Newbie Needing E-ring Advice Please

[talamasca]

Hi Pandora - I feel a lot happier now having upped the budget and dealing with someone local. I'll do a search for what to look for with the gemstones

Hi TL - the link didn't work for me?

LovingDiamonds - OMG, OMG, OMG I absolutely adore your second ring, it's beautiful and so elegant. Do you have any pics of it from above as it would be good see what the trilliants look like in this type of setting as I've only seen rounds and baguettes so far.

Also, the jeweller said that trilliants don't always offer a very good sparkle and that the pink sapphire ring I was orginally looking at was from 1920's and the side stones were a very old style of cut and not actually trilliants!? But after looking at a few rings I def still want the shape of trilliants, but I'm concerned that they'll look flat?

 

[Pandora II]

Don't see why they wouldn't sparkle - some of my sparkliest gemstones are trilliants.

The best known old-cuts are the OECs (Old European cuts) and the Old Mine cuts. These were the pre-cursors to the modern Round Brilliant cut with the OMs being the oldest. Between the OECs and the modern are also what are known as Transitionals but they're harder to find. I'm not a diamond person at all, but I do have a bit of a thing for OECs and Transitionals and my 3-stone RHR is made up of OECs. They were cut for candle-light rather than electric light and tend to maximise the dispersion (or fire) so they throw off big rainbows. Today most diamonds are cut for the best mix of scintillation, dispersion and brilliance so much more sparkly but less fire. I've not actually see old cuts in a trilliant shape - they probably do exist as rough would often lend itself to that but I don't think they're common.

OECs and Transitionals are broadly round in shape (some more than others!), have high crowns, small tables, chunkier facets and open culets (so you see a little black hole when you look through the table. They tend to be cut on the deep side and so can face up smaller than a modern rb for the same weight, some are also better cut than others. They also tend to have very thin girdles so chips aren't unusual - one of the stones in my ring has a small chip but since it's over 100 years old I think it's rather entitled to a wrinkle or two!

That could have been the issue with the chip you saw on the original ring. I always tell people that they shouldn't write off the idea of a second-hand ring (as long as they can get an appraisal and make sure that everything is what it says it is - plenty of fake antiques out there) if they're not worried about bad juju or whatever. I have over 2cts of diamonds in my RHR and an extremely well-made setting, for what I paid for it I couldn't even have got close to 1ct in a modern rb and a similar setting.

 

[T L]

Hi Pandora - I feel a lot happier now having upped the budget and dealing with someone local. I'll do a search for what to look for with the gemstones

Hi TL - the link didn't work for me?

LovingDiamonds - OMG, OMG, OMG I absolutely adore your second ring, it's beautiful and so elegant. Do you have any pics of it from above as it would be good see what the trilliants look like in this type of setting as I've only seen rounds and baguettes so far.

Also, the jeweller said that trilliants don't always offer a very good sparkle and that the pink sapphire ring I was orginally looking at was from 1920's and the side stones were a very old style of cut and not actually trilliants!? But after looking at a few rings I def still want the shape of trilliants, but I'm concerned that they'll look flat?

The link worked yesterday, but it was a very old listing, so perhaps it expired. When I get my ring, which hopefully should be next week, I'll post photos of it. It was by ebay dealer lan.b04. It's a very basic basket setting, but it was very inexpensive, and I'm using it to set three colored stones, which I hope, have nice enough color to overcome the basic simplicity of the setting.

ETA: He relisted it (it has two tanzanites, but I got it without any stones).
http://cgi.ebay.com/Oval-6x8mm-14Kt...999?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2eb4888eff

If the link doesn't work above, just put the number, 200597343999, into ebay's search engine.

 

[Atwater]

TL, it is a lovely setting. Look forward to your photos (as always).

 

[talamasca]

TL, that setting is very nice.

Can someone tell me; when it comes to import duty from USA to UK who pays it and when? If my gem, including insured posting to UK is $440 how much import would I pay and who to?

Thanks.

 

[talamasca]

Also, I'm hopefully going to be looking at some pink gems at the weekend and I wondered what I should be looking for?

I've looked at 1000's online but I think most are done at 10x magnification or photoshopped so not sure of what I'm going to see with the naked eye!

I know about windows, but is a small window OK as some gems I've seen that are by gem cutters regularly used by PSers appear to have windows?

I'd prefer not to see any bubbles, etc with the naked eye, but I very much doubt I'll be given a magnifyer to look at them with so how will I know how clear they are?

Are there any questions I should ask my jeweller?

 

[talamasca]

I know about windows, but is a small window OK as some gems I've seen that are by gem cutters regularly used by PSers appear to have windows?

