Avondale
Brilliant_Rock
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2021
- Messages
- 1,956
It all started about a year ago when I bought this 2.09 blue sapphire preloved while on the hunt for the holy grail. It's a chubby oval measuring approx. 7x6mm and the colour sits somewhere close to peacock blue. A beautiful stone, really. Incredibly lively for a sapphire, super sparkly. Full of all those flaws that would make most people turn away because they're after perfection, and this one couldn't be further from it.
The decision how to set it was almost made for me by fate, deities, powers unseen, whatever you wanna call it. I'd wanted a three-stone ring for some years, and it seemed the universe conspired to give me everything needed to have it.
To start, literal days after getting the sapphire I saw that @chere had listed a pair of OEC studs for sale in the preloved section that seemed suitable to be used as side stones. They ended up being a perfect match - not just proportion-wise, but also in terms of brilliance and liveliness. And since I liked the studs so much and didn't want them to go to waste (their particular screw-backs are crazy comfortable), I got a pair of lab OECs for them. I wear them all the time, even now. Overall, one of the best impulse buys I've made.
And then, mere days before the earrings arrived, gildedlane posted this ring which hooked me almost instantly and became the main inspiration for the design. The element that drew me with greatest force was the engraving on the band. I shamelessly admit I straight up copied that. The baskets for the stones were the quite the opposite - I knew I wanted to change those but wasn't sure how. We went through some iterations but in the end @Dr_Diesel provided the solution by giving me and allowing me to use one of his own basket designs.
For this ring I decided to work with a jeweller that had already done work for me before, including one tricky restoration, but never a complete project from scratch like this one. I placed the order and left the stone and the earrings with them on the 4th of April. The ring was supposed to be done in a month. Six gruesome months later I finally picked up the finished ring on the 2nd of October. Hooray!
Needless to say, I will think twice before going back for a project like this. I'm usually happy with their level of craftsmanship but their management is dropping the ball hard. It was frustrating to have to constantly push and nag to get things done due to how disorganised and mismanaged things were. Still, the ring as a whole is well made. And I think we really nailed it with the design.
The finished ring is made of 18k gold, yellow for the band and white for the head. Centre stone is the aforementioned blue sapphire flanked by two ~3,6mm antique OECs (G-H, SI per appraisal).
Why name it Cashmere, you might ask? On one hand, this is a nod towards a funny situation that folks from the CS section might remember. But really, it's because when I got this sapphire I proudly proclaimed I didn't need to buy any more blue sapphires, this one ticked all the boxes. Only, there was one blue sapphire I still would've bought if given the chance. And unexpectedly I was given the chance. And I got it, and that one was Velvet. So now I have Velvet and Cashmere. See what I did there, hehe? *wink-wink*
Velvet will be my next project, probably sometime in 2026.
Photo dump incoming:
The diamonds throw rainbows all over the place in sunlight:
Videos:
More photos:
The decision how to set it was almost made for me by fate, deities, powers unseen, whatever you wanna call it. I'd wanted a three-stone ring for some years, and it seemed the universe conspired to give me everything needed to have it.
To start, literal days after getting the sapphire I saw that @chere had listed a pair of OEC studs for sale in the preloved section that seemed suitable to be used as side stones. They ended up being a perfect match - not just proportion-wise, but also in terms of brilliance and liveliness. And since I liked the studs so much and didn't want them to go to waste (their particular screw-backs are crazy comfortable), I got a pair of lab OECs for them. I wear them all the time, even now. Overall, one of the best impulse buys I've made.
And then, mere days before the earrings arrived, gildedlane posted this ring which hooked me almost instantly and became the main inspiration for the design. The element that drew me with greatest force was the engraving on the band. I shamelessly admit I straight up copied that. The baskets for the stones were the quite the opposite - I knew I wanted to change those but wasn't sure how. We went through some iterations but in the end @Dr_Diesel provided the solution by giving me and allowing me to use one of his own basket designs.
For this ring I decided to work with a jeweller that had already done work for me before, including one tricky restoration, but never a complete project from scratch like this one. I placed the order and left the stone and the earrings with them on the 4th of April. The ring was supposed to be done in a month. Six gruesome months later I finally picked up the finished ring on the 2nd of October. Hooray!
Needless to say, I will think twice before going back for a project like this. I'm usually happy with their level of craftsmanship but their management is dropping the ball hard. It was frustrating to have to constantly push and nag to get things done due to how disorganised and mismanaged things were. Still, the ring as a whole is well made. And I think we really nailed it with the design.
The finished ring is made of 18k gold, yellow for the band and white for the head. Centre stone is the aforementioned blue sapphire flanked by two ~3,6mm antique OECs (G-H, SI per appraisal).
Why name it Cashmere, you might ask? On one hand, this is a nod towards a funny situation that folks from the CS section might remember. But really, it's because when I got this sapphire I proudly proclaimed I didn't need to buy any more blue sapphires, this one ticked all the boxes. Only, there was one blue sapphire I still would've bought if given the chance. And unexpectedly I was given the chance. And I got it, and that one was Velvet. So now I have Velvet and Cashmere. See what I did there, hehe? *wink-wink*
Velvet will be my next project, probably sometime in 2026.
Photo dump incoming:
The diamonds throw rainbows all over the place in sunlight:
Videos:
More photos:
It's amazing and I'm so jealously covetous of that color. 
", and then I decided I just don't care. 
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