Coloured engagement ring ....

[diamondseeker2006]

I can''t wait to see your potential stone! I''d definitely pick a stone you love, and go with the Leon setting if that is what you want. I''m never happy if I settle for something I have doubts about.

 

[Mokey]

I think we have all done the cut out at some point in time. A girl just has to know!

 

[movie zombie]

can''t wait to see pictures of what wink is sending you!

i have short fingers [size 6 for e-ring] and a wide palm: my spess is an 8.18 carats and looks fine. but then i''m used to wearing big stones.....

but nothing as fine as my spess.

don''t be afraid to go larger.....the carats of color stones does not correspond to diamond carat size. but you may already know that!


movie zombie

 

[Pandora II]

I can''t wait either...

In the meantime I''ve been having a play with setting ideas.

I''m attaching an idea I''m working on in Corel. Please excuse the edges where it all joins up badly, but I''m drawing it on my laptop and don''t have a mouse.

I''m trying to get an idea of this split shank channel setting with milgrained edges, double claw prongs and a rectangular cushiony shape could look like...

Thoughts anyone

 

[movie zombie]

looks good!

movie zombie

 

[Pandora II]

I finally tracked down all the threads on your gorgeous spess. MZ - I like the idea of having a bridge under the stone. I know that tsavorite are pretty sparkly anyway, but this could add some extra oomph.

Would it help protect the stone? The one''s I''m looking at are medium dark - would a bridge potentially affect the colour in a bad way ie lighten the tone or just add extra sparkle?

I''m normally a very decisive person and have very black and white likes and dislikes, so I''m finding my indecision on bits of this most frustrating! I think if I had a tray in front of me of 20 tsavorite rings all slightly different I would instantly know which was mine, but without that luxury I have to be sure in my mind at every step.

So apologies everyone for all the questions and obsessional detail crunching I''m currently indulging in.

 

[movie zombie]

oh, i went through the exact same thing! we bought the spess in april 2005 and i didn''t decide and commit to a design until the beginning of december 2005. and like you i had collected lots of pictures for ideas to start from..........actually, it was the worst part of the experience: was i making a decision i could live with forever or was i going out on a limb going to hate the design? always did love the stone

the 18k bridge is there to provide structural support for the 22k shank that wraps up to the spess itself. the bridge is polished so that any light dispersion is picked up and reflected back or all around my hand depending on the angle of the light.

another idea would be to have diamonds under the color stone [on the bridge].

however, i believe a great cut and color stone just does not need a lot....or any for that matter....diamonds.

the partial bezel helps to protect the spess but i don''t wear the ring 24/7. it is always on when i leave the house but i do not shower, garden, clean house, wash dishes, feed the cats, etc. with that ring on. i wear a simple 18k 2mm wedding band with it and 24/7.

the draft ring you posted above is very nice. you could add a bridge of diamonds under the color stone that would sit recessed below the other two shanks that come up to the color stone........lots of bling.

movie zombie

 

[Patience]

Pandora,

Is that the Danhov setting? It looks just like mine - Michael E just cut an aqua for me and I LOVE it! There are lots of pictures in my SMTR thread here: https://www.pricescope.com/forum/show-me-the-ring/aquamarine-in-a-split-shank-t55054-30.html

I love color in these micropave settings! That green is amazing.

 

[Pandora II]

Yes it is based on the Danhov. I love that setting and your gorgeous ring! - however, I have put in channel set diamonds instead of pave and added double claw prongs. Is there a channel set version of the Danhov??

I have been looking at my design above and I think I'm going to try:

- moving the prongs to be more one each side of the squared edge but still claw.

- moving the point at which the split shanks meet a bit higher up so that when you look at it on your hand from above with your fingers close together the split is on the top of the finger not around the sides.

and/or

- using a 2mm band on the split parts that increases to a 3 - 3.5mm single band. This one looks more like two bands glued together than flowing into each other. The diamond graduation necessary may look weird though - we will see.

I'm feeling quite happy about the channel setting - and it means that I don't have to worry about the pave having problems. FI is the huge pave fan - I've always been a bit hmmmmm. I think it's amazing when it's top quality, but awful done badly and I've never had a real desire to own some. I prefer clean lines.

However FI and I normally come to all design choices from different starting points whether it's kettles, kitchen tiles or bling. We have to compromise to get something we both love and so far we have always both loved the final choice way more than our initial starting thoughts. So it's important to me that I have some little diamonds because he loves them! I just need to find out how I love them!

I'm mulling over the idea of the milgrain - too cluttered?? Not sure.

I love Pokey's gorgeous amazing ring, but I have decided that I either:

- call Leