Memorial diamond

Memorial diamonds are diamonds created from hair or cremated remains.

Typically, these are diamonds created in a laboratory, often referred to as "synthetic diamonds", "cultured diamonds", or "laboratory-grown diamonds". Some memorial diamonds are graded by gemological laboratories, such as Gemological Institute of America (US) or Birmingham Assay Office (United Kingdom).^[1]

History

The first lab-made diamonds can be dated back to 1950s,^[2] while memorial diamond started to appear in the market since 2000s. More than one company has claimed to be the "first" to provide memorial diamonds, and both Heart In Diamond^[3] and LifeGem^[4] have claimed to have a patent covering the growing of a personalized gem diamond. Memorial diamonds are gaining popularity in the United States, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Netherlands, Japan, Germany, and many other countries.^[5]

Production process

Memorial diamonds are produced from hair or ashes, with other carbon ("lab carbon") added as necessary.^[6]

In case of hair, it is subjected to heat treatment to extract carbon. Some laboratories also analyse content of hair. A hair analysis report then serves as a client assurance. The process of unique identification of a diamond and a person based on the hair composition is described in the diamond patent RU2282584 ^[7]

Carbon can be obtained from cremated human or animal remains in a particulate or gaseous form. The carbon is then filtered using a conventional filtering technique. The carbon and other elements are then purified and graphitized, for example by a halogen purification technique.^[8]

The diamonds are then produced from the carbon extracted using conventional diamond synthesis techniques. As of 2009, only high pressure, high temperature (HPHT) processes using belt and cubic presses were used for the production of memorial diamonds.

Companies

Several companies offer memorial diamonds, including:

• Algordanza, a company based in Switzerland^[9]
• Ever Dear, a California-based company in the United States^[10]
• Heart In Diamond, a company based in UK ^[11]
• Instituto de Monocristales^[12] (amber, yellow, green, blue, colorless)
• LifeGem, a company based in Chicago, Illinois^[13]
• Lonité AG, a memorial diamond company based in Switzerland near Zürich^[14]
• Phoenix Diamonds, a company based in Macclesfield, Cheshire, United Kingdom^[15]

References