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From diamond detail pages, select “Add to Compare” and the selected diamond’s details are added to the Compare Diamonds tool.  Diamonds added show up in the first or leftmost position on the comparison page.

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With one diamond in Compare Diamonds, an option to “View Similar” diamonds allows you to quickly and automatically compare against other diamonds.  This option is displayed only when similar diamonds exist.

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Best prices of GIA certified diamonds, JewelsBoutique.com.

Princess, have we got a stone for you! The square princess cut diamond marries the sharp geometry of an oblong with all the brilliance of a traditional round.

There are three basic styles of diamond cuts: brilliant, step, and mixed. Brilliant cuts—including the classic round and our modern princess—have kite-like facets radiating from the center of the stone. A step cut has parallel facets, and a mixed cut combines both. Because the princess is a brilliant cut, it will have more fire and sparkle than either the step-cut emerald or the mixed-cut radiant. Remember that the word “cut” really refers to the arrangement of facets in a diamond, not the shape of its perimeter.  But since each shape also has a basic arrangement of facets, it is ok to just say “cut” and nobody will think Your Highness hasn’t learned her diamond facts.

The facet arrangements of a princess-cut diamond. Left, face up, and right, face-down. The kite-like facets underneath are what give it its brilliance.

A princess cut is a little more forgiving than the emerald or radiant cut, so even if your prince’s budget isn’t quite royal, you can drop a grade or two in clarity and still have a beautiful stone.

The princess cut lends itself well to channel setting, where diamonds are tightly lined in a row between two metal “walls,” i.e. in a channel; and to invisible setting, where they are held in place by metal set underneath and the top appears as an unbroken surface of diamond.

Take care that your princess-cut solitaire is set to protect its delicate corners from chipping. A bezel around the stone is one option, but if you want a more open look, then choose a classic prong setting. You’ll need at least four prongs, and make sure they gently cup all four corners of the stone.

But why, you ask? Isn’t a diamond the hardest material on Earth?

Yes, it is. Diamond is as hard as it gets: a 10 on the Mohs scale of hardness, which means that nothing but another diamond will scratch its surface. But toughness—meaning how well it resists impact—is not the same as hardness. A diamond is pretty tough, but a sharp blow in the wrong place can chip it, especially on the vulnerable corners of a princess cut.

Always take your fine jewelry off before playing sports, cleaning the house, or (as Queen Elizabeth purportedly can do) fixing the car.

It’s hip to be square!

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Even before Catherine Middleton seamlessly blended old and new tradition when she wed Prince William, brides were blending antique-style jewelry with modern strapless dresses. The cushion-cut diamond, with its romantic vintage appeal, is a perfect center stone for antique-inspired rings with delicate details like scrollwork, engraving, and millegrain settings.

The cushion cut is a very old style of diamond cutting, dating back hundreds of years. Until the late 1800s, diamond-cutting technology had not advanced enough to produce the brilliant cut (characterized by kite-like facets radiating from the center of the stone), and it wasn’t until 1919 that mathematician and master diamantaire Marcel Tolkowsky devised a set of proportions that came to be the standard for an ideal-cut round brilliant. But until then, the cushion cut, along with the old mine and old European styles of cutting, were the best methods known to maximize a diamond’s natural sparkle. The cushion cut was favored for larger stones.

The cushion cut, also occasionally called a pillow cut, refers to its shape, which is a rectangle with rounded corners. Unlike the oblong emerald or radiant cut, however, a cushion cut is a short rectangle: its length-to-width proportion should differ by no more than 30%, and often it is much less.

Cushion cuts also feature larger facets than a brilliant cut, which give it a soft radiance more like an emerald cut than the fiery sparkle of a brilliant. But its larger facets can make inclusions and off-color more visible, and the quality of the cutting is absolutely central to the stone’s beauty. Because it’s not as forgiving as a brilliant cut, a cushion typically will be a higher-value stone than a comparable-size brilliant. But high-quality cushions are greatly prized by collectors, so it’s a sound choice for those who are worried about the long-term value of their diamond as well as its current romantic appeal.

The facet arrangements of a cushion cut shown face up (left) and face down (right). Note also that the cushion is a short rectangle; length to width ratio is within 30%.

Once the brilliant cut was devised, cushions grew rare. For a long time, the best—if not only—place to find one was in estate jewelry. But when the vintage look grew popular, diamantaires again began cutting cushions; this time, however, with modern technology that ensures a more consistent quality. Lucky is the bride today who doesn’t have to hunt that elusive but just-right piece of estate jewelry—she can simply recreate the look with a soft, super-feminine cushion cut diamond.

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m.JewelsBoutique.com

Search by shape, price, size, cut, color, and clarity with easy to use and familiar controls.

Scroll through search results and view full diamond details including original GIA certificates.

m.JewelsBoutique.com

Why does a diamond need a report card? After all, it’s not applying to college or looking to get a job.

A diamond report card—called a certificate—is an objective evaluation of its quality characteristics. These characteristics are what determine the stone’s market value.

