Diamond Devotees
David Adams
The Age
February 21, 2007
Diamonds might well be a girl's best friend but ask any diamond expert and they'll tell you, when it comes to quality, it's all about the four Cs - cut, colour, clarity and carat.
"Different people you'll talk to will place different emphasis on each of those Cs," says Katrina Marchioni, a diamond expert who works for Trewarne Fine Jewellery in South Melbourne.
"As far as I'm, concerned, the carat weight is optional because that's the size that people want, but after that the cut is most important because if it's not cut correctly, it's not going to be brilliant. The whole idea, to me, of selling a diamond is to give the receiver pleasure ... and it's not going to do that if it's not well cut."
Ms Marchioni, who entered the jewellery industry about 30 years ago, spends her days buying, grading, sorting and selling diamonds.
Ms Marchioni says she enjoys working with something that people are buying for pleasure: "They're just an intriguing, beautiful gemstone."
Olivar Musson, national spokesman for the Diamond Guild of Australia and part of the family behind Sydney-based diamond merchants Musson, couldn't agree more.
"I think the main attraction with diamonds is a diamond is regarded as the pinnacle of gems - it's the brightest, the most brilliant, roughly the most valuable," he says. "There's also such a mystique about the stone."
Most diamonds are mined, cut and polished overseas before being imported (Australia's Argyle Diamond Mine in the Kimberley is, incidentally, the biggest producer of natural diamonds in the world).
Estimates suggest there are several thousand people working in Australia's diamond industry in everything from wholesaling to diamond grading and those who sell them in a retail settings, although many of the latter will also work with other gemstones as well as diamonds.
While many who work in the business are paid retail award rates, it's more difficult to put a figure on the sort of money people at the top end of the business can earn.
Companies that specialise in diamonds may be invited to join the Diamond Guild, which has 27 member companies.
Members must have a reputation "above reproach" and their proprietors have a minimum level of training to join.
"(The Guild) was developed because we saw the industry was copping a bad name from a few people who were operating in a bad way," says Mr Musson.
The Gemmological Association of Australia - which has just under 2000 members Australia-wide - offers several training courses for people wanting to work with diamonds.
They range from the short introductory and advanced diamond grading courses through to more formal and longer courses such as two-year, part-time Certificate IV in Gemmological Studies and a one-year, part-time Diamond Technology course. Those who wish to become valuers may also undertake the Registered Jewellery Valuer's Course so long as they have five years' industry experience.
One of the most respected diamond experts in the country, Garry Holloway is the principal of Garry Holloway Diamonds - a diamond retailer that is also involved in other aspects of the diamond trade such as supervising diamond cutting in factories overseas.
Noting that diamonds are the most important gemstone in the jewellery industry in Australia (while diamonds account for 80 per cent of his business, he says they typically make up 30 per cent of business in an average jewellery store), Mr Holloway suggests that anyone wanting to work in the industry would be well-served to enrol in a course at the Gemmological Association before approaching companies like his.
A former geologist who has developed a number of tools for working with diamonds, he says that one of the things he enjoys most about the work is that he continues to be challenged mentally.
"Today, I spend most of my time actually working with and studying diamonds ... so for me that's the challenge - how do we maximise the beauty of every diamond that gets cut out of every piece of rough diamond," he says. "Of course, at the moment, there's a long way to go."