My latest project with Yvonne (with questions)

[GLbluegreen]

lilmosun- I know that canary diamond/hauynite band in Yvonne's store you're talking about. I've been eyeing it Love the new ring she made you. Really neat design. Can I ask a question though ? Okay, are the hauyne stones the 2mm ones that she sells ? The reason I ask is because I am having a hard time visualizing my 2mm melee in a setting. When I look at this picture they actually look much larger than the tiny little 2mm I have in a tiny little box. Do you know what I'm talking about ? Is this photo supersized so much that it exaggerates the size of the stones ? I guess that is what I'm really trying to ask.

 

[lilmosun]

Thank you Sungura! And yes, we modified her two flower ring to have two larger flowers instead of a large and small.

And yes, the picture is an enlarged closeup..the center diamonds are only 3mm and the hauynes are 2mm. I'll post a hand shot when it arrives.

 

[GLbluegreen]

lilmosun- May I ask you one more question about your sapphire and kornerupine ring you posted a photo of ? Can you tell me what size your side stone kornerupine's are ? You said they were larger than the 2mm melee.

 

[lilmosun]

The kornerupines are 4.24x2.77mm (.33cts) and 4.38 x 2.91 (.35cts). The purple sapphire is 5.62 x 5.53 x 3.89mm (.98cts).

I usually wear the ring with a diamond band below it.

 

[GLbluegreen]

Thanks lilmosun. Our mutual affection for blues and greens in gemstones is getting me in trouble I am really enamored by your kornerupine gems. I was not at all familiar with them until they came up in this thread and once you posted your photo I was sold on their beauty. Not the brown ones. The ones like yours. You were lucky to find those two In the size they are. They are beautiful. Thanks for the help.

 

[lilmosun]

Laughing...I understand...and am always getting in trouble with anything that has blue-green or green-blue in the description. (Since I was born in Great Lakes, I could even be your other half haha).

I am not a soft color person, but admittedly I love my kornerupine pair. They are very sparkly. I find they make great side stones for softer colored stones that aren't colors I usually wear well. I hope you find yours soon and look forward to you posting a project with them!

 

[GLbluegreen]

I retired 3 years ago lilmosun and if I keep finding projects I'm going to have to go back to work

 

[lilmosun]

I retired 3 years ago lilmosun and if I keep finding projects I'm going to have to go back to work

I took the summer off before starting my current job and learned that I would need double my income to retire One of the reasons that I am trying to wrap up projects is so I can consider taking a less stressful job with normal hours. I'm probably only a couple of years younger than you and retirement is nowhere in sight especially if I keep buying jewelry Part of my justification is that jewelry is an accessory for work. I change my pieces daily like some people do shoes. I will likely downsize once I retire. Enjoy your retirement..I am jealous!

 

[GLbluegreen]

I love your justification lilmosun As far as retirement goes if you wait until the right time it won't ever come. When you are ready you will know. Even though the money isn't there like it used to be I have never looked back.

 

[lilmosun]

As far as retirement goes if you wait until the right time it won't ever come.

A friend said the same to me about having kids when I got married and it was true lol. Admittedly, with tuitions (private schools and colleges) and mortgages now out of the way, I am enjoying the ability to spend somewhat freely without worrying about bills. Once I get it out of my system, I can retire

I just picked up the two flower ring at the post office and here's the promised hand shot.