Many retail jewelers employ graduate gemologists on staff who are qualified to evaluate a stone’s physical qualities, but many also use a gemological laboratory to provide an independent evaluation. While there are a number of gemological laboratories in the world, the one that is recognized universally as a leader is the Gemological Institute of America in Carlsbad, CA. It’s most commonly called by its familiar acronym, GIA.

A GIA certificate describes a diamond’s physical attributes, including the Four C’s: its color, its clarity, its carat weight, and how well it’s been cut. Color grades go from D (clear as pure water) down to Z, which has very noticeable color. Clarity grades go from “Flawless” (Fl), down to “Included” (I), meaning that inclusions (tiny imperfections) are large enough to be seen by the naked eye. Cut grades range from “excellent” (displaying optimum fire and brilliance) to “poor,” which often means that the stone has been cut to retain as much carat weight as possible, but to the detriment of its natural beauty.  A certificate also can identify whether the stone is natural or laboratory-grown, and whether it’s had any enhancements or treatments.

Sample grading certificate, © GIA. Reprinted by permission.

A GIA certificate does not provide a monetary valuation for the stone. The monetary value of a stone is determined by comparing its objective physical qualities to the market and establishing a fair price based on the current state of the market. In that respect, it’s much like real estate, except that location doesn’t matter. A qualified retailer or appraiser would take the certificate, compare it to the market, then determine the value and/or set a price for the stone.

Because diamonds are graded by human eyes—whether in a lab or by a jeweler—slight variances in grade may occur between two people looking at the same stone. But these variances should be very small—within one grade—and GIA often will have several graders review a stone.  Where there are disagreements, the diamond is referred to the most experienced graders to be the “umpire” and render a final opinion.

But let’s get back to the diamond report card. Why is it so good for a diamond to get a D, when that same grade got you grounded in high school?

Simple. Until the middle of the 20^th century, there was no single consistent method for evaluating a diamond. One jeweler’s A, B, or C was another’s I, 2, or 3 was another’s 0, 1, or 2—which made it very difficult to determine market value. In the early 1950s, GIA developed its International Diamond Grading System, now the global standard. But to set itself apart from all other grading methodologies in use at the time, GIA chose D as the top grade for its color scale. It also, incidentally, leaves room at the top in case someday some intrepid explorer unearths a diamond whose color is better than the best anyone has yet seen.

Renaissance Engagement Ring Mounting with Emerald Diamond

Why is an oblong diamond called an “emerald cut?”

Don’t worry—your diamond isn’t turning green with envy. In this case, “emerald” refers to one of the classic styles of diamond cut.

While the different styles of diamond commonly are called “cuts,” names like emerald, princess, pear, and marquise, oval, or round actually refer to the shape of a diamond, while the word cut technically refers to the arrangement of facets within the diamond to maximize light return. The way the individual facets are cut—their angles and proportions in relation to each other—is what gives a diamond its magnificent sparkle. That said, however, each of the traditional shapes also has a basic arrangement of facets, so using the word cut really is just fine.

An emerald-cut diamond got its name because it mimics the way emeralds are traditionally cut. Emeralds belong to the beryl family of minerals, while diamonds are pure carbon. The crystalline structure of a beryl grows in a vertical pattern, which lends itself best to the familiar oblong we often see in emeralds, especially for larger stones.

Because an emerald-cut diamond has such a large table (the top of the stone) in proportion to the rest of the stone, inclusions are especially noticeable with this cut. Equally noticeable is an off-color stone. For this reason, emerald-cut diamonds tend to be exceptionally high color and clarity, and therefore typically are more expensive than other cuts of the same weight.

Because of its facet arrangement, an emerald-cut diamond may not have the same degree of fire as other cuts. A brilliant cut, such as the popular round, has kite-like facets radiating from the center. A step-cut like the emerald has elongated parallel facets, and a mixed cut employs both types of facets.

At left, a face-up drawing of an emerald-cut diamond shows the large table and step-cut facet arrangement. At right, the stone is flipped over for a view of the facets underneath.

Think of an emerald cut diamond as a crystal clear pool of water reflecting sunlight, whereas a round brilliant is more like a twinkling star or a camera’s flash. For those who want the best of both worlds, diamond cutters have developed a newer version of the emerald cut, called a radiant cut, which is a mixed cut combining the shape of an emerald cut with the addition of some brilliant kite-like facets to reflect more light. While a radiant is a beautiful option, the elegance and quality of a classic, understated emerald cut remains unparalleled.

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As we keep improving JewelsBoutique.com to bring faster browsing experience to our visitors, recently we’ve made another step, to use Magento cache aggressively to speed up page processing at backend(server side).

Background

By studying the traffic and visit statistics, we found that many of our visitors were landing on static CMS pages, so keeping these pages fast can make our visitors feel good at the first impression, rather than experiencing a slow page then leave. Originally we thought Magento could cache the CMS pages & blocks if we enable the cache in Admin Panel, but that’s not true after digging into the code. So we planned to change this and make those frequently-visited blocks to be cacheable to accelerate the response speed.

