Setting Suggestions Please - Sapphire Oval

[Starzin]

Almost Monday...

The blue looks wonderful against the richness of the yellow gold and I'm finding it difficult to find those inclusions on my monitor at night. I understand that the silk will remain unless the sapphire is heated to extremes too.

 

[yanaazul]

I have it! OMG so beautiful. It's everything I wanted. Two quick shots in my office, I'll do a proper thread soon! It is so very delicate...

It will be a right hand ring, but darned if I can't take a clear picture with my left hand...

I feel so lucky to have this sapphire, after a year of searching. Thanks especially to Aoife and Uppy for helping me settle on Adzia to do the setting; I highly recommend her to anyone.

(Sally's Pillbox carving looks lovely too, doesn't it?)

Thanks all for looking!

(ETA: Whoa, I don't know if it's my iPhone making the color more intense, or what. It is eye-poppingly blue, though, in person. My office blinds are open, so these pictures are a combination of slightly overcast daylight and office flourescent lighting.)

 

[athenaworth]

 

[kt]

oh, WOW, that is so pretty!!!! the stone, and the ring! congrats!

 

[Starzin]

An absolute knockout! It looks so delicate yet that colour has amazing punch...congratulations and enjoy

 

[GemFever]

 

[yanaazul]

athenaworth and GemFever: hee, smilies are so useful, aren't they? Thank you!

kt: Thanks!

Starzin: Thanks! I'm still marveling over how delicate everything is, the basket, the prongs... We get used to those huge macro pics, but to see it in person... hopefully the handshots give some idea.

I am completely blown away by the colors of this stone. It was still blue even under the streetlights at night in the Target parking lot! A darker blue, but still unquestionably blue. And that screaming blue in my office. I was kind of taken aback when I saw the picture above, but I realized, that's really what I see. It gathers all the light. Kinda distracting when I'm typing!

 

[happybear]

Wow!!!
Simply. Gorgeous.

 

[Deia]

WOW!!!!!!!!!

It is so beautiful. The stone just pops, it's almost electric!!! I am considering this setting for a round stone, glad to see it in yellow gold. Really marvelous ring

 

[chrono]

Lovely new ring!

The reason the vendor's picture show more inclusions and is darker is due to the lighting and resolution of the camera/photograph. Some older cameras do not have the technology to show such detail, so we end up with fuzzier pictures and colour that isn't always true to what the eye sees. I've also seen pictures where the camera is able to pick up details that I can only see with a loupe.

As for silk, even heated sapphire can retain silk if it doesn't all melt under the "lower" temperature. Seeing silk rutile in a sapphire is NOT an indicator of the stone being unheated.

 

[T L]

Very lovely ring!! Beautiful stone!

 

[GemFever]

Smileys certainly are useful when something is so pretty it leaves you speechless.

You are planning to make a separate thread on this ring, right? with lots of pics, please!

 

[yanaazul]

happybear: Thanks!

Deia: Thanks! Oooh, what are you thinking of setting? This is marvellously well made. Let me know if you have any questions about how it sits on the hand.

Chrono: Thanks for the info, I figured it was the lighting more than anything. Also, Adzia did let me know that she's been having white balance issues with her camera. It's good to have the clarification that it's a simplification to say silk = no heat. I figured there must be some explanation, because I didn't think I was getting an unheated stone.

TL: Thanks!

GemFever: Thank you, yes, I agree. I will make another thread, once I can take more pictures! I may make it a blues collection thread.

 

[GemFever]

Oh, you mean like a "show me your blue stones" thread? That would be aaaawesome! I wonder if one exists already. I'll go look for it.. eeer... when I get home, I mean

 

[yanaazul]

Oh, I hadn't thought of that! And there is a thread: where's that drooly smilie when you need one?

[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/show-us-your-sapphires.97655/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/show-us-your-sapphires.97655/[/URL]

But it hasn't been posted in since 2009. Let's remedy that, shall we?

I was thinking about doing a little photo session with the new ring, and giving my other rings some love, hence a blue collection. Hopefully soon.

 

[yanaazul]

(Double posting, sorry...)

GemFever! Saw you have a new avatar! Does this mean you will be adding new photos to the "Show us your sapphires" thread, yes/yes? Matching earrings too, please.

 

[GemFever]

Aw, shucks, with a personal request like that, I better oblige I may wait until I have some daylight pics of my earrings though.

