LAWRENCE J. WEST

At 21 years of age and no diamond experience, Larry Jay West was determined to continue what his father started. In the early 1970’s Larry establish L.J. West Diamonds, Inc. He made the decision to venture away from the melee business that his father started and began consolidating his inventory into higher value diamonds. However, with such a small inventory, it was difficult to compete with the larger diamond houses at that time. So he decided to dedicate himself to unlocking the highest value of any diamond he was able to purchase. After much research and study within the diamond industry he discovered he could do this by re-polishing diamonds in order to maximize their characteristics. Fixing shapes, improving color, diminishing internal imperfections were just some of the ways he added value to the stones with these skills. Larry’s attraction to natural color diamonds is much like his attraction to life, every diamond has its own character, its own flaws and its own beauty.