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A small, but important-to-me, purchase

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whitby_2773

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my husband tim and i were engaged 26 years ago. we were both full time students with no money, so my father gave us my deceased mother''s engagement ring. it was 1/4 ct and a nice stone. we went to look at settings, and found a delicate yellow gold setting with white gold head which, when we saw it, had a .18ct stone in it.

we asked the jeweler if he could replace the stone in it with our stone, and he said ''sure.'' we left our stone with him and he ''sent away'' the ring and our stone and 2 weeks later - voila! our new ring! we later go on to buy yellow gold wedding rings - mine with 8 x .01ct stones in it.

fast forward a few years, and tim says it''s time to get me a ring of my own. he buys me a .83ct stone and plans to put our .25ct stone on one side and buy another for the other side. he goes to a different jeweler who is also a good friend of ours. they tell us - "sure! we can get you a .25ct stone..but we''re going to have to get you 2 of them, because the stone in your original ring is .18ct."

the long and the short of it is that the first jeweler kept our stone and gave us back the ring as it was and we were too naive to notice (we were 19 and 23 yrs old at the time.)

we had the 3 stone ring made with all new stones - and as many of you may have seen, i recently had (finally!) a james meyer platinum band made and the side stones upgraded to .46 and .47ct, still with my .83 in the middle. for my money, i find it very pretty and completely adequate. simply put - i love it.

however! we now have my old YG wedding ring which i havent worn in years, my husband''s YG wedding ring, which snapped a few years ago, and my empty original engagement setting (we took the ''fraud'' stone out in disgust and used it in something else when we realized it wasn''t my mother''s ring.) so a couple of months ago we sent them home to Australia to our jeweler friends to be melted down and remade into solid, much nicer rings.

and here they are! they''re 2.5mm (my husband''s) and 3.5mm (mine), flat, comfort fit, with a milgrain edge. a small purchase, but we love them. that''s my husband''s and my hands holding them safe - kind of like we''ve been doing for 25 years. :)

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How sweet that you recycled the original metal and made bands out of it.
 
a little bit closer, tho the color is somewhat washed out. i am ridiculously proud of these simple little rings!

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a number of people asked me to put up hand shots of my reset 3 stone engagement ring when i received it, as i''ve recently been away on vacation. here it is with my tiffany legacy band; i prefer my new jim meyer ring, but i just happened to have this one on when we were taking snaps of the new YG wedding bands, and decided to throw this one in as well.

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we also had a little gold left over, plus the 8 x .01ct stones from my original wedding band. so we had a small pendant made with our initials on the front, and our anniversary date on the back. here it is with our new rings...

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and last photo. here they are on their sides. i added this one to show the lovely thickness of the pendant; it''s only small - about 3/4 of an inch - but it has a lovely weight to it as it''s about as thick as my husband''s new wedding ring.

thanks for sharing this new joy with me!

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How devastating to know that family diamond was stolen!

Where did you have the gold refined and made into new rings? I have a piece I''d like that done with... and can''t find anyone who does it!
 
hi LT :)

yes - it was a VERY sad day when we realized we''d been ripped off at what was supposed to be a joyous time. we had our rings remade in australia - like you, i cant find anyone around here (NY) who does this. i intend to have some of my mother''s jewelry melted down also and remade into rings for my sister, myself, and my 2 nieces. those will be very special also!

and chrono - thank you for the kind comment :)
 
Oh Whitby sweetie - I am so sorry that your mother''s diamond was stolen. How terrible. I am sure that person will get what they deserve.

I do love your new bands. They are beautiful for so many reasons - the sentimental and the visual beauty. Wear them in good health.
 
Date: 4/24/2009 12:22:44 AM
Author: DKinLA
Oh Whitby sweetie - I am so sorry that your mother''s diamond was stolen. How terrible. I am sure that person will get what they deserve.


I do love your new bands. They are beautiful for so many reasons - the sentimental and the visual beauty. Wear them in good health.

Ditto this. I am so sorry that awful jeweler did that to you! Some people...

But your new rings - and pendant! - are so pretty and classic. Enjoy them!
 
I''m so sorry your Mom''s stone was stolen.
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You must have been heartbroken. Big HUGS to you for the loss and Kudos for not letting it ruin the sentiment in the rings. I''m such a drama queen I probably would have thrown the whole set away.

What a fabulous idea to remake the rings. They''re beautiful and so is the pendant. What a great way to take the bad mojo out of your pieces. Congrats.
 
I love your new bands Whitby. I think it was a great idea. Its such a shame that the original stone was not changed out in your engagement ring. Such behaviour really disgusts me.
 