Finding solution

In Magento wiki, there is a tutorial introduces the regular way of using block cache. To make one block cacheable, you just need add the code for the block class like below:

protected function _construct()
{
 $this->addData(array(
   'cache_lifetime' => 3600,
   'cache_tags'     => 'Cache tags for this block',
   'cache_key'      =>' Cache key for this block'
 ));
}

If choosing this way, we need to edit every block class to use cache, this requires certain code change which is not effective yet. Is there a better way? Yes! Because we have Magento Events. After looking into the core module, we found that before getting block output Magento will dispatch an Event (core_block_abstract_to_html_before), this is a good place to inject our cache setting for any block we want rather than editing each block independently.

Implementation

1. Add a new module or editing an existing module’s config.xml, add the following event listening setting:

<frontend>
 <events>
  <core_block_abstract_to_html_before>
   <observers>
    <cacheBlock>
     <type>singleton</type>
     <class>{your_module}/observer</class>
     <method>customBlockCache</method>
    </cacheBlock>
   </observers>
  </core_block_abstract_to_html_before>
 </events>
</frontend>

2. Add the implementation of event handler:

class {your_company}_{your_module}_Model_Observer{
 //you can make this to be configurable at Admin Panel
 const CUSTOM_CACHE_LIFETIME = 3600;
 //the non-CMS Block you want to cache
 private $cacheableBlocks = array('Block_Class_A', 'Block_Class_B', ...);
 public function customBlockCache(Varien_Event_Observer $observer){
  try {
   $event = $observer->getEvent();
   $block = $event->getBlock();
   $class = get_class($block);
   if (('Mage_Cms_Block_Block' == $class) && $block->getBlockId()) {
    $block->setData('cache_lifetime', self::CUSTOM_CACHE_LIFETIME);
    $block->setData('cache_key', 'cms_block_' . $block->getBlockId());
    $block->setData('cache_tags', array(Mage_Core_Model_Store::CACHE_TAG, $block->getBlockId()));
   } elseif (('Mage_Cms_Block_Page' == $class) && $block->getPage()->getIdentifier()) {
    $block->setData('cache_lifetime', self::CUSTOM_CACHE_LIFETIME);
    $block->setData('cache_key', 'cms_page_' . $block->getPage()->getIdentifier());
    $block->setData('cache_tags', array(Mage_Core_Model_Store::CACHE_TAG,
                                       $block->getPage()->getIdentifier()));
   } elseif (in_array($class, $this->cacheableBlocks)) {
    $block->setData('cache_lifetime', self::CUSTOM_CACHE_LIFETIME);
    $block->setData('cache_key', 'block_' . $class);
    $block->setData('cache_tags', array(Mage_Core_Model_Store::CACHE_TAG, $class));
   }
  } catch (Exception $e) {
   Mage::logException(e);
  }
 }
}

3. Now we are done, pretty easy, right?

Further tuning

Soon after we rolled out the code, we met several problems that required code enhancement:

1. For some CMS pages or static blocks, they might embed other dynamic blocks which shouldn’t be cached, so you may need use a ignore-list of CMS page id or static block id in the event handler, and skip the cache setting if the block is in the ignore-list.
2. If your site has HTTPS enabled, you’d better use current protocol(Mage::app()->getStore()->isCurrentlySecure()) as a part of the cache_key in case the cache is mixed under certain case.

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Find solution
First we thought about Ajax, the most popular technology to retrieve data from server asynchronously. But before Magento can make use Ajax for filtering, we first have to write a new controller and actions at the backend to wrap the product data, then we need write additional Javascript to parse server data and format the page at frontend, at a minimum we would need change Magento’s existing filter form to wrap form data and send Ajax request, this effort would not be small.

Then we switched our approach to iFrame, the traditional way to make page async. With a quick analysis, we thought the iframe approach should be doable, the general idea was to warp the product list view in an empty layout and embed it in iframe, and use this iframe to replace existing product list block during filtering. Let’s get started!

The implementation
1. Add an iframe element in page template after the content div. The product list view with empty layout will be embedded in this iframe:

2. Add a new template file for the iframe-mode product list (catalog/category/iframe.phtml), which is similar to existing one (catalog/category/view.phtml). Adding the following Javascript to hide original product list block and adjust the iframe size when page size inside iframe changes:

3. Usually we need add a new handle in layout.xml for new action and controller, but here we would reuse the default handle for category view action (catalog_category_layered), just override the layout in new added action directly, see below.

4. Add a new controller extends Mage_Catalog_CategoryController, rewrite viewAction by copying existing action, change the following section to override layout:

change to:

5. Change ActionAttribute of filter_form in catalog/layer/filter.phtml, to submit the search request to new action and target the page response to iframe:

change to:

6. We are done! Try category page now and enjoy a much quicker filtering experience. Cheers!