3-stone oval: can you help push me off the fence?

[evergreen]

I bought a pair of absolutely delightful 0.6ct J(faint pink) ovals at Ritani, and meant to put them with a 1.80ct K oval, as a 3-stone, but could not get over the brown-grey tint so I returned it. Instead, I bought a 1.40ct H, which arrived today.

Here's the thing: the H is basically colorless to my eye (uh, not exactly color-sensitive - I get that it's a little tinted but the tint seems to be "neutral") but it is MISSING the delightful gentle pink of the J's! I am still not sure if they "go" as a 3-stone. But 3-stone is what i want - and perhaps bezeling would help bring out a pink color, or suppress it from the sidestones? What do you think?

Not super excited about going through the return process at Ritani once more. If there was a 1.4-1.8ct J/pink there, I would have gotten it, but at the time I looked through all the Js and didn't find a pink one. There are some J/pink and I/pink stones around 1 ct but that's not the size I want.

Can you talk me into moving forward with these?

 

[oncrutchesrightnow]

Move forward with this. :p

Seriously, I don’t think you will find exact matches given the subtlety of color. (Maybe with a concierge.) To my inexpert eye the one on the far right already looks pinker than the one on the far left. All are pretty though and I wish you good luck.

 

[vintageinjune]

Could you bezel the center in rose gold (or have a rose gold cup put underneath it?) and the outside two in white gold/platinum?

They are lovely, and would make a great 3 stone ring.

Before finalizing your decision though, maybe reach out to Jon at Distinctive Gems and see if he could find you a pink tinted H/I/J in the size you want? (not sure how long you have left to return). If that isn't a route you want to go down... then you have your answer and need to start working on a setting.

 

[vintageinjune]

Okay, I hoped on the lab grown diamond search on Distictive Gem's website and did find a 1.66ct J, VS2 oval that looks like it has a pink tint, but the way the website works I can't link directly to the stone , but it's $2649 in case you want to look.

 

[evergreen]

Move forward with this. :p

Seriously, I don’t think you will find exact matches given the subtlety of color. (Maybe with a concierge.) To my inexpert eye the one on the far right already looks pinker than the one on the far left. All are pretty though and I wish you good luck.

Ok, so, that is SUPER helpful because I didn't see the "pinker" one and now, like, if all 3 are a little different I will be fine. Somehow that makes it OK. (I can't talk about stuff like this with husband or my Normal Friends, they wouldn't understand, but you guys do!!)

@vintageinjune oh man, that one is so so pretty but I don't have the budget for it now (>2x the price of the H). I am not even a "pink person", I don't know what's gotten into me. They are just so attractive and delicately colored in person! I am noticing there are a lot more different tints in LGD (i.e. looking at Ritani) than in natural diamonds. It makes sense, I guess; if those "pink nuance" (ha) and blue nuance stones were natural diamonds they would be fancies & a gabazillion dollars. I love your suggestion of varying the metals a little to give the center stone a boost! Maybe even RG struts under the center stone would be enough to give it a bit of a pink tone. Thank you for weighing in!!

 

[vintageinjune]

@evergreen Well, how exciting that knowing all 3 are a little different makes it all good! The rose gold struts are a good idea to preserve unity on the face up front. Your jeweler may have other ideas too.

Now that you are moving forward with your 3 stone, what design ideas are you contemplating?

 

[Alybetter]

Just my personal experience and opinion here. I wouldn’t like the non- matching colors in this example of a three stone. I like contrast between the center stone and flankers, but there needs to be enough contrast so as to look purposeful.
I had a very similar issue when I set an M color RB as a center stone beside 2 K color trillions. The hues were off, the M was not as yellow as the Ks, and the Ks weren’t yellow enough to look like proper yellow side stones.
I feel there’s a good chance that if it’s bothering you now, it’s going to bother you no matter what.
Just me. The stones are lovely and I’m not trying to denigrate them in any way.

 

[evergreen]

@Alybetter You may be totally right. It doesn't look like I can get a center that "matches" the pink sidestones within the Ritani return period while staying in budget. i am debating, frankly, buying another pair of boring-tinted (ha) ovals -- that would be in budget! -- and using the pinks for another project... Not that I have one in mind, exactly, ha! I might press forward with planning this ring while debating replacing the ovals -- I think I'll need to play with RG under the main stone to see if I can get it to pick up the pink.

@vintageinjune I'm going to have David Klass set them. He made a totally perfect, utterly simple thin-bezel RG setting for me years ago that I still wear! And I do want to bezel these stones. But, I know I can't really count on him for a lot of design guidance. So, y'know, here's the basic idea... but how can i make it more special? I think getting RG under the center stone will be key. What 3-stones designs (bezel, especially) have you seen & liked?

 

[monipod]

LIke @vintageinjune suggested, I think a mixed metal setting might be fun and balance out the stones. I think once set, the difference in colour grade/tint won't be as noticeable. Will be an amazing ring!