I Color Center Stone with G Color Pave?

[malnik]

I'm getting a pair of Tacori Dantella earrings for my wife. The earrings have halos composed of G color mirco pave.

I picked out two AGS000 I color diamonds as center stones. They are 0.60 ct each.

I know I color diamond will appear colorless face up. But would having G halo pave make the center stones look yellow?

 

[John P]

Short answer: In most cases you're fine; especially for earrings which are not typically examined extremely close-up unless she is in an elevator (or has a stalker).

Longer answer: Presuming the pave is graded in-house by Tacori (close to GIA) and the I is AGSL you're about two grades apart in the near-colorless range. Color grading is done on a sliding scale so a low-I next to high-Gs could be slightly different than high-I next to low-Gs. There is no way to know this without seeing them in person.

The positive thing about your situation is the center Is are cut as AGS000s. Any well-cut diamond gets light in and out faster, illuminating body color less. This means the face-up appearance of your centers is most likely closer to colorless than their lab grading of I, since the stones were color-graded upside down, viewed through the pavilion. In my experience you're at least a grade closer in terms of cut already by securing well-cut centers.

Due to the way they are worn I find that earrings tend to pick up color from their immediate surroundings (flesh of the ear, hair color, etc) so the differences would be somewhat neutralized in that way too.

In my experience if you keep these earrings clean it's the center sparkle which will knock people out. That's what will be noticed by casual viewers.

 

[yssie]

Is it okay to disagree with tradepersons, even those as knowledgeable and eloquent as Mr. Pollard? Well - not disagree - I just don't think any of this is relevant: the melee are clearly very small in that setting, and it's been my consistent experience that when you drop below a certain size body colour ceases to matter at all, until it's tinted enough to be "yellowy"...assuming they're not single cuts. I am confident that even if you chose melee with j/k body colour they would still *look* different - brighter and whiter - than your centrestones, our eyes just interpret such drastic differences in light return type as "apparent colour differences", no way around it if you want full cut melee. The centres wouldn't be "yellower" - just darker, regions of stone shifting more fluidly from light to grey to black...

If the apparent colour difference will bother you (it drives me batty) avoiding putting RB melee next to larger stones is the only solution. For earrings, though, I definitely agree with John P. - noone will be scrutinizing them for colour or anything else, all they'll ever notice is the design and sparkle, so if you keep them clean they'll dazzle everyone!

 

[dreamer_dachsie]

Is it okay to disagree with tradepersons, even those as knowledgeable and eloquent as Mr. Pollard? Well - not disagree - I just don't think any of this is relevant: the melee are clearly very small in that setting, and it's been my consistent experience that when you drop below a certain size body colour ceases to matter at all, until it's tinted enough to be "yellowy"...assuming they're not single cuts. I am confident that even if you chose melee with j/k body colour they would still *look* different - brighter and whiter - than your centrestones, our eyes just interpret such drastic differences in light return type as "apparent colour differences", no way around it if you want full cut melee. The centres wouldn't be "yellower" - just darker, regions of stone shifting more fluidly from light to grey to black...

If the apparent colour difference will bother you (it drives me batty) avoiding putting RB melee next to larger stones is the only solution. For earrings, though, I definitely agree with John P. - noone will be scrutinizing them for colour or anything else, all they'll ever notice is the design and sparkle, so if you keep them clean they'll dazzle everyone!

This has been my experience. Any color melee next to a slightly tinted stone -- I/J/K -- makes the tine more apparent to my eye. The optics between melee and a larger stone will always be different and the stones will look different, but the tint issue only comes up with the lower end of the near colorless range to my eye.

Can you go see an I color stone in a halo before you commit to see how you feel about the possible contrast? LIke Yssie for earrings it is so slight that it would not bother me, though I did not enjoy the contrast with my solitaire ring very much.

 

[John P]

Yssie, I surely hope it's ok to disagree, otherwise what's the point of the forum?

I think my headline was buried: I don't believe this is an issue for earrings, especially after seeing dozens of such combinations go out the door to clients who are as-picky as Pricescope enthusiasts (and sometimes are Pricescope enthusiasts) from our authorized dealers around the USA.

So that's my take but I must admit that none of us giving this blind advice are able to see the actual diamonds or resultant piece, so we're going on personal past experience. In that sense the pieces I've dealt-with have been confined to a singular quality, whereas others on the forum likely have a wider spectrum of experience involving more varied sourcing.