Can we improve this ring?

[Patty]

By "we" I mean that I need your help/suggestions. I''ve had this ring for 6 years and the sapphires are too dark for my taste. I''d be happy with lab created sapphires in it because I don''t want to spend a lot of money on this. BUT, the setting apparently is not very strong. Twice a sapphire has popped out and the second time I had a local jeweler put it back. They said they could not insure their work since the setting was not made strongly. Is my idea to replace these stones with lab/chatham stones feasable? Any ideas about a vendor who sells lab created stones and could do this for me or at least give me an idea of cost?

Jennifer, I saw your post about having to have your emerald ring remade after it was damaged. That inspired me to ask about this.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Not on your Nelly.

Forget it - the only thing I think you could do is salvage the diamond settings and reuse those with perhaps oval or emerald cut sapphires set running down your finger.
But the sapp's need to be in new settings.

 

[Jennifer5973]

Hi, Patty.

I am not an expert, just a diamond lover, but Cut Nut's post seems right on the money with what I've learned over the years.

I basically salvaged the diamonds from the emerald ring and paid for new emeralds (not created) and the gold setting. From what I know, it is very difficult to manipulate channel, tension-esque, or bezel type settings like your ring and mine...anything that is not prong set can be a beast.

The best option might be to invest in a new ring if you really love it, and using the original dimaonds from your ring now would save some $.

Let us/me know what you do!

 

[Patty]

Thanks Cut Nut and Jennifer. That is pretty much what I thought but it's good to have your input.

 

[valeria101]

How big are the sapphires? (If you pst the width of the ring I could guess from the picture well enough). Replacing them may not be a big financial adventure: it may not have made sense for a large scale manufacturer to procure top collor sapphire accents for 1000 rings, but this does not mean that the extra cost for just one set of such pieces will be a tremendous investment. The new setting is likely to be the worst part, though...

 

[Patty]

Valeria, the setting is about 7mm wide, I believe. The 9 sapphires total 1.57ct and the 12 diamondstotal .36ct. The diamonds are G color and VS-SI clarity and they are pretty...but the sapphires are not. If I had a new ring made, I'd go with white gold instead of yellow.