Sapphire Engagement Ring - I need advice

[Ben_Greenwald]

My girlfriend is a sapphire kind of girl and nothing would make her happier than an engagement ring with a sapphire center stone. She is also a yellow gold girl as all of her jewelry is in yellow gold. We went and looked at rings at a local Jeweler here in Atlanta (Solomon Brothers) but unfortunately almost all of the rings were either Platinum or White Gold.

I could use some advice on what to get and where to shop. Here are my parameters.

1. Blue Sapphire Center Stone
2. Yellow gold
3. Should have smaller diamonds for sparkle. (we looked at 3 stone settings, pave settings, and channel settings)
4. Should not stick up too high as she doesn''t want to get it caught.
5. She tends to like wider bands.
6. Budget of between $2,000 and $6,000

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. If you want, you can e-mail me directly at [email protected]

Thanks,

Ben

 

[strmrdr]

the ultimate would be a Richard Homer cut sapphire.
Wink works with him and can get you a better price than going direct and handle the rest of the ring.
www.winkjones.com

another example:
http://www.jewelryexpert.com/catalog/Horizontal-Blue-Sapphire-Ring-er.htm

 

[cflutist]

I would give Wink of Winfield's jewelers a call. His prices are very competitve and he is very honest and extremely knowledgeable. He was involved with my sapphire ring which is also posted on the Colored Stones board here

When I shopped for my diamond tennis bracelet, I also called Solomon Bros but found that Wink's prices were lower.

He can be reached at 800-524-7904. His webpage can be found at:
http://www.winkjones.com/
The Richard Homer Recut page on his website is actually my ring.

p.s. tell him that cflutist sent you.

 

[cflutist]

Hey, storm and I were typing at the same time.

 

[fancyrock]

14 karat gold Sapphire/Diamond Ring with a Fine Ceylon Blue 1.59 carat Cushion Cut Sapphire, accented by 6 Channel Set Round Diamonds with 0.28 Carats Total Weight.

$2,100.00 US Dollars.

 

[fancyrock]

USD2,084.00
Suggested Retail Price:
USD4,168.00
www.saveongems.com

USD724.00
Suggested Retail Price:
USD1,448.00

USD450.00
Suggested Retail Price:
USD900.00




Just a few examples I found..... /idealbb/images/smilies/9.gif

 

[innerkitten]

Hmm, I don't know I also like the traditional cut sapphires just as much.

 

[bar01]

Glad to see someone on the same quest as me.

There are not too many people who have some expertise with fine Sapphires. You may have a hard time finding a B&M store who handles these.

Consider online vendors with knowledge of fine sapphires. Wink (and Richard Homer) is great one. Bob at WhiteFlash is another.

However, since the Sapphire is going to be the main focus of your E-Ring - I might suggest you check in to two other sources.

1) Walterarnstein.com (ask for Micheal Arnstein)

2) Cherrypicked.com (ask for Richard Orbach)

Wink and Bob were willing to assist me in locating a fine Sapphire - but ultimately I ended up looking at these two specialist sites because I had some hard to find preferences. I bought my Sapphire from cherrpicked and got very fine stone at a good price. Now I am talking with others (Bob and Wink, etc..) to assemble the rest of the ring (diamonds and setting)

Also do a search on sapphires here and read some of the posts.

 

[windowshopper]

ben --have you tried walter arnstein (near the diamond district in nyc)--incredible stuff................ws

 

[Ben_Greenwald]

My goal is to find the right setting and then find the stone to match. My search seems to be more complicated because she wants yellow gold. It seems like most settings are done in white gold or platinum.

Ben

 

[innerkitten]

and there is also sapphires.ca and simplysapphires.com

 

[innerkitten]

Why not get the stone first? If you have a setting custom made you can use any type of metal you want.

 

[cflutist]

I agree with innerkitten. In fact that's what I did with my sapphire. I bought the stone first and then had the 14KYG ring made for it.

BTW, although white metals are "hot" right now, you can still have rings made in yellow gold. All of my jewelry is yellow gold because it matches my skin tone better.

 

[strmrdr]

stuller has a ton of yellow gold settings.
Decent quality too.
With gemstones you are usualy better off finding the stone first then finding the setting.
gemstones vary way more than diamonds in shape and size and finding a specific size is hard unless you go with calibrated stones which usualy arent the top quality they are usualy low comercial grade.

stuller:
http://www.stuller.com/

 

[Ben_Greenwald]

It seems that settings are a lot harder to find than stones. I guess that's why I wanted to find the setting first.

