Marsha Ayers
Rough_Rock
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2017
- Messages
- 26
I usually lurk but I wanted to post about my new gem, as it never would have been possible if it weren't for the things I learned on PS. The knowledge everyone shares is so valuable. Even though I'm not active in posting, I learn so much!
When my BF and I started talking about marriage I told him that as an American I need an engagement ring. (He's Swiss and it's not as popular a thing here, aparently.) Since he has heard the song, he knew that he should put a ring on it. He proceeded to send me some ideas he had for rings. "Something modern," he said. They were bad ideas and I'm not saying that in a picky b****, sort of way. They were really quite bad. This was one of the rings he liked:
I had to explain that that's a man's ring. There were a few mens' rings in the mix. The others he sent created a collage of what it will look like in hell, for the fans of PS.
I realized that the process was stressing him out, so I offered to design the ring myself. It's not as romantic but it's very practical. I was married once before and I loved the ring I designed. I haven't sold it yet because I love it so much but I guess at some point I will have to. I told him that this is something I will wear every day. If I don't like it, I won't wear it and that would be wasted money. Wasting money is very un-Swiss so, he agreed that maybe it would be best if I did the ring shopping. His one request is that I go with an oval stone because that's what he would have bought for me. I don't love oval stones but a good part of marriage is learning to compromise and if this was important to him, then an oval stone it would be.
I knew I wanted a blue stone, as my previous marriage e-ring was imperial topaz and I didn't want anything in the same color range. (Though I would duplicate that ring a thousand times over, if it were socially acceptable.) I also needed a stone that was 2.5 carats or above. I have freakishly long fingers and small stones are the jewelry equivalent of pants that are too short. I also had a small budget, which was self-imposed. BF would have been fine with more but BF has incurred a lot of costs since I moved from California to Switzerland and I don't have a permit to work yet. I realyl wasn't comfortable spending more of his money. Originally, I thought I wanted a sapphire but being unemployed, I just couldn't bring myself to spend that much. I looked at aqua, topaz and zircon but nothing was quite right. I had been lurking on PS for a while and my eyes had been opened to so many wonderful gems. Then I met spinel and it was all over. The search became all about blue spinel (though I love all the colors.) I searched and searched for a good, low price spinel. Price ranges were all over the map and over 2 .5 ct were hard to come by. If you've looked, there's a lot of really stunning, very expensive spinel. I eventually bought a stone from Jim McCormick, on Etsy. It was over 2.5 ct and it was priced at $500. I made him send two videos and I wasn't sure what it would be like in person but I took a chance. This is the ad photo:
When it arrived it was pretty dead in the middle and was never more than 50% lit up but there was still something very lovely about it. Thanks to PS, I was sure that having it recut would fix it. My poor BF did not understand why I would go through all of this. "It's ok," I told him. "It's going to be amazing when it's done." I contacted Dan Stair, told him I found his name on PS and shipped him the stone.
Dan's initial take was this:
"The stone is dead looking in the middle, mostly because of having a small window. The pavilion is also slightly off-center or deeper at one end than the other. The crown has some minor chips and abrasions also.
This stone seems to need to have the entire pavilion recut and some repair work done on the crown. I may be able to repolish the damaged facets on the top, but may also have to recut the table. That is something I’d have to decided after finding out how much it will take to fix the tiny chips and scuffed facet edges.
Right now, the stone weighs about 2.58 carats. i would guess that a pavilion recut would result in a stone just over two carats, but the same face-up size and much more attractive."
His final assessment was a little different:
So, I just finished fixing up your spinel. There was a little more involved that I thought, as I didn’t notice just how bad the polishing was on the top. First, I recut the entire pavilion into a brilliant oval design. Then, on the top, I started using my polishing lap to do repairs, and found that the facets I fixed were noticeably better polished, which made the stone look a bit odd. So, I went facet by facet and repolished the entire crown. The final weight is 2.29 carats, so I didn’t lose much that way, which is a big advantage of repolishing.
Total price for the work was $120, which brought the stone to $620. Here's the photo Dan sent. It's not super quality so I can't tell what I'm looking at.
I'm not sure what in that photo is occlusion and what's is just photo quality. All in all, it does look quite a bit more sparkly. I never did see the stone in person though because I had is sent directly to David Klass, to make a ring. It's the closest I will get to being surprised by my ring. He said the spinel was stunning but maybe he says that to all the girls
.
Now I'm kind of dying, waiting to see it. I'm excited about the ring design and without having been on PS, I never would have thought to have a ring custom made or even considered that it would be less expensive than buying off the shelf. It's taking extra long because the side stones are an unusual baguette shape and have to be custom cut. A friend will bring the ring when she comes to Switzerland next month but I have to wait for "the proposal" to see it. (BF is trying to surprise me a little.)
Anyway, all of this is to say thank you for all the knowledge shared here and maybe my story will help someone else in their search. . I don't think I would have been able to figure it all out without the help of those who have posted in the past. So, Thanks, everyone!