Actually, ignore the above. I've just realised that what I thought were windows aren't! I thought the top flat surface of the gem was a window, but it isn't is it? It's if you can see/read through the stone???

 

[chrono]

Correct; the top flat part the gem is called the table. It is only a window if you can read (or see right through the bottom below it) when looking straight down the table. If the window is small, it almost always "closes" or becomes unnoticeable once set.

 

[Pandora II]

Tax - you pay VAT at 20% on the cost of the stone. There is no duty on loose stones but there is duty on jewellery of between 3 and 5%. So, if your stone costs $400, then you will pay $80 in VAT or thereabouts...normally I call Stansted when I see it's arrived via the tracking number on the package and pay over the phone to have the package released. Other times they've delivered the package and then sent me a bill.

Ask the jeweller to lend you their loupe to see the inclusions - I worry if I can't see anything as in my mind, too clean = suspect synthetic until proved otherwise. An awful lot of people seem to think a loupe should be used at arms length - it doesn't work that way...

How to use a loupe:

Open the loupe and slide your index finger through the cover, then rest your hand firmly against your cheek to steady it. Keep both eyes open and the loupe close to your eye.

Now bring the stone up towards the loupe. I like to have both elbows on a surface and I also rest the lower edge of the hand holding the loupe on the upper edge of the hand holding the stone so that you have a really firm base. Use small movements of the lower hand to bring the stone or piece of jewellery into focus. It takes a little bit of practise but is pretty easy. Picture below...

Use a lamp to reflect light off the surface of the facets and examine them for scratches, chips etc. Then use the light to look into the stone and look for inclusions, stripy colour zoning, cracks etc.

Not all inclusions are a problem - I LOVE rutile inclusions - but surface reaching cracks etc are not good.

 

[talamasca]

thank you Chrono and Pandora

Whilst searching PS I came across this link and it's just what I need

http://www.palagems.com/quality_4cs.htm

 

[Pandora II]

thank you Chrono and Pandora

Whilst searching PS I came across this link and it's just what I need

http://www.palagems.com/quality_4cs.htm

Pala is an great site - and has incredible stones (they're not cheap ). My tsav came from them as did stones for 4 of my friends' e-rings. One of my tutors told me that whenever she's at Tucson she only gets a few hours free to look around and she always goes to look at their stand as their stuff is so beautiful.

I love their articles and buying guides.

 

[talamasca]

Well! The Design Event we attended at the high street jewellers was very interesting.

I orginally wanted a ruby ring, but changed my mind to a pink gem later and unfortunately they hadn't up-dated the info so the lady only brought a couple of rubies for me to look at. One was 1.65ct (she didn't tell us the dimensions) which I didn't really look at and the other was 2.15ct and priced at £595. Both rubies, for me, weren't the ideal colour as they were quite pink and the larger stone had 2 cracks running through it and I think the cracks met and at this point it was a lot darker. I asked about the cracks and she looked at it and said "oh yes it's included. You'll find the majority do have inclusions" Both stones were so flat and had absolutely no sparkle whatsoever!

She showed me some warehouse stock pink sapphires online, all of which were purple and expensive - approx. 7 x 5 mm was over £1,000.

As for the ring mounting, she quoted approx £1,000 for the design we liked and this did not include the diamond side stones.

As for the diamond side stones, she couldn't offer a quote but she said since I wanted trilliants, which they don't use often, these would more than likely be more expensive.

For the whole ring she suggested not less than £2,000!!!!

Needless to say, we left without ordering - as if we were going to spend double our budget and end up with inferior quality (In my eyes) stones

 

[chrono]

I’m so glad you didn’t get the rubies. Any ruby over 1 ct that costs under £600 raises red flags for me.

 

[Pandora II]

Unfortunately that is about what a setting of that kind is likely to cost you in the UK if you want to go custom and don't know someone in the trade. Did you ask them to check prices for a stock setting in your £650 range? I thought that might be doable...

 

[talamasca]

I’m so glad you didn’t get the rubies. Any ruby over 1 ct that costs under £600 raises red flags for me.

I'm so glad I found this site, otherwise I would've had no idea what I was looking at and would've ended up paying through the nose!

 

[talamasca]

Unfortunately that is about what a setting of that kind is likely to cost you in the UK if you want to go custom and don't know someone in the trade. Did you ask them to check prices for a stock setting in your £650 range? I thought that might be doable...

No we didn't and she never suggested that either!

Fortunately I'm happy with the local jeweller I've found now anyway. I just need my central stone and in this regard I've contacted Barry at ACS in the hope that he can help me out with something