I got a call from a returning client. She wanted to match an heirloom stone so that I could make a pair of earrings for her.

Now, earrings don’t need to be a perfect match. They don’t have to be exactly the same color or clarity. My joke is no one’s sticking their nose in your ear to check out your diamonds.

But this was a client who knew what she wanted. She said, “Gary, let’s find the match. Let’s not make it close or safe. I’m not in a rush. This stone is important to me.”

Her stone was uncertified and only had an appraisal that was more than 40 years old. So I asked if I could have it GIA certified.

I wanted to know exactly what I was working with instead of playing a guessing game and just doing it with my eyes.

It came back F VS1, two and a quarter carats . It was a beautiful stone.

I went to one of my diamond sources first. They pulled out a handful of stones that on a normal given day would have been just fine to match for a pair of earrings. But none of them were exactly what I wanted. Some closer than others. I took two with me. I said, “I’m not committing to either of these yet.” I had to explain to them that I’m looking for something very specific.

So I went somewhere else.

They brought me a tray and I went to sit in the back. I played for a while.

They must have brought out almost 300 stones. They weren’t sorted or organized.

I had my client’s stone with me, so I could put them together and look at it.

Eventually I got down to five or six stones.

One of them was just about spot on. Better than the two that I had gotten from the first place I went.

Before making the earrings, I scheduled another appointment with the woman and said, “Let me show you.”

I had her diamond polished and clean, put the two stones on the table, mixed them up and said, “Which one’s which?”

I did it three times, like three-card Monte.

Twice she picked her stone.

Once she didn’t.

She had a lot of fun with it.

I said, “Okay, I’m good.”

We made the earrings.