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#JOTW Aurelia: Dinner ring of my dreams centering a 1.78ct chubby pear

oldcutclubmember

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jul 28, 2013
Messages
1,125
This ring was not really planned ahead and started out as a bit of an impulse purchase.

I am certain that I am not the only PSer that has different folders on their phone with saved pictures of various jewelry pieces (please tell me I’m not the only one lol). I have many pictures and quite a number of sub folders in my phone.

This particular inspo ring is an antique Edwardian ring circa 1910 named Lucy that Victor Barbone had sold some years back. I know of 2 GORGEOUS repros of this very ring both designed by Caysie of CVB ID that were commissioned by PSers (@RetroQT and @HS4S_2 ). There are probably more out there in the world including a couple of recent repros by VB themselves. I think she has a big fan base due to her sweet nature and feminine beauty.

Here is the original Lucy: estimated 2.32 ct M-N antique pear center with 24 additional melee diamonds in her setting.
3D7A8A16-2990-4BD1-8558-C6FDC2110325.jpeg

Lucy was merely one of the MANY inspirational and someday maybe pieces in my “ring inspo” folder under “pear” and had been living there for a while already.

One night in April, after putting my kids to bed, I was perusing IG as I tend to do, just minding my own business with no intentions of purchasing another stone or starting another project anytime soon since I was already up to my neck in projects. Then I came across Sin City Find’s post for some loose diamonds. One of those diamonds was a chubby pear. Diana’s stuff usually sells within minutes so I scrolled down expecting all the stones to have been sold but they weren’t. The prices for most of them weren’t her usual crazy deals and closer to retail so that’s probably why they were all still available lol. Lucy flashed through my head and I thought that this pear would make a lovely smaller version of Lucy. I tried to put it out of my mind and told myself that if it still had not sold by the next day, I will take it as a sign and reach out. Well, the next day the other 2 smaller pears had sold but the chubby pear was still listed as available.

I looked through my “pear” folder and browsed through some of the saved inspo pictures including Lucy. The more pics I saw of Lucy, the more I was drawn to her so I made up my mind and DMed Diana.

A few days later, the pear arrived and it was very cute. I fell in love with the chubby belly, the culet (ideally I would have wanted a bigger culet) and the rounded point. It is 1.78ct GIA J VS2 and the face up size is relatively on the small side at 9.04mm x 6.95mm.
FA4DC41B-E48F-4B18-A8E7-55C0B22B2AF7.jpeg
 

oldcutclubmember

Brilliant_Rock
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Jul 28, 2013
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1,125
Once I decided to keep the pear, I started mulling over the setting. While I very much liked Lucy, I didn’t want an EXACT repro. Lucy’s face up size is much bigger so if I were to create an exact repro, it wouldn’t have the same finger coverage and the proportions would be just off.

Also Lucy is almost too sweet and feminine for my personal style. To me, the tiny little leaf motifs by the wings accentuated the sweetness and I wanted it changed to mimic the crown/fleur de lis like design on the top of the ring instead.

Lastly, while I wanted to keep the pear bezeled, I felt that a thick full bezel would hide the rounded point, which is one of the primary reasons I fell for the stone. I suspect that the center stone on Lucy also has a rounded point that is covered by the full bezel. This is where my saved pictures came in handy. I had pics of this illusion bezel ring in my “pear” folder that I was reminded of when I was perusing through my pics the day I bought the stone.
55ADDF55-829A-4F3D-8278-30D18B94FB68.jpeg
I thought this illusion bezel would perfect as it would keep the center pointed (a design element which I very much liked and wanted to maintain) while allowing the rounded point of the pear to be seen and appreciated. So I used my rudimentary cut and paste skills and came up with this.
C4ECCC9A-3ED1-4D36-8587-37EBA83F647C.jpeg
 

oldcutclubmember

Brilliant_Rock
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Jul 28, 2013
Messages
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As for the vendor, I only contacted Sako (IG: cjd_sako) for this setting as all of the surrounding melee was bright cut paved with milgrain and I had seen his amazing workmanship executing those elements. I had been communicating with Sako for a couple of months at that point as I had reached out previously regarding a loose OMC he had posted (I ended up not getting that one due to the size and got a slightly bigger one from a different vendor). By this time, I had already spent some time looking over his IG feed as well as searching for PS threads about his creations. A sincere thank you to @elizat , @yssie and @Cerulean for taking the time to communicate with me regarding their projects and experiences with Sako, which solidified my decision to go with him for this particular repro.

