2 BIG new stones and I need setting help!

[AustenNut]

2 days, 2 packages, 2 beautiful stones. (Unfortunately, my usual sorry photographs.)


Yesterday, this concave faceted amethyst from Dutton's Diamonds arrived in the mail. It's 15.72ct, and measures a whopping 15x20mm. As usual, my pictures don't do the stones justice. This stone has pink flashes & last night I saw blue flashes, but my camera won't capture either. It's a nice deep purple, but not as dark as my shadow causes the stone to appear. It's going to be a pendant and I need helping deciding how to set it.But first, pictures!

 

[AustenNut]

 

[AustenNut]

And there's the tourmaline that arrived today. It's another biggin' though not quite as large as the amethyst. It's a 10.06ct pink tourmaline from Gemline that measures 14x12. I'll have to look at it tonight once the sun goes down, but it seems more like rubellite than tourmaline as the color seems to hold, and there's an open C axis. There are some inclusions that you can see if you look at it real closely, but from a foot or two away you can't really tell.

Regardless, I LOVE the color on it. In fact, I might be beginning to get the hang of figuring out the color of the stone by looking at a picture. Both these stones were actually lighter than what I really wanted when looking at their photographs, but in person they're the color I really wanted. Again, I'm going to need some setting advice with this stone, but I'll give you the pictures first. Though Gemline described the stone as neon, I'd say that it's very vivid. Unfortunately, my camera isn't picking up the wonderful, vivid color. I'd say that in real life this stone truly is magenta.

 

[AustenNut]

I'd like this stone to be turned into a pendant that I'll wear either with a CZ/crystal necklace (to give the appearance of a diamond necklace) or with a set of pearls. It will be worn this way, all glammed up, for my wedding. But I definitely plan on wearing this baby after the wedding too, as it's one of my favorite colors. So I'd like a pendant that is fancy enough to look appropriate for the wedding while not being so fancy that I can't wear it out in my normal, every day life. I don't know if I should do a simple prong setting with diamond melee along the bail, or if I should do a small, thin halo, or if there's something else that I'm overlooking. Any and all ideas you have for this stone are very welcome. And since my wedding is on November 21, I do need to get going on this baby.

 

[AustenNut]

And as I mentioned earlier, I also need advice on setting the amethyst. I'd like this in Argentium silver, as I'm not prepared to shell out for gold at $1300 an ounce for this particular piece. There are 3 settings that I'm particularly interested in: I know the DanielM piece isn't a pendant, but I'd want that kind of bezel.

This is my first concave faceted stone, so I don't know if it needs a particular kind of setting to make it stand out. Also, though I know DanielM works a lot with faceted stones, the other two don't have any listed in their shops. I am convo'ing with all 3 and so far nobody's bowed out because they don't feel comfortable working with the product. But I'd love feedback on which way you think I should go with this pendant, and why.

 

[Arcadian]

wow! both are really lovely! I can't wait to see what you do with them!

-A

 

[chrono]

Holy smokes! Both are huge; will the depth of the stones be too unwieldy in a pendant? I trust Gary Dutton; his stones always look better than the pictures and he is honest and upfront with his description of the colour.

 

[AustenNut]

Thanks, Chrono and Arcadian. I think (and hope) that the stones shouldn't be too unwieldy. I have some cabochon type pendants that are also large and deep (relatively speaking) and they've been fine.

I've been looking at some of the ebay jewelers for semi-mounts, and I may have narrowed it down to three (if I don't get a better idea from y'all or my local jeweler). They're pretty much the same (2 single halos, and 1 double halo which may be too much bling). But there is window which Michael at Gemline thinks will close up when it's set. I want to make sure it does. So which of these settings do you think would work best to do that? I think the middle one would work best because of the metal chunk in the middle of the back, but I'm not entirely sure. Looking forward to hearing your ideas!

 

[chrono]

When you "wear" the stone on the back of the hand, does the window close up easily? If so, then you don't need to go overboard with a very enclosed setting. Also remember that the more enclosed the setting, the tone of the stone will also darken up a notch, so if it's a medium dark stone, it'll end up a smidge darker.

 

[Burberrygirl]

Pretty stones! I can't wait to see what you do with them, I like the pendants you posted.

 

[AustenNut]

Thanks, Burberry! I'm looking forward to seeing what I do too!

Chrono, I think the window closes up completely when I put it on my fingers, but I've only been able to check when the lighting is really poor. Hopefully I'll be able to play around with it some today when I get home from work when there's still some daylight out. If it does close when held up to my fingers, do you think any of the ebay sellers' semi-mounts would work? Or if one would be preferable?

 

[chrono]

Based on your replies, I think the settings you are looking at should do the job. The other consideration is how dark the stone is right now; there’s a trade off with very enclosed setting in that they also darken the stone a notch.

 

[JewelFreak]

Pretty stone! I prefer the single halo -- lets the stone be the center of attention, and is less blingy as you said you want. I like the spareness of the LanBo4 setting with smaller diamonds, but prefer the diamond bale of the one on the left. It's gonna be a knockout, whatever you choose. Fab thing to wear for your wedding!

--- laurie

 

[Arkteia]

Beautiful stones! Both are nice, but the amethyst is my favorite. As to setting - I'd go with the middle one.

 

[T L]

Pretty stones, I would set them together in one huge pendant. The amethyst dangling from the tourmaline!

 

[jstarfireb]

Those are honkers! Pretty honkers at that. I'd go with the middle setting because the more solid central part of the basket is more likely to close the window.

