A STORMY RADIANCE, HELLO GRAY DIAMONDS

Clear and colorless, the white diamond has always been prized for its fiery flawlessness. And while we will always love the white diamond, it’s the lesser known, gray diamond that has begun to mesmerize us with its unique characteristics and stormy radiance. 

Pardon if we wax poetic for a second, but when we’re looking at gray diamonds, we can’t help but feel they mirror back truths that hit close to home. Especially in a digital world that praises avatars of perfection, the gray diamond seems to halt us mid-thought. Each gray diamond is filled with subtle variations,  inclusions that some may call “imperfections,” that all collide to form a silky gray. Which, rather than detract from, we feel, add a depth of complexity and true individuality to each gem. For us, a reflection of the unique beauty within each one of us. 

Join us in welcoming gray diamonds to the Starling lineup and read on to learn more about this misty color.  

With the eye seeing up to 500 shades of gray (insert 50 shades joke here…), the gray color can tint nearly every other shade (Daily Mail, UK). The gray colors often appear very different when viewed under average natural daylight versus an artificial light source. Natural gray diamonds are found most frequently in South Africa, India, Russia, Brazil, and Australia, home to the Argyle diamond mine, and are often are tinted by a specific region of color tone. Their lightness extends from very light (smoke) gray, through dark (graphite) gray colors, with their secondary hues and color modifiers including a rainbow spectrum of color.

Not just easy on the eyes, gray diamonds, like blue ones, are semiconductors of electricity - unlike the majority of diamonds, which are non-conductors (The Israeli Diamond Industry  Report). They’re strength and electric capacity even have technology industries like Tokyo Tech vying to use them as “the next power and sensor semiconductor” (Professor Mutsuko Matano). That said, while diving into the world of gray diamonds over the years, we’ve begun to see them as symbols for the raw beauty of the human spirit. In their imperfections they are each so uniquely perfect. In their depths, lie an undercurrent of  both strength and boundless potential. And in their stormy coloration, we see them reflect the wild complexity within us all. Like they say, the world is not black and white, it's a million shades of gray.