Diamond accents can highly influence the look of your jewellery piece adding extra volume and sparkle and making it more personalized. After all, style is in detail. But there are some aspects to consider when choosing accent diamonds. Read on to find out the most relevant tips.
What Are Diamond Accents?
Diamond accents or accent diamonds are small stones placed beside a larger diamond or another gemstone to enhance the beauty and the brilliance of a jewellery piece. They allow adding personality and individuality.
Accents are real diamonds, meaning they have colour, clarity, cut and carat weight grades like all diamonds. The only difference is that they are small and less visible, which makes them less valuable individually. However, you would hardly see them sold on their own to jewellery buyers. Most commonly, diamond accents are used by jewellers who purchase them wholesale.
Types of Diamond Accents
The cut and shape of diamond accents can vary, but usually, they are found in a straight baguette, tapered baguette, trapezoid, trillion and classic round cuts. These shapes best complement different types of centre gemstones while maintaining a reasonable price point.
Straight baguette diamond accents are popular due to their appealing symmetry and large table size. They pair perfectly with step cut diamonds and create a lovely contrast to other diamond shapes. Tapered baguette accents have a modified rectangular shape – one end is wider than the other. They are extremely popular in three-stone settings and complement almost all diamond shapes. This cut provides an elegant classic look with a unique style.
Trapezoid, also known as trapeze cut, diamond accents are versatile side stones. They are found in brilliant cut and step cut, and both complement square and rectangular centre diamond shapes. One of the newest versions of this cut is the crescent trapezoid which features a curved edge working well with round-shaped diamonds.
Trillion cut diamond accents feature a triangular shape. This cut can come with rounded and pointed ends, where the rounded trillion cut pairs beautifully with cushion cut centre diamond and the pointed trillion cut accents look perfect when paired with princess cut diamonds.
Classic round diamond accents are simple and stunning. Depending on their size, round accents can feature either single cut (16, 17 or 18 facets) or full cut (57 or 58 facets). Round cut diamond accents provide extra sparkle and elegance and pair perfectly with round-shaped diamonds.
Carat Weight of Diamond Accents
In general, diamond accents do not go over 0.25 carats in weight. However, the choice of the size should be based on your personal preference and how the accents look in the setting.
Remember to choose a piece of jewellery where the accent diamonds are big enough to enhance the look of the centre stone and are small enough to make it stand out. If the jewellery piece has accent stones that are supposed to look uniform, make sure they are very close in size. Accents should create an impression of a perfect match when looked at from a normal viewing distance with the naked eye.
Colour and Clarity of Diamond Accents
Often jewellers do not spend much time discussing accent diamonds with their customers. That is why make sure to ask about accents’ quality characteristics. You do not need to exactly match each accent stone in colour and clarity, but there are some aspects to be considered.
Most smaller accent diamonds have low clarity, such as SI (Slightly Included) or I (Included). However, since accents are small enough, their inclusions can hardly be seen with the naked eye. If the stones are bigger, look at them using a loupe. Make sure they are not damaged and do not have visible inclusions that can spoil the appearance of the jewellery piece.
The colour grade of accent diamonds should not differ dramatically from that of the centre stone as the contrast will always be visible and not nice to look at. Accent diamonds are usually in the Near Colourless grade. Stones in this grade are good enough to not make the setting and the centre stone appear yellowish.
Always remember that the purpose of accent diamonds is to accentuate the look of the centre stone and not overpower it. So make sure the colour, clarity and size are in harmony with the centre gemstone.
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