my 1st roger dery stone!

[azred]

First of all, LOVE Roger. Nicest guy ever. He didn't have anything in inventory that was very close to what i was looking for, so he cut it for me. And i'm in love

Was looking for a pink stone (prefer lighter coloring and was actually looking at morganite initially) for a new wedding set I want to design. However, since my daughter's birthstone is pink tourmaline i thought that would be very cool. So he didn't heat this stone and retained its lovely baby pink color....and cut it in a asscher style for me, which is my favorite.

It's a 2.76 ct Nigerian pink tourmaline. this is the only pic i have so far - taken by Roger with a 100mm macro lens so i would be able to see any inclusions. I cannot wait to see it in person and should have it in my hot little hands by the end of the week. Yay - so glad that these forums helped me find such a lovely vendor to deal with, and will definitely be continuing to lurk here in the future.

Now i have to start looking into how to set this - i'm thinking something plat or white gold with a rose gold bezel or halo and pave.

 

[Enerchi]

That is a beautiful stone - love the asscher cut and the soft pink colour - very nice choice and excited to see how you'll set it!

 

[Coco914]

Oooooh....it's a beauty!! Love the powdery pink color and the cut is amazing!

 

[JewelFreak]

What a beauty! Delicate intriguing color. Roger is great, isn't he? What are the dimensions of the stone?

 

[azred]

Thanks all - yes, i'm excited to decide how to set it and to see his lovely work in person. Being in Phoenix, i try to go to at least the big Tucson gem show every year and i've seen some beautiful cuts - but i have a feeling this will blow me away

What a beauty! Delicate intriguing color. Roger is great, isn't he? What are the dimensions of the stone?

7.95 x 7.95 x 6.3mm - with corner-to-corner at 8.95mm

Did I read somewhere on this forum that you have to be careful with tourmaline if you plan to wear it a lot? Part of the reason i was thinking a bezel setting might be practical. Can't find the thread where i was seeing that though, LOL.

 

[colorluvr]

Congratulations - Roger cuts a mean stone! He's one of my favorite cutters.

 

[canuk-gal]

HI:

Congrats! Roger is a nice man--and has great loot!

cheers--Sharon

 

[kenny]

Beautiful gem!

 

[chrono]

I'm not sure if I would bezel set the tourmaline. There are several downsides to that.

1. Bezel setting only protects the girdle. The crown area is still exposed to damage
2. The process of bezelling the stone actually puts more stress on the stone. The thin stip of metal is hammered and pressed down onto the tourmaline. It is less risky to prong set a tourmaline.
3. You won't see the damage to the tourmaline during the bezel setting process until after the stone is removed from the setting because the bezel is covering it up.
4. The stone looks included, which makes it an even less likely candidate for bezelling.

 

[azred]

thanks all. and chrono, thanks for the advice on setting it - i will definitely keep that in mind and choose a jeweler very skilled with colored stones. There's one in tucson i'm thinking about, or possibly whiteflash based on the gorgeous creations i've seen on here! Probably not going to start that until later this year, so we'll see. I wasn't planning to start this project until after our anniversary in december but i wanted this stone!

 

[Arkteia]

Congratulations! I have no experience buying from Roger, it was just poor coincidence, because each time be had a stone to my liking, I already had the same type of stone in my collection! But I have spoken with him, yes, he is a very nice person, polite and gracious in the way he treats a client, and I will definitely purchase from him.
Your stone is very pretty. I do not think setting a tourmaline is insurmountable task, I had several set, but I totally agree with Chrono about bezeling, and there is one more reason to mention. Tourmalines'color shifts with the lighting, and I once made a mistake of bezeling Bob Last's tourmaline. With restriction of light due to bezeling, this pretty bright pink stone became extremely dull. It was quite a lesson!
My cellphone is not great for searching, but I would advise you to look at old thread by Kelpie. She had her stone set by Hunt County and perhaps the concept and the company will appeal to you? They are very good jewel8ers, and I had a spinel ring set by them. Very good workmanship, and the rest!

 

[azred]

thanks for the suggestion, will definitely search for that thread

Excellent point about the light as well - i spent about an hour in the sun with the stone today (it arrived - yay!) and the light definitely does her justice. I'll post pictures as soon as i locate my camera - with a toddler in the house, who knows where anything is ever

 

[azred]

oooh, i've just died and gone to heaven. i just found out i get a corporate discount at a local jewelers (20 to 30%) and they carry verragio, simon g, ritani, etc. Wowza - now we just have to go see what their markup looks like and if they have anything that would fit this sucker as is, or if anything can be doctored to fit it. YUM.

