The diamond, this brilliant object of desire

A different approach to venture further, closer to the essential, in the knowledge of this brilliant object of desire.

The circular shape of the diamond, its fixed and brilliant appearance like the eye of the sphinx, makes that one does not really see a diamond: it stops the glance, fascinates.  Fascinus, Roman word of the Greek phallos, the phallus, real or symbolic, male or female, symbol of desire. One remains stunned in front of it, captivated.

It's an understatement to say that we desire to see. Desire and wanting to see are identical. Our eyes are attracted by what we cannot see. And it is not only with our own eyes that we try to see but with the eyes of others. Desire involves the eyes of the other. Our desire is to see ourselves desired in the eyes of the other.

We do not wear a diamond just for ourselves.  By wearing it, we attract the gaze. To adorn oneself is a way of making oneself present, a gift of oneself, a surrender of one's body to the gaze.

I wear a diamond, therefore I am and also what I want to appear: there is no tribe in the world that does not resort to adornment. There is no jewelry without a state of society, without being among others. The ornament is one of the first manifestations of preoccupations diverging from the simple survival.

By default, exception or choice one can also possess a diamond for oneself and marvel at its imperishable beauty.  Or to be moved with the wise hermit contemplating the strangeness of things, or to approach "the object in itself" in the manner of the scientist (to study the 4 C's...).

... And come to the same conclusions as the wise man because the science of the 4C's is a bit short. There is much more to our representation of what a diamond is. We are never quite aware of what, for each of us, really makes this stone attractive.

Where does the diamond come from? From the beginning of the world. It is linked to Genesis, an indeterminate, achronous, eruptive past. It is the unmistakable sign of a life that was before ours, a preserved testimony of an ever-living Past.

This matter is not inert, but full of energy, of tension (of will); the diamond gives us to see the Origin (the beauty) of the world. "Open your eyes".

There are the "known" 4C's which, provided they are supported by a recognized Certificate, are indispensable as guarantors, protecting us against arbitrariness, guarding us from ignorance and therefore from deception because a price is derived from it.

But beyond the 4Cs of "how", other essential Cs follow and open up, such as that of Culture, of Civilization... which answer the "why" of the diamond.

Culture

The diamond supports us in our need to represent the world, which makes it an object of culture, of artistic creation, of great narratives (that of mythical diamonds, that of the world of diamond dealers: word said, given, kept - reliability of the bonds), of symbolization (stable and structured crystal, solidity and durable, eternal; calming our fears of death, of the instability of everything, allowing a sublimatory exit, offering a possible passage from generation to generation), of sacralization.

The diamond is a place to put what we have as ideals.

Civilization

In the sense of elevation, of height, of advancement towards an ideal state. By creating, shaping or appropriating "ideal states", forms that represent them.

The diamond is a form of ideal.

"Form leads to meaning". From the form emerges the meaning.

Compensatory

It is a trait of our hyper-modern culture to not give time to time. We are in a society where immediacy dominates, which translates into the ephemerality or rapid obsolescence of revered objects, if they are not virtual.

The diamond enters the life forever. When everything passes, the diamond remains.  The eternity of the diamond is truth, it is really the past always present. It responds to the need for continuity, for mutual commitment that stability and reliability of bonds require.

It is the compensation of today. The diamond is time. It holds time. It lasts beyond our term.

The diamond is a symbol and guarantor of bond, alliance, commitment, solidity, which is terribly lacking nowadays.

The current crisis of society is linked to the disruption and the failure or even the collapse of the guarantors without which our capacity to project ourselves in the world cannot develop.

An existential crisis is also the consequence of a disaffection of the sacred, the sublime, the beautiful. Beliefs and myths have been shaken and with them the vital functions that they ensure.

The most beautiful adventure of life is to discover beauty where it manifests itself, to cultivate its taste, to expose it. The diamond is a beautiful, sublime, mythical stone that touches the sacred.

The diamond is a beautiful, sublime, mythical stone that touches the sacred.

