What is the meaning of "Additional clouds are not shown"?
“I’m curious about what the statement “additional clouds not shown” means under the comments section of an American Gem Society Diamond Quality Document. What is a cloud, and is it something that I should be concerned with? More importantly why does the AGSL not indicate the location and extent of the cloud on the plotting diagram featured on the lab report? The plotting diagram reflects the presence of other clouds, which appear to be quite small, and I find this confusing. Frankly the thought of a “cloud” inside of the diamond that I’m buying sounds a bit ominous, especially one which is not shown on the plotting diagram. But then I’ve read that a cloud is simply a group of pinpoint size diamond crystals? Confused.”
Additional clouds not shown on plotting diagram:
A “cloud” is nothing more than a few pinpoint size diamond crystals, clustered together in close proximity. In VS-2 clarity and higher clarity grades, the presence of small clouds of pinpoint size diamond crystals is nothing to be concerned about. The presence of larger clouds, such as those found in some SI-clarity and lower clarity grade diamonds, may present an issue if they are large and cover an extensive area of the diamond. However, this is not something you need to be concerned about when buying a Brian Gavin Signature diamond, since Brian Gavin personally evaluates every diamond to ensure that the inclusions do not affect the light performance.
The clouds within this VS-2 clarity, Brian Gavin Signature round diamond are indicated on the plotting diagram by small red dashes, which encompass the area designated as a cloud. Once again, this is simply a small cluster of pinpoint size diamond crystals, which tend to look like sparkling specks of dust when viewed using higher levels of magnification, such as 30x magnification. The industry standard for diamond grading is only 10x magnification.
When a trained diamond grader happens to notice the presence of a small cloud of pinpoint size diamond crystals in a diamond, but feels that the inclusions are too small to be accurately used as an identifying characteristic of the diamond, they indicate the presence of additional clouds which are not shown on the plotting diagram, under the comments section of the lab report. It’s a CYA Statement of sorts, and nothing that you need to be concerned about in higher clarity diamonds.
In fact, diamond crystals in the form of clouds, needles, and pinpoints, happen to be my favorite types of inclusions, since they are basically nothing more than smaller diamonds that were trapped within a larger diamond crystal as it formed. They tend to be innocuous as far as inclusions go, they present no issues in terms of structural integrity, and they tend to be quite difficult for the average person to locate and identify in VS-2 and higher clarity diamonds. Even in SI-1 clarity diamonds and SI-2 clarity diamonds, they can be of no consequence, but each diamond must be evaluated on it’s own merits.
