Traditionally seen as a symbol of love, marriage, luxury, and faithfulness, diamonds have been regarded over the centuries as the crystal that bonds relationships. Diamonds have always been viewed as timeless stones that carry deep meaning and status no matter their history over time.
Even today, diamond jewelry has continued to evolve in engagement rings, wedding rings, graduation gifts, anniversary gifts, birthday gifts, and even Valentine’s Day. In the past two decades, cremation jewelry has entered the industry when a company called LifeGem began offering the ability to turn ashes into diamonds.
How does this work, exactly?
First, there are a handful of companies that are highly regarded for creating diamonds with ashes with top-grade technology and a team of experts.
Then, when ashes are brought to these companies they extract any remaining carbon from cremated remains to create the diamond form.
The human body contains 18% of carbon, however, cremated remains contain 1 – 4% carbon. The ashes must go through an additional process through a high pressure, high temperature, and no oxygen environment in order to isolate the remaining carbon from the remains. This process is a challenging part for the memorial diamond companies when extracting the carbon from ashes.
After this process, they use an HPHT machine to grow diamonds one at a time. This technique creates a highly personalized diamond that contains the remains of a loved one who has passed. These machines are designed to grow one diamond at a time making it economical for regular lab-grown diamond production.
Notable companies who specialize in memorial diamonds offer to set the diamond in jewelry, however, if you’re not satisfied with their designs you are able to take the diamond to your jeweler.
The journey of grieving is a difficult one and once our loved ones have gone we want to keep a part of them with us. Memorial diamonds are a way to honor the passing of a loved one by treasuring happy memories with crystal that would last forever isn’t of turning into dust.