The diamond is part of this type of inalienable objects which in the tradition of our societies were transmitted, (the ground cultivated by the ancestors, the house, the family company...) and which confer a statute to that which receives it, which support us in our identity.

There is nothing without heritage, without transmission.

Carat

It is a story of a seed (always in the beginning), the carob seed (name that evolved into carat), fruit of the carob tree cultivated since antiquity, used as a unit of measurement for their size and uniform weight by gold and gem dealers.

The metric carat has since been defined as being equal to 0.2 grams, or 5 carats = 1 gram.

A diamond does not weigh much, but it is the factor that "weighs" most on the price, which is otherwise fascinating in relation to weight. It is because the price of the material is high that diamonds are weighed with precision.

The diamond, a mass of light, cannot be represented. Any representation is below, next to the reality. A loss The representation of the weight? What the eye sees is not the weight, and even less the purity.

Clarity

Purity is defined as the absence of inclusions. Purity grades of diamonds that are pure to the naked eye are measured under 10x magnification. The very high refractive index of the light of diamond and its great power of reflection make the inclusions difficult to see with the naked eye.

VVS, VS, Si ... Things heard, named, but not really seen. Nobody has a magnifying glass for eyes. And no crystal is absolutely pure.

But purity being associated with the idea of the perfection of the diamond, the demand for a good purity, even an IF purity, "Internally Flawless", without a flaw, immaculate, is strong and fits completely into the logic of the diamond signifier.

Purity in diamonds, as in life, is rare, prized and desired.

The choice of a degree of purity "Si" of "Slight Inclusions", "small inclusions" visible with a magnifying glass, requires selectivity, skill, intelligence and tolerance. These inclusions, wrongly considered as defects, arranged according to preferential planes of crystallization, have their beauty, their poetry, and are natural signatures, strengthening the identity of the stone.

The "impurities", by the effect of the retraction and the reflection of the light, remain invisible, inclusions difficult or even impossible to see, because destined to be invisible, out of sight, like the primitive scene, sexuality, destined not to be looked at, pure fascination.

Color: an impurity?

The color of the majority of diamonds in jewelry is "a white", a brilliant white, blinding, secret: we do not see the color, the colorless white is the absence of color, no color ... or rather the sum of all colors giving the white, shades of white ...  It is this hardly graspable quality that fascinates: still something looked at but not really seen.

The shades of white of white diamonds vary from perfect colorless, named "exceptional white" or "D" (Cf. the C of the certificate), to very light shades of yellow: they contain gas atoms present during the crystallization of the diamond, atoms which absorb light and cause a light coloration. In this sense the color is an impurity, although microscopic. Foreign elements "impurities" that give color, from soft white shaded "i" to diamonds of bright colors called "fancy vivid".

White, symbol of purity also, white page ...

Cut

The rough diamond is cut (sexus), carved, cut to perfection, polished, finished for maximum light brilliance, to be fully the fascinus that attracts, illuminates and stops the gaze of the other. This is the importance of the right size.

This is where "the hand of man" comes in. It is also the passage -and the link- from Nature (the rough diamond, the creation at the archaic time, the hand of God?) to Culture (the cut diamond, the hand of man, a work of Civilization and of accession to the sublimation, the art).

The hand of man, and his technological know-how of the day of course. Nothing is more fascinating than the fire of light of a well-cut diamond.

The cut is the variable parameter that will determine the beauty yield of the natural data (carat, purity, color).

The 4 C's together

We recommend a "holistic" approach, which consists of considering each diamond as a whole rather than looking at it in a piecemeal fashion in an approach focused on isolated criteria.

To reconcile breadth of vision and microscope. To give the choice to yourself, to the satisfaction it should bring you, to your history, to let the specific attraction of this diamond and not another one do the work.

Each diamond is unique like each person, and we don't all like the same ones; it's a question of personal preference.  The purist will choose pure IF diamonds, the perfectionist will choose a 3 x excellent stone, the rational person will choose the right balance, the lover of extremes will choose an exceptional white+, the wealthy person will choose the most expensive one, which will be the best value for money, and the lover will definitely choose the most beautiful one, the one from the heart.

