Softer stones for e-rings? Thoughts? Experiences???

[Pandora II]

Pandora, gotta love your grandmother: 1-she still remembers the ring as it was when it was given to her i'm betting and 2-sometimes it is a blessing for older eyes to be viewing a beloved object......

so, the color stone e-ring thing: apparently its in your DNA?!

MoZo

back on topic: alex is certainly pricey....i'm glad i'm not that smitten. i've seen a nice piece but not stellar and even that came with a really big price tag. nice piece = at a high end jeweler that knew high end gems.

The centre stone was originally an opal... bet you can guess how long that lasted!

Must be the DNA:

Maternal Grandmother - opal with 4 OEC side-stones. (Opal replaced with icky sapphire - icky before she recut it all by herself). Although when I spoke to her the other day she was asking if I could get it replaced for her. It's an odd shaped ring and the sapphire is in a bezel and is marquise shaped so it will a bugger to reset. As she's nearly 90 and no longer up to bashing her bling around I may suggest we go for another opal as it would be easier to cut to fit than a sapphire - and would be her original ring again.

Paternal Grandmother - stunning emerald with rb side-stones (OEC's possibly). My grandfather designed a lot of jewellery for her and she has some amazing pieces. I'm sort of hoping that she might leave me her e-ring...

Mother - blue sapphire 3 stone with two 5 pointers between each sapphire. Ring she currently wears (father gave it to ex-FI and then to my mother for 1st anniversary) - beautiful royal blue oval sapphire with 0.30ct OEC side-stones.

Sister - Oval blue sapphire with rb side-stones.

Cousin 1: pink sapphire with diamond halo

Cousin 2: Oval aquamarine with tapered baguettes (although she smashed up the aqua so badly it's had 3 recuts and now she only wears it for special occasions!)

Can't remember what my 3 aunts have but I'm pretty sure that they're all coloured stones. Only person I know of in my family with a diamond e-ring is my brother's wife...

Oh freewheelin, thanks for the 'condolences' on my poor wounded ring! I'm not actually very worried as I knew I'd probably need a repolish every 5-10 years unless I was very lucky and I know some great cutters who will happily do it for me. The PITA is having to have it reset afterwards - double claw prongs don't care for being bent about!

 

[movie zombie]

LOL, Pandora! my statement was in fact an understatement! you were surrounded by all that color while growing up! lucky you!

MoZo

 

[Largosmom]

I'm really liking your family's taste in gemstones! I think colored gemstones are lots nicer than diamonds, but that is just me.

 

[movie zombie]

I'm really liking your family's taste in gemstones! I think colored gemstones are lots nicer than diamonds, but that is just me.

and me!

MoZo

 

[freewheelinrose]

What a colorful family history you have Pandora!

I have another question that is more about shape rather than stone type. Does anyone think (or know) shapes like cushion are more likely to get "knocked around" than would say a round cut stone because it seems to sit up higher or have a taller crown?? I guess this might be something to consider with a colored stone e-ring?

Also please know that I don't swing my jewelry around willy-nilly without care or concern, but wearing it everyday I would want to be sure that the shape I choose would be more "durable" if you will. thanks for the help y'all!

 

[MakingTheGrade]

Pandora, what a great family! I'm terribly jealous. I tried convincing DH into a non-diamond Ering, but he's a traditionalist.

As far as shape goes, I'd go for something with a round or oval, or a rounded cushion. I would generally avoid things that have a lot of pointy ends (like pears) because if you prong set it, the points will be more vulnerable I would think.

If you do go sapphire, you can look into lavenders and violets as those tend to be more affordable, but I think those colors are still very evocative of flowers and spring time.

I went on a small hunt for a padparadscha for a piece of wedding jewelery when I was getting married. I had a tough time finding one I liked and was affordable online, so eventually I went to New York to visit the Natural Sapphire Company in person to view their selection. It's a small 5mm round but I just adore it every time I see it and wear it. The colors are so soft and lovely. Linda has some stunning padparadsha pieces as well, and Art Nouveau has a real stunner. And Traveling Gal has an amazing Leon padparadscha ring. Mine is a speck compared to their beauties, but it was affordable on my small budget! I think I spent about 500$ on the entire piece which included a 18k white gold lotus setting from Sally (of course, this was 2 years ago when gold prices weren't this high!). So I wouldn't necessarily give up if you decide that's the direction you want to go, but be warned it'll probably take some time to find what you want, it is doubtful to be precision cut, and it will definitely be less than a carat.

 

[Gemvara]

Alexandrite, sapphire, ruby, beryls like emerald and aquamarine, garnet, black diamond: all are great engagement ring choices. I love amethyst as an engagement ring too! It's all about the setting. If you have a protective setting, even moonstone would be a great choice. And consider setting your gem in platinum for extra protection. (And of course, because it's platinum!)

 

[T L]

Alexandrite, sapphire, ruby, beryls like emerald and aquamarine, garnet, black diamond: all are great engagement ring choices. I love amethyst as an engagement ring too! It's all about the setting. If you have a protective setting, even moonstone would be a great choice. And consider setting your gem in platinum for extra protection. (And of course, because it's platinum!)

I would be very careful setting any softer stone in platinum.

 

[texaskj]

Be really honest with yourself: How sentimental are you? (You've answered that.) How klutzy are you? How disciplined are you? When I really look at some of my rings I think I should be wearing tungsten. I wear them to death.

 

[Michael_E]

I would be very careful setting any softer stone in platinum.

You're a chicken TL. To be a jeweler requires enough courage to set an opal into a stiff bezel with a hammer and punch, at least that ought to be the TEST to see if you can take the pressure.

