The Woman Who Grew Her Own Diamond: Diamy Dong's ARTIMELLE

Three years ago, Diamy Dong walked into a high-end jewellery store in search of diamond earrings and walked out with a revelation. The designs were stunning; the prices, for everyday wear, were not. "As accessories, the prices were just not justifiable," she recalls. That moment in 2022 flung open a door she had already been pushing against: a career in private equity that left her restless and yearning for more. Using the same research reports she once used to value companies, she familiarized herself with the lab-grown diamond industry and founded ARTIMELLE, a brand that fuses the wild independence of the Greek goddess Artemis with the quiet French pronoun "elle."

"I felt trapped," she says of her time in finance. "I wasn't improving enough… it was boring." Raised by entrepreneur parents who invited her to write business proposals in exchange for extra pocket money, Diamy has been a go-getter since childhood. By junior high, she was dreaming of opening her own café-flower-shop hybrid, and by senior high, she was scouting vegetarian-restaurant franchises in Beijing. When she finally ventured into jewellery, something she had always loved, things finally fell into place.

Not Mined, but Made

The philosophy crystallized quickly. "Natural diamonds are hidden in the ground, waiting to be dug out; you're waiting for someone to find you," Diamy explains. "But that's not my life philosophy; I always take ownership and take initiative in life." A lab-grown diamond, grown under controlled heat and pressure, mirrors the woman who grows her own brilliance, refusing to wait to be discovered.

Unlike traditional houses that start with the carat weight and bend design around the stone, ARTIMELLE flips the script: design first, diamond second. Because ARTIMELLE works exclusively with lab-grown diamonds, carat weight never limits creativity. "We normally start with the mood," Diamy says. "I have a moodboard: the spirit, the feeling I want to create through the designs." Architectural lines and geometric curves meet photographs of powerful women who embody the emotion she wants to convey. Only then does the diamond enter the conversation, chosen or custom cut to serve the story, never to dictate it. Every piece goes through obsessive prototyping: tireless consultations with the in-house jewelry designer, multiple 3D wax models, silver samples worn for days, and Diamy's personal "test-drive" to ensure maximum comfort and proportion.

The result is bold jewelry for women who want to be seen. Early collections leaned tiny and delicate, until Diamy realized "that's not the way lab-grown diamonds shine." Today, the pieces are loud and unapologetic: sculptural angles, bold half-moon cuts, soft curves that rest on the collarbone like armor. "Jewelry is a way of showing who you are," she insists. "When you wear the jewel, you're not just being pretty… the design is speaking your identity. One husband proved it instinctively. Browsing for his wife, he stopped at the Pulse collection: defined by emerald-cut geometry and sharp facets that give a precise, structured look, a series of strong, rhythmic lines and radiant settings that pulse with resilience and self-assurance. "My wife is a very independent architect," he said, drawn to designs that mirror ambition, clarity, and the quiet confidence of knowing one's own power. He had felt the energy in the metal before he ever read the brand story.

Forging the ELLE Community

Beyond the atelier, Diamy is behind a community she calls the "Elle" circle: a group of diverse women ranging from executives, entrepreneurs, mothers, and daughters who are "striving in their own path."

From Data to Design

Challenges remain fierce. The natural-diamond lobby, backed by centuries of heritage and bottomless budgets, continues to insist that lab-grown stones are somehow "less real." Diamy, who spent years in private equity dissecting balance sheets and growth curves, doesn't argue with emotion; she reads the data. In the U.S., lab-grown diamonds already command over half the market in under a decade. She sees the pushback as proof of progress.

She is quick to clarify that lab-grown and natural diamonds aren't locked in a death match; the pair can co-exist. Natural diamonds, especially large carat and coloured stones, will always hold value as investments. Lab-grown diamonds are tools for expression where design can lead, not follow the stone. "Back to our brand philosophy: 'design first, diamond second,' it's about telling the world who we are, and what style and values we stand for," she affirms.

Her proudest creation remains the Radiance collection, built around oversized custom-cut half-moon diamonds. "Round is normal, expected," she says, "But half-moons are unique; they give a vibe of positivity." Traditionally, half-moons are tiny accent stones, never the star. Diamy turned them into 1.5-carat protagonists, each one custom-grown and precision-cut to her exact specifications. The process was costly and obsessive, but with lab-grown diamonds the fear of waste simply does not exist. "It's only possible with a lab-grown diamond," she says proudly.

Crafting the Future

Looking ahead, Diamy's dreams are global. She dreams of overseas flagships: South Korea, the world's highest per-capita luxury spender, and the U.S. top the list. She's also set her sights on an AI design studio: a custom model trained on ARTIMELLE's design language to co-create new pieces with customers and digital artists in real time. The endgame is bolder still: to take lab-grown diamonds out of the jewelry box and into the art world. "We'll collaborate with artists to take a digital artwork and transform it into a physical piece of art," Diamy says. "That's the grand dream I have."

Her first foray into this new territory is The Diamy Portrait. Available in both digital and physical form, the piece is composed of hundreds of diamonds that come together to form a luminous self-portrait of Diamy herself. By simply tap your phone against the physical sculpture, the digital version comes alive on screen, bridging the two worlds instantly. It's an unapologetic declaration that the woman, not the stone, is the masterpiece, and a striking proof-of-concept that lab-grown diamonds can seamlessly connect the digital and physical worlds of art.

Her advice to anyone still stuck in a soul-draining job is forged from experience: "Take the leap of faith because life is short. Life is about experience. Take ownership of your life." Then, as expected of an ex-private-equity analyst, she adds a caveat: "Make sure you've done enough research, read all the reports and talk to people. Draft first and then you can start doing it."

Diamy Dong did not wait to be mined and polished by someone else's hands. She built the machine, set the pressure, and grew her own brilliance, then set it in gold for every woman ready to do the same. In the world of ARTIMELLE, the diamond does not make the woman: the woman makes the diamond.