Jeff White Sapphire complete!

[arjunajane]

Thankyou so much everyone else who has commented, it''s much appreciated.

 

[Lovinggems]

Looks great, looking forward to your ring design story!

 

[Spirit]

Arj I am still waiting to see some side stones which have not come in yet. In the meantime I have been admiring my loose saph in all different lighting and am still amazed at the cutting skills of our master Jeff! Just wait til you get your little manicured hands on your new beauty!
Please shout as soon as it arrives!

 

[arjunajane]

Date: 11/21/2009 7:43:20 AM
Author: Lovinggems
Looks great, looking forward to your ring design story!

Thanks LG

I''ve already explained most of what went into it, about half way down pg 8..
But of course when it arrives I''ll likely do a new thread with some more on that.

 

[arjunajane]

Date: 11/21/2009 3:25:36 PM
Author: Spirit
Arj I am still waiting to see some side stones which have not come in yet. In the meantime I have been admiring my loose saph in all different lighting and am still amazed at the cutting skills of our master Jeff! Just wait til you get your little manicured hands on your new beauty!

Please shout as soon as it arrives!

I am envious that you got to play with yours loose so much!
I can only hope mine is as pretty after setting as before (I''m sure it will be).

Can''t wait to see what you decide, keep us updated ya?

 

[arjunajane]

My ring is finally here....!

And the sapphire, lordy this sapphire

It is honestly and completely the most beautiful sapphire I have ever seen, and I feel privileged to own it and be able to enjoy it every day.

Jeff's photos let me know that he nailed the exact blue I asked for, but nothing could have prepared me for how completely incredibly beautiful this gem is in person.
It keeps it's bright blue colour in seriously *every* lighting, it's quite amazing!

I have had the fun occasion today to go from opening the package in afternoon sunlight - just incredible bright luscious gorgeous blue, couldn't look away;
after dark under home lighting - still bright rich blue and sparkles like all get out;
walking to a restaurant for dinner, night time with no near by obvious light source - it was glowing like a bright blue ember!

My poor long-suffering Fi, how many times today he has heard "But just LOOK at the colour!", lol!
And of course the whole dinner I was preoccupied with the sparkle and beauty of my new treasure.
I can't thank Jeff enough for seriously making a dream come true.


The setting is executed wonderfully, the design is awesome and just what I wanted.
Oh, and I am immediately a platinum convert person - as soon as I put the ring on and felt what everyone refers to, now I understand, I'm stoked I went with Pt

However, the only down note in all this - there are two small-ish concerns I have with the setting, that I did not initially identify from the photos, but which became quite clear in person.
It is nothing major, but I think I will just reserve final judgements and starting a new thread with photos etc until I have heard back from Brian & Lesley on what we can do.
Please don't get me wrong, the ring is 100% beautiful, I love it - I just feel this sapphire deserves the best possible home in every way

I know, BOO me..throw stones and all

I just wanted to share my joy and excitement over my new treasure, and I promise to make it up asap with oodles of pics

Thankyou all who originally convinced me to go with Jeff, I know I will work with him again and now consider him a wonderfully talented and kind friend.

Thankyou as well to the infinitely helpful, patient and informative Brian & Lesley, I wouldn't have wanted to do this project with anyone else; and I'm confident we will be able to resolve my concerns, hopefully easily and quickly.

 

[Spirit]

OH Gem Sis- ( Blues Brothers?)haha... I am so relieved that you FINALLY have your treasure in person . That stone will continue to caprivate you- Jeff''s cuts are incredible and the colour of your stone is so gorgeous in photos - I can''t even imagine how it looks in person!
Your small concerns with the setting will be looked after and you will always be thrilled when you wear this work of art. Don''t forget we need real life photos!

Enjoy and wear it in good health!

 

[MakingTheGrade]

Oh I can''t wait for real life photos!! So glad you adore the ring so much!

 

[Laila619]

Oh no! I hope the ring will get sorted out Aj.

 

[Novel]

AJ, I''m glad you mostly love it and I hope it comes back as you want it to!

