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BGD Princess Recut - From Ugly Duckling to Swan

SuzyQZ

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Feb 20, 2006
Messages
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I just wanted to share with you the Brian Gavin recut of my princess 1.45ct, VVS2, I color diamond.

Background: Diamond was purchased by my DH 12 years ago for my wedding ring. DH had zero diamond knowledge and relied on the “expertise” of the jeweler (yeah, big mistake, we know that now). As we became more educated we realized that the diamond’s cut/symmetry was far below average and that really bothered DH. Over the years he offered to replace it with a new, bigger and better diamond, but I just couldn’t bring myself to part with it for sentimental reasons. So after seeing so many recuts here on PS, I discussed it with DH, and we decided it was the perfect solution. The result would still be the same diamond (which I wanted), with a better cut (which he wanted), at the cost of losing some carat weight, (which we were both willing to accept as the price of the fix).

Enter: Brian Gavin and Jamie Carson of Brian Gavin Diamonds. I selected BGD to reshape my ugly duckling into a beautiful swan and I could not be happier with the result. Before you gasp in horror at the difference in the final carat weight, you should know that this diamond was very bottom heavy and the culet was terribly off center. So a major bottom “liposuction” was in order to correct these issues. While the loss in ct. weight may seem like a lot, the actual face up real estate did not change significantly. Brian Gavin carefully balanced getting the best cut while retaining as much of the face up size and carat weight as possible. The end result is remarkable. DH and I could not be more pleased.

I will be having the diamond recertified and upon Brian’s recommendation we are sending it to AGS.

OK without further delay, here are the before and afters!
 

SuzyQZ

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Feb 20, 2006
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SARIN - Before

SuzyQZ SARIN Before 1.45 ct.jpg
 

SuzyQZ

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SARIN - After

SuzyQZ SARIN After 1.13 ct.jpg
 

SuzyQZ

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Diamond Image

SuzyQz Diamond Image Before and After.jpg
 

SuzyQZ

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Idealscope

SuzyQZ Idealscope Before and After.jpg
 

SuzyQZ

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ASET

SuzyQZ ASET Before and After.jpg
 

SuzyQZ

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Thanks for looking!
 

shihtzulover

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jun 30, 2010
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717
Beautiful! And you're right, it didn't lose that much surface area at all!

Thanks so much for sharing. :)
 

SuzyQZ

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Feb 20, 2006
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septsparkle said:
Amazing transformation. Congratulations!
Thank you.
The transformation was more than we expected.
Well worth the price of ct. weight since it didn't affect the face up view too much.
 

SuzyQZ

Brilliant_Rock
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Feb 20, 2006
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Stone-cold11 said:
WoW, serious lop-sided stone.

Good luck. :)
Not lop-sided anymore (since Brian worked his magic!) ;))

How my husband came to purchase this stone is a long story, he has been wanting to replace it for years because of the poor symmetry and cut. But somehow I got attached to the crooked thing, so that's why I've kept it all these years. I thought my only options were to keep it because nobody would buy or trade in such a sub-par stone. But then came PS and I've been pondering a recut for many years and finally decided to pull the trigger.
 

SuzyQZ

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shihtzulover said:
Beautiful! And you're right, it didn't lose that much surface area at all!

Thanks so much for sharing. :)
That's what made it worth it. It never faced up like a 1.45 so in reality we were not losing anything other than a number on a certificate. After talking to Brian, I knew he was the one to take this on.

Was my husband mad because he paid for a 1.45 ct. but got the face up of a 1carat?
You betcha he was! :angryfire:
But by the time we realized that, I was sentimentally attached and I didn't want to change anything, until now.
 

ChunkyCushionLover

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Jun 21, 2009
Messages
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Very cool recut, now I am curious about the details.

If you don't mind me asking what did it cost for the recut?
From the pictures its a little hard to tell but did you go from a 3 chevron to 4 chevron? The mains (X) got a lot thinner in the recut. Was that based on your preferences?
 

SuzyQZ

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ChunkyCushionLover said:
Very cool recut, now I am curious about the details.

