Check out this setting

[DiamondDealHunter]

Here''s a setting that I saw a local store that really caught my eye. This one seems a little expensive, the local was $1500 which was still a little steep for me. I was hoping to go no higher than $1000. Do shops featured on this site sell stones as small as say .10ct? I was thinking maybe I could save money buy paying for the stones in the setting and having it all put together locally.
What do u think?
http://www.dirtcheapdiamonds.com/ring-detail.cfm?id=1081

 

[DiamondDealHunter]

No opinions?

 

[oldminer]

No doubt, one could make a lighter version of this design for fewer bucks. It is mostly a matter of what you'd be willing to accept. A similar $1000 mounting in white gold with somewhat less than 1ct of diamonds and/or lower quality diamonds is possible. A price is related more to content and quality then one might guess.

Now, how much less metal diamond weight and/or diamond quality would you find acceptable? That's a difficult question to answer from a photograph.

 

[Mara]

I am considering buying small stones and having them set into a setting for a fun ring I found online. I priced out the setting and the stones separately. A seeminly great place to get loose small stones is eBay..there are a few sellers on there that sell princess and round cut small stones (up to around .07-.15c) for a really great price (e.g. $12.49 for a .05c stone). So you could essentially get the stones yourself and then take them into a local jeweler and have the setting replicated and have them use your stones. I don't know how much you would save, I would call around BEFORE buying any loose stones to see what sort of pricing you could get. Though Dave's post about a similar setting for around $1k sounds good too. Keep in mind also that platinum is more expensive than white gold...and if the ring is custom made, you may have to pay a little extra for the custom work put into it. Check out www.tradeshop.com too and send them a picture of that ring, see what they would charge you to replicate..they do alot of custom work and their pricing is pretty reasonable, I priced them out for a custom bracelet with my own stones (from eBay). A word to the wise on the small stones from eBay..I would get one first to be sure you like the quality, and also be sure to email the seller to find out what exactly the stones are like. One auction I saw said they had .05 F SI rounds and I emailed and he said that he buys them as SI but a few seem to be more like I1. I was impressed by him being very honest....and in the future if I buy, will probably buy from him...as you could probably specify you only want stones that fit the F SI bill and he'd handpick them for you etc. Anyway--just be cautious and do your research and don't be afraid to email the sellers to ask questions to get a comfortable feel.

Just a few ideas for you anyway! We saved up to $800 on our setting by having it replicated at a local jeweler AND got better stones than was in the original setting we saw AND the tcw on the band was higher than the original more expensive one.

Good luck!

 

[Mara]

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[DiamondDealHunter]

Thanks for the repies Mr. Atlas and Mara, I call u Mr. Atlas because I will be requiring your services soon....LOL, and Mara, you I see you spenidng alot of time helping others, which is a sure sign of u being as happy as can be. You have a beautiful ring by the way, I saw the pics. I sincerely appreciate it.
I would love to for the setting to be as beautiful as the the one I have seen, knowing myself, I might spend the extra bucs to have it that way.
I have already upped my spending limit once, educating myself and realizing what true quality is. My soon to be fiance deserves to stand out when it comes to realizing how special she is to me.
When it comes to stones that small, my question would be how much can you sacrifice on quality on these little guys without taking away from the setting and the center stone? Thanks for the ongoing help.

 

[Mara]

Thanks for the kind words DDH...I really enjoy the forum and also enjoy giving back the information I have learned in my research.

My two cents on the small stones...from what I have heard, you can go lower on clarity, and match the color of your center stone with color of the smaller stones. The smaller the stone (e.g. .01-.07) the harder it will be to see inclusions, so you can go SI2 probably and still have things look okay. I guess the larger you get..(e.g. .15-.20) you would want the stone to have better clarity. Somewhat similar to how a 1c diamond will probably be fine with SI2, but a 3c will look better with a VS2 and people don't recommend a 3c stone with a clarity of SI2, as the larger the stone, the more apparent inclusions are. Our baby stones are .03c each and they are G VS/SI and they sparkle great! When our ring was being commissioned, I asked for them to focus on cut as much as possible for a .03c stone..don't know if it IS possible, but the ring is very sparkly.

But if you are looking at budget, and the stones are under .15 or so, I think you'd be fine matching the color of your stone (e.g. if your center stone is an H...try to get G/H small stones as D stones may look whiter than the large stone, and vice versa...don't want D center stone, H baby stones) and getting a clarity of SI.

Also may be worth it to note that store jewelry where the stones are small (e.g. diamond bracelet with .05 rounds) or pave set are often I1-I2 stones for clarity..and people still love their look. So it's really all relative. It's common for diamond bracelets to have color of I stones and I1 clarity, and the stones are so small, all you see is the flash of light. Just another perspective.

Good luck!