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Calling Gypsy for some halo advise

laurenk

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Nov 12, 2011
Messages
976
Hi Gypsy,
I hope you stumble upon this. I'm hoping to get some guidance from you re a princess halo. I realise your stone is an ascher but I think you have amazing knowledge and eye for detail. I adore your reset with the smaller melee and your centre looks out of this world with this subtle change.

I'm toying with graduated melee on my cushion shaped halo for my princess centre (just to be tricky).

Ill wait to hear from you (fingers crossed!)
 
Thanks Willydiamond!
 
I'm here!

What particularly do you need advice on about the halo?
 
Hello gypsy! Thank you for getting back to me!

I have a pricness in a cushiony halo as I prefer the soft corners.

It's a cast setting and the stone looks "plopped" in and there's an airline (which I don't totally dislike but I do dislike the metal visible that my pricness sits in.)

My current halo melee are 1.5mm I'm pretty sure and feel they look ok.

I love you stone and feel that the smaller melee really bought your stone to life.

My centre is a pricness 1.55c (6.37 x 6.24) so I'm wondering if there's a magic formula I should be tying to calculate re size of centre and melee?

Also, sicne I'm used to the diameter of my halo on my finger (given the airline) if I go smaller melee and flush to the centre I'm worried ill feel "visibly" like Ive taken a backward step.

One jeweller suggested graduated melee to "fill" in my halo so bigger melee going out to smaller on the edges. I've attached a pic. He will hand make the whole thing so he can play with different melee and slightly overlap them with my princess to remove the airline.

I'm finding it hard to visualize it and nervous to give my jeweller the go ahead. I don't want to change my ring a much that I feel it's not "mine" but rather enhance it, make it pop, and retain finger coverage. I want to retain a delicate look (not an Art Deco look) and quite like a vintage/antique feel)

Thank you in advance for any help you can offer!

_19486.jpg
 
Here's a tocori with graduated melee.

I'm also wondering about angling the halo ??

_19501.jpg
 
Ok let me think about it. I'll post again later.
 
OK who is the vendor and what are the MM sizes the melee he is proposing?

Your stone is my stone is 5.9 square and yours is 6.3. So that's not TOO far off. And my melee are half pointers which means they are each 1mm in size exactly. That's very fine.

Can you ask him what sizes of stones he wants to use for the halo are?
 
Hello! His proposing using my current size and some smaller then some larger I'm unsure of exact dimensions yet. I'm in Australia so I've met with four jewellers. Two want to use cad and one wants to hand make it, the other wants to to a combination of both.
 
Ask them the millemeter size of the melee they are proposing. I can't tell you anything without that. Unless you want me to tell you what size melee I THINK they should use... I could do that, but it really depends on how good they are with delicate pave. Most jewelers can't work with 1/2 point melee (1mm), they just don't have the skill.
 
Ok I'll find out. One needs to program the cad to help determine the size.... Should I ask which size he thinks to get the ball rolling?
 
Tell him that you want it to be delicate and you want the melee all under 1 point, with the smallest at 1/2 point. See what he says.
 
Hi Lauren,

Which jeweler in Brisbane did you end up going with?
 
Just waiting to hear back Gypsy.
DiamondJ I'm talking with Rhys Frampton, Manuel from The French Door at Indooroopilly, eckhart Schillings at Perigean and Steven dibs.
I've ruled steven out because the prices are so high due to retail shop maybe? Eckhart is great but bit far to travel. Rhys actually came to me and does all the cad himself plus hand forging. He's a designer and jeweller then learnt cad when it became popular..... So he has the eye for detail and can design and doesn't rely on the computer although he will use it from intricate items. Sooooo I havnt totally decided yet. Manuel will do whole ring from hand....
 
Did you contact carmody, if so what did you think?
 
Not yet!!! They're on my list too - is yours finished?
 
Ok so my preferred jeweller has said its hard to tell exactly prior to starting the cad but he can order stones in at 0.8mm, 0.9mm, 1.00mm etc. A 0.9m would be the closest to a 1/2 pointer (he said).

I am trying to "fill in" my current gap whilst maintaining the dimensions of my current halo (does that make sense?).
 
Ok. Have him give you the CAD and go from there. Also, can you ask him for a close up picture of his pave work (real life picture of the style of pave in an actual piece he's done).

My pave, that you liked is this style here:
3ringsprongs1.jpg

That's the type of picture I am hoping he can give you.
 
Thank you so much gypsy! I'll get onto all of this. He will charge me $200 to do the cad which then I can decide if I want to go ahead or not (if I do go ahead this $200 gets credited back to me so comes off final price). He wants to work from centre stone out and program cad which he will fine tune putting in different sized melee to create a delicate but graduated look....
 
Sorry gypsy, did SK do your reset? What "style" is that pavè? Mushroom? I'm afraid some Aussie jewellers have different terms so I want to explain it perfectly :)
 
You might want to ask them about and see examples of their prongs as well. I have used Steven Dibbs bench and their setter is a lovely guy but Steven prefers to have rounded prongs on all of his pieces.
 
It's called different names by different jewelers. I'm pretty sure Mushroom is limited to Leon's imagination as far as names go.

I don't want you tell him what to use. If he hasn't done it before it could be a disaster. Trust me.

I want to see what he has done in the past and see what he is proposing for your ring. So ask him for a close up image of pave work he has done before that is the same style as what he is proposing for your piece. :wavey:
 
I didn't speak to steven directly but one of his jewellers (who was so lovely!) but quite a bit more expensive. I have let them all know I want claw prongs and they have all suggested double claws due to sensitive princess corners
 
v prongs are best for princesses. As long as they are dainty they will be okay. Unless you want it to look more octagonal, then I would go for the double claw.
 
Up close and regular of 1mm pave on an earring and necklace set. Not clearest pics.

_19599.jpg

_19600.jpg
 
Ok so that's a different kind of pave. And it is more metal forward.

Do you like it?

If you want, you can send the picture above and ask him if he has done that style before.
 
Here are shots of my own halo/pave.

Gypsy%20Close%20Up%20Halo.jpg
DSCN0698.jpg

But the close up pics above are better ones to illustrate.
 
Also, you'll notice that my halo is tilted. At an angle. That's on purpose.
Although on mine you do see metal on the side. And that was ok with me. But the point is, it's not a flat halo, perpendicular to the shank.
Here's what I mean:
file.jpg
 
Also:
PaveCloseup1.jpg
 
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