First off, I have to say a big thank you to everyone on the PS forums - I have learned a LOT (probably more than I wanted to) and gotten some great advice! Also thanks to Jeff White, Brian and Lesley from BGD and Richard Sherwood - all incredibly patient, helpful, and fantastic to do business with!
Where to begin? Well it all started around April/May. The GF had expressed interest in both diamonds and sapphire (her birthstone) - but not much detail otherwise. I decided that a sapphire would be more meaningful and also more unique, so thus it began.
Thankfully I think I can do a halfway decent job of knowing what types of jewelry are her style (hey, halfway on this is pretty good for a guy!), so I started looking around.Of course she loves Tiffany''s (although she knows I don''t like them since I think $200 for a sterling silver ring is a joke), so I looked their website for some ideas. At that time (BP = before pricescope), I had made a few purchases from BlueNile. So I took a look at their sapphire rings, and thought that the prices seemed decent, but somehow the sapphire color just wasn''t "it". Further research led to Angara, which again - same thing as BlueNile. It just seemed like the same "flat" (for lack of better words) blue that even Macy''s had for cheap $$.
It was about that time that I started reading about unheated sapphires.. which of course opened up even more to research! After a ton of reading online, I discovered The Natural Sapphire Company and Wildfish Gems. At that point I made up my mind that I wanted an unheated sapphire. But hours of browsing the selections let me frustrated - the colors were great, but I just couldn''t get past some of the cuts. While possibly not the right rationale (at least at the time), I felt like some of the cuts were (to sum it up): sloppy looking. So on went the search.
At some point, through some link, somehow (I am a serious internet researcher, I often will have 10 browser windows open, and end up on sites that nobody can believe I found..) I found Pricescope. And thus began the obsession with a precision cut sapphire. I literally went through hundreds of old pages, looking through pages of old threads and pictures. Talk about overwhelming - who is this company? What does this acronym stand for? Who is this Gene guy?!?!
So at this point, it was already into July when I finally felt like I knew what I was looking for. I sent a few emails out to some of the PS "regular cutters" with my thoughts and details. As many of you know, finding the right one can take a long time! During this time I (through various posts) decided that Brian Gavin (and Lesley) would be perfect to design a custom setting for the ring. I sent off an email and had a few chats, but ultimately everything had to wait for the stone. A few sapphires came and went, either only fit for oval cuts, too light, too dark, and so on. Eventually almost 2 months later, Jeff (White) came back saying he found something that he thought would be a fit.
Again another waiting game.. finally at the beginning of October Jeff was done! I could hardly wait to see the picture from Jeff, and even less so to actually see the sapphire! Then I realized - having the unset sapphire appraised was probably the right thing to do. Richard Sherwood was highly recommended on PS, so that would be great. But.. then I would have to get the sapphire shipped to me (Washington DC), send it off to Richard in FL, back to me, then off to TX and BGD! To be honest, at this point I think I was maybe a bit in over my head, and just wanting the final ring to hurry up and get here! So I gulped, and made a big decision: the sapphire would go directly to Richard for appraisal, then straight off to BGD.
So that is where I am at today.. the sapphire is with BGD, they are working on CADs (which I am being very impatient to see
), and I still haven''t seen my sapphire in person. Luckily, there are a few pics for now..
Where to begin? Well it all started around April/May. The GF had expressed interest in both diamonds and sapphire (her birthstone) - but not much detail otherwise. I decided that a sapphire would be more meaningful and also more unique, so thus it began.
Thankfully I think I can do a halfway decent job of knowing what types of jewelry are her style (hey, halfway on this is pretty good for a guy!), so I started looking around.Of course she loves Tiffany''s (although she knows I don''t like them since I think $200 for a sterling silver ring is a joke), so I looked their website for some ideas. At that time (BP = before pricescope), I had made a few purchases from BlueNile. So I took a look at their sapphire rings, and thought that the prices seemed decent, but somehow the sapphire color just wasn''t "it". Further research led to Angara, which again - same thing as BlueNile. It just seemed like the same "flat" (for lack of better words) blue that even Macy''s had for cheap $$.
It was about that time that I started reading about unheated sapphires.. which of course opened up even more to research! After a ton of reading online, I discovered The Natural Sapphire Company and Wildfish Gems. At that point I made up my mind that I wanted an unheated sapphire. But hours of browsing the selections let me frustrated - the colors were great, but I just couldn''t get past some of the cuts. While possibly not the right rationale (at least at the time), I felt like some of the cuts were (to sum it up): sloppy looking. So on went the search.
At some point, through some link, somehow (I am a serious internet researcher, I often will have 10 browser windows open, and end up on sites that nobody can believe I found..) I found Pricescope. And thus began the obsession with a precision cut sapphire. I literally went through hundreds of old pages, looking through pages of old threads and pictures. Talk about overwhelming - who is this company? What does this acronym stand for? Who is this Gene guy?!?!
So at this point, it was already into July when I finally felt like I knew what I was looking for. I sent a few emails out to some of the PS "regular cutters" with my thoughts and details. As many of you know, finding the right one can take a long time! During this time I (through various posts) decided that Brian Gavin (and Lesley) would be perfect to design a custom setting for the ring. I sent off an email and had a few chats, but ultimately everything had to wait for the stone. A few sapphires came and went, either only fit for oval cuts, too light, too dark, and so on. Eventually almost 2 months later, Jeff (White) came back saying he found something that he thought would be a fit.
Again another waiting game.. finally at the beginning of October Jeff was done! I could hardly wait to see the picture from Jeff, and even less so to actually see the sapphire! Then I realized - having the unset sapphire appraised was probably the right thing to do. Richard Sherwood was highly recommended on PS, so that would be great. But.. then I would have to get the sapphire shipped to me (Washington DC), send it off to Richard in FL, back to me, then off to TX and BGD! To be honest, at this point I think I was maybe a bit in over my head, and just wanting the final ring to hurry up and get here! So I gulped, and made a big decision: the sapphire would go directly to Richard for appraisal, then straight off to BGD.
So that is where I am at today.. the sapphire is with BGD, they are working on CADs (which I am being very impatient to see
300x240.png)