And in case anyone is wondering, I would buy from Jim again. He does have a return policy and I could easily have sent it back if I didn't like it.
Cheer,
Marsha
When my BF and I started talking about marriage I told him that as an American I need an engagement ring. (He's Swiss and it's not as popular a thing here, aparently.) Since he has heard the song, he knew that he should put a ring on it. He proceeded to send me some ideas he had for rings. "Something modern," he said. They were bad ideas and I'm not saying that in a picky b****, sort of way. They were really quite bad. This was one of the rings he liked:
I had to explain that that's a man's ring. There were a few mens' rings in the mix. The others he sent created a collage of what it will look like in hell, for the fans of PS.
I realized that the process was stressing him out, so I offered to design the ring myself. It's not as romantic but it's very practical. I was married once before and I loved the ring I designed. I haven't sold it yet because I love it so much but I guess at some point I will have to. I told him that this is something I will wear every day. If I don't like it, I won't wear it and that would be wasted money. Wasting money is very un-Swiss so, he agreed that maybe it would be best if I did the ring shopping. His one request is that I go with an oval stone because that's what he would have bought for me. I don't love oval stones but a good part of marriage is learning to compromise and if this was important to him, then an oval stone it would be.
I knew I wanted a blue stone, as my previous marriage e-ring was imperial topaz and I didn't want anything in the same color range. (Though I would duplicate that ring a thousand times over, if it were socially acceptable.) I also needed a stone that was 2.5 carats or above. I have freakishly long fingers and small stones are the jewelry equivalent of pants that are too short. I also had a small budget, which was self-imposed. BF would have been fine with more but BF has incurred a lot of costs since I moved from California to Switzerland and I don't have a permit to work yet. I realyl wasn't comfortable spending more of his money. Originally, I thought I wanted a sapphire but being unemployed, I just couldn't bring myself to spend that much. I looked at aqua, topaz and zircon but nothing was quite right. I had been lurking on PS for a while and my eyes had been opened to so many wonderful gems. Then I met spinel and it was all over. The search became all about blue spinel (though I love all the colors.) I searched and searched for a good, low price spinel. Price ranges were all over the map and over 2 .5 ct were hard to come by. If you've looked, there's a lot of really stunning, very expensive spinel. I eventually bought a stone from Jim McCormick, on Etsy. It was over 2.5 ct and it was priced at $500. I made him send two videos and I wasn't sure what it would be like in person but I took a chance. This is the ad photo:
When it arrived it was pretty dead in the middle and was never more than 50% lit up but there was still something very lovely about it. Thanks to PS, I was sure that having it recut would fix it. My poor BF did not understand why I would go through all of this. "It's ok," I told him. "It's going to be amazing when it's done." I contacted Dan Stair, told him I found his name on PS and shipped him the stone.
Dan's initial take was this:
"The stone is dead looking in the middle, mostly because of having a small window. The pavilion is also slightly off-center or deeper at one end than the other. The crown has some minor chips and abrasions also.
This stone seems to need to have the entire pavilion recut and some repair work done on the crown. I may be able to repolish the damaged facets on the top, but may also have to recut the table. That is something I’d have to decided after finding out how much it will take to fix the tiny chips and scuffed facet edges.
Right now, the stone weighs about 2.58 carats. i would guess that a pavilion recut would result in a stone just over two carats, but the same face-up size and much more attractive."
His final assessment was a little different:
So, I just finished fixing up your spinel. There was a little more involved that I thought, as I didn’t notice just how bad the polishing was on the top. First, I recut the entire pavilion into a brilliant oval design. Then, on the top, I started using my polishing lap to do repairs, and found that the facets I fixed were noticeably better polished, which made the stone look a bit odd. So, I went facet by facet and repolished the entire crown. The final weight is 2.29 carats, so I didn’t lose much that way, which is a big advantage of repolishing.
Total price for the work was $120, which brought the stone to $620. Here's the photo Dan sent. It's not super quality so I can't tell what I'm looking at.
I'm not sure what in that photo is occlusion and what's is just photo quality. All in all, it does look quite a bit more sparkly. I never did see the stone in person though because I had is sent directly to David Klass, to make a ring. It's the closest I will get to being surprised by my ring. He said the spinel was stunning but maybe he says that to all the girls
. Now I'm kind of dying, waiting to see it. I'm excited about the ring design and without having been on PS, I never would have thought to have a ring custom made or even considered that it would be less expensive than buying off the shelf. It's taking extra long because the side stones are an unusual baguette shape and have to be custom cut. A friend will bring the ring when she comes to Switzerland next month but I have to wait for "the proposal" to see it. (BF is trying to surprise me a little.)
Anyway, all of this is to say thank you for all the knowledge shared here and maybe my story will help someone else in their search. . I don't think I would have been able to figure it all out without the help of those who have posted in the past. So, Thanks, everyone!
And in case anyone is wondering, I would buy from Jim again. He does have a return policy and I could easily have sent it back if I didn't like it.
Cheer,
Marsha
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