If you don't mind me asking what did it cost for the recut?
From the pictures its a little hard to tell but did you go from a 3 chevron to 4 chevron? The mains (X) got a lot thinner in the recut.

Price was $350 per carat.
It went from a 2 chevron to a 3 chevron.
Brian said he cuts his princess' with 3 chevrons.
I left the recut entirely up to Brian.
I did not have any preference, except to improve the cut as much as possible.

princess_diamond_chevron_image.jpg
 

SuzyQZ

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Laila619/Anne: Thank you, I appreciate your kind comments!
 

tigian

Ideal_Rock
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Feb 25, 2009
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Wowzers! BG did an awesome job. I can see why you are so pleased. You got the best of both worlds...keeping the sentiment and getting the sparkle.
 

SuzyQZ

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Feb 20, 2006
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Grlsbestfrnd said:
Wow, what a difference! It's beautiful now :love: Congrats!!

P.S. Great job Brian!
I call him the "diamond whisperer".
I thought a recut would just blow this diamond to smithereens because of the drastic corrections required.
But Brian came through for me with flying colors.
I left the entire recut process up to him.
 

SuzyQZ

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tigian said:
Wowzers! BG did an awesome job. I can see why you are so pleased. You got the best of both worlds...keeping the sentiment and getting the sparkle.
Yes, that's our sentiment exactly! ;))
 

ChunkyCushionLover

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Jun 21, 2009
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SuzyQZ said:
Grlsbestfrnd said:
Wow, what a difference! It's beautiful now :love: Congrats!!

P.S. Great job Brian!
I call him the "diamond whisperer".
I thought a recut would just blow this diamond to smithereens because of the drastic corrections required.
But Brian came through for me with flying colors.
I left the entire recut process up to him.

Once again very cool I'd love to see a video of your stone. I looked for a BGD signature princess and can't seem to find any on his site.
 

SuzyQZ

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Joined
Feb 20, 2006
Messages
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ChunkyCushionLover said:
SuzyQZ said:
Grlsbestfrnd said:
Wow, what a difference! It's beautiful now :love: Congrats!!

P.S. Great job Brian!
I call him the "diamond whisperer".
I thought a recut would just blow this diamond to smithereens because of the drastic corrections required.
But Brian came through for me with flying colors.
I left the entire recut process up to him.

Once again very cool I'd love to see a video of your stone. I looked for a BGD signature princess and can't seem to find any on his site.
I noticed that too, they don't have any BGD signature princess' on their website, I don't know why.
Maybe because they cut them custom upon request?
I don't think BGD does videos, I think only Good Old Gold.
I'll email Jamie and see if they still have it (it was supposed to be FedEx'd to AGS today).
If they still have it, maybe they can take some pictures.
 

SuzyQZ

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Feb 20, 2006
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ChunkyCushionLover said:
Once again very cool I'd love to see a video of your stone. I looked for a BGD signature princess and can't seem to find any on his site.
The diamond is out the door on its way to AGS.
They don't do videos, but maybe some pictures when it gets back.

I asked Jamie why there were no BGD signature princess stones on their site and this is her reply "At this time, we don't have a super high demand for our Signature Princess cut diamonds. We are working at building that up but at this time if they are looking for something in particular they can contact us and in most cases find something in the pipeline that meets their needs. It will be an area to keep an eye on as we continue to bump up the production on those stones."
 

wedge

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jul 23, 2010
Messages
65
SuzyQZ said:
I don't think BGD does videos, I think only Good Old Gold.
Somebody posted earlier that ERD (Engagement Rings Direct) does videos also (in addition to GOG). Don't know about BGD.
 

Dancing Fire

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Apr 3, 2004
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33,852
very nice Suzy! :appl:
 

SuzyQZ

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kenny

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Apr 30, 2005
Messages
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It's really beautiful and it's nice to see al the technical stuff too. :appl:
 

SuzyQZ

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Feb 20, 2006
Messages
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kenny said:
It's really beautiful and it's nice to see al the technical stuff too. :appl:
Thank you for your comment, Kenny.
I can't wait to get it back and actually see it for the first time with my own eyes!
 
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