hopefulheidi
Shiny_Rock
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2005
- Messages
- 335
I know it has been awhile since I updated everyone on my saga but there really hasn''t been much to tell. Nate bought the stone back in March as evidenced by some of my other threads and then the process kind of stalled out for a bit. He knew which particular setting I liked, and we had already received price quotes for a custom ring based on this design. At that point it was just a matter of him giving our selected jeweler the go ahead. The estimated time line for completion of the project was 5 - 6 weeks.
On June 21st Nate paid the downpayment on the ring to get the CAD and casting process started. Therefore the ring should have been done around the last week in July which fit in well with Nate''s proposal plans. Since the ring just arrived in the mail yesterday (October 13th) I''m sure you can surmise that things derailed a bit with this project.
As a bit of a back story, I''ve used this particular jewelery guy a few times over the past couple of years. He''s created a number of custom and not so custom pieces for us and I''ve never had a real problem with his quality or his turn around time. He''s a really sweet guy. From his emails though, we''ve come to find that he has some things going on in his personal life that seem to be affecting his work schedule and while I feel for him, this engagement ring is also a very big deal for us so I''m hesitant to accept a less than perfect jewelery piece as a result.
Part of the reason this ring has taken so long is due to the lag in communication. The first CAD mockup was delievered to us quite quickly but it was not exactly what we had asked for. Things only went downhill from there. Nate had wanted to handle the design process himself so there could at least be some surprises for me but as he started receiving image after image that weren''t quite right, he had to bring me in to the fold to help with the design details. Perhaps the most frustrating part is that we provided lots of good photos of similiar rings so there should have been a pretty concrete example to go by.
Eventually we were presented with a CAD that we found acceptable and the ring was cast by another company and returned to our jeweler. We shipped in the diamond and hopped for the best. We asked that some photos of the rough casting be sent our way so we could keep updated on the progress of the piece. From the start we were able to notice small things that weren''t quite perfect: a bit of wonky milgraining, prongs that looked slightly askew etc but we were reassured that these things would not be visible on the finished ring.
In mid September we received photos of the what the jeweler considered the final ring. Immediately I noticed that some important engraving was missing from the ring that I know I had mentioned in a number of emails with the designer. I also saw what I thought was a scratch on one of the prongs and as a matter of personal taste, I asked that the diamond be rotated to make the inclusion less noticeable. The prongs still looked a bit off and there were some gaps in the piece that we noticed previously and that still existed in the "finished product". Worst of all, we were able to pick all of these things up while looking at very small photos as our jeweler was having some "technology" issues.
It took another couple of weeks to finish the engraving and rotate the diamond and then we were sent our final batch of images. At this point I think we were both just really tired of the process as we''d been at it for 16 weeks already! I know we pricescopers tend to get really caught up in the small details as well since these jewelery pieces are generally so much bigger on the computer screen, so we agreed to conclude the process and have the ring sent to us to see how it looked in person.
Nate opened the package yesterday and inspected the ring for a bit, noticing all of the things we had seen in the photos. He made me close my eyes and hold out my hand so he could see how the ring looked on (was a very sweet moment and I was very proud of myself for not peeking!). He was still worried about the wonky prongs so he even took a few photos to examine even closer. From what I can gather, the milgrain is still wonky in places, the gaps between the center stones and the band is noticeable and the heads holding the 3 main stones seem a bit off center.
So now I''m left with an imperfect ring and the question of accepting it as is, knowing that sending it back probably won''t fix these issues as they could not be fixed after the ring was casted, or just focusing on the fact that it is still a beautiful piece, flaws and all.
What would you guys do?
~Heidi
On June 21st Nate paid the downpayment on the ring to get the CAD and casting process started. Therefore the ring should have been done around the last week in July which fit in well with Nate''s proposal plans. Since the ring just arrived in the mail yesterday (October 13th) I''m sure you can surmise that things derailed a bit with this project.
As a bit of a back story, I''ve used this particular jewelery guy a few times over the past couple of years. He''s created a number of custom and not so custom pieces for us and I''ve never had a real problem with his quality or his turn around time. He''s a really sweet guy. From his emails though, we''ve come to find that he has some things going on in his personal life that seem to be affecting his work schedule and while I feel for him, this engagement ring is also a very big deal for us so I''m hesitant to accept a less than perfect jewelery piece as a result.
Part of the reason this ring has taken so long is due to the lag in communication. The first CAD mockup was delievered to us quite quickly but it was not exactly what we had asked for. Things only went downhill from there. Nate had wanted to handle the design process himself so there could at least be some surprises for me but as he started receiving image after image that weren''t quite right, he had to bring me in to the fold to help with the design details. Perhaps the most frustrating part is that we provided lots of good photos of similiar rings so there should have been a pretty concrete example to go by.
Eventually we were presented with a CAD that we found acceptable and the ring was cast by another company and returned to our jeweler. We shipped in the diamond and hopped for the best. We asked that some photos of the rough casting be sent our way so we could keep updated on the progress of the piece. From the start we were able to notice small things that weren''t quite perfect: a bit of wonky milgraining, prongs that looked slightly askew etc but we were reassured that these things would not be visible on the finished ring.
In mid September we received photos of the what the jeweler considered the final ring. Immediately I noticed that some important engraving was missing from the ring that I know I had mentioned in a number of emails with the designer. I also saw what I thought was a scratch on one of the prongs and as a matter of personal taste, I asked that the diamond be rotated to make the inclusion less noticeable. The prongs still looked a bit off and there were some gaps in the piece that we noticed previously and that still existed in the "finished product". Worst of all, we were able to pick all of these things up while looking at very small photos as our jeweler was having some "technology" issues.
It took another couple of weeks to finish the engraving and rotate the diamond and then we were sent our final batch of images. At this point I think we were both just really tired of the process as we''d been at it for 16 weeks already! I know we pricescopers tend to get really caught up in the small details as well since these jewelery pieces are generally so much bigger on the computer screen, so we agreed to conclude the process and have the ring sent to us to see how it looked in person.
Nate opened the package yesterday and inspected the ring for a bit, noticing all of the things we had seen in the photos. He made me close my eyes and hold out my hand so he could see how the ring looked on (was a very sweet moment and I was very proud of myself for not peeking!). He was still worried about the wonky prongs so he even took a few photos to examine even closer. From what I can gather, the milgrain is still wonky in places, the gaps between the center stones and the band is noticeable and the heads holding the 3 main stones seem a bit off center.
So now I''m left with an imperfect ring and the question of accepting it as is, knowing that sending it back probably won''t fix these issues as they could not be fixed after the ring was casted, or just focusing on the fact that it is still a beautiful piece, flaws and all.
What would you guys do?
~Heidi
Plus, after 6 years of dating, and with me planning our wedding for next October, I really just want to get this sucker on my finger. If we send it back, we should give the jeweler the opportunity to fix it before deciding to throw in the towel and go with someone else. Plus then we have to worry about finding someone else we can trust and waiting another 5-6 weeks to have the whole thing remade. Gah! Keeping it seems much easier but as you said, the defects will only become more obvious.
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