 

[TravelingGal]

Date: 11/21/2009 5:25:41 AM
Author: arjunajane

Date: 11/20/2009 1:44:58 PM
Author: TravelingGal
I was wondering what that was, and if I was seeing things. Interesting idea!


Photos look great, looking forward to seeing your pics!

Thanks Tgal..he he, do you mean interesting = interesting...or interesting, as in another word for unattractive..? lol..

It will of course be less noticeable IRL, and will sit below view when on the finger.
However, considering my penchant for admiring rings from profile and side views, I already think it will become one of my fave features

Glad you love the ring, and hopefully all will get resolved.

As for interesting, I meant it in the sense of novel. Never seen the design element before!

 

[Dreamer_D]

I hope you get it resolved quickly! I want to see more pictures!

 

[LD]

This has been worse than waiting to give birth! I''ve been WAITING and WAITING to comment on this thread!

First up, I adore the photos that Brian took for you and it''s an incredibly good learning tool for newbies to compare to the CADs. I''d love to see the first set of CADs also to see how the design changed. I''m incredibly curious as to what you''re seeing IRL that you haven''t seen in the CADs but of course understand you''ll share when you''re ready.

I''m in complete agreement though that your sapphire needs to have the best home possible. It''s simply stunning so deserves the best and I''m sure with a bit of tinkering you''ll give it just that.

I can''t wait to hear the final leg of your journey and then see everything unfold if you do a start to finish thread.

 

[Brown.Eyed.Girl]

AJ I realized I never came back to this thread after my flight - your ring is lovely! Gosh I''m so jealous! Can I come over and play with your gemmies?!

 

[Fly Girl]

Date: 11/25/2009 9:22:14 AM
Author: arjunajane
My ring is finally here....!

And the sapphire, lordy this sapphire

It is honestly and completely the most beautiful sapphire I have ever seen, and I feel privileged to own it and be able to enjoy it every day.

I think I will just reserve final judgements and starting a new thread with photos etc until I have heard back from Brian & Lesley on what we can do.
Please don''t get me wrong, the ring is 100% beautiful, I love it - I just feel this sapphire deserves the best possible home in every way

I know, BOO me..throw stones and all

I just wanted to share my joy and excitement over my new treasure, and I promise to make it up asap with oodles of pics

I''m not sure what is wrong with your setting, but just want to weigh in that if it is rather minor, that sometimes it is best to leave well enough alone. I would hate to see any mishap come to that gorgeous sapphire from trying for absolute perfection.

Stunning, stunning ring. Glad you went with platinum. As you say, that stone deserves the best.

 

[arjunajane]

Thankyou so much everyone for weighing in with support and being patient with me.


I just want to say upfront how impressed I am with Brian's honesty, integrity and willingness to address my concerns.
I was happy I went with BG when things were going well - but I believe the true test of a vendor is how they behave when something goes wrong.

To Brian's absolute credit, as soon as Lesley received my emails with my concerns, he rushed into work to call me before I went to bed last night.
We spoke at length for at least an hour.

Because this is a consumer site and I have every confidence any issues will be resolved, I would like to stop being cryptic and share my concerns with you all:
1. One of the seats on one of the prongs appears to not be cut entirely properly, and therefore the prong tip is not meeting the facet of the sapphire properly. To be fair, the gap is pretty slight, but it's there and it catches.
Brians' response - he takes full responsibility for not catching it, apologized profusely, and will be fixing it at the earliest convenience.
He said he does not believe it is a security risk so I am free to wear and enjoy my ring.