I sent him a bunch of pictures of Lucy, my pear, and my mock up above and he responded, “definitely doable.” Luckily Sako is local to me and I drove down to his and his dad’s studio later on in the week to drop off the stone. Once he had the stone in hand, we messaged a bit more about the design. I told him I wanted old mines for the setting. He suggested old mines for most and single cuts for the tiny ones and said he would have to see what size melees he had on hand before working up the CAD.

About a month later, he sent me the CADs. At first, I thought that maybe I should have the whole design angled up more like the original but then I realized that with the shank being more centered now, I can wear the ring in either direction more comfortably without the ring sliding down and hitting the top of my knuckles. Once I stopped drooling over the chunky old mine cut melees on the CAD (can’t believe those are just renderings!), I tried to nit pick and see if there were any design changes I wanted made. I couldn’t find any. In fact, the more I looked at it the more I liked it. It was a chonkier, less sweet version of Lucy; exactly what I had wanted.

I just made one tiny change requesting additional small melees at the ends, indicated by the blue dots.
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Sako said, “I’m putting a single cut there.” I replied, “we are good to go then!” and that was that, one and done.
 

oldcutclubmember

Brilliant_Rock
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Once I started seeing the progress pics from Sako, I knew this was going to be something truly special. Sako did the cast in 5 separate pieces and assembled them together. The pictures of the ring assembled and polished alone blew my mind as I could tell this was just the beginning of a masterpiece taking shape.
65AFAE8F-C9A8-4DC8-91EE-B931CE7158AF.jpeg
Sako then proceeded to pave set 28 stones (2.57ctw of old mines and .24ctw of single cuts) with bright cut walls and milgrain galore.

The final result is a GLORIOUS blinged out work of art. When I saw Sako’s glamour photos and videos, my mouth gaped open in awe.

She’s size 6.25 and I can wear her on my left index finger, my right ring finger and even my left ring finger using a silicone sizer.

Shoutout to @lulu_ma and @Mreader for riding along with me, and talking sense into me from making impulse purchases on pretty dinner/shield rings while I had this in the works lol
 

dk168

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Jul 7, 2013
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12,491
Fabulous, thanks for sharing!

DK :kiss2::kiss2::kiss2:
 

Rfisher

Ideal_Rock
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Oct 19, 2013
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5,485
Soooo not-sweet sexxxxy!

love this! :love:
what a gorgeous piece you have :swoon:
(and so gorgeously made)
enjoy it well!
 

Cerulean

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Sep 13, 2019
Messages
5,077
I'm dumbstruck. Your images make her look even MORE gorgeous than I could have imagined, and I didn't even think that was possible. I love the ring in both orientations actually, and am seething with jealousy that you appear to be able to wear the same ring on multiple fingers!

What an exciting (and long) journey this has been. Your selection of a gorgeous antique pear (which is hard to do IMO, lots of duds out there), your clear vision, and ability to choose exactly the right artisan to execute this perfectly. What an accomplishment!

There are so many wonderful elements and moments of surprise in this ring, but they are all perfectly cohesive. Sako did an amazing job. This ring has so much movement and decadence, and yet the sturdiness of the ring makes it look more grounded and modern. It's your ornamental shield!
 

Austina

Ideal_Rock
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Feb 24, 2017
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7,554
What a stunner! :kiss2:
 

oldcutclubmember

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jul 28, 2013
Messages
1,125
I'm dumbstruck. Your images make her look even MORE gorgeous than I could have imagined, and I didn't even think that was possible. I love the ring in both orientations actually, and am seething with jealousy that you appear to be able to wear the same ring on multiple fingers!

What an exciting (and long) journey this has been. Your selection of a gorgeous antique pear (which is hard to do IMO, lots of duds out there), your clear vision, and ability to choose exactly the right artisan to execute this perfectly. What an accomplishment!

There are so many wonderful elements and moments of surprise in this ring, but they are all perfectly cohesive. Sako did an amazing job. This ring has so much movement and decadence, and yet the sturdiness of the ring makes it look more grounded and modern. It's your ornamental shield!
Yes! It really does feel like a shield! It has a good weight to it and feels powerful.
I don’t mind wearing my rings a tad loose, so I’ve been sizing my non-engagement rings to fit my index fingers and I can still get away with wearing them on my ring fingers albeit a tiny bit loose.