I have to say that I love love love this ring. It came out better than I imagined. It has great presence for such a dainty ring. The 2mm hauynites definitely hold their own and the yellow diamonds as so sparkly with perfect color. I don't have tiny fingers and this is a size 10 so it fits on my middle finger, index finger and thumb. I usually can't wear dainty rings but this has enough finger coverage that it even looks good on my ring finger. I already want to make this ring in other color combinations for other fingers

 

[Acinom]

What a stunning ring Lilmosun!
Beautiful colour combination and I love the design. More pics please

 

[katharath]

Another detour..this one inspired by GLBlueGreen's asking if I liked hauynites...as I hijack my own thread

I mentioned earlier that my first project with Yvonne was a small paraiba cab with hauynites. It was actually supposed to be a bright yellow center stone surrounded by hauynites. But Yvonne and I looked for months and couldn't find a 6mm yellow center that would stand up to the bright color/saturation of the hauynites (within my budget that is). So we finally went with a paraiba. Finally, inspired by her two flower ring and the canary diamond/hauynite band in her store, I saw the chance to finally make a ring in the colors that started it all. Just got the picture from Yvonne (It's been sized to fit my index or middle finger).

It looks BEAUTIFUL!!!

Love every bit of it, including the tweak to the flower size. It looks great on your hand

 

[GLbluegreen]

lilmosun- I just saw this post. Don't know how I missed it. But want to tell you it turned out beautifully. And thanks for the hand shot because I have been wondering about the size of the 2mm melee and how it looks in a ring. Fantastic !

 

[mochiko42]

That new yellow and blue flower ring is beautiful! It reminds me of Swedish colors.

 

[theredspinel]

Wow I love love love your new flower ring!!! Now you've put this style of ring on my ever growing list

Thank you for your post on dichroism and I LOVE your bigger kornerupine; I think I saw them in yvones shop but was too new to kornerupine at the time and didn't realise how awesome that pair was!

After I saw yours sell I was kicking myself then saw the 4mm bright green kornerupine (but without any dichroism) and jumped on them. You couldn't tell in yvonnes photos but one stone has a blue undertone and the other has a yellow undertone (I've finally got a precise eye for matching stones) so it's great to see a blue undertone green stone in the flesh. It's gorgeous! I'm planning to pair mine with the mints I also got from her.... but that won't be for ages yet!

 

[lilmosun]

Thank you Acinom, katharath, GLBlueGreen, mochiko and theredspinel!

If it weren't for the cost of using fancy canary yellow diamonds, I'd already have my order in to make another. But the diamonds were worth it as they are so sparkly and the perfect yellow for the hauynites - exactly the combination I envisioned when trying to make my first ring with Yvonne. So I justified splurging as this was something I've wanted to make for a very long time.

Mochiko - Thank you for the Swedish flag reference. To show my ignorance of international culture - When I first started envisioning the combination, I thought of the combination as "french" colors. In describing it to my friend from France, she was very confused that I thought blue/yellow were French colors (her response was "our flag is the same color as yours"). I was thinking of the fleur-de-lis used on the blue background which I associated as French. She still seemed confused as to why I would think of the colors as "French" so maybe I should refer it to my "Swedish" colors ring

 

[lilmosun]

theredspinel, GLbluegree or anyone else interested in a kornerupine:

I just saw a preloved one here in a nice setting (#11)

https://loupetroop.com/listings/rings-colored-stone-center/white-gold-rings-w-slash-colored-stones-12-listings

(I've bought quite a few things from the seller at good prices)

 

[GLbluegreen]

Thank you lilmosun for the last link to the Kornerupine. While it is a fantastic color, it is smaller than I would like. Now, about your project If my inexperienced opinion is welcome, I would say that I'm kind of on the fence about the metal color, but as far as the white diamond or pink ? I'm afraid you would get too consumed with trying to match the color of the melee with the color of the main stone and therefore white diamonds would be better and look better. And the last question, I go with the mini engraving. This is just my two cents so please take with a grain of salt. But one of many opinions I'm sure you will get here on the forum. Can't wait to see what you decide.

 

[lilmosun]

Yes the kornerupine in the ring above is small (the same as my side stones) but I KNOW how hard they are to find in that color at any size as I looked for a long long time. The setting does give it good coverage too so I hope someone grabs it...I would but I can't pull off dainty rings, so understand completely!

