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Stainless pave halo around sapphire?

baptista

Rough_Rock
Joined
Sep 22, 2011
Messages
10
Hi all,

This is an xpost from the jewelry pieces forum (apologies if not allowed but this area seems to get more traffic). My fiance is having an ering made that will have a yellow gold split shank band around a 2.25ish carat pear shaped blue sapphire set in a stainless white sapphire pave halo. Any thoughts as to what their reasoning may be for using stainless rather than white gold or another white metal more commonly used in erings? Is this something unique to sapphires?

I have never heard of using stainless on a decent quality e-ring and don't understand why they are doing this for a custom design - I asked FI and he wasn't really sure, thought maybe a durability issue but that still seems odd since gold seems to hold up well enough for everyone else. The pave will be sapphire, not diamond in case that makes a difference? I don't think it's a price issue as we did not choose sapphire over diamond for cost reasons. I'm also concerned that the stainless will look dark or cheap - I've seen metal color (white gold, plat, palladium, etc) comparison pictures on this site but stainless was never on there. Any ideas/input would be greatly appreciated!

I would just ask the jeweler (and still may) but FI wants this to be as much of a surprise as possible and it seems that every time I speak w the jeweler I find out more than he would like about what's going on, and receiving input from me and fiance separately has caused some confusion in the past so I figured I'd ask here first.
 

distracts

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Oct 11, 2011
Messages
5,977
I have never heard of that. Weird. I'd ask the jeweler, or make your fiance ask the jeweler.
 

pregcurious

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Mar 18, 2009
Messages
6,724
I would ask to get their answer to make sure there are no misunderstandings. If they insist on stainless steel being better than white gold or platinum, I would go to another jeweler.
 

baptista

Rough_Rock
Joined
Sep 22, 2011
Messages
10
Thanks for the responses. I've gone ahead and emailed the jeweler and awaiting a response.

Are there any particular disadvantages to using stainless that I should be aware of other than appearance?

Thanks again - this is far and away the largest purchase like this either of us has ever made and we want to make sure we don't make a bad choice simply bc we didn't know any better.
 

T L

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Sep 20, 2008
Messages
24,801
baptista|1324407937|3085416 said:
Thanks for the responses. I've gone ahead and emailed the jeweler and awaiting a response.

Are there any particular disadvantages to using stainless that I should be aware of other than appearance?

Thanks again - this is far and away the largest purchase like this either of us has ever made and we want to make sure we don't make a bad choice simply bc we didn't know any better.

Stainless steel can be very greyish. I don't know of any disadvantages with stainless or other metals like titanium (which you might also want to look into), for holding gemstones. I would imagine it would be more of a challenge to work with, but not sure. Maintenance might also be an issue because most jewelers know how to work with precious metals, and if a melee fell out or needed replacing, not sure if you could easily find a jeweler that would work with stainless. Maybe your jeweler can, but there's no guarantee he'll be in business forever, or what if you move away.
 

Blue-Seeker

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Sep 2, 2011
Messages
158
Does this jeweler specialize in modern designs? Is the use of stainless steel the jeweler's signature "look"? That's the only reason I can think of for a jeweler to use stainless over gold or platinum, especially since the rest of the ring is gold. I know you said your fiance wants this to be a surprise, but after reading these forums for several months, it's clear that men often have a different idea of what looks good in jewelry design than women do. Can you perhaps tell your fiance that you don't need to know the details of the design itself, but you'd like to know more about the choice of stainless steel for the halo, since it's not a traditional metal for engagement rings?
 

baptista

Rough_Rock
Joined
Sep 22, 2011
Messages
10
Blue-Seeker|1324410965|3085447 said:
Does this jeweler specialize in modern designs? Is the use of stainless steel the jeweler's signature "look"? That's the only reason I can think of for a jeweler to use stainless over gold or platinum, especially since the rest of the ring is gold. I know you said your fiance wants this to be a surprise, but after reading these forums for several months, it's clear that men often have a different idea of what looks good in jewelry design than women do. Can you perhaps tell your fiance that you don't need to know the details of the design itself, but you'd like to know more about the choice of stainless steel for the halo, since it's not a traditional metal for engagement rings?

Lol, you're definitely right that FI and I have completely different tastes in jewelry. I'm not sure that I've seen anything that's been made by whomever is making this ring - the shop appears to sell designs from about 7 fairly common/well known designers, among which was a Daussi marquise pink/brown diamond/halo split shank ring set in a rose gold bezel and platinum band that I liked that they'd gotten at a trade show and were selling for $27k, well above our budget plus FI wants a pear and no diamonds, so they said they had someone who could make something similar. FI has assured me that the ring will be less modern than the Daussi, which makes me think that "modern" for FI means trendy/"in", however I would not really describe Daussi as modern so I'm not quite sure what they're up to style-wise.