I am LIVING for the orientation in the first pic. I mean, both are STUNNING but I am surprised at how much I love it that way! She's perfectly versatile!
I kind of really like it both ways too! It was a pleasant surprise that it didn’t look forced when upside down.
 

dmack

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Aug 8, 2019
Messages
268
Whoa, this is amazing. The illusion of a smaller pear touching the tip of the center pear is genius. Maybe that wasn’t the intent, but it’s what my eye was drawn to first. Or, maybe my eyes were just crossed from the beauty! Congrats, this is really stunning!
 

LemonMoonLex

Ideal_Rock
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Apr 13, 2018
Messages
2,061
God this is stunning! What an heirloom! I hope it's never changed!
 

Slickk

Ideal_Rock
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Jan 3, 2013
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4,921
Oh. My. Goodness. What a stunning piece of art that you are #blessed to own and wear!! 20A6E8D9-6E80-4828-BE0B-44DF36AA1656.gif
 

CHRISTY-DANIELLE

Ideal_Rock
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Jul 10, 2017
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●●●CLANG♡CLANG♡CLANG●●●
I'm ringing the JEWEL of THE WEEK bell!

I've always loved the original inspiration but your version is drop dead gorgeous! Sako did an amazing job on this! What a wonderful and original interpretation.
 

canuk-gal

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
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Apr 19, 2004
Messages
25,644
HI:

BIG WOW! What's not to love?

cheers--Sharon
 

Mreader

Ideal_Rock
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Aug 14, 2018
Messages
6,064
Stunning!!! I love the versatility and that you can wear on different fingers and different orientations and they all look amazing. I love seeing Sako’s progress pics as well. So cool!
 

yssie

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Aug 14, 2009
Messages
27,239
Now *this* is a piece that belongs to someone who knows her own style :cool2::appl:

Congratulations!!! I can’t envision how this could possibly be more true to what you wanted ❤️
 

88_star

Shiny_Rock
Trade
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Mar 1, 2022
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217
oh my!!!! I love the changes you made from the inspiration Lucy. This ring is truly stunning!
 

oldcutclubmember

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jul 28, 2013
Messages
1,125
Whoa, this is amazing. The illusion of a smaller pear touching the tip of the center pear is genius. Maybe that wasn’t the intent, but it’s what my eye was drawn to first. Or, maybe my eyes were just crossed from the beauty! Congrats, this is really stunning!
Thank you! I’m pretty certain it was intentional on Sako’s part! The shape of the top pear/crown area was one of the elements I contemplated adjusting closer to the original shape when I saw the CAD and then I saw the same thing you did and liked it more!

God this is stunning! What an heirloom! I hope it's never changed!
Thank you! Oh this will stay with me a long long time for sure!

WOW! This is Pricescope Hall of Fame material!
Eeek! Thank you for the lovely compliment!

Oh. My. Goodness. What a stunning piece of art that you are #blessed to own and wear!! 20A6E8D9-6E80-4828-BE0B-44DF36AA1656.gif
I do feel blessed! Who knew an impulse purchase would lead to this!?

●●●CLANG♡CLANG♡CLANG●●●
I'm ringing the JEWEL of THE WEEK bell!

I've always loved the original inspiration but your version is drop dead gorgeous! Sako did an amazing job on this! What a wonderful and original interpretation.
Thank you so much! Sako really knocked it out of the park!
 

oldcutclubmember

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jul 28, 2013
Messages
1,125
HI:

BIG WOW! What's not to love?

cheers--Sharon
Thank you! I love it so much!

That is the perfect chunky pear!
Thank you! I love chunky stones!

Stunning!!! I love the versatility and that you can wear on different fingers and different orientations and they all look amazing. I love seeing Sako’s progress pics as well. So cool!
I love having options! I really enjoy the progress pics as well. It’s fascinating to see the progress and the transformation.

This is epic. JOTW material and PS hall of fame status.
Thank you so much for the kind words!

Now *this* is a piece that belongs to someone who knows her own style :cool2::appl:

Congratulations!!! I can’t envision how this could possibly be more true to what you wanted ❤️
It really is what I wanted! The only part I didn’t realize at the onset was that it would be THIS blingy but I’m certainly not complaining about that :lol:

oh my!!!! I love the changes you made from the inspiration Lucy. This ring is truly stunning!
Thank you! The changes definitely made it more “me” and I’m so happy with Sako’s design and execution.
 

nala

Ideal_Rock
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Oct 23, 2011
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7,045
Gorgeous masterpiece! Statement ring! Exquisite!! Just everything!
 

Mrsz1ppy

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Feb 23, 2012
Messages
1,297
It’s amazing. Thank you for documenting your journey from inspiration to modelling the finished ring. So gorgeous. I can’t pick between the two! I hope you love and enjoy this forever!
 
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