Spring has sprung! Well, sort of/kind of, at least. Many parts of the country are still inexplicably experiencing some holdover winter weather. (That seems to be a drum we’ve been beating here for a while now. Come on, spring, do your thing already! Let’s see some blooming!) But we’re now well into April, which means it’s time to celebrate all of our April babies out there and talk about your birthstone: diamonds!
April babies really have it made in the shade, don’t they? What woman wouldn’t want their birthstone to be the diamond? None that we can think of. Diamonds are a girl’s best friend, as they say, and they’re a perfect gift for the special woman in anyone’s life. But that’s doubly true if you happen to have a birthday that falls in April.
The name “diamond” is derived from the Greek word “adamas,” which means “invincible.” It’s an apropos name for something that’s said to last forever.
Interestingly, diamonds are technically just another form of graphite, albeit a far more popular and valuable one. Both stones are crystalline forms of pure carbon, but they differ as a result of the way the carbon atoms in each are bonded together. Diamonds have tightly knit networks of carbon atoms held securely in four directions, which makes them the hardest natural substance on the planet. Graphite, on the other hand, has carbon atoms that are laid out in sheets that easily slide past each other. That makes graphite ideal as a substance for lubrication or for use in pencils.
Diamonds, as you’re no doubt aware, are used for quite a different purpose: jewelry. It’s great to have that distinction, too, because it would have been pretty strange to have been told back in high school to take out a number-two diamond pencil for completing Scantron tests. The radiant brilliance of diamonds would have been a bit odd in the tip of a pencil, but their beauty looks right at home set in necklaces, earrings, bracelets, rings, brooches, etc.
Found in alluvial deposits when gravel gets swept away by streams, ocean currents, glaciers and rivers, diamonds are crystals, making them the most symmetrical thing found in nature. When they’re discovered in nature, however, they often look somewhat less than impressive. Craftsmen cut and polish diamonds into desirable patterns that reflect and refract light in such a way as to give off the beauty we’ve come to expect of the stones.
Dating all the way back to antiquity, diamonds have been objects of intense admiration and desire ever since they were first discovered. They were formed a hundred miles underneath the ground you’re standing on over a billion years before you ever stood on it. Kind of crazy to think about, isn’t it?
The ancients said much about the stones in the folklore they passed down over the ages. Some of these stories even claimed that diamonds were created not through the subterranean process science has since identified, but instead when lightning bolts struck rocks. That’s certainly a more exciting explanation, even if it was obviously completely fabricated.
In addition to being symbolic of eternal love and invulnerability, diamonds are also thought to serve as symbols for health and abundance. Both men and women have worn diamonds as symbols for eternal love for hundreds of years. Today, of course, they are still prized the world over and are more often than not given as part of engagement proposals.
So popular are diamonds that they have their very own system for determining their worth. Created by the Gemological Institute of America around the midway point of the 20th century – astoundingly, there was no standard in place for evaluating diamonds before that time – the Four C’s (Color, Clarity, Cut and Carat Weight) are used today to prescribe specific values to diamonds. The system has proven so popular and effective that it has been adopted worldwide.
Diamonds are most commonly available in their colorless variety, which also happens to, of course, be the favorite of many women. However, the stones actually come in a variety of beautiful colors. Black diamonds have dark inclusions that give them a black-ish, ominous appearance. Yellow diamonds are the most common variants and get their color from nitrogen contained within the stones. Blue diamonds are filled with boron, which affects the gems’ conductivity. And that’s just the start: the gemstones also come in pinks, oranges, purples, reds, browns and greens.
One final property of diamonds that often gets overlooked is how expensive they can be. It’s easy to get yourself into debt trying to acquire the perfect diamond to give as a gift. That’s why many turn to Birkat Elyon’s affordable cubic zirconia jewelry as an alternative. Our cubic zirconia jewelry is as gorgeous as the real thing, but can be had for a fraction of the cost.