 

[AustenNut]

Thanks Chrono, JewelFreak, Crasru, Tourmaline_Lover, and Jstarfireb for all of the feedback! I just sent Lan.bo4 an e-mail asking for an invoice as I'm going to go with that semi-mount. And I forgot to add that they will be putting diamonds on the bail, like in this setting http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180568481566....

I put the stone in an aluminum foil bezel to see how dark it would get in a more enclosed setting (though the lanbo one is not as enclosing as a bezel). The stone barely darkened at all and still held its color beautifully. And that way it should pretty much guarantee that the window will close, as I don't have time to mess around in cases it doesn't work out.

As far as the color goes, I held it up next to the earrings that I will wear for the wedding. It's nearly an exact match, and the blurry vendor photo of one of my earrings shows the color much better than my photos do. (Vendor is designbykara.) It's a fuchsia swarovski crystal, in case anyone knows the color.

TL, if I only had the size to wear these two honkers together! But if they were smaller...

Crasru, when you said you picked the middle setting, are you talking about the lanbo one for the tourmaline or the jjunipers for the amethyst?

 

[vbnet]

Wowsa! what a pair of honkers! Can't wait to see them set ! I like the middle setting.

 

[AustenNut]

The amethyst is currently with DanielM, getting an argentium silver bezel

But today the setting from Lanbo arrived. The diamonds looks great, and it seems well-made This was a custom order, so some of you can probably guess what the issue is. The stone doesn't fit properly.

I'm going to take it to my jeweler in the next couple of days to see if they can make it work, but first I wanted the opinions of the wonderful PS people. Will this need to be remade, or can a good benchperson make this work? These photos were taken quickly and not in an attempt to show the jewelry off (heck, these are worse than my regular photos). But I tried to show the different angles of how the stone fits in the setting, and not focus on showing the stone and the piece as a whole at its best.

 

[cellentani]

AustenNut, it's hard for me to tell if your stone will fit. On the one hand, stones rarely sit down low in a semi-mount before setting, and prongs are often moved outward to accommodate the stone. However, on your pendant, there's a rim of gold between the base of the prongs that would probably prevent them from being widened very much. Can you get a profile shot with the stone parallel to the setting? With the tourmaline taking a nose-dive into the setting, it's hard to gauge. Love the setting though!

 

[desertgem]

Can you estimate the depth of the stones? I think that it might not allow you to have certain settings. The Amethyst photo where it is table down, shows it might need settings designed for deep bellied stones. The same might be true of the Tourmaline.

Jim

 

[AustenNut]

Thanks for the feedback so far, Cellentani and Desertgem. I just pulled out my camera to see if I could take some parallel shots (not sure that I'm really able, but I was going to try) but my camera wouldn't turn on (nor would it work with my spare battery). So until my camera gets its act back together, these are all the photos I have.

 

[cellentani]

You know AustenNut, the heck with what we think - just trot your setting over to your jewelers, pronto (which I know you were going to do anyway)! It might all depend on the skill and vision of the benchman - I've had one jeweler tell me that a setting won't work, but another was able to do it without blinking an eye.

I meant to ask you earlier - how does the window look in the setting?

 

[chrono]

It is difficult for me to tell if it will fit because the stone is angled within the basket of the setting. The best thing to do is to balance it parallel to the setting. However, as Cellentani has suggested, your jeweller will be able to tell you right away if it fits or not. Some jewellers feel comfortable with making such adjustments and others might not want to touch it unless it fits perfectly.

 

[AustenNut]

I tried laying the stone perfectly parallel so that it could rest on the prongs, but it always tipped in. But the good news is that the window closed up. I was planning on going to the jeweler tomorrow when they're open late, but forgot that I have a meeting. And I'm out of town this weekend. But maybe I'll be able to scoot over there after work, as I realize they're really the only ones who can make that determination. But thanks for the feedback!

 

[AustenNut]

I was able to sneak over to the jeweler yesterday evening. The stone will be able to fit in the setting. The problem is with the prongs, which they said they will have to rebuild. They said that because it was a cushion it should have double prongs to hold the stone in snugly so it doesn't jitter about. The Lanbo setting only had 1 prong (in the place where the space between the double prongs would be) and that the cushion shape wouldn't be as secure in that.

I'm still a relative newbie to gems and setting, so I wasn't aware that a cushion shaped stone would need double prongs if a prong setting was used. Is this standard practice? Is this something that Lanbo should have been aware of? I did specify that I wanted the pendant made for a cushion shaped stone when I had them custom make it, and they've repeated multiple times that this is the proper setting for a cushion stone. Should I chalk up all of the added costs as a learning experience, or do you think that Lanbo should put forth some amount for this? (I think at least half of the error is mine, but didn't know if all of it was.)

Thanks!

 

[chrono]

AustenNut,
That’s news to me that single prongs aren’t secure enough to hold a cushion shaped gemstone. I have a 10 mm cushion spessartite set into a ring using only single prongs at each of the 4 corners. My guess is that since your tourmaline is 14x12 mm, that’s quite a lot larger, plus perhaps your jeweller doesn’t feel that the prongs are thick/sturdy enough for the large size, hence the recommendation?

 

[AustenNut]

Well, my tourmaline pendant was picked up yesterday, and boy is it a statement piece. The Lanbo setting is so deep that the whole pendant really stands rather high on my chest, but I am looking forward to wearing it. Of course my camera is still being persnickety, so no additional photos at the moment.

Last night Daniel M e-mailed to let me know that the amethyst pendant is done. Here the link for the pictures http://www.etsy.com/transaction/35481311..

 

[Burberrygirl]

AN, Daniel M did a great job! It looks so pretty! I hope you post lots of pictures, I'd love to see how your pendants look on.