2. I felt that the "inside parts" of the ring - ie. the sections where there is a gap between the shank and the diamond shoulders, where the seat for the sapphire is, etc - should have had a higher/better polish. After speaking at length to Brian about the technical aspects of this and him clearing up some misunderstandings I had about how that kind of work is actually done, I have accepted that these expectations are not entirely reasonable and am content with how it is.
That said - if/when the ring goes back, Brian said if I still want a higher polish done we can discuss the pros and cons of doing so then. So another tick

3. And probably the most upsetting one - I discovered three quite long, thin scratches on the table of my sapphire. I noticed one line by eye when the light hit the stone "just so", then after louping it discovered there are actually 2 long scratches travelling the length of the table (one that looks just slightly deeper than the other), and a third one about half the length at the other side of the table.
Of course, my heart sunk into my stomach

In regular viewing, I can make out the longer/deeper one by eye if I rock the stone back and forth to catch glare on the table. The other ones I can only see by loupe.

To be fair, I never saw the stone before it was set. I'm not a cutter or a jeweller and so I won't try to guess what caused the marks.

Brian acknowledged straight away that, even if he can not determine whether his workshop was responsible or not, as he was the final person to have posession of the stone, he will take full responsibility again.
In his words, he will do whatever it takes to make it right, even if it means replacing the stone at his cost.

Of course, it will not come to this, but it's reassuring to know.
He is going to be in talks with Jeff about what can be done, and I'm confident it will be an easy fix for Jeff as thankfully they are quite light and only on the table - but of course no one will know for sure until they see the stone.

At this stage, I am just going to wear and enjoy my awesome sapphire and beautiful ring, and these issues will be sorted out in due course.

I wanted to bring them up with you guys, as I will likely need some counsel when it comes time to decide whether I want to go in for a repolish or not - that will be a difficult decision, as obviously at least *some* points will be lost on my sapphire, plus unsetting, repolishing, and resetting presents a new risk.

I want to say that if it were just one thing - ie. only the prong, or only the scratches, I would just not mention it at all and move on and enjoy my ring.
But with the issues compounded, I did feel they needed to be addressed.

It is unfortunate these things, but I'm not going to dwell on it.
Again, I cannot give enough high praise to Brian for the way he will be handling everything.


Thankyou everyone if you've made it this far!

And I promise, the next you hear from me will be a new thread with a fantastic photoshoot.

I have already snapped a few and the ring photographs like a dream

 

[arjunajane]

Fly girl, you make a very good point and obviously this will weigh on my mind at decision time.

Thankyou BEG - hon, as long as you bring yours, than of course!

LD, sorry about that

I will definitely post the whole progression with both CADS on the new thread.

Thanks DD!

Thanks Tgal for clarifying

I actually love it in person, it is one of my fave parts of the ring.!

Cheers Novel and Laila, I''m confident it will.

Promise not too much longer MTG

Hi Spirit - of course! If you check out my other threads, you will see I always do many photos

 

[Cind11]

Hi arjunajane,

Just wanted to say how lovely your setting looks and your sapphire is to die for. I would certainly think scratches should be able to be polished out though and the prong sounds easily fixable. You did an excellent job putting the whole "project" together.

That was really nice that they offered to even replace your stone if necessary. They did not offer to do that for me when my Malaya garnet came back with a tiny chip after having to send it back to them for sizing and incorrect gold content. (14K vs. 18K)

 

[arjunajane]

Date: 11/26/2009 12:17:19 AM
Author: Cind11
Hi arjunajane,


Just wanted to say how lovely your setting looks and your sapphire is to die for. I would certainly think scratches should be able to be polished out though and the prong sounds easily fixable. You did an excellent job putting the whole ''project'' together.


That was really nice that they offered to even replace your stone if necessary. They did not offer to do that for me when my Malaya garnet came back with a tiny chip after having to send it back to them for sizing and incorrect gold content. (14K vs. 18K)

Hi Cind,

Thanks for your compliments!

I apologize if my post has caused you any distress - I''m not going to attempt to compare our cases as of course I am not informed on what happened with your malaya.

I think its important to determine that we *all know* that fine table scratches will be easily polished out at likely a minimal loss, and realistically (unless something went seriously wrong with unsetting etc), BG would never actually come to having to replace my stone.
I guess the point of me posting that comment was to illustrate I was impressed with Brian''s response and level of commitment to my concerns. And also that his comments bought me alot of reassurance when I was quite distressed about the whole thing.