Ring update:
Thanks to Sungura , I was able to get the extra kornerupine needed and so went back to how I originally envisioned the ring. White diamonds on the outer edges. Will also use them instead of engraving to fill in any metal as well. Which is perfect because the whole reason I wanted a lot of stones around the malaya is because soft pink doesn't look good with my skintone. So decided to go with white gold for the same reason. Thanks everyone for their input (and especially Sungura for save!!)

 

[GLbluegreen]

So very cool lilmosun That is going to be gorgeous. Now I'm really excited to see it come to fruition. I like your original idea the best ! And Sungura, very nice gesture.

 

[lilmosun]

Thank you and yes, Sungura's generosity resolved my uncertainty!

Since you voted for engraving, here's a sneak peak of another project I has been long in the works with Yvonne. I had bought the 3 emeralds and 2 hot pink sapphires with the idea of a simpler 5 stone ring.

But I prefer rings with finger coverage and always admired the style of this ring in Yvonne's shop:



So after some back/forth, have settled on this design - smaller stones will be white diamonds and engraving will cover where you see bare metal. 18K yellow gold.



I don't have pictures of the stones...but here are the matching ones I bought for earrings (style tbd):

 

[GLbluegreen]

Oooh.....very pretty. I like that color combination. I like the engraving too. Glad you are getting your projects going. This is going to be fun to watch.

 

[lilmosun]

...and after much back/forth...the final answer was white diamonds in white gold!

Came home to this message from Yvonne

I posted a pic of your kornerupine ring on FB, it is just stunning, totally out of this world. I stared and stared at it. I am sending a picture to you from my cell. I have some mini video too. The kornerupine looks different in every lighting. Sometimes it gets very saturated, sometimes more purple. Sometimes it blends with the diamonds, sometimes it stands out.



Thanks to everyone for their help. I am thrilled about how this came out (unfortunately, I won't be able to get to the post office for a couple of weeks so need to have her hold shipping).

 

[lilysweet]

Oh my! I saw this on her FB and fell in love. The color combo is exquisite and the design perfect. I don't know how you did it. It is wonderful!!! I can't wait for handshots!

 

[Sungura]

lilmosun I saw it on Facebook amd it looks great. I'm so excited that the pave'Ed kornerupine is showing it's different colors. I'm so excited for you. We are going to have to find more kornerupine melee. Congrats on the ring.

 

[lovedogs]

OMG!! I saw this ring on IG and died over how amazing it was. I can't wait to see more pics!

 

[GLbluegreen]

lilmosun.... wow your ring turned out incredible Good communication between you and Yvonne has paid off wonderfully.
I really love the kornerupine with it. I have you to thank for introducing me to kornerupine . I had never seen or heard of it before. But I see from surfing the net that there are more yellow brown ones and the blue/green are hard to come by.
Can't wait to see this on you

 

[Lovinggems]

Stunning ring .

 

[lilmosun]

lovedogs and lovinggems - Thank you and others for the nice words. It's fun when a project with so much uncertainty all works out.

lilysweet - This one really was a team effort between Yvonne, Brandy (who does her CAD), Pierre (her setter - who we let decide on the diamond placement), myself and of course, input from folks here. There was a lot of back/forth as you can tell

GLBlueGreen - So true on the communication. It helps that I now have a better understanding of what I like and can communicate it better. It also gets easier once you've done a few projects with the same person and learn each other's preferences - where they are alike and how they differ. Fortunately, I've always trusted Yvonne's eye for color combinations which has saved me from making any big mistakes along the way. Have you bought any kornerupine yet for yourself? (Yes, the nice blue/green/purple ones are hard to find)

Sungura...my enabling partner in kornerupine addiction...in fact, i just found this picture of the ring in her store in a different light (as I contemplated what else I could pair up with kornerupines with )



...and the fb image mentioned by others.



Seems to have a lot of personalities

 

[Acinom]

What a stunning result!!! I love the beautiful color combination. I had not heard of kornerupine before and it's gorgeous. Looking forward to see this ring on your hand when you have time to pick it up.