It is a question of preferences, of circumstances, helped by a good advice.

Expensive

The poem by Baudelaire, gives the key

"The dearest was naked, and, knowing my heart,
"She had kept only her sound jewels,
"Whose rich attraction gave her the winning air
"Which the Maures' slaves have in their happy days"

The very dear has no price: she is beyond measure, nothing equals her value, a sublime jewel.

Naked wearing only jewels. Jewel known metaphor of the sex. The jewels dress the nudity to make it more visible, more attractive. For this spectator whose tastes she knows well.

Her jewels sound: it is not her, it is her jewels that speak, that make a kind of sparkling commentary on this scene of conquest in one of her happy days, days when she feels like the winner.

The fact that the object of our desires requires effort and sacrifice increases its appeal.

The attraction increases with the price. But is the diamond really worth it?

Not expensive

The diamond is paradoxically the cheapest luxury item because it doesn't wear out, doesn't require maintenance and is eternal. A 0.50 carat G VS2 diamond bought three years ago would have cost you €1.60 per day, the price of a coffee drink, and love is for life.

Not really expensive -everything is relative- and not superfluous: historically the wearing of jewelry, the beauty of the body, is one of the first manifestations of human concerns diverging from simple survival.

Chain (ties, releases)

It is probably true that all jewelry is a form of chain, a ring, a strong bond that attaches you to someone else or to another yourself.

Whoever offers the jewel thus accesses his own liberation. Who receives it and wears it too.  Perhaps it is in this two-way relationship that the meaning of jewelry lies.

"... the victorious air
that the slaves of the Maures have in their happy days...".

Character (liberating)

It is because the diamond goes beyond the universe of constraint, of the reasonable, that it gives access to a realm beyond, without limits. When you put on jewels, writes Simmel,
they give you a "free and princely" character.

Women wear their jewels to charm men, to take them out of their rationality, out of their too narrow universe.

If it is essential to give oneself limits, it is just as important to go beyond them, sometimes to put oneself outside them. The genius of the grain of madness - the aure of the reason - seizes the exceptional.

The jewel, a weapon that emits an aura, that forces the will of those who meet it. With her jewelry, the woman pleases and seduces. Jewelry distinguishes the woman, makes her "remarkable".

Gift

The ritual gifts that take place in all cultures are symbolic because they have a meaning, that of the pact that is instituted. The gift is a language that uses objects instead of words. Giving a diamond to the woman you love guarantees that the message will be received "loud and clear" in any language.

It shackles you, it frees you (as does any gift). You only possess in the gift.

The gift is the supreme act, and even the total social act: in love, the gift is unconditional.

But every gift is followed by contradiction. "Giving-receiving-giving back" is the rule of exchange. What strength is there in the diamond that in giving it so much more is returned to us?

The diamond, the absolute present that aims more to be than to have.

Confidence

Trust is one of the foundations of bonds and alliances. The diamond trade is traditionally based on trust.

It makes it possible to dare and to risk. One does not buy or offer a diamond if there is no trust. It is not a question of credulity or faith, but of reliability.

Circle

The Circle, the circular shape of the diamond, is the symbol of eternal union, a figure without end.

Creed

A humanity without belief is reduced to animality.

The Creed of the Fathers of the Church: religious doctrines are exempt from the demands of reason; they are above reason. It is necessary to feel their truth internally; it is not necessary to understand it.

The "truth" of the 4 C's is not enough to understand the diamond that is above reason: it is a matter of succumbing, of being amazed, of being open to the spirituality of beauty.
We see what we believe.

Quiet

A diamond does not speak, it is silence; like God.

Silence as an effect of truth.

By its minimalist form it corresponds to the prohibition or the impossibility of the figurative representation of the highest.

The diamond expresses what cannot be said.

One cannot explain beauty. Explaining only partially enlightens. The true light comes from what one feels. A silent intelligence that life has of itself.

