The Mark Schneider Fine Jewelry Blog

Diamonds have earned a reputation for being nearly indestructible, and to a certain extent, that's true. They're the hardest natural material on Earth, ranking a perfect 10 on the Mohs scale of hardness. But that doesn’t mean diamonds can’t chip...

If you've ever looked at a diamond grading report, you've probably come across some pretty strange terminology. Feathers, clouds, needles, crystals, pinpoints… if you didn't know better, you might assume you're looking at a list of serious flaws. The names...

When shopping for a diamond ring, most people focus on the diamond itself. They compare carat weight, color, clarity, and cut while spending very little time thinking about the setting that will actually hold the stone in place. While the...

In the first part of this series, we explored how a rough diamond is studied, mapped, and planned long before any cutting begins. That stage is where the future of the diamond is essentially decided, from its final shape to...

When people imagine diamond cutting, they usually picture a sparkling stone being carefully shaped on a wheel, slowly transforming from a dull rough crystal into something that catches light beautifully. What most people don’t realize is that the most important...

When people admire a ring, their eyes usually go straight to the center stone. Whether it's a diamond, sapphire, emerald, or another gemstone, the center stone is designed to be the main focus. But side stones are equally important because...

If you’ve done any ring shopping lately, you’ve probably noticed two diamond shapes appearing everywhere: oval and cushion cut. They’re both timeless, beautiful, and look great in classic or modern settings. But one of the biggest questions people ask when...

If you’ve ever looked at two gemstones next to each other that technically have the exact same grade and thought, “Wait… why does one look way prettier?”, you are not imagining things. This happens constantly in jewelry and is one...

Diamond shapes don’t just rise and fall in popularity at random. They move in waves influenced by culture, fashion, economics, and even what people are seeing on their screens every day. One year everyone is asking for round brilliants, the next...

The moment most people first encounter diamond color grading, it feels pretty straightforward. There’s a tidy progression from D to Z, where D is “colorless” and everything else falls into place below it. It seems like the kind of system...

When people shop for a diamond ring, most of the attention goes straight to the obvious things: carat size, sparkle, shape, and maybe the band style. A little detail doing a surprising amount of work is often overlooked: prongs. Those...

When you start shopping for a meaningful piece of jewelry, you may run into a common design debate: should you go with one large center stone or multiple smaller stones? On the surface, it feels like a simple choice of...