Ben

 

[windowshopper]

walter arnstein has amazing designs--------however pick a design in whatever metal you see..........can be made in gold~

 

[bar01]

----------------
On 10/15/2004 1:56:51 PM Ben_Greenwald wrote:

It seems that settings are a lot harder to find than stones. I guess that's why I wanted to find the setting first.


Ben----------------

Nope! Most settings are easy to find or have custom made. Bring in a sketch - or picture - or your own specifications - and most good jewlers will be able locate a similar setting - or make it for you.

Now Finding a high quality Sapphire suitable for an engagement ring - that is hard ! (MOH Scale: 9 - LOL!)

Thats why everyone is telling you to find and buy the Sapphire first.

 

[Mayacamas]

Ben,

I have been following your saga for a few days, and I will put in my opinion.
My husband and I are re-doing my engagement ring after 10 years of happy marriage. I wanted a sapphire- a very nice sapphire to be the center stone. I thought it would be easy, I ordered the first stone from one of the Israeli internet sites in December of last year. I then sent that back and ordered a very nice sapphire from a vendor in AZ, sent that back. Ordered what I thought would be perfect from Thailand, sent that back.

Take home message, after spending about $700 for shipping, about $150 for Richard Hughes book - by far my best investment, and 12 months, thats right Ben, 12 months, I found the right stone.

Did I look for something unrealistic? Nope. I simply wanted something that was about 10mm x8mm and nice, and in the UNIVERSE of affordable- the $10,000/ct was not gonna fly.

What did I learn? You need to see a lot of junk before you get an idea of what something nice is, and quite honestly, the best investment I made was finding a good jeweler, who could either bring in sapphires, or tell me if my find was garbage.

If you want a nice sapphire- its a very tough thing to find.

 

[rubydick]

Just a couple points to add to Halee's (a.k.a. Mayacamas') post. My book is just $98 postpaid in the US

And the value of working with a good jeweler cannot be overstated. Jewelers perform services, important services, things difficult to do via the internet. Yes, you pay for those services, but they often save you time and money in the long run.

 

[yowahking]

Mayacamas,
Kudos to you for finding a sapphire that you really like and learning some along the way.
I try to help jewelers who think that their customers do not buy sapphires, usually either the jeweler knows very little about them or has very few to show. The more we have in stock, the more we sell. The variety of sapphire is so far beyond what most consumers will ever get to see. One of my new ones is orangish with what appears to be purple smoke whisping through it. Never had one like it, had to have it. One of my cheaper stones, yet one of my all time favorites.
Just did a fun talk to a business group about sapphires. I passed out a box of 164 crayons to give everyone one color and asked to prove to me which color was the best one. Then began my talk. Open minds are a beautiful thing.

 

[rubydick]

Scott,

Love the crayon idea! Superb!

 

[MrsFrk]

Ben, I encountered the same issue when looking for a ring- most sappires are set in white metal. I ended up having my ring custom made in 18k gold, and couldn't be happier. It's beautiful.

 

[mogok]

Hi,
About the color of the setting: It can have some influence for the color of the stone after setting.
The gold color at the back of the stone will mix a little with the stone color. White color setting will so not affect the color of the gem, but now if you take some bright gold then think about a stone going a little bit on the violet side if you want your stone to remain strait blue on yellow gold... This is one of the reason that in Burma (people there use really bright yellow gold) there is a slight preference for slightly violetish sapphire that turn more strait blue after being set.
In fact when you choose your stone you have to think about the color of the setting you will use but also about the light you will usually use when you will weir the stone:
(For this there is a good article written by William Sarsen in the "Gemological Digest" you may be interested to read on palagems website:
gems and light

Buying a stone in Thailand sun light and hoping that this stone will looks the same under the London fog is a typical mistake... It the same classic as the stone that was looking so good in the jewelry shop and is unattractive during a romantic diner with candlelights.

To come back to the setting: If you dont like greenish sapphire (sea blue?) then avoid any green hue in the sapphire you will put on yellow gold.
I learned this small logic while I was studying gemology in Yangon, Burma from an Indonesian gem dealer who was buying all his gems using small more or less yellow goldent plated cups... He wanted to see precisely the color of the stones after setting!

Hoping to have helped, all the best,