To be completely honest, I think the combination of grey and saturate green is a bit harsh. I'd go with a halo of white diamonds instead, which would probably also flatter the subdued red as well.
When someone posts a finished project I'm not crazy about, I don't comment. (Which is not the same as saying that I dislike all the pieces I don't comment on!)
This project is still on the drawing board, so I don't think any feelings are going to be too hurt... For me, the issue here is that I don't think the colours look harmonious together. The eye is startled, but that may in itself be a desired effect. Of course, it is entirely a matter of individual taste. And maybe I lack the imagination to visualise the finished product - it may turn out to be a glamourous piece of jewelry!
Wow, thank you all for your responses! Yes I DO want to hear your honest opinions since I havent bought the melee yet and have only begun thinking about it. Keep them coming. Maybe no halo at all. I ought to have mentioned that the center stones are small, under a carat each. the cushions are around 4.4 x 5, and the pear 4.4 x 5.6, that makes the melee as pictured 1.5mm. I have re-done the mock up with cc garnet melee, but I didn't re-scale it. the available cc garnet melee would be 2.4mm.
Pregcurious, I do love moonstones, and think they're great all over the place, but I think moonstone melee in the 1.5mm size would be impossible to source.
CC on the halo AND the main stone would be amazing and magical!
But do you think that the cc garnet melee would show change or just look sort of muddy?
To me, the tsav melee distracts my eyes. My eyes are more drawn to the melee than the center stone. I like the cc garnets melee but it look a bit muddied after the color change. Just my thoughts i am clearly no expert.
If you just don't want to go colorless - what about black melee? Slightly out of the box and likely not on the table - I've certainly not seen it, but... it won't clash, isn't to stark a contrast, especially against the grey, and it might make the pinkish stone pop in a different way than colorless would.
I dont see a mismatch. In fact the pictures of the stones on the left are of the same stones as on the right, just in different lights; hence color change garnets. In the first image the tsav melee doesn't change because tsav is not color change. In the second image I replaced the tsavs with color change. The earrings would look something like this. The stones are awfully small so I was hoping to make them look bigger with the halo. I do not want diamonds. Or black. I think the color change melee in my mock-up looks drab and anemic; like something one could confidently wear to a funeral. I want it to have color and cheer, but also power, for board meetings.
Blue sapphires? Rubies? Red spinels? Gray spinels? Acid green Demantoids? Yellow sapphires? Bright pink sapphires? Orange sapphires/garnets/something else? Golden stones?
I love that you are thinking outside the box. I think this is such a cool project!
VL,
The concept of all cc garnets sounds great on paper but isn't likely to look as great in person. Why? The colouration and the strength of change isn't going to match so you may end up with a strange looking mismatch. In addition, I am concerned the cc garnets are dark to begin with so a halo setting will further darken it and make the colour change less pronounced. Green melees might play up their colouration but the bright green of the tsavorites in your mock picture overpowers the cc garnets. JMHO.
I am wondering how difficult it is to set 1.5 mm stones. Also a little worried that this needs 62 of them! Well I dont have to decide today. The first batch of stones arrived in the mail this afternoon.
I doubt this will change anyone's mind one way or the other, but I rescaled the CC halo in the mock-up to the size that they re available. Since they are larger it takes fewer of them so the total now is 40.
how about 2mm light blue sapphires? interesting, but less distracting than tsavs. saw some on jeffdavies pinterest the other day..
also I think the color of those sapphires are very close to your garnet's blue, which is kinda cool - it'll look like one huge blue stone and then WHAM the pink comes out during a colour change
I haven't read all the posts, so I apologize if someone already said this, but I would LOVE to see your CC garnet with a white stone halo in oxidized gold/silver. The black metal would really make the garnet pop, and the white melee would be a great foil for the CC.
I am just not feeling the colour or size combination at all but then again, those earrings aren't for me (wish it were though ). I prefer smaller melees which makes the stones look larger but understandably, it also takes more time and increases the risk of uneven or lumpy prong work.
I am going to disagree with many of you and say that purple (since the stones you have look more purple than a burgundy colour) and green is a wickedly cool looking combination often used in jewellery see this for how the colours (yes they are different stone types, I was looking at the basic colour combination) work;