Oh! And I could post my unset stones, too. And I got another one today on ebay, can't wait to see what it looks like. I have to be honest, tntyau, your glowy blue triggered my latest purchase

But hey, I'm still waiting on pics of your new ring, and maybe additional pics of the others. I'll post if you post!

 

[pregcurious]

I love the contrast of the blue and yellow gold.

 

[yanaazul]

Aw, shucks, with a personal request like that, I better oblige I may wait until I have some daylight pics of my earrings though.

Oh! And I could post my unset stones, too. And I got another one today on ebay, can't wait to see what it looks like. I have to be honest, tntyau, your glowy blue triggered my latest purchase

But hey, I'm still waiting on pics of your new ring, and maybe additional pics of the others. I'll post if you post!

I will! Waiting until I'm actually home during daylight hours...

Oooh, would love to see pictures of your new pretty! Sorry for being an enabler.

pregcurious: Thanks! I love that so many of the people here appreciate yellow gold.

See below for why I've been having trouble focusing while typing.

 

[GemFever]

woooow

Is this the ring's permanent "finger home"? In other words, did you design it for your right-hand index finger? So you could wear it with the other sapphires?

Also, how do you like the prongs? I'm a bezel fan, but I can't help but wonder whether my sapphire would feel better in prongs, in terms of availability of light... Maybe these questions could go into the new thread

 

[yanaazul]

Yes, I had the right index in mind from the start, with the stackers on the middle. Though the two fingers are the same size, so I might try switching them to see how it looks. (Actually, my left index and middle are the same size too -- all five of the sapphire rings are 5.5.) I know it's a busy look not to everyone's taste, but I always intended to wear everything together, not rotate. It was one reason I was disinclined to have melee or sidestones from the start, even though I know this sapphire would be stunning in any number of designs -- wanted to keep the new ring thematically continuous with the others -- gold, blue, with the detailing in the gold.

I love the prongs (so pointy!) and think it does allow a lot of light into the stone. My bezeled oval needs the right ambient lighting to be best -- people have told me it catches their eye from ten feet away at times -- but it doesn't always look like that. But I love the setting style too much to change it. Which then set me on the hunt that resulted in this stone (had an empty finger, wanted a statement blue...) From what I've seen so far, the prongs allow it to be consistently blue in lighting where the bezel on the other ring closes it down.

Adzia's design is perfectly balanced between the prongs allowing in light, and the basket being big enough to have the swirly detail. It might interest you that I did ask her to play with the proportions of basket to prong arches, and ended up sticking with her original design. Essentially, I was interested in seeing if the basket could be made more prominent while keeping the overall height the same, because I thought I might like the swirly part to be bigger. But also aware that the prong arches would have to get smaller, potentially losing the swoopy look as well as letting in less light. I have the CAD comparison on my work computer, I'll post it tomorrow.

 

[GemFever]

Thanks for all the info!

The color of your sapphires is incredible. I love my sapphire, but when I see our avatars side by side, it's amazing how different the stones look.

Thanks for the info on the prongs vs. bezel, too. If I like the ebay stone (which I will see on Monday), I may prong set it. But it's small, so... eh, choices, choices

 

[yanaazul]

Thanks for the info on the prongs vs. bezel, too. If I like the ebay stone (which I will see on Monday), I may prong set it. But it's small, so... eh, choices, choices

Heart of Water Lotus! My Lotus is a 5.1mm round, which puts it into her "baby" Lotus category. It looks like her standard listings for the baby Lotus have 4mm stones. How small is your stone?

Your avatar picture is taken in direct sunlight, looks like? It actually looks similar to my bezeled ring in that lighting -- check the "direct sunlight, over the shoulder" picture on page 1. It only looks like it does in my avatar in diffused sunlight -- in the shade of a building, on bright overcast days... I wish it looked like that all the time! Moody stone, just like me, haha.

Edit: forgot to add the comparison of the two CADs that I mentioned last night -- top is Adzia's original design, and ultimately went with this for my ring. Bottom is the exploratory CAD she did for me, tweaking the proportions of basket to prong arches to make the swirls more prominent. As you can see, it makes the whole design look much heavier. Less number of swirls on the basket, prong arches are not as swoopy, and the bigger basket angles the prongs more vertically than flared. I immediately realized I preferred her original design, told her she could tell me "I told you so!" (Not that she ever showed any inclination to say such a thing, I should point out.) But I'm glad I asked her and that she obliged, I'm the type that would always wonder, had I not asked...