My girlfriend wants a non-diamond stone for her e-ring, which I was ecstatic about... until I realized that this makes the search about 10 times broader. I have a bunch of questions about colored gemstones and their suitability for everyday wear.
She likes earthy yellow- and olive-green tones best. In my searches I stumbled across Zultanite, which seems perfect in terms of the earthy green color, and uniqueness due to the subtle color changing. I see two problems with it:
1) durability. The websites list 6.5-7.0 hardness. She prefers well-surrounded settings, but is this just TOO soft for everyday wear? It''s softer than hardened steel, which one tends to come into contact with pretty regularly.
2) availability. It''s very new, and it had an exclusive deal with GemTV the past year which led to a flooding of the market with cheap cookie-cutter settings and rings. She wants an art-deco or Victorian or Edwardian ring. How would I go about getting that stone into that type of ring - is it something I can figure out by published dimensions, or does it require consulting with the jeweler beforehand to make sure the setting and stone will fit?
Assuming that''s not available/durable enough, green tourmaline, demantoid, and peridot can all have that color and there''s a lot of these rings out there. However, these stones are all below 8 hardness as well. Has anyone had experiences with these stones in e-rings? What kind of care is needed?
Green sapphire and olive diamond are also really nice, but very rare. Any good sources?
And if all that fails, there''s pink sapphire and aquamarine - not quite ideal, but she''ll love them anyway I''m sure.
Thanks in advance!
She likes earthy yellow- and olive-green tones best. In my searches I stumbled across Zultanite, which seems perfect in terms of the earthy green color, and uniqueness due to the subtle color changing. I see two problems with it:
1) durability. The websites list 6.5-7.0 hardness. She prefers well-surrounded settings, but is this just TOO soft for everyday wear? It''s softer than hardened steel, which one tends to come into contact with pretty regularly.
2) availability. It''s very new, and it had an exclusive deal with GemTV the past year which led to a flooding of the market with cheap cookie-cutter settings and rings. She wants an art-deco or Victorian or Edwardian ring. How would I go about getting that stone into that type of ring - is it something I can figure out by published dimensions, or does it require consulting with the jeweler beforehand to make sure the setting and stone will fit?
Assuming that''s not available/durable enough, green tourmaline, demantoid, and peridot can all have that color and there''s a lot of these rings out there. However, these stones are all below 8 hardness as well. Has anyone had experiences with these stones in e-rings? What kind of care is needed?
Green sapphire and olive diamond are also really nice, but very rare. Any good sources?
And if all that fails, there''s pink sapphire and aquamarine - not quite ideal, but she''ll love them anyway I''m sure.
Thanks in advance!
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