To listen to the long silence of the diamond to venture into the essential. The overcoming of the 4Cs inevitably comes and then everything is to be discovered.

Forgetting. Silence. Beauty.

Chinese

In the Chinese version, the famous slogan "a diamond is forever" is said: "Zuan shi heng yuan, yi ke yong liu chuan". It is universal: the saying of the slogan is not true by virtue of its enunciation, it is the opposite, it is said because it is true, and this "because" founds the saying, in any language.

"We cross the river by leaning on the stones" (Deng Xiaoping): in eternal China, this stone obviously makes sense.

Consumption

Consumption from the Latin "consumere" to take completely, to eat, to absorb.

The diamond is obviously the opposite of a consumer good.

It is a durable, tangible, non-reproducible good, an investment in spite of itself, clothed with a power over time. To invest from the Latin "investire": to cover, to clothe with a power. Of a power of transmission, of meaning... In this sense, yes, absolutely, well beyond the strictly financial sense "with the objective that it pays". In love, the gift is unconditional, and the relationship unlimited.

One must "have it" to be able to offer it. This confirms the phallic nature of the diamond, as a gift to be appropriated, "taken completely". A consumer good in truth.

Search

Whoever is looking for diamonds should not be afraid. Diamonds are not cut on velvet.

A diamond is hard. (But it melts hearts).

Heart

From the heart of the stones to the heart of life: "one can only see well with the heart, the essential is invisible to the eyes" (Saint Exupéry).

Let us remember the lesson of the Little Prince. The object of our desire does not draw itself. The sheep that he asks the aviator to draw only suits him when he does not see it.

Conscious: Crystallized Carbon

Diamond is a mineral made up of carbon (C) of which it represents the allotrope of high pressure (70 000 kg/cm2), which crystallizes in the Cubic Crystal system.

The diamond crystal is formed by the repetition and stacking in the three directions of space of carbon atoms linked together by very strong and very short bonds. These very strong atomic bonds explain its hardness.

Diamond is the fixation of an atom in a perfect form, with the strongest hardness.

It is the rational, scientific discourse, which undoubtedly has its own poetry.

Crystal formed millions of years ago, remained unaltered, making us go back to the time of the Genesis, to the first meaning, to the universal creative principle, to the original chaos that in the detail of the atoms and bigrement well ordered.

Unconscious

The diamond, born in the morning of the world, memory of archaic time, evokes the beginning -the beginnings of love- at the same time as eternity. Symbol of the beginning, of the eternal, of the indestructible.

It is timeless. As the unconscious that Freud defined as "out of time".

The eternal speech of the unconscious is that of the desire. The diamond answers our indestructible desire.

Certificate

A Certificate, not a certificate of convenience, only those recognized throughout the world in the entire profession: GIA, HRD, IGI.

A recognized certificate, indispensable as a guarantor, protecting you against arbitrariness.

Diamonds benefit from a standard universal grading system that allows us to establish price tables according to their main qualities.

Council

Each diamond is unique, deserves explanation, advice, competence and integrity.

Conclude

It is not in full light, it is at the edge of the shade, in the intimacy, that the diamond confides us its secrecies. The diamond "this obscure object of desire", that we have tried to illuminate, by venturing into the essential.

To give/wear a diamond is to touch the "eternal". There is there: "I give you a part of me, the one that makes it possible that life perpetuates itself", "via (also) this diamond (and not another one) that I give/wear, for ever". We come back to the "phallus", to give, to take.

To give/wear a diamond is to touch the "universal" so particular, so exciting, so intimate of the luxury of a love.

We cross the river, leaning on this stone, an enigma with 57 facets, of a beautiful physical existence, of an unspeakable depth.

Confidence

The object of study that we choose is an autobiographical confession.

The difficulty of knowing oneself can be compared to the hardness of a diamond.

"The things sold still have a soul, they are still followed by their former owner". Marcel Mauss.

So that diamonds still have a soul.