You brought up this idea of hardness earlier and you were quite right in that hardness is not the same as durability. I think that toughness is a better idea to be associated with durability. The only problem is that there is no good toughness scale. Maybe we should set up a scale for "edge toughness". We can test it by whacking gems on their girdle edges and facet junctions and see which chip the easiest.

I think that if someone is going to use a ring as a daily wear piece that they should be probably more concerned with the design of the ring than the hardness or even toughness of the stone. After all, if you can't get to anything but the table face, you'd have trouble chipping the stone. One other thing that I had read here that I thought was odd was putting a stone into and out of hot water. While it's not a good idea to do this sort of thing rapidly, the chances of hot water, by itself, hurting any gem stone is silly. Most cutters use either hot wax or hot water, or both, during the cutting and so if you can take the heat, so can your stone. There are only three things which can damage most common gems as follows:

1. Thermal shock, going from very cold to very hot or hot to cold. This is how I remove stones from settings when they can be destroyed...breaks them into little bits if it's a big change. Small changes like you'd experience while wearing a ring are much less of a problem with everything except included stones or ones which are particularly sensitive like tanzanite, periodot and included emerald.
The cure: Don't let your ring fall into the soup!

2. Impact shock, getting hit hard on an edge is what chips most stones. It has nothing to do with the hardness of the stone and everything to do with the hardness of what it's hitting, how sharp the object it's hitting is and if the stone is hit on an edge. Being hit on an edge will break nearly anything because the impact forces are thousands of times higher than any force you can get by just pressing on something. The cure: Design the setting so that it's hard to get to any sharp edges on the stone, (or wear cabs...no sharp edges).

3. Abrasive wear, occurs when gems get rubbed by anything which has abrasive particles in, of on it. Gardening can really do a number on jewelry if your rub against a gritty handle. Many papers, plastics and even flooring is often coated with minerals which can be hard enough to scuff gems and jewelry. This brings us right back to design and how you're going to use the piece. If you're wearing a piece every day and chasing kids around on a laminate floor, or going out in the garden to relax, you should probably design the piece to protect the gem from abrasion. Oh, one last thing, your jewelry box. That baby can be like a rock tumbler if you don't separate your jewelry inside of it. Pack your rings in their loosely and give it a few bumps every day and your jewelry can suffer a lot of damage in a year, (especially if you've got pieces with lots of small diamonds...just like little teeth, nibble, nibble).

That's about it. Take care of those three things and you can wear anything indefinitely, after all those stones have been rolling around on the ground for the last 3,000,000 years, what can you do to them?

 

[lavatea]

I would be very careful setting any softer stone in platinum.

You're a chicken TL. To be a jeweler requires enough courage to set an opal into a stiff bezel with a hammer and punch, at least that ought to be the TEST to see if you can take the pressure.

You brought up this idea of hardness earlier and you were quite right in that hardness is not the same as durability. I think that toughness is a better idea to be associated with durability. The only problem is that there is no good toughness scale. Maybe we should set up a scale for "edge toughness". We can test it by whacking gems on their girdle edges and facet junctions and see which chip the easiest.

I think that if someone is going to use a ring as a daily wear piece that they should be probably more concerned with the design of the ring than the hardness or even toughness of the stone. After all, if you can't get to anything but the table face, you'd have trouble chipping the stone. One other thing that I had read here that I thought was odd was putting a stone into and out of hot water. While it's not a good idea to do this sort of thing rapidly, the chances of hot water, by itself, hurting any gem stone is silly. Most cutters use either hot wax or hot water, or both, during the cutting and so if you can take the heat, so can your stone. There are only three things which can damage most common gems as follows:

1. Thermal shock, going from very cold to very hot or hot to cold. This is how I remove stones from settings when they can be destroyed...breaks them into little bits if it's a big change. Small changes like you'd experience while wearing a ring are much less of a problem with everything except included stones or ones which are particularly sensitive like tanzanite, periodot and included emerald.
The cure: Don't let your ring fall into the soup!

2. Impact shock, getting hit hard on an edge is what chips most stones. It has nothing to do with the hardness of the stone and everything to do with the hardness of what it's hitting, how sharp the object it's hitting is and if the stone is hit on an edge. Being hit on an edge will break nearly anything because the impact forces are thousands of times higher than any force you can get by just pressing on something. The cure: Design the setting so that it's hard to get to any sharp edges on the stone, (or wear cabs...no sharp edges).

3. Abrasive wear, occurs when gems get rubbed by anything which has abrasive particles in, of on it. Gardening can really do a number on jewelry if your rub against a gritty handle. Many papers, plastics and even flooring is often coated with minerals which can be hard enough to scuff gems and jewelry. This brings us right back to design and how you're going to use the piece. If you're wearing a piece every day and chasing kids around on a laminate floor, or going out in the garden to relax, you should probably design the piece to protect the gem from abrasion. Oh, one last thing, your jewelry box. That baby can be like a rock tumbler if you don't separate your jewelry inside of it. Pack your rings in their loosely and give it a few bumps every day and your jewelry can suffer a lot of damage in a year, (especially if you've got pieces with lots of small diamonds...just like little teeth, nibble, nibble).

That's about it. Take care of those three things and you can wear anything indefinitely, after all those stones have been rolling around on the ground for the last 3,000,000 years, what can you do to them?

Awesome post, thank you!

 

[movie zombie]

and think of the "abuse" of jewelry found in the ground at archeology sites after thousands of years........

taking Michael E's info and combining it with removing the color stone e-ring while at home will go a long way in making the color stone e-ring experience long lasting.

MoZo