swaye2010
Brilliant_Rock
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2015
- Messages
- 1,194
I have always loved aquamarine’s and have been disappointed by having an opal as my birthstone since it is such a soft stone for a ring. I don’t really know too much about colored gemstones but I am loving that they are becoming more popular choices for e-rings. I like the idea that aquamarine’s remind me of water and the step cut has this pool effect when I move it around. I have either lived on or near water all my life and I just find that it has a calming effect for me and I was trying to capture that in a ring.
This is probably on the lower end of PS projects but I was trying to stay on budget as I have a few different ones in the works. The setting and small details are also very important to me so I wanted to pick an affordable gemstone that would still give me a decent amount of finger coverage. This was also a bit of a birthday gift for me knowing I would be recovering from a 2nd surgery this week after being hit head on by a 17 year old kid texting....a cautionary reminder to not text and drive! If I was going to be stuck binge watching Netflix for in bed for my birthday, I wanted something interesting to stare at and this came just in time!
I met at lapidary earlier this year that was starting to take his side business a bit more seriously and thought I would give him a try on a few colored stones (light blue aquamarine and a lemon yellow tourmaline). I really wanted to learn & enjoy each piece of the process so he was sending me pictures of rough until we finally settled on a piece that I believe was ordered through Kenya from someone he had used in the past. I paid him and he made payment via Western Union to someone he had used several times before with no problems. A few weeks went by and he came back and said he thought the person had run off with the money and immediately refunded my payment. This was a good sign to me regarding his business ethics but I didn’t want to put me or him in the same position again. I decided it was worth it to pay a bit more and I wanted to get the rough, have it cut and the ring all made in the US. I tried helping out but after a few weeks he said ‘swaye’ you are basically sending me colored rocks off of ebay that will not work...again, do not recommend! You do have to have a well trained eye for this stuff. We looked at a few different vendors and finally settled on a square piece of rough from TMS Gems in San Diego. The small parcel of rough that we had to choose from had small inclusions or feather’s in each piece. I guess aquamarine rough has decidedly gotten much more expensive recently for unknown reasons. We settled on a piece that had a small feather in the corner that wasn’t going to be very visible in the setting so I was ok with that. We were given an extra 10% off for the small feather and started the process. Total cost for the stone plus cutting/shipping was $288.
I decided to go for a 9 mm square precision step cut in an Art Deco platinum setting made by Debebians in LA. I wish Debebian’s had more love on these boards because Sam & Maggie are very talented jewelers & people. There are a few jewelers I work with but after a few bad experiences, I will never work with anyone on my projects again that don’t get ‘me’ or are not fun because I ‘do’ want a ring to bring me joy and not misery every time I look at it! I was hoping to do single cuts & baguettes but it was too pricey so I settled on a halo with 1.3 mm modern round diamond. This is a very heavy duty platinum setting weighing 11 grams and the tdw is .42. The bezel helped bring out the color a bit more and it shines with the most brilliant blue in outdoor light. Works well with either my pave or wheat engraved platinum bands too..
I love the pictures with the Fall leaves reflecting back on the mirror. It also has this way of changing color in different lighting situations and backgrounds.
Couple videos:
https://imgur.com/a/VOvyDzO
This is probably on the lower end of PS projects but I was trying to stay on budget as I have a few different ones in the works. The setting and small details are also very important to me so I wanted to pick an affordable gemstone that would still give me a decent amount of finger coverage. This was also a bit of a birthday gift for me knowing I would be recovering from a 2nd surgery this week after being hit head on by a 17 year old kid texting....a cautionary reminder to not text and drive! If I was going to be stuck binge watching Netflix for in bed for my birthday, I wanted something interesting to stare at and this came just in time!
I met at lapidary earlier this year that was starting to take his side business a bit more seriously and thought I would give him a try on a few colored stones (light blue aquamarine and a lemon yellow tourmaline). I really wanted to learn & enjoy each piece of the process so he was sending me pictures of rough until we finally settled on a piece that I believe was ordered through Kenya from someone he had used in the past. I paid him and he made payment via Western Union to someone he had used several times before with no problems. A few weeks went by and he came back and said he thought the person had run off with the money and immediately refunded my payment. This was a good sign to me regarding his business ethics but I didn’t want to put me or him in the same position again. I decided it was worth it to pay a bit more and I wanted to get the rough, have it cut and the ring all made in the US. I tried helping out but after a few weeks he said ‘swaye’ you are basically sending me colored rocks off of ebay that will not work...again, do not recommend! You do have to have a well trained eye for this stuff. We looked at a few different vendors and finally settled on a square piece of rough from TMS Gems in San Diego. The small parcel of rough that we had to choose from had small inclusions or feather’s in each piece. I guess aquamarine rough has decidedly gotten much more expensive recently for unknown reasons. We settled on a piece that had a small feather in the corner that wasn’t going to be very visible in the setting so I was ok with that. We were given an extra 10% off for the small feather and started the process. Total cost for the stone plus cutting/shipping was $288.
I decided to go for a 9 mm square precision step cut in an Art Deco platinum setting made by Debebians in LA. I wish Debebian’s had more love on these boards because Sam & Maggie are very talented jewelers & people. There are a few jewelers I work with but after a few bad experiences, I will never work with anyone on my projects again that don’t get ‘me’ or are not fun because I ‘do’ want a ring to bring me joy and not misery every time I look at it! I was hoping to do single cuts & baguettes but it was too pricey so I settled on a halo with 1.3 mm modern round diamond. This is a very heavy duty platinum setting weighing 11 grams and the tdw is .42. The bezel helped bring out the color a bit more and it shines with the most brilliant blue in outdoor light. Works well with either my pave or wheat engraved platinum bands too..
I love the pictures with the Fall leaves reflecting back on the mirror. It also has this way of changing color in different lighting situations and backgrounds.
Couple videos:
https://imgur.com/a/VOvyDzO
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