 

[azred]

holy beautiful ring settings, batman.

I've been having fun on etsy

After reading up here and asking Roger's advice, i did decide to go the RHR route with this. I also decided to set her in rose gold becaue i think it will complement the nice soft pink color very well.

Since i'm anal retentive and picky i'm sure i'll have to go custom, so was looking at some etsy vendors i'd seen recommended on here. Also a few i just randomly came across (and obviously will research someone at length before doing business with them). I think i'll get a few quotes from some scottsdale jewelers as well, I talked to a couple of people and they say they can probably beat any prices I find online. Yeah, i'll believe that when i see the sparkle.

Anyway, don't know if anyone has dealt with this shop, but their work is so pretty and i'm madly in love with this semi mount style:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/95739037/the-alencon-lace-sparkler-asscher-blue

it's actually pretty simple but i love everything including the euro shank.


I sent a message to ask if they could customize it in rose gold with the stone kite set (either on a bigger head that isn't rotated, or by rotating the whole head). I also want claw prongs. If i get a drawing i will share that too.

Another vendor i thought of working with is Laurie Sarah, although haven't read much feedback. I drool over the pink diamond settings at diamonds by lauren, but i think they would run a little more than i want to allocate to this project. I already have my head on a necklace project as well (with mine, DH and DD's birthstones). What are you people doing to me?!

 

[JewelFreak]

Rose gold would be terrific with that lovely stone! Looking forward to seeing sketches. You've caught the potato-chip syndrome here -- you can't stop with just one gem or project. Happily, there's no vaccination against it & no known cure!

--- Laurie

 

[1001smiles]

That's a jewelryhoo stock setting: http://www.ebay.com/itm/271080067709 and they can customize the size for you. I have ordered from them before and been satisfied with quality (for the price). I think your stone would look great in rose gold, I love rose gold too.

I don't get this Etsy vendor "TheVintageGoldsmith", they take a bunch of Chinese ebay settings, mark them up three times, and claim "Time and care goes into handcrafting each element of these rings which can often take more than 40 hours to complete". Isn't this dishonest and against Etsy policies?

 

[AmeliaG]

Congrats! I just bought my first Roger Dery too and it's an Asscher too. He's the nicest person to work with and so responsive! I was told to get ready to wait months for my dream sapphire Asscher and Roger kept sending me pics of candidates until I found one I was satisfied with.

I love the light play of the steps and windmills.

 

[azred]

LOL JewelFreak - cheers to a lack of cures for jewelry fever

1001smiles, ick thank you for the warning. That's exactly the type of thing i was wondering about. I don't relish the idea of paying shipping from Ireland and then having to pay to set my stone here, what if it doesn't fit, etc. Thinking i'm going to go with a vendor I can trust and mail them the darn stone. Or may actually work with the local guy, we'll see what kind of a quote i get there.

I love the light play of the steps and windmills.

Link to pictures, please!!

 

[chrono]

I don't get this Etsy vendor "TheVintageGoldsmith", they take a bunch of Chinese ebay settings, mark them up three times, and claim "Time and care goes into handcrafting each element of these rings which can often take more than 40 hours to complete". Isn't this dishonest and against Etsy policies?

I heard of this too but could not recall which Etsy vendor it was. I have no idea but can this be reported to Etsy?

 

[azred]

yay it took me FOREVER to find my old thread - was trying to not duplicate

so i posted this stone about a year ago when i bought it, but due to taking a huge pay cut (and finding a job i'm much happier at, so it was a good thing in the long run), it took me forever to budget a decent amount of funds to make it into a ring

It's a pink tourmaline from Nigeria.
here are the specs:
2.76ct ~ 7.95 x 7.95 x 6.3mm - with corner-to-corner at 8.95mm

This is my daughter's birthstone, and asscher is my favorite cut of anything. I loved Roger Dery's work after seeing some of it around here, so i had asked him to cut an asscher and he had this FAB baby pink color. I am not a fan of the bright pinks, so i thought it perfect for me!

It's a little included but hard to tell in person and i think it'll be ever harder once it's set. You can def see them in the pics though. I am just SO enamored with the color and cut

I had originally wanted to make a replacement e-ring out of this, but after finding out from you lovely people how fragile tourmaline can be, i decided to go the RHR route and do another project for my e-ring Yeah, you guys are a baaad influence! But delightfully so.

