Advice for replacing a small, ugly sapphire (~4mm round)

[maccers]

I have a cute 18K white gold, diamond halo and sapphire ring that used to be my mom's. It's not the best quality and I have no paperwork for it but I think it's a sweet and simple style; I like to wear it a few times a year. However, since joining PS, the small sapphire centre is really getting me down - it's so dark a lot of the time. There are very few lighting conditions where it shows a nice blue. I'd like to replace the center stone with something lighter and brighter. It doesn't have to be a sapphire (TBH, I'm kind of over the diamond halo with sapphire centre). The stone is around 4mm, pretty small. In my brief search, I'm not seeing many stones that small to buy.

My questions:
1. What stone(s) do you recommend to brighten up this ring?
2. Where can I find 4mm round stones?
3. Do you have any other suggestions for improving this ring?

My budget is limited ~$500 for the centre stone and another $500 for any improvements to the ring itself.

 

[deskjockey]

Not the best for a ring stone, but if you like green and bright:

http://www.litnon.com/index.php?page=viewgem&id=10156

http://www.litnon.com/index.php?page=viewgem&id=9833



Or some lighter, brighter montana sapphires -

http://www.gemartservices.com/stones.php?id=monsapp001

 

[VirginiaZee]

Do you have any color preferences?

Yvonne Raley has a pair of 4.2mm pink spinels on her site right now... you could put one in the ring and the other in a necklace. https://www.etsy.com/listing/190662754/sale-mahenge-spinel-round-matched-pair?ref=shop_home_active_1

Jeff Davies has a few smaller spinels from Luc Yen on his Pinterest page http://www.pinterest.com/jefferydavies/spinel/

It might be tough to find 8 well matched small stones for the outer halo, but either of those vendors might be able to source some stones for the outer halo as well. And Yvonne has some flower rings on her site you might want to look at for inspiration... https://www.etsy.com/listing/162352...er-daisy-cluster-ring?ref=shop_home_active_18

 

[LoversKites]

Chrysoberyl and spinel are great choices as they can be bright and brilliant. And they are quite hard and can endure regular wear.

Do you plan to wear it more often? Since you said you wear it only a few times a year that could give you many more options. Amethyst, garnets, zircon, tourmaline, peridot. At 4mm you have a large selection of gem species and colours. Personally, I'd pick demantoid as I love them and you can find very nice quality ones in smaller sizes (looks like deskjockey and I are on the same page). Your colour preference should decide here

 

[maccers]

Thank you for the suggestions. Sounds like I've got a wide range of choices. There's lot so of colours I like: red, bright pink, blue, blue-green.

I hadn't thought of looking at etsy, hopefully i will find some smaller sized stones there.

I hadn't considered demantoid, it's really rich looking but I'm concerned it will be too dark and I will end up with a similar problem as the sapphire. With only 4mm stone, I think I need to be careful and pick stones on the lighter side so they don't appear dark.

I'm considering blue-green Montana sapphires but again I'm worried about it appearing dark in many lighting situations.

 

[Michael_E]

I would avoid Montana sapphires, unless you can find a Yogo in that size. Most Montana sapphires have a distinctly grayish tone and often have numerous microscopic inclusions which can make the stones look slightly foggy. They're attractive, just not what you're looking for I think. I would suggest staying with sapphire or spinel and you could probably pick up a very fine medium red spinel with your budget. A stone of this size is 30 to 40 points and these are not too expensive, even as precision cut gems from custom cutters. I would suggest asking around, since most custom cutters only cut these small stones when nothing else is going on.

As for your setting, I don't think that there's anything that you could do to it as an improvement that would cost anywhere near $500. You might re-tip all of the diamonds and replace the head for the center stone and still only be maybe halfway to your budget limit. I would suggest going for the gusto and putting a ruby or padparadscha in there and call it good forever. This will, of course, be right at the limit of your budget, but hey, it's your money and I'm willing to fantasize BIG with your money.

 

[GregS]

I'd suggest checking out AfricaGems and their calibrated stones. You can get a very nice 4mm Sapphire or Ruby for less than $500. I've bought their calibrated stones before and been very pleased.

http://www.africagems.com/calibrated-blue-sapphire-round-aaa.html
http://www.africagems.com/calibrated-ruby-round-aaa.html

 

[chrono]

With the way the center stone is set much higher than the halo, a demantoid will be very exposed to damage, hence it would not be a good choice for me. I agree that the setting looks to be in good condition and probably will not need much reconditioning. If you like bright stones with a punch of colour, durable options include sapphire, ruby, red/pink spinel and chrysoberyl, which are all within budget.

 

[JewelFreak]

What about a yellow sapphire? A yellow stone with white diamonds is one of my holy grails; it's a very pretty combination.

I think your ring is really nice, delicate, feminine. Worth having a center stone you love!

--- Laurie

 

[deskjockey]

I hadn't considered demantoid, it's really rich looking but I'm concerned it will be too dark and I will end up with a similar problem as the sapphire. With only 4mm stone, I think I need to be careful and pick stones on the lighter side so they don't appear dark.

The ones I posted are richer and more chrome-green, but there are many that are lighter (mine is almost lime green, and very glow-y, it certainly doesn't go dark even in a very enclosed setting). That said I think maybe chrysoberyl would be a better way to go based on your wants (and durability of course)

 

[maccers]

Okay, just got back from the jewellers (it's a new jeweller to me and I'm super impressed with their knowledge and disclosure of gemstone treatments and their benchwork looks fabulous). They'll redo the prongs on the centre stone - depending on what colour I go with, I may get yellow gold prongs.

I'm definitely going with a sapphire. She said I can squeeze in a 4.5mm stone. I'm either going with a bright pink sapphire or (surprisingly) a bright orange sapphire.

Two questions:

The orange sapphire is BE treated - any drawbacks to BE? I'm not sure how I feel about it...Heat is okay with me but BE I'm not so sure about. Prongs will be yellow gold.

The pink sapphire is heated. Should pinks have yellow gold or white gold prongs?

 

[T L]

Thank you for the suggestions. Sounds like I've got a wide range of choices. There's lot so of colours I like: red, bright pink, blue, blue-green.

I hadn't thought of looking at etsy, hopefully i will find some smaller sized stones there.

I hadn't considered demantoid, it's really rich looking but I'm concerned it will be too dark and I will end up with a similar problem as the sapphire. With only 4mm stone, I think I need to be careful and pick stones on the lighter side so they don't appear dark.

I'm considering blue-green Montana sapphires but again I'm worried about it appearing dark in many lighting situations.

There are light bright demantoids too.

 

[chrono]

Demantoid has durability issues, especially as a ring stone, even if worn occasionally. The pros of BE diffusion is a nice looking stone at a very low price. The treatment is stable and permanent. The con is the extremely invasive/drastic nature of the treatment so as long as you are mind clean about it, I don't see any issues. Depending on the exact shade of pink, it can go with either white or yellow gold prongs.

 

[LoversKites]

Be sure the BE sapphire is priced accordingly to it's treatment if you're considering it.