it''s finally here!

[Linda W]

It''s Beautiful!!!!!

Linda

 

[katiedid]

I think this setting is soooo much prettier too. I talked to the owner of the store again this afternoon (she is the jeweler''s wife and they are both designers and jewelers and own the store together). Anyway, she wants me to come in and look at one other stone and see what I think of the color. It''s a little larger and would probably cost me another $300-500, which I''m fine with. If I don''t want that one, they can order me an F or G GIA stone that would match better. Hopefully if I keep the size about the same and upgrade the color, I can drop down to an eye clean SI (I only care how it looks to the naked eye--I''ll never look at it through a scope anyway...) and keep the price comparable. We''ll see. The one they want me to look at tomorrow is .72 instead of .70, and it''s a GIA instead of EGL. It''s an H, so I''m guessing it''ll still have too much color, but it''s worth looking at. She said it was best to go ahead and make the switch if I think I want to do that, as opposed to waiting a few weeks like I talked about with her husband. I''ve looked at the stone in all different kinds of light in the past 24 hours--daylight, night time with incandescent, flourescent, bright sunlight, shaded outdoors, etc. I''m seeing the color difference in every light.

 

[FireGoddess]

I can see a slight tint to the center stone - it''s great that they are willing to work with you on that. It would be worth a few hundred dollars to you to ''up'' the color if it bugs you already.

 

[iheartscience]

I love your new set! It''s absolutely beautiful! And I''m very impressed with how quickly your jeweler handled his mistake. I''m sure he''s won a customer for life!

Just so you know, EGL is generally known as being a little "loose" in their grading compared to GIA or AGS. For example, an EGL certified H/VS2 could end up being more like a GIA certified I/SI1. So the GIA H could very well be a better color than your EGL G. At any rate, if you''re not entirely happy with your new stone, I agree with the jeweler that you should definitely get it taken care of sooner rather than later.

If you''re curious about prices, click on the PRICES heading, choose search by cut, and you can enter in your cut parameters and see what comes up. I just entered in .7-.75 and D-H, IF-SI1. The price range that popped up is $1800-$2700. Obviously the price depends on the cut, color and clarity combo.

Good luck!

 

[doobao]

Date: 5/16/2007 6:22:01 PM
Author: katiedid
I think this setting is soooo much prettier too. I talked to the owner of the store again this afternoon (she is the jeweler''s wife and they are both designers and jewelers and own the store together). Anyway, she wants me to come in and look at one other stone and see what I think of the color. It''s a little larger and would probably cost me another $300-500, which I''m fine with. If I don''t want that one, they can order me an F or G GIA stone that would match better. Hopefully if I keep the size about the same and upgrade the color, I can drop down to an eye clean SI (I only care how it looks to the naked eye--I''ll never look at it through a scope anyway...) and keep the price comparable. We''ll see. The one they want me to look at tomorrow is .72 instead of .70, and it''s a GIA instead of EGL. It''s an H, so I''m guessing it''ll still have too much color, but it''s worth looking at. She said it was best to go ahead and make the switch if I think I want to do that, as opposed to waiting a few weeks like I talked about with her husband. I''ve looked at the stone in all different kinds of light in the past 24 hours--daylight, night time with incandescent, flourescent, bright sunlight, shaded outdoors, etc. I''m seeing the color difference in every light.

What a wonderful jeweler who''s willing to work with you~ Impressive.
& wish u the best on finding the perfect stone to go with such beautiful set~

 

[snlee]

I love your new setting! It''s beautiful. Enjoy!

 

[katiedid]

thanks everyone! It''s so good to see everyone thinks the new set is as beautiful as I do! I really value your opinion.