Considering how much attention this thread seems to have gotten, and the amount of time and effort that was put into my ring, I didn''t want to give lurkers or newbies a scare about using BGD if they read my story, kwim?

I hope you understand, and again I''m sorry if bringing that up causes an issue for you.

 

[TravelingGal]

Date: 11/26/2009 1:40:25 AM
Author: arjunajane

Date: 11/26/2009 12:17:19 AM
Author: Cind11
Hi arjunajane,


Just wanted to say how lovely your setting looks and your sapphire is to die for. I would certainly think scratches should be able to be polished out though and the prong sounds easily fixable. You did an excellent job putting the whole ''project'' together.


That was really nice that they offered to even replace your stone if necessary. They did not offer to do that for me when my Malaya garnet came back with a tiny chip after having to send it back to them for sizing and incorrect gold content. (14K vs. 18K)

Hi Cind,

Thanks for your compliments!

I apologize if my post has caused you any distress - I''m not going to attempt to compare our cases as of course I am not informed on what happened with your malaya.

I think its important to determine that we *all know* that fine table scratches will be easily polished out at likely a minimal loss, and realistically (unless something went seriously wrong with unsetting etc), BG would never actually come to having to replace my stone.
I guess the point of me posting that comment was to illustrate I was impressed with Brian''s response and level of commitment to my concerns. And also that his comments bought me alot of reassurance when I was quite distressed about the whole thing.

Considering how much attention this thread seems to have gotten, and the amount of time and effort that was put into my ring, I didn''t want to give lurkers or newbies a scare about using BGD if they read my story, kwim?

I hope you understand, and again I''m sorry if bringing that up causes an issue for you.

And uh, considering that, they''d be stupid not to *address* the situation as I''m sure they''d lose a bit of business because of it! Not being sarcastic here, just cheeky. Plus your concerns don''t seem unreasonable AJ. If they were, I''m sure the folks at BGD would draw the line.

Looking forward to your pics - they are always fantastic!

 

[bling addict]

Hi AJ
Glad to hear that your sapphire is even more amazing than anticipated, and that you love your ring so much -- hope you are able to have your concerns fixed soon....and can''t wait for some of your pics!

 

[arjunajane]

lol, yes Tgal I wouldn''t expect anything less from you M''dear!
I''m not going to speculate as to Brian''s motives - I have my own understanding of the type of person he is, but I''m not going to try to push that on others.

One thing I think you would agree, that if I had bought these "problems" to *at least* 90% of jewellers world wide - PS or no PS, what would their response be?
You''re being too nit-picky, no one looks at rings under a loupe, you can''t expect perfection, you''re expectations are too high Can''t you just hear it?
And taking responsibility for the sapphire? I doubt it. I''m confident 90% of the worlds jewellers would either deny deny or blame me. And I would be told to get over it and get stuffed, basically

I mean, who can forget Ellen''s heirloom aqua scratches - what was she told? You''re expectations are too high, and get lost - basically. I know LM is a different animal, but I make the comparison due to the similarities in our cases.


Anyways...
enough of all of that..
I don''t like the negative down turn this thread has taken - and I think the only way to fix it....



...is with photos

Gawd knows all of you have stuck around and waited/supported/commiserated enough, lol!

 

[arjunajane]

Disclaimer: this is not the "official" photo shoot - I just whizzed around the grounds at work today.
On the weekend, I will come up with something more interesting / creative.

In the meantime I hope this satisfies the picture sharks

 

[arjunajane]

btw, any pink reflected in the stone is from my fuchsia camera - this puppy is all blue

 

[arjunajane]

..

 

[arjunajane]

suits me, doesn''t it

btw, this ring fits amazingly comfortably. I love wearing it, the dimensions are *just right* and the sizing is perfect.

 

[arjunajane]

with native "kangaroo paw" flowers..

 

[arjunajane]

showing one of it''s other blue personalities, with some side diamond fires.

 

[arjunajane]

sparkles

 

[arjunajane]

my native "gumtree series"