SparkleFest
Shiny_Rock
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2016
- Messages
- 162
This is a long one, grab a cuppa' if you like the long stories. I've lurked for years, and have only recently started posting. I can't thank the PS folks enough for sharing your knowledge and time! I want to share with you all my story and my dream ring! Now, don't expect one of the wonderful 2.5 ct stones, mine is 1.02, but oh my word I can't hardly live myself now that I have her.
The Truck: I live in the US. Almost 25 years ago I met my wonderful husband. I had a child at that time and before meeting him, was having quite a life crisis in the sense that I realized I was living a life everyone thought I should. I decided I wanted to live MY way, which included the dream of a small bit of acerage, with a well, big enough I could have all the "country homesteader" stuff, goats, chickens, large gardens, etc. In a leap of faith, I sold my lovely car, bought an old 1960 something beat up pickup truck and made the commitment I would somehow make it happen. The truck was a soft turquoisy-blue color but most of the paint was quite damaged, resulting in large splotches. I named her Splotch.
Being old and worn down, I had trouble with her right away. I went to a little mom and pop place I'd never been to and because of buying Splotch, I met my husband! He had moved to the city (large pretty much 2 million people city) from the country to spend some time with his dad, and because he couldn't seem to find a gal who wanted to do homestead type things. So we always joke he had to move to the city to find a country girl!
The Love Story: I had made a list of every single thing I would not want in a future husband having had at that point in time plenty of experiencing what I DIDN'T want. I also wrote down what I did want and carried that in my purse. I decided that as soon as the potential gentleman failed one thing on the list, I would stop seeing him. Not but a few days later I met him. I kept waiting for him to fail, but he kept passing, as time went by, he had/believed/was everything on my list! We married. He took on my child like that child was his.
The Diamond: Now, I love sparklies. Always have. I'm 60 now, and I still remember seeing my first pear shaped diamond in person. Took my breath away. It has always been my "dream" stone.
We live a very frugal life on one income as I cannot work due to a health issue. I do okay with little side projects for a bit of $$ here and there, but that is the best I'll be able to do. However because of our lifestyle, we now own our land and home, have retirement funded, no debt at all. For 20 straight years I didn't even think about jewelry. Lots of work to get a homestead established and running, and now that we're older we have slowed down a bit.
So I began looking into just how much do they get nowadays for say, a 1.25 ct D or E colored pear diamond. I started browsing ALL the sites, poured myself into reading everything I could here to learn about diamonds. Well, the 1.25 was just too much money for my comfort. So then I thought, well, I'll compromise on color/clarity. I am super color sensitive. So D or E was it for me and also no or faint flour. I figured sure as diamond dust, if I picked a med or strong flour D, I would be THAT GAL who could see it. Well, the inclusions just really got to me. So I had dropped down to a carat or around .96 .97, but I was not happy with seeing the inclusions that would put me into the right money bracket. I had pretty much given up.
whitewave: I don't know whitewave personally, but have read her posts here and she seems like a lovely lovely person. So, she made a thread I found, where she challenged anyone who wanted to, to go find I1 stones, that could be nice enough to use a travel rings, or earrings, etc. It had never occurred to me to search I1 (or 2 or three) to find my stone. I mean how many people go look for their dream rings in the worst clarity section right?
But I looked, just for fun, and there she was. I searched on James Allen using D, faint or no flour, I1. One carat - ish. There she floated, this clear, white, beautiful stone among the ones with large feathers, carbon spots and poor cuts.
I truly thought someone at James Allen must have goofed. Then I opened the listing and sure enough, due to a large white crystal, GIA had to grade her I1. She is VG/VG and I wish she had had at least one excellent, but alas. Because she was an I1, the price was less than half of the diamonds who didn't have the crystal, but had all the other attributes. The only other inclusions in this stone are also crystals, and they are the "bubble" type, very very tiny and mostly white and I have a hard time finding them with my loupe. I fully expected to be able to see the large crystal but this stone is 100% eye clean. You can't see it. Even the young of our family couldn't find it. With a loupe, yes, but otherwise, she is this incredible, well cut, sparkly clean WHITE diamond. eta: She has incredible "crushed ice" at the bottom parts, they move constantly and spark off color, tiny little sparks. Reminds me of a sno-cone that a child put ALL the flavors onto. Not mushy, just zillions of little clear sparkles and then colors.........I can't seem to capture it with the camera.
whitewave I can't thank you enough. Your thread led me to this stone, and I decided to choose the ring from JA too, and it's immaculate. They got it finished before the estimated date, and overnighted it so the wait time was a breeze! BIG cyberhug to you whitewave!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have named her Splotch 2.0 Without Splotch 1.0 The Truck I wouldn't have met my husband and without the splotch inside this diamond she wouldn't be on my finger! Okay pic taking maybe not my forte, but I tried my best.
Share my joy! 1.02 ct D I1 8.56 x 5.66 x 3.56 faint flour. L/W ratio 1.51. Set in James Allen solitaire in a flush-fit style but lower set, comfort fit ring with 5 tiny diamonds across the bridge and rounded off prongs. Not the blocky type, never liked those.