Long story short I have no idea where the need to use stainless came from, and I doubt that he would have picked it himself, it's more likely that someone at the shop told him it was a good idea so he went along w it. It seems like a really odd choice to me though since I prefer a warmer look, which is what we were going for w the yellow gold, but hopefully the shop will get back to us and all will be well ;-)
 

MissStepcut

Brilliant_Rock
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Jun 29, 2011
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Are you sure you want to have a halo if it isn't a diamond one? Have you seen a white sapphire halo before? What's the anti-diamond bias about?
 

baptista

Rough_Rock
Joined
Sep 22, 2011
Messages
10
No we have not seen a white sapphire halo... bad?

I was open to moissanite or CZ but somehow white sapphire became the frontrunner. They did mention that it wont sparkle like a diamond, so do you think they're trying to use a really shiny metal to make up for that?

The non-diamond thing is FI... he is not sold on a couple aspects of the certification process and when we started this it seemed easier to just not use diamonds, however it's turned out to be a lot more complicated than we had expected.
 

MissStepcut

Brilliant_Rock
Premium
Joined
Jun 29, 2011
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1,723
baptista|1324419806|3085518 said:
No we have not seen a white sapphire halo... bad?

I was open to moissanite or CZ but somehow white sapphire became the frontrunner. They did mention that it wont sparkle like a diamond, so do you think they're trying to use a really shiny metal to make up for that?

The non-diamond thing is FI... he is not sold on a couple aspects of the certification process and when we started this it seemed easier to just not use diamonds, however it's turned out to be a lot more complicated than we had expected.
Alright I will leave alone the diamond politics thing, but I don't like the look of white sapphire as a diamond substitute personally. I think it will make the whole ring look like a "fakie," and if you add stainless steel to that? I'd be concerned, personally.
 

Aoife

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jun 23, 2010
Messages
1,779
baptista|1324419806|3085518 said:
No we have not seen a white sapphire halo... bad?

I was open to moissanite or CZ but somehow white sapphire became the frontrunner. They did mention that it wont sparkle like a diamond, so do you think they're trying to use a really shiny metal to make up for that?

The non-diamond thing is FI... he is not sold on a couple aspects of the certification process and when we started this it seemed easier to just not use diamonds, however it's turned out to be a lot more complicated than we had expected.

"Bad" is a matter of opinion. What white sapphires won't do is look like diamonds. I wouldn't hesitate to use white sapphires as side stones for some settings, but I wouldn't use them as a halo because in that size they will look flat. So what's the point?

I really can't think of any circumstances that would justify coupling stainless steel and gold in an engagement ring, unless it is a very modern design, which doesn't sound like what you want? It sounds to me as though you might need to have an open and honest discussion (good practice for the next 70 years of married life!) about what you really want vs. what you might end up getting!
 

baptista

Rough_Rock
Joined
Sep 22, 2011
Messages
10
Aoife|1324421162|3085531 said:
It sounds to me as though you might need to have an open and honest discussion (good practice for the next 70 years of married life!) about what you really want vs. what you might end up getting!

I could not agree more. Luckily I just heard back from the jeweler and this was entirely a false alarm. I have no idea why FI determined that there would be stainless steal in the ring, and neither does the jeweler so they aren't putting any in. Perhaps one day FI and I will learn to speak the same version of English but until then, thanks for all of the advice PSers!
 

Aoife

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jun 23, 2010
Messages
1,779
That's good news! I hope you will come back and post photos once you get the ring.
 

baptista

Rough_Rock
Joined
Sep 22, 2011
Messages
10
I will! I could not be happier lol and can't wait to see it. I'm sure our jeweler will be happy when we get the ring too, since after today's phone calls I'm pretty sure they think we're nuts as that was the 2nd time we had them stop production on the ring ;-) I went through so many pear shaped blue sapphires to find the one we went with that the thought of setting it in the same material as a spoon just seemed wrong. I still have mixed feelings on the white sapphires, but my hope is that the center stone is nice enough that the accent stones wont matter too much.
 

pregcurious

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Mar 18, 2009
Messages
6,724
Maybe you could replace the sapphires with diamond melee at a later time if you don't like it. I'm glad the stainless was a misunderstanding--I was kind of hoping it was.
 

baptista

Rough_Rock
Joined
Sep 22, 2011
Messages
10
That's a really good idea to keep in mind. I wouldn't be surprised if at a later pt in time FI was completely fine w using diamonds, or perhaps we could use only ones from a specific place. Maybe for a future anniversary we'll have things a bit better planned out and can replace the side stones. Thanks again!
 
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