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By Jeanette Goldman
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Posted: 10/30/06 14:52
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RAPAPORT... Consumer demand for natural fancy colors continues to grow, which only pressures the already scarce marketplace for more goods and increases prices past what most consumers can readily afford as jewelry splash.
One Israeli diamond manufacturer and dealer, Amnon Barak of Briza Diamonds, is offering his customers a much less expensive alternative to natural fancy colors: Color enhanced diamonds.
Barak, along with partners Lior Isbutsky and Shai Barak, purchases polished goods from China or Antwerp and then through a controlled process, provides the conditions for which diamonds develop more of their natural color. The process for enhancing the existing color imitates natural conditions with high pressure electronic accelerator. The high pressure narrows the spaces in the diamond crystal, which acts as a filter for a beam of light comprised of all the colors of the rainbow. 
Some colors from the spectrum are absorbed by the diamond, and only one color is reflected back. Each diamond shape and size demands its own level of treatment. High pressure, high temperature (HPHT) process uses extremes, which is why that process is not in control of the final color, said Barak. However, the HPHT process may work with VS-VVS clarity as lower clarity would simply explode in the HPHT pressure.
The color enhanced diamond raises the price of an original pre-color diamond by approximately 10-20 percent.
Madame Marie Curie (Maria Sklodowska) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911 after she successfully separated polonium and radium elements and tested diamonds, among other elements, in order to see the affect of radium on the element. Curie found that radium did indeed change the color of the diamond. Following the second World War scientists in the United States tested the affect of nuclear energy on various elements and also found that when exposed to nuclear energy, the diamond changed its color (to black because of the high pressure.)
Approximately 10 years ago, members of the diamond industry developed the use of a safe non-radioactive process for color enhancement --an electronic accelerator-- in use today by companies dealing in diamond color enhancement. Today, there are only a handful of companies specializing in diamond color enhancement. The majority of these companies are located in the United States and India.
Briza Diamonds mainly purchases SI-VS goods with color -- depending upon the color Briza needs most. The company changes the color in order to match specific orders. For yellow, Briza will buy I-N, however for Ice Blue diamonds they must start with H-G. 
On October 24, Briza Diamonds introduced two new colors to the market, including Pine (clear green) and Sunlight (light yellow.)
These two colors were added to the already existing Ice Blue and extensive selection of colors.
According Barak, the trend for color enhanced diamonds has been very strong in Japan for a number of years.
In the past two years, the United States' market has been showing strong interest in color enhanced diamonds. More recently, Barak noticed a growing demand in the northern Euro Zone (Denmark, Switzerland, and Germany.) The current trend among jewelry manufacturers in these markets is for the lighter colors, which is why Briza decided to launch the additional light colors.
The company has already received orders for the new colors from customers in Japan and North America, according to Barak.
The demand for color enhanced diamonds is 50 percent SI1-VVS, 40 percent SI2-SI3 and about 10 percent I1-I2, said Barak. In 2005, yellow and blue were the most popular colors in the market for color enhanced diamonds. Currently, demand is strongest for pinks, followed by blue, yellow, red cherry, (which can be made from light brown diamond,) and green. “All over the world customers are looking for color enhanced diamonds,” said Barak. “because it is a natural diamond with color and the price cannot be compared to natural fancy color diamonds."
Briza markets its goods to the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan and Hong Kong. Briza diamonds are identified in EGL certificates as color enhanced.
The launch of the two additional colors took place in the presence of hundreds of diamond manufacturers and dealers from Israel and abroad, at the Ramat Gan Israel Diamond Exchange.
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