colored Stone | About Colored Stone | Sign up for the FREE Colored Stone GemMail newsletter

This site and all of its contents are copyright Colored Stone and Interweave unless otherwise noted.
All articles, photographs, graphics, logos, and trade show floorplans are owned by Colored Stone and may not be reproduced in any form,
in print or in electronic media, without the express written permission of the publisher. Violators will be subject to legal action.