After your loved one’s direct cremation, you’ll receive the ashes from Florida Family Cremations. At that point, you and other family members can decide what to do with your loved one’s cremated remains.
Typically, most families choose to scatter these ashes or store them in an urn. But these are not the only ways to honor your loved one. One memorial idea that’s becoming popular entails turning ashes into memorial diamonds and cremation jewelry. If this is the first-time hearing about this remembrance idea, you’re probably wondering how it’s possible.
In this guide, we’ll share the entire process of turning ashes into diamonds.
Why Are People Choosing to Turn Ashes into Diamonds?
Let’s look at several reasons why more people are turning ashes into diamonds.
- Memorial diamonds are portable, allowing you to keep your loved one close
- Cremation jewelry is versatile, beautiful, and wearable
- A memorial diamond can serve as an heirloom, making it a meaningful remembrance idea
Understanding the Process of Turning Ashes into Diamonds
Natural diamonds require specific conditions to form, namely pressure, carbon, time, and heat. Turning ashes into diamonds is a process where experts simulate these conditions with precision, using high-tech equipment.
Here’s a breakdown of the process:
1. Carbon purification
Once you’ve sent over your loved one’s ashes to the provider that creates cremation diamonds, the cremated remains must undergo a purification process. This is because the cremation process produces carbonates. The idea is, therefore, to break the molecular bonds between the elements to isolate the carbon.
Remember, diamonds consist of pure carbon. So, this means the ashes must enter a high heat environment with an inert gas. Once complete, all other elements will burn off, leaving carbon in graphite form. Afterward, this graphite goes into a grinder before transferring onto a growth cell.
2. Diamond growth process
This process involves placing the ground-up remains into a growth cell with a diamond seed to aid in building the intended carbon molecular structure. Plus, the process requires adding pure carbon to increase the size of the diamond.
From here, the growth cell goes into a High-Pressure High Temperature (HPHT) machine. One thing to note is that, unlike other lab-grown diamonds, the HPHT process creates one diamond per round. For this reason, you must decide the memorial diamond’s features like size and color beforehand.
Notably, two types of HPHT machines exist, namely the belt press and the bars press. The primary difference is the amount of pressure they exert on the diamond. As mentioned earlier, the process imitates how natural diamonds are formed. Therefore, the machines will have high temperatures exceeding 2500 oC and pressures above 1450ksi.
The process may take about three months, depending on the diamond’s features. On some occasions, a diamond company may have to grow a diamond several times to get the specifications right. Also, there’s no way of determining the final color of your memorial diamond until the HPHT process is complete. A raw diamond will always come out in either of these three colors.
- A yellow diamond – To get this color the company must include nitrogen in the HPHT machine.
- Blue diamond – This color is a result of adding boron into the diamond growth process
- Colorless diamond – This is the original state of a raw diamond.
3. Diamond cutting
The next step when turning ashes into diamonds is the cutting process. Here, an expert cutter must get rid of all imperfections to ensure you get a high-quality diamond. Furthermore, the cutting stage is where the company finds out whether the diamond has the intended carat size.
Next, the cutter must ensure the cremation diamond meets the standard diamond grading components: cut, carat, color, and clarity. Typically, the cutting process involves the following.
- Inspecting the raw diamond for imperfections (intrusions)
- Deciding which point will be the table (top part of the cremation diamond)
- Shaping the diamond into the desired cut
- Brooding
- Polishing
Note that the type of cut affects the size and weight of the diamond. Companies always recommend choosing cuts like the cushion or emerald cuts to produce a higher carat weight.
4. Coloring process
Earlier, we mentioned that a diamond comes out of the machine in three naturally occurring hues. Fortunately, you can get the diamond in a different color once it goes through the coloring process.
The diamond undergoes either of these two processes: HPHT or irradiation.
- Irradiation – This process can achieve all known diamond colors. For green and pink colored diamonds, the cutter must use trace amounts of nitrogen.
- HPHT – This process is ideal for enhancing lighter colors like yellow and pink.
5. Final inspection
Even before the memorial diamond gets to you, it must undergo final grading by a third party. The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) is one of the few certification organizations that offer authentic diamond grading reports. To ensure your memorial diamond passes this test, we recommend working with well-respected diamond companies.
6. Delivery of the memorial diamond
Home delivery is the final stage of turning your loved one’s ashes into diamonds. Usually, the entire process takes about ten months. Most companies will deliver the memorial diamond by hand. From here, you can choose to set it in jewelry or request the company does it beforehand.
A Grief-Changing Journey
Turning ashes into jewelry is a personalized and meaningful way to honor a loved one. It allows you to keep them close to you wherever you go.
If you plan to cremate your loved one, Florida Family Cremations will prepare the ashes and safely package them to ensure they are ready for sharing with the diamond company. We also offer other services, including cremation pre-planning and veteran’s services. Call us today for affordable cremation services in Clearwater.