Help me pick a setting and setter!

[metall]

Hi all,

I picked up a marquis peacock blue sapphire cut by Precision Gems from a fellow PSer as a gift for my cousin's upcoming 21st birthday. I've snooped through her various social media and some bits of jewelry that she has on her own and I am very confident in my decision to have this stone set east west, in either a brushed gold or a rose gold. I am leaning towards the brushed gold since it's a little more "trendy" nowadays.

Where I am having trouble is which setting! If it were for me personally I love the tension setting since it really shows off the cut of the stone (since this is a bit of a wider cat's eye Marquis)....but for a 21 year old I think that protecting the stone in a bezel setting seems to be smarter. Then I ran into the question of do I add little wee diamonds? (I really like the Paloma from CvB)

Please help me choose! I've attached photos of the stone below (from PSer) and photos of the settings that I'm looking at. Also, could anyone recommend a good place to get this set that's not going to break the bank? The Paloma is $1,650 , which is a bit out of my range for a gift!


Thank you all in advance!!

 

[Heidi2101]

Not sure if it's just me but I can only see the last three pics

 

[chatoyancy]

Same here. I can only see the bottom three. Of those, I like the last one best.

 

[metall]

Ahhh seems the picture of the stones didn't attach.

 

[leslie1956]

That stone is beautiful I love seeing marquis stones set east-west, so I like all three of your setting options. Your cousin is a lucky young woman!

 

[Rubybrick]

Very pretty stone and what a thoughtful gift. I like the simple bezel.

 

[metall]

Seems like i was on the right track with going either simple bezel or bezel w. Wee tiny side stones. I definitely think the simple bezel is just more "in" or trendy these days. Does anyone have a good setter they can recommend? I might go back to idj to set this stone but again I'm not really looking to spend a thousand dollars +....thoughts? Recommendations?

 

[marymm]

The sapphire is on the dark side and I would be concerned a full bezel would darken it even further ... have you tried the foil trick where you take a piece of aluminum foil and fashion it to wrap around the stone (carefully) so you can get a rough sense of how it might perform if it were in a full bezel?

 

[metall]

The sapphire is on the dark side and I would be concerned a full bezel would darken it even further ... have you tried the foil trick where you take a piece of aluminum foil and fashion it to wrap around the stone (carefully) so you can get a rough sense of how it might perform if it were in a full bezel?

That makes a lot of sense, I actually didn't think so much about how the color would change as much as the design aspect of the ring. My train of thought was really that I needed to protect those marquis points....then I realized I really liked the geometric (not traditional rounded shoulders) of cut so I wanted to show that off. I figured if any setting would show that off, it would be a bezel setting.

I knew her school colors were green, and she took great pride in wearing it, which was what drew me to this stone. I will check it out that foil technique when I get home tonight. If it comes out too dark for my tastes, this might have to go into a white gold setting. When I was playing with it in the sunlight, the color was quite pretty and did light up a bit more peacock blue green. So i'm definitely hoping that bezelling it won't cause it to go too dark ...though a forest green would also be pretty...

 

[rockysalamander]

I too would be concerned about it becoming too dark in a bezel. How about a prong in bezel setting? That will give you the look of a bezel and the girdle/point protection and allow light to pass through.

Rather than a rounded shape, your stones has some nice points along the edge. Maybe a bezel that keeps that cool shape apparent?

For this style, you could look at David Klass in LA, CVB Inspired Design, Love Affair Diamonds.

CVB


Bezel following stone shape