Exclusive Product Design
Making the invisible diamond shine
Fluorescent Diamond Display
Some projects are literally one of a kind. Lucara Diamond asked us to come up with a creative and elegant way to showcase a unique, 44-carat rough diamond – known as the Ghost Diamond – discovered at the Karowe Diamond Mine in Botswana. They wanted a display that would showcase the diamond’s beautiful fluorescent core, which makes it appear as if there is a fluorescent diamond within the regular diamond.
The main design challenge was that the fluorescent core can only be viewed under specific spectrum of UV light. This not only limited the choices in materials that had to withstand UV exposure, but also required a certain level of safety measures to prevent the risk of eye injury.
We wanted to give the viewer the feeling they had discovered the unique natural occurrence themselves, buried deep within the mine – a flash of brilliance in the dark.
The case is made entirely out of 3/16 mild steel plate, with a three dimensional opening created by layers of steel styled in the shape of the open pit mine that produced the rare stone. The mild steel was chosen for its ability to accept patina—a natural oxidation process that gives the steel a deep matt black appearance that absorbs all light and makes the diamond the star of the show. It’s a finish that looks nothing like any paint, coating or plating. All parts were waterjet cut, precision welded and polished, and then glass bead blasted to achieve a completely uniform matt look prior to applying the patina.
Since a rough diamond has three dimensions we had to showcase it in motion. After a lot of research and experimentation, we decided to combine a turntable and a UV light source into one assembly. We sourced a very powerful single source LED bulb in the 365nm UV spectrum that blasts a targeted ray of UV light straight at the diamond, which sits on a turntable stand made out of sterling silver and plated with rhodium to prevent tarnishing. An additional feature of the display is a UV pass filter that filters out other light spectrums to offer an alternative viewing experience.
A protective UV blocking acrylic sheet attaches with magnets to the front face of the display to protect the viewer’s eyesight from damaging UV light, and a kill switch cuts power to the LED should the case be opened.
Every part of the display is designed to lead the eye in and feature the fluorescence in all its shining glory.
