The Best Diamond Halos

Many women looking for engagement rings in 2016 look for a center diamond surrounded by what modern fashion calls diamond “halos.” Small round diamonds surrounding beautiful center gemstones have been part of jewelry design since ancient Rome. In those centuries, diamonds surrounded center rubies, sapphires and emeralds. Only in the 18th century did small round diamonds begin to surround center diamonds, and this general design feature boomed by the end of World War I, with the quantity of diamonds coming to America through DeBeer’s mining efforts in South Africa.

Take a careful look at diamond halos. You will find most of them full of small diamonds and lots of metal. Understandably, beads and prongs are required to hold small stones, especially when they are set into the band portion of the ring, but also into the halo. But in most rings, the metal is as prominent as the diamonds. This is just not beautiful.

If you want to see a proper diamond halo, look as these black onyx and diamond dangle earrings. Even from the photograph, you can see the sparkle of the diamonds, with minimal surrounding metal. What is the key that gets this done properly? The answer is entirely in the skill of the diamond setter, his or her ability to pull beads from the base of the halo and place them properly over the edge of the diamond on several sides. The great great majority of modern diamond halo engagement rings are cast from a model, with the beads/prongs already in place. The setter must then work with what he has, pushing diamonds into their positions and bending metal over the stones.

A second issue is that most jewelry manufacturing firms use as “light” a total carat weight of diamonds for the halo as possible, saving money for the jeweler. However, by choosing diamonds for the halo that would be a tenth of a millimeter larger, the entire appearance of the halo would change, and the total weight of the halo diamonds would be increased only slightly, adding minimal cost to the purchase of the ring.

The final issue is if course the grade of the cut of these round diamonds. For the halo to be beautiful, the angles and proportions of these tiny stones should be “right on the numbers” for maximum brilliance and fire. The halo will then glow. Superbly cut diamonds are more expensive than commercially cut stones; however the total weight of halo diamonds is so small that even here, by purchasing “zero cut grade” round diamonds, only minimal cost is added to the cost of the ring.

The best diamond halos have diamonds that are set almost edge to edge, with minimal visible metal, and the diamonds sparkle, each like a piece of sunlight on a bright spring morning. Look for it as you shop, and train your eye to see the difference.

Tom Tivol