In the full sun
Sun again with some bands
Outside dappled shade
Not the best shot, but here's a profile
Thanks for reading!
The Truck: I live in the US. Almost 25 years ago I met my wonderful husband. I had a child at that time and before meeting him, was having quite a life crisis in the sense that I realized I was living a life everyone thought I should. I decided I wanted to live MY way, which included the dream of a small bit of acerage, with a well, big enough I could have all the "country homesteader" stuff, goats, chickens, large gardens, etc. In a leap of faith, I sold my lovely car, bought an old 1960 something beat up pickup truck and made the commitment I would somehow make it happen. The truck was a soft turquoisy-blue color but most of the paint was quite damaged, resulting in large splotches. I named her Splotch.
Being old and worn down, I had trouble with her right away. I went to a little mom and pop place I'd never been to and because of buying Splotch, I met my husband! He had moved to the city (large pretty much 2 million people city) from the country to spend some time with his dad, and because he couldn't seem to find a gal who wanted to do homestead type things. So we always joke he had to move to the city to find a country girl!
The Love Story: I had made a list of every single thing I would not want in a future husband having had at that point in time plenty of experiencing what I DIDN'T want. I also wrote down what I did want and carried that in my purse. I decided that as soon as the potential gentleman failed one thing on the list, I would stop seeing him. Not but a few days later I met him. I kept waiting for him to fail, but he kept passing, as time went by, he had/believed/was everything on my list! We married. He took on my child like that child was his.
The Diamond: Now, I love sparklies. Always have. I'm 60 now, and I still remember seeing my first pear shaped diamond in person. Took my breath away. It has always been my "dream" stone.
We live a very frugal life on one income as I cannot work due to a health issue. I do okay with little side projects for a bit of $$ here and there, but that is the best I'll be able to do. However because of our lifestyle, we now own our land and home, have retirement funded, no debt at all. For 20 straight years I didn't even think about jewelry. Lots of work to get a homestead established and running, and now that we're older we have slowed down a bit.
So I began looking into just how much do they get nowadays for say, a 1.25 ct D or E colored pear diamond. I started browsing ALL the sites, poured myself into reading everything I could here to learn about diamonds. Well, the 1.25 was just too much money for my comfort. So then I thought, well, I'll compromise on color/clarity. I am super color sensitive. So D or E was it for me and also no or faint flour. I figured sure as diamond dust, if I picked a med or strong flour D, I would be THAT GAL who could see it. Well, the inclusions just really got to me. So I had dropped down to a carat or around .96 .97, but I was not happy with seeing the inclusions that would put me into the right money bracket. I had pretty much given up.
whitewave: I don't know whitewave personally, but have read her posts here and she seems like a lovely lovely person. So, she made a thread I found, where she challenged anyone who wanted to, to go find I1 stones, that could be nice enough to use a travel rings, or earrings, etc. It had never occurred to me to search I1 (or 2 or three) to find my stone. I mean how many people go look for their dream rings in the worst clarity section right?
But I looked, just for fun, and there she was. I searched on James Allen using D, faint or no flour, I1. One carat - ish. There she floated, this clear, white, beautiful stone among the ones with large feathers, carbon spots and poor cuts.
I truly thought someone at James Allen must have goofed. Then I opened the listing and sure enough, due to a large white crystal, GIA had to grade her I1. She is VG/VG and I wish she had had at least one excellent, but alas. Because she was an I1, the price was less than half of the diamonds who didn't have the crystal, but had all the other attributes. The only other inclusions in this stone are also crystals, and they are the "bubble" type, very very tiny and mostly white and I have a hard time finding them with my loupe. I fully expected to be able to see the large crystal but this stone is 100% eye clean. You can't see it. Even the young of our family couldn't find it. With a loupe, yes, but otherwise, she is this incredible, well cut, sparkly clean WHITE diamond. eta: She has incredible "crushed ice" at the bottom parts, they move constantly and spark off color, tiny little sparks. Reminds me of a sno-cone that a child put ALL the flavors onto. Not mushy, just zillions of little clear sparkles and then colors.........I can't seem to capture it with the camera.
whitewave I can't thank you enough. Your thread led me to this stone, and I decided to choose the ring from JA too, and it's immaculate. They got it finished before the estimated date, and overnighted it so the wait time was a breeze! BIG cyberhug to you whitewave!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have named her Splotch 2.0 Without Splotch 1.0 The Truck I wouldn't have met my husband and without the splotch inside this diamond she wouldn't be on my finger! Okay pic taking maybe not my forte, but I tried my best.
Share my joy! 1.02 ct D I1 8.56 x 5.66 x 3.56 faint flour. L/W ratio 1.51. Set in James Allen solitaire in a flush-fit style but lower set, comfort fit ring with 5 tiny diamonds across the bridge and rounded off prongs. Not the blocky type, never liked those.
In the full sun
Sun again with some bands
Outside dappled shade
Not the best shot, but here's a profile
Thanks for reading!
Last edited:
Enjoy your beautiful ring.
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