Here are a couple of other pics of the stone (from roger, i have yet to take my own as i suck at photography):



So far I've gotten some quotes from:
daniel m and laurie sarah on etsy
(btw has anyone worked with laurie sarah i didn't see them mentioned on here).
Was also thinking about talking to Rosados Box on etsy (found a design i love and they have awesome reviews but still a bit nervous).
Emailed Julia Kay Taylor as she's here in AZ and i thought her work was stunning. Her etsy site looks inactive but I contacted via the website, we'll see.

Biggest debate in my head right now is whether to add a couple of tiny pink sapphires as accents (these are MY birthstone and i thought combining mine and DD's might be an interesting heirloom idea).

 

[azred]

Unfortunately I'm allll over the map so I definitely need some opinions I originally budgeted about $1000 but wasn't married to that. Now I'm getting the PS bug and wondering if I should try and stay to the less expensive end of the spectrum so I can start another project with a cute spess garnet I saw and fell in love with.

here's the ring from laurie sarah i like:
although i don't know if i want all the diamonds. i was thinking another colored stone might be interested, or just the halo with a plain band


this is the daniel m trellis ring - got a quote from them on this ring but in rose gold with 2 small pink sapphires and a kite set head. also got a quote for argentium silver with sapphires, and for the rose gold without sidestones.


Also got a quote on this ring (belongs to a pricescoper!) in rose gold with 2 small pink sapphires - with a kite set head

this is from that rosados box vendor and i LOVE it:


So all i know for sure I want is:
a) kite set center stone
b) either rose gold, silver or some combo thereof
c) possibly pink sapphires

I like halos but not sure i want that for this stone. I like more delicate rings generally.

What do the shiny experts think?

 

[iluvshinythings]

Beautiful stone! I love asschers!!!

I puffy-heart love that Daniel M setting. I think blue or deep purple side stones would be beautiful.

 

[pregcurious]

I looked at the Laurie Sarah store. It looks like the stuff from LOGR or other vendors from China, except LS is much more expensive.

 

[azred]

pregcurious-Thanks for the tip on Laurie Sarah, appreciate that!

iluvshinythings- Thanks I love the daniel m trellis setting most (not sure if that's what you were talking about bc i posted two). The more delicate setting is within $200 of the other, so i think i'm just going to go for it and get the chunky one i love Now just have to decide on the metal (rose gold v argentium silver) and whether i want sidestones - blue is an interesting idea!

 

[minousbijoux]

Pretty stone and I love your taste in settings, particularly the last one. It would be beautiful halo'ed.

 

[azred]

thank you! decided to go with the daniel m trellis style as a baseline (no halo) - just put the deposit down today, yaaay! Now i just have to ship them the stone and we can get going.

A couple of other things i wanted to get opinions on - i've decided against pink sapphire accent stones because i don't want the pinks to fight I'm going to do with either purple, pale green, or a very pale blue. I 'talked' with Caren and she thought any one of those would go really well with the rose gold and the pastel color of my stone.

What do you all think? I'm kinda leaning towards purple because it's my favorite color but I am not sure what color would look best.

 

[azred]

FINALLY setting- pink roger dery asscher

bumping up my old thread rather than creating a new one - this project took forever, LOL

But finally down to the CAD with daniel m (dan and caren are both AMAZING) and I have a dilemma.

Stone is pink tourmaline, so by nature is a bit fragile (i don't plan on wearing this every day).

It's a ring designed w/mine and daughter's birthstones, so i'd like it to last to pass on to her one day.

Here are the two possible CADs - let me know what you think. I'm afraid that if we kite set it with the prongs that way, the stone will be exposed too much. I love how unique it looks - but i'm thinking of going the more traditional route and just setting it square, so that the prongs will protect the 'corners' of the stone. Dan thinks it should be ok either way because the corners aren't pointy.

What do you all think? It's in rose gold, the accent stones are sapphires and the prongs will be claw shaped
square set:

kite set:

 

[royalstarrynight]

I once had an asscher that I desperately wanted to kiteset but was too chicken to actually commit to.

Could you position the prongs so they could protect the corners better?

Both ideas look great!

 

[JewelFreak]

I think I like it better square set. There's enough else going on in the ring that kite-setting makes it a little busy. I'd worry about corners too over the long run, if you're thinking generations. Either way it will be just super. I really like the sapphires with it!

--- Laurie

 

[chrono]

I like the uniqueness of a kite-set but the prongs have to be modified or redesigned to protect the corners instead of leaving them exposed.