SillyMonkee
Rough_Rock
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2013
- Messages
- 31
I fell in love with my engagement ring before I fell in love with my husband (I saw it at an annual antique fair about a month before he finally asked me out - we were colleagues at an insurance company and I had been flirting with him (rather shamelessly, both for my personality and an insurance company... which is to say no one else noticed at all) for years), and happily the vendor still had it a year later when we were newly engaged. It's a 1 ct F VS2 emerald in a Tiffany Lucida-like setting, and I just loved the trellis work of the setting and the geometry of the emerald cut.
But... I've always loved antique jewelry and sometimes a girl just needs a culet to fall into while staring transfixed by her ring, so in preparation for my upcoming 10 year anniversary and 40th birthday, I've been stalking eBay, LoupeTroop, auction houses and Instagram, searching for the right upgrade stone. My target specs were:
- Checkerboard transitional cut. If it has to fall to one side or the other, more OEC than RB, but again, I like the organized checkerboard geometry of the facets in stones that tend to come back with Circular Brilliant grading.
- 9mm diameter
- J-K color. Unfortunately for me and my pocketbook, I am color sensitive and rather spoiled by my current F. I'd tried K color old cuts on my hand and been okay with the color, but L is where my eye starts to twitch.
- SI clarity. Just "reasonably eye clean" would be fine - no black carbon spots, nothing hanging out right under the table, but inclusions that blend in with the faceting don't bother me.
- Fluorescence would be a nice to have, since it's so cool to look at under black light, but not necessary.
I'd tried and returned several candidates over the years, but this fall the lovely sincityfinds posted the stone that stopped me in my tracks. J color, 9.5mm (!), VS1, faint fluorescence Circular Brilliant and I was IN LOVE. Since there had been something wrong with my previous attempts (fish eye cut; cloud right under the table; stone both smaller and yellower than described), I was worried that I might always find something at least something wonky with a stone and would have to talk myself into it. But, just like my husband - whom I met the day of my interview at the company and felt the lightning bold immediately (by the way, I'm a risk analyst, so this is not in character, at all) - when I know, I know.
sincityfinds could not have been more of a dear to work with - even emotionally holding my hand when my credit union's website told me I was going to need to fax (!) a form over (actually, they had already converted to Docusign but not updated their web copy) to complete the wire transaction. And then the package arrived, and I was shocked into giddiness. So big! Such beautiful, organized facets! And faint blue fluorescence to play with in a dark closet!
She's... gonna be naked for a while until my budget is ready for setting, but here are some pictures with her older little brother (love the flashes of pastel in that shot) and playing with some succulents (the CA sun was too bright to get anything withOUT fire today, it seemed).
But... I've always loved antique jewelry and sometimes a girl just needs a culet to fall into while staring transfixed by her ring, so in preparation for my upcoming 10 year anniversary and 40th birthday, I've been stalking eBay, LoupeTroop, auction houses and Instagram, searching for the right upgrade stone. My target specs were:
- Checkerboard transitional cut. If it has to fall to one side or the other, more OEC than RB, but again, I like the organized checkerboard geometry of the facets in stones that tend to come back with Circular Brilliant grading.
- 9mm diameter
- J-K color. Unfortunately for me and my pocketbook, I am color sensitive and rather spoiled by my current F. I'd tried K color old cuts on my hand and been okay with the color, but L is where my eye starts to twitch.
- SI clarity. Just "reasonably eye clean" would be fine - no black carbon spots, nothing hanging out right under the table, but inclusions that blend in with the faceting don't bother me.
- Fluorescence would be a nice to have, since it's so cool to look at under black light, but not necessary.
I'd tried and returned several candidates over the years, but this fall the lovely sincityfinds posted the stone that stopped me in my tracks. J color, 9.5mm (!), VS1, faint fluorescence Circular Brilliant and I was IN LOVE. Since there had been something wrong with my previous attempts (fish eye cut; cloud right under the table; stone both smaller and yellower than described), I was worried that I might always find something at least something wonky with a stone and would have to talk myself into it. But, just like my husband - whom I met the day of my interview at the company and felt the lightning bold immediately (by the way, I'm a risk analyst, so this is not in character, at all) - when I know, I know.
sincityfinds could not have been more of a dear to work with - even emotionally holding my hand when my credit union's website told me I was going to need to fax (!) a form over (actually, they had already converted to Docusign but not updated their web copy) to complete the wire transaction. And then the package arrived, and I was shocked into giddiness. So big! Such beautiful, organized facets! And faint blue fluorescence to play with in a dark closet!
She's... gonna be naked for a while until my budget is ready for setting, but here are some pictures with her older little brother (love the flashes of pastel in that shot) and playing with some succulents (the CA sun was too bright to get anything withOUT fire today, it seemed).
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