Got the money,,,,have to get a Cushion!

[Maya Moonstone]

Hi

We have finally saved up enough $$$ for an upgrade!

I would love to have a cushion cut diamond. But where should I begin? I contacted a PS vendor with regards to a 1.72ct/G/SI1 cushion in my price range and asked a lot of questions - the Diamond Expert from the vendor frankly did not answer a lot of my questions. I did ask th DE to recommend a few stones based on my criteria and he/she gave me 4 recommendations of which only one fulfilled my criteria- (don''t you just hate it when they do that!

)

My criteria is based on the chart by Gemappraiser.com for an oval. I do realize that you have to see a cushion in person, but I have to start somewhere! I can''t have every cushion shipped to Seattle and have to pay shipping and insurance

I may be flexible about the numbers!

My criteria is as follows:
1.5 to1.99ct
G to H
VS2 to SI1
Table 55-60%
Depth 59-63%
No culet
Faint Fluoresence is ok
Polish/Symmetry Good to Excellent
I prefer a rectangular look - l/w of 1.13 to 1.20

Are these impossible criteria? I have only started my search - although I have spend months on PS reading and learning - but maybe it would be best to get a local jeweller and diamond?

Anyway, any tips on searching for a cushion? Any recommendations- you can PM me if you want.

Thanks - the money is burning a hole in my pocket!

Maya

 

[valeria101]

Those should not be impossible, just more difficult to find. For once, I would look at size (diameters, not weight or total depth or others) and relax the table / depth constraints. Depth does not have such a direct impact on size for cushions as it does for brilliant cuts (oval ones included) - some other details of the cut and the girdle thickness (there are quite a few cushions with thick girdles) adds up and it is not feasible to tell what does what until you see the stone given that 'cushion' covers a range of cut models.

There may not be too many rectangular cushions, but it does not help that the database interface does not allow selecting that factor. The search interface at Whiteflash does and they seem to access a large number of virtual listsings - if not as many as the Pricescope list.

Sure it would help to see the thing, but that is not quite feasible. Only a few cushions with pictures reside at God Old Gold, Nice Ice and... the Stuller gemstone database to browse. If you do so, it may appear that some of these stones resemble radiants more than ovals. And if you take the AGA charts for those, the numbers may not be quite the same.

Without the possibility to look for brilliance on GIA numbers, I would look only for spread (size for weight - i.e. the closer to a rounds' surface the better!) and proportions (L/w) for now.

Even the AGA charts use crown height as a basic measure, and that is not given on lab reports.

So... if you would consider looking for a larger set of numbers, that may not have any effect on the quality (size or brighteness) of your find. But would give more options which can only be a good thing.

For starters, going up to 65% for both table and depth is still very conservative. 70%... why not, if not much turns out. BUT, there are several to consider among the listings around here.

How about:
THIS ONE
1.7, H-VS2 (GIA)
Depth: 65.5
Table: 60
Girdle: M-STK <--------------------------- at least not too thick, and does not detter pread.
Polish: Good
Symmetry: Good
Culet: None
Fluorescence: No
Measurements: 7.95-6.50X4.26 <-------------same size as a 1.7 round, I didn't even expect it...
Length/Width: 1.22 <-------------------------cool! this should be rectangular looking, no doubt.

How the proportions of the cut work together and how this looks remains to be seen, of course.

This is about as much as I can tell with GIA stats infront.

I wish there was more to talk about.

There are other stones where this comes from (a list, after all) and this one may be listed by other sellers too.



Hope some of this helps.

 

[WinkHPD]

There are many vendors here who carry or can get for you some very fine cushions. Dave Atlas probably has some or knows where they can be found...

 

[diamondsbylauren]

Hey Everybody!

I would say that the stats you are using will make your task next to impossible.
For sure, Wink''s reccomendation is a good one- yet I believe that you are not going to find a large selection of avaiable stones- either in a store or from a web vendor.

The WF stone looks like a very good choice.

 

[Giangi]

Given the strict parameters you''ve provided, this seems to be quite a hard task!

I had a look around, and seems like there isn''t a huge quantity of stones available.. But I''m sure that a vendor would be able to locate a stone according to your requests if he/she doesn''t have one in stock. The depth range you provided is probably a bit too strict; many cushion cuts are much deeper than 63%.
At a first glance, I found a 1.21 SI2 H http://www.goodoldgold.com/cushion_1_21ct_h_si2.htm, a 2.01 SI1 H http://www.goodoldgold.com/cushion_2_01ct_h_si1.htm and this 2.13ct SI2 I (whose shape looks wonderful IMO) http://whiteflash.com/cushion/Cushion-cut-diamond-1335330.htm#.

DiamondsByLauren has a 1.51 J VS2 cushion set with ruby halfmoons. You may want to check that.