Help.. three sided fully set pave wedding band

[jwlbell]

Help....

I can''t seem to find any three sided fully set pauve wedding band sets, with pavue up and on top of the prongs, and 3/4 of the band covered in pauve

My fiancé and I are getting married at the end of June and I really want to upgrade her setting before then. At present I have a 1.73c square Cushion cut stone set in just a solitare setting. We looked around 47th steet in NYC and found a beautiful setting. I trust the Jeweler, but think the price is a little too high (about 6K) for the set.


Can anyone tell me where to look for rings like these two below? Do I have to go costom? What is the range in pricing I should expect?

http://www.michaelcfina.com/ic/mcfina/sections/wedding_engagement_rings/wedding_rings/michael_b_wedding_rings/:product/code/PL0520PRP30048.html?block=1

http://www.michaelcfina.com/ic/mcfina/sections/wedding_engagement_rings/engagement_rings/michael_b_engagement_rings/:product/code/PL0520PRP30058.html?block=1


Thanks for your help

James

 

[neatfreak]

Well...the thing is there is a difference between GOOD quality pave work and bad. While I do think you could find something like this cheaper, I don't think the pave would be the same quality necessarily. In a setting with sooo many stones (not to mention the fact that both rings are three sided-and also, they might rub against each other), I would be very hesitant to buy something that isn't very high quality, or else your fiancee is going to be losing stones all the time.

Honestly, if you go custom, you're not really going to get away much cheaper than $6,000 for the set. Custom is almost surely going to be more expensive because of all the labor involved.

If you're interested in trying to go custom, I would call Mark at Engagement Rings Direct. He does great work and his prices are reasonable. Or you could try the pave man himself Leon Mege (http://www.artofplatinum.com) but he is very expensive and I think would likely come in more than $6,000 for the set.

I would just wait and get the real thing when you can afford it if she loves the Michael B. setting, but that's just me.

Also, I would make sure to ask if it's ok to wear two rings like this side by side. The general consensus is to NOT wear three sided pave rings next to each other because they'll eat each other up.

 

[jwlbell]

neatfreak,

Thanks for the feedback.

For Pave how do you tell the good from the bad? What should I look for?

How is whiteflash?

 

[mrssalvo]

Whiteflash has a very good reputation here. You can do a search and read other feedback.

some of the things to look for in pave are things like uneven beads (the little pieces of metal that hold the stones in). Also, there are differences in whether or not a ring is handmade verses cast. Leon and Micheal B rings are handmade which is much more time consuming hence some of the higher pricetag.

 

[neatfreak]

Whiteflash has a very good reputation in general. I don''t really know about their pave, but since their other stuff is great, I would think their pave is probably pretty good too.

In addition to mrssalvo''s reply about pave, another way to tell good from bad is price. I hate to say this, and it''s not always true, but if you find something that''s pave that''s waaaaaaay cheaper than other things, you might want to reconsider unless you''ve heard that their pave is good from customers. Also, good pave often has full cut stones while the really cheap stuff has single cut stones.

Leon, Michael B., Ritani, Mark at ERD, WF...I think any of those would be good quality.

 

[jwlbell]

Thanks for the help guys,

I definitly want the full cut pave stones, its pretty much night and day when you see them against a single cut. Single cut don''t seem to sparkel.


In NYC, how would I find out the cast from the non cast rings? Are there better quality cast rings out there.

When stones are placed on the prongs, how is that done? (I''m assuming that they are the weakest link so to speak, and could get knocked off)


Thanks,

James

 

[neatfreak]

Leon has a good tutorial on pave available on his website:

http://www.artofplatinum.com/articles/micropave.php