Amethyst and Iolite Earrings - Opinion Please

[JSRNM]

Hi Everyone. I am pretty new here and appreciate all I have read while lurking on this site. I am looking for a new setting for my E-ring and while at a B&M I saw these earrings and I love them. I do not know anything about Amethyst or Iolite. Would someone please help me and let me know what you think of these earrings and also what questions I should ask the jeweler. There is also a wonderful necklace but I do not have a photo. They are asking $2100 for the earrings and around $3500 for the necklace.

Thanks so much for the help

Here is the into from the jewelers website: We just love the icy, cool, pastel colors of these amethyst and iolite earrings. Small diamonds (.12 cts.) adorn the links between the colored stones. The links are articulated, so the earrings have a wonderful motion to them.

 

[marcy]

The earrings are beautiful, as for the price I can''t say. How many carats are they?

 

[Lovinggems]

Lovely earrings, do you have a photo of the necklace as well?

 

[04diamond<3]

They''re very nice! I would ask the jeweler what carat they are; what clarity; and what metal they''re set in...

 

[ma re]

My most important question would be - are they custom made or the stones are set in a pre-made (mass produced) setting. If they''re not custom made I wouldn''t spend that much money on earrings with amethysts and iolites as those are not really expensive varieties of stones (and colors in that photo are not something you''d consider a top color for either of those varieties). Of course all the questions above are something you should ask too. If you''d like to find out more about these stones visit www.gemstone.org and browse their gem by gem category to find info about iolites or amethysts. It''s a pretty good place to start.

 

[morecarats]

Those are lovely earrings, but the asking price seems amazingly high. Neither amethyst nor iolite justify the price, and in fact the color saturation of those stones would be considered mediocre. You have to give the designer credit though for producing a design that turns the weak color into a virtue. But the designer could have achieved the same icy color with more brilliance by using aquamarine and spinel ...

 

[JSRNM]

Thank you all.
I do not know the answers to most of the questions though I do know they are handmade by their in house designer.
I was stroke by their composition and colors as pink and purple are very pretty to me.
I will try and take a photo of the necklace when I am back at the store.

I am off to read the thread was mentioned above.

Thanks for all the help.

 

[Gailey]

Date: 9/19/2009 8:11:52 PM
Author:JSRNM
Hi Everyone. I am pretty new here and appreciate all I have read while lurking on this site. I am looking for a new setting for my E-ring and while at a B&M I saw these earrings and I love them. I do not know anything about Amethyst or Iolite. Would someone please help me and let me know what you think of these earrings and also what questions I should ask the jeweler. There is also a wonderful necklace but I do not have a photo. They are asking $2100 for the earrings and around $3500 for the necklace.

Thanks so much for the help

Here is the into from the jewelers website: We just love the icy, cool, pastel colors of these amethyst and iolite earrings. Small diamonds (.12 cts.) adorn the links between the colored stones. The links are articulated, so the earrings have a wonderful motion to them.

Hey JSRNM

They look like very pretty earrings. Although we don''t know the carat size, I feel sure that as Ma Re tells you, they are not considered to be top quality colours in each of the two varieties. It is likely that you could do better if you were to try and source the stones yourself and get a custom jeweller such as Julia Kay Taylor to make them for you.

Now that being said, you may not care to source the stones yourself. You may not prefere the more saturated colours of amethyst and iolite, and you may have a hard time finding two sets of pairs that match with each other and complement the other set.

Therefore, one of the questions you have to ask is, are they worth $2,100 to you personally.

If you do decide you want to try and re-create the earrings, we can certainly help you try and source the stones and point you in the direction of a selection of custom jewellers that may be able to build them for you

 

[Stone Hunter]

They are lovely but I second what Gailey said. I simply could not bring myself to pay that much for them. But it may be worth it to you if you don''t enjoy the hunt for gemstones.

 

[chrono]

The asking price is very high but I attribute that to them being custom made. The stones even though possibly large are not worth a lot due to the very pale and light colour. The bulk of the cost is in the labour of the setting.

 

[ma re]

Gailey, you''re probably right that JSRNM could get the same design for less if going the route you suggested. However, these earrings still wouldn''t come cheap, as there is (from what I see) almost 20 stones on each earring to set, and if earrings are also made from platinum, they will cost quite a bit. Not to mention that you''d have to look for some time to find a jeweller who is as skilled as this one, cause a glimpse at the way diamonds are set, reveals a nice degree of workmanship. As Chrono said, the bulk of the value is in the labour, and that same labour would still have to be paid even if you find another jeweller and ask him to recreate this.

 

[Gailey]

Date: 9/21/2009 1:30:21 PM
Author: ma re
Gailey, you''re probably right that JSRNM could get the same design for less if going the route you suggested. However, these earrings still wouldn''t come cheap, as there is (from what I see) almost 20 stones on each earring to set, and if earrings are also made from platinum, they will cost quite a bit. Not to mention that you''d have to look for some time to find a jeweller who is as skilled as this one, cause a glimpse at the way diamonds are set, reveals a nice degree of workmanship. As Chrono said, the bulk of the value is in the labour, and that same labour would still have to be paid even if you find another jeweller and ask him to recreate this.

I scoured stuller to see if I could see something similar to the diamond set centres. Couldn''t find anything. That''s not to say that they are definitely custom, but you can begin to see how the costs stack up.

Be interesting to see a picture of the necklace JSRNM.