Need help designing 30th birthday necklace

[kinggofg]

Hi all,

My wife is turning 30 and I want to get her a diamond necklace.

Some history:
1. Created her an awesome enagement ring, H&A 1.03 VS1 D, bought from superbcert, platinum ring with pave setting designed by Leon Mege per advice from this forum. GREAT ADVICE!

2. Someone suggested that I use the money I saved in step one and buy her studs. I accomplished this on our 1 year, got 2 ideal cut .6 diamonds set in a martini setting (whiteflash couldn''t do it for me in the timeframe I needed, but they helped me get it done through someone else. What a great company!) Again, the earrings were a bit hit!

Now I am on to a necklace. I know what I want. I don''t have as much cash saved up this time so I am thinking, 3 stones in a pendant. I want a pear shaped (tip up) on top dropped down to an oval dropped down to a round brilliant. I tried to attach a diagram but the site won''t let me. I want it to look like this, http://www.bluenile.com/product_details.asp?oid=5758&catid=176&filter_id=0&nav1=necklace_channel.asp&page=1&col=1&row=4&pos=10 , but with the three different shapes and maybe some separation between stones.

Questions:

1. Are the folloing size diamonds going to look ok: pear .5 oval .5 round .4 (i.e. will it look good to have all three similar width)
2. How do I go about getting this set. For the earrings I bought fittings and had a jewler set them, cost about $30 and was perfect. Can I do this with a necklace or is it more of a custom job? Who would I talk to? I want it in white gold and don''t want to pay a ton of money on the setting.

 

[valeria101]

Date: 10/28/2005 6:39:27 PM
Author:kinggofg
Hi all,

My wife is turning 30 and I want to get her a diamond necklace.

Some history:
1. Created her an awesome engagement ring, H&A 1.03 VS1 D, bought from superbcert, platinum ring with pave setting designed by Leon Mege per advice from this forum. GREAT ADVICE!

2. Someone suggested that I use the money I saved in step one and buy her studs. I accomplished this on our 1 year, got 2 ideal cut .6 diamonds set in a martini setting (whiteflash couldn't do it for me in the timeframe I needed, but they helped me get it done through someone else. What a great company!) Again, the earrings were a bit hit!

Now I am on to a necklace.

Congratulations for the great choices! Wow!

I am thinking, 3 stones in a pendant. I want a pear shaped (tip up) on top dropped down to an oval dropped down to a round brilliant.

1. Are the following size diamonds going to look ok: pear .5 oval .5 round .4 (i.e. will it look good to have all three similar width)

Perhaps... I would think there will be some variation in sizes for each weight, but this gives a good idea. Why not...



2. How do I go about getting this set. For the earrings I bought fittings and had a jeweler set them, cost about $30 and was perfect. Can I do this with a necklace or is it more of a custom job?

It could be a very custom job - with settings made by hand for each stone etc... Or pre-made baskets for each stone could be assembled. Perhaps the second version would still be called 'custom' since you are not buying something straight from the shelf, but it is another 'degree' of it and certainly different cost, as much as I can tell. Since this will be a relatively simple model, either would work, I'd say.

There is one bit I might add...

Usually pears are set the last in a row unless it is a relatively small bale of a large pendant. The drop shape seems to suggest this, but of course, there are no rules.

There are a couple of trendy jewelry using mixed diamond shapes in a row like that, and they might give you and the jeweler making the setting some ideas. It is not clear if the BN pendant is rigid or not, the three diamonds could be prong or bezel (see below) etc. You may want to let one jeweler deal with choosing the stones and setting them.

Among the jewelers posting on this forum, the bits done at Wink's seem to come closer to your project (smaller stones in carefully assembled and finished pre-made parts down to all out custom work etc.) . And if you already liked the treatment at WF and Superbcert, why not...

Hope some of this helps.

This is what I am trying to describe:

 

[kinggofg]

Thanks! Thats very helpful. Second from the right in your picture is almost exactly what I was envisioning. This also helps because I think you are right and the pear on the bottom will look better. In which care its probably best if the pear is the biggest stone in width...

I think I am going to buy the stones and head to midtown and find some baskets and someone to set them.

Will post pictures of the project when complete.

 

[valeria101]

Date: 11/1/2005 12:29:04 PM
Author: kinggofg


Will post pictures of the project when complete.

Great!

I don''t seem to find any pictures of the other pieces you mention. Perhaps they could also get into the frame ?

 

[kinggofg]

Date: 11/1/2005 1:35:28 PM
Author: valeria101

Date: 11/1/2005 12:29:04 PM
Author: kinggofg


Will post pictures of the project when complete.

Great!

I don''t seem to find any pictures of the other pieces you mention. Perhaps they could also get into the frame ?

See ALL the pics

I''m not 100% happy with the necklace, but its very close to what I had in my mind. The middle stone is poorly set, due to an oversized finding, this was my fault as I went on a sat and not all the findings stores were open and I had to go to 3 places to find these findings and this was the best they had.

I had very limited time so I couldn''t get it fixed. Anyway, for anyone trying to do something similar, my lessons learned:
1. The parts of the necklace are called
"Bell" = the part at the top that loops around the chain
"Basket findings" are the things the diamonds sit in and can be bought from a fininds store (Arko is great, but they are close on Saturdays)
"Rings" are the bits between the baskets
2. Its important to have a sketch or picture of EXACTLY what you want. The jewlers are not very helpful coming up with new ideas. They had a very hard time understanding that I wanted baskets and not bezels.
3. No need to go to a jewler. Go to the findings guy, buy the peices then have him reccomend a good diamond setter. The 2 jewlers I talked to wanted more $$ and needed a week to complete (instead of the 2 hours I had)
4. Inspect the work closely when done and allow enough time to have it fixed if you don''t like it (I failed on this step)

The necklace is all J color SI2. Except the oval which is SI3 (it has a large inclusion on the bottom but you can''t see it when its facing up) The round is ideal cut. The carats are .47 .43 .33 (pear, oval roud respectively)

I got the stones from Dirt Cheap Diamonds / James Allen. Good service.

Findings were from a guy in the back of 55 Diamond Exchange
Diamonds were set buy a guy in the basement of 55 (Indian guy, the russian guy was reccomended but he was busy)

Total project cost:
Diamonds $1050 1.23tcw
Findings $28
Chain $50
Box $12 (its wood and from a brasilian place on 46th)
Setting $120
Polish and iradium (not sure what this is but I got it done) $20

Total $1260

Let me know what you think.

 

[kinggofg]

engagement ring

 

[kinggofg]

earrings

 

[kinggofg]

One more ring pic