I would be SO happy if the GIA H they have in the store that is .72 ct would work! That would be perfect and I''d probably only be out another $400 or so and I''d have a slightly bigger stone. That would be well worth it. If it''s not perfect though, I''m going to just have them look for a .70ish ct, GIA cert F or G color, SI to VS in clarity with a very good cut. But boy, it sure would be easy to just pop in the one they already have! The cool thing is that since this set is full eternity, I can just turn the ering over, sit the stone on top of the setting and compare color without them even having to set it.

 

[togal]

I think the GIA certed H should work fine, as long as the stone is well cut. If the stone you currently have is EGL certified, the color is likely much lower than what is stated on the cert. For this much tint to show in the photograph, I''m thinking that it must be more in the J-L color range.

 

[CJ2008]

I love your new setting...I love that the roundness of the side stones softens the squareness of the middle stone...it''s beautiful.

And I agree with upping in color if it''s already bugging you. You have to love it...

 

[Catmom]

Hi Katie, I have a question and I truly don''t mean it to come across badly but I''m curious about what you would have done if your other stone hadn''t been chipped. I think you said it was an uncerted I which I''m thinking may have been close to the new EGL H in color. Would you have kept your old stone even if there was a color difference or do you think the color would have bothered you then too? I really love your new set and new stone but I''m admittedly not too sensitive to color.

 

[katiedid]

Fair question! My plan was to set my old stone in the new setting. If I wasn''t happy with the color, I was going to return the setting and start over, having SP make me something else. But I also think that I would have been more accepting or forgiving of a little color difference if it had been MY original stone. With that stone, I expected there to be a difference. This new stone has no history for me--it''s just a stone, so I decided I wasn''t going to just settle for "good enough". Does that make any sense? And in reality, I think my old stone would have looked significantly better colorwise in the new setting. I maintain that my original stone was a very white H, possibly even a G. I remember when my husband bought it originally, the manager of the store told him he was very surprised to see that quality of stone in that ring. My husband compared it to others in the store and said it was noticeable whiter than all the others. It was, however, cut a little too deep and had kindof a dark "hole" in the middle. But I didn''t care.

Anyway, I just met with one of the owners and we looked at the .72 GIA H she had. It still had too much color (she agreed) and it was noticeably more rectangular instead of square. Here''s what we decided--she''s going to look for an F or G (I told her to shoot for an F because I''d rather the center stone be whiter than the other way around), at least SI1 as long as it''s eye clean, with a very good cut and symmetry. I told her to work with the money they had invested in the current stone (I don''t know what they paid for this one), and to look for a few that might be a little larger but would be within me spending another few hundred dollars. The stone in my ring now is VS2 and I think I''d be fine dropping to an SI1 to get better color and possible a couple of points higher in size. By the way, she said she is going to send this stone back with a complaint against the EGL cert. She does not think it''s a G either.

FUNNY thing: they wanted me to bring my certs and receipt from Signed Pieces. Turns out they were questioning to themselves whether the diamonds were real because they said they were so incredibly clean and they were having a hard time finding any inclusions at all in them! I showed them the certs, they steamed the rings and looked at them more closely, and said yes, indeed, they were real diamonds! Then I showed them what I paid. Their jaws almost hit the floor! The owner''s comment was "that''s awesome for you but it sucks for stores like us!". Regardless of where I buy stones or jewelry, I still want to have a local jeweler that I can always trust and go to for them to check settings, remount stones, maybe even make smaller purchases from.

I should have at least 2-3 F stones to look at -- maybe tomorrow or Sat!

 

[Catmom]

Hi Katie, thank you for answering my question. Your answer makes perfect sense to me and quite honestly I think I would probably do the same and not settle when there is no emotional attachment to the stone. I was just honestly curious as to what you would have done if you had the same color difference with your old stone.

That''s funny about how your jeweler reacted to your SP set. It really is a shame when you have a great local jeweler but you can''t use them to buy major purchases from because they can''t compete with pricing. Good luck on finding the perfect replacement stone!

 

[kcoursolle]

It''s so stunning!!!! The cut looks much nicer than your old stone, congratulations!!!!