My alternate/every-day e-ring arrived today and it's just what I hoped it would be. I've been wearing a beautiful little 1/3 ct. tranny in a delicate platinum setting as my everyday ering, and it's beautiful, but it's a little small and delicate on my big man-hands (ring size _8_). I've been wanting an OMC to add to my collection, so when I saw one within my modest budget ($2K) and the right size (.75 ct., give or take) from DZ, I bought it. Unfortunately, the diamond was just a little too wonky and the inclusions a little too scary, so I returned it.I enlisted Dreamer_D's help. She found several possibilities for me, including the inspiration ring, which I wasn't keen on at first. I wouldn't have given it a second look if Dreamer_D hadn't picked it and said some very nice things about it, but I kept going back to it and realized that although it wasn't my style, it was perfect for my requirements: fairly low setting, no fussy little diamonds to get lost, protective of the center diamond. Dreamer_D did tell me that it was overpriced at $2500 and I noticed that the setting was damaged. Before I could make an offer on the ring (which I didn't think would be accepted, based on the seller's history), the ring was sold. I was SO disappointed, even though I wouldn't have paid the asking price for it.
I found and sent back a loose stone then decided to quit with the ebay roulette and contacted Adam at OWD with three diamonds, priced from about $1200 to about $1800, I thought might work for me. To my surprise and delight, he recommended the least expensive of the three, an EGL-USA M VS2 OMB 5.96 x 5.65 x 3.61, 63.9% depth, 47% table.
After looking at various settings and finding nothing that appealed to me as much as the inspiration ring, I contacted Poppyseed at Amcor because I've always like their fishtail setting and I was just going to put the OMC in that, although I wasn't keen on the unprotected girdle. I sent her pictures of the inspiration ring and she mentioned that they could duplicate the inspiration setting. I asked for a price quote and felt that it was very reasonable.
This setting isn't an exact duplicate of the original, but it has the shape and profile that I wanted. I didn't really care about exact duplication of the motifs. I actually like the basket shape of my ring better than the flatter basket of the inspiration setting.
The diamond, the setting, shipping (back to DZ, loose stone back to seller, this loose stone to Amcor), and the lost resizing fee on the first ring still put me under my $2K initial budget for a ring that's exactly what I had in mind. The only fly in the ointment was that it took about 2 months to get the complete ring rather than the 3-4 weeks that was estimated, but two months is not really all that long, in the grand scheme of things.
I really like that the underside of the top of the ring is not completely open. It has reinforcing pieces kind of like the rungs on a ladder which make the ring sit flat on the top of my finger and probably make the setting stronger than if it were open at the bottom.
Vendor photos first, then my photos, then inspiration photos.
liz
I adore it!
300x240.png)