I
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your new jewelry!
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A gold ring is what I want and mine is going to be 3mm. A lot of people in the US think men's rings have to be 4mm or more. Wrong! Cartier sells 2.5mm bands to men. I think a lot of men in Europe (most, almost all?) wear 3mm bands or (obviously) 2.5mm. I think it's a cultural thing in the US that people think men's rings have to be 4mm at least up to 6mm (or more). I don't like 4mm rings for myself. I don't want one. I don't have any use for one. It would be uncomfortable and it would look bad on me. Your new rings and pendent are NICE! I like them a lot! I think it's GREAT you were able to do this. Congratulations!
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That's an awesome story about your rings... how incredibly slack of the jeweller to steal your Mum's stone though!!!!!Wow!
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ETA: Oh, and I love the pendant too!!
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whitby, you and your husband are just adorable - you seem SO in love and happy after many years together. So refreshing. I almost cried when I read about how that jeweler took your mother''s diamond without you knowing it. What a lowlife... Anyway, I LOVE your new bands and your new pendant. Great recycling ideas and so meaningful. Congrats!! (Oh, and I adore your 3-stone. It''s TDF!)
 
oh whitby, that just makes me so angry that the original jeweller ripped you off like that. It makes me wonder how many other people were conned.

Anyway, I just wanted to say your new bands are stunning, so elegant and understated. And I love your new pendant too!
 
All''s well that ends well, right? Whitby, I''m glad your story has a happy ending, the rings are lovely and so is the pendant.

Imdanny: I never realized that Americans think men should wear 4mm + wedding bands...I guess the ones I see day-to-day are, indeed, wider, but I see lots of 3mm bands on men as well. Nothing wrong with a slimmer band on men, imo, I think it looks very elegant.
 
whitby, I''m so sorry that a disreputable jeweler do that to you. We hear horror stories about that happening and it always gets me so angry and disappointed in people. You can never replace your Mom''s stone and what did it really gain him? People can be so lousey........ I do love what you did with your old wedding bands! I''ve never been able to find a jeweler here on Long Island who was willing to melt down old gold and create something new for me. You''re very lucky. I love your new rings!
 
i too can''t believe a jeweler would do that. right now that is my biggest fear with getting my stone set in our new setting...

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however, your new rings are so lovely!!!! and i love the pendent idea too!
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OMG! That is horrible. I''m so sorry you lost your mother''s stone to a slimy jeweler! EEW! Hey, Karma might get him back one day. ;-)

On a lighter note - everything you''ve done since is gorgeous!
 
I love all the sentiment behind your jewelry pieces.

Regarding the jeweler - I believe in what goes around, comes around.
 
How sweet to have them made into new rings...very nice AND full of sentiment!

I''m really annoyed and mad at that jacka$$ of a jeweler that stole your stone! Gezz...what a low life!
(glad you were able to get over it. I''m going to be annoyed all day at the thought
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Your reset is beautiful! That makes me fuming mad that someone would steal your mom''s diamond though!
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Thanks for sharing, Whitby. That pic of you and your hubby holding the rings is simply perfect. No purchase is too small I always say...not when the love behind it is priceless. I sometimes find it incredulous that people are spending 10-20k on e-rings only to go separate ways after a couple of years. Spending that much on a 25th anniversary ring makes more sense IMHO...

And I''m pretty certain that the jeweler who ripped you off a heirloom diamond must have choked on a meatball (among others) by now...
 
Very sweet!
 
Date: 4/24/2009 1:02:48 PM
Author: Kelli
Your reset is beautiful! That makes me fuming mad that someone would steal your mom''s diamond though!
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ditto. Love the reset!
 
DKinLA, MonkeyPie, StephensBride, Maisie, Imdanny, LaraOnline, katiedid, wolftress, monarch64, gemgirl, jcarlylew, rhbgirl24, bebe, tyty333, Kelli, DiamondFlame, Burk and bee* -

Thank you so much for all your kind comments on such a small purchase. Over the 25 years we’ve been married, we have bought some beautiful pieces of jewelry, but none more special or treasured than these plain bands. Being so far from home (Australians living in NY) it’s extra special having had them made back in our home town.

You are a blood thirsty lot, tho! It made me chuckle to see how many ways my original disreputable jeweler was going to meet his demise at your hands! Beware the wrath of PriceScope, clearly!!

Thank you again, and wishing you all a wonderful weekend,
 
That is a sad but sweet story! I''m sorry you lost your grandma''s diamond! I really like that you re-used your gold though and made new rings! My friend used her mother''s wedding ring and had it melted and poured into free form for a necklace! Love the idea and sentiment!
 
Your new rings are lovely. I think that''s very cool to have had them remade. How sad though about your mom''s diamond!
 
I love your new wedding rings Whitby, you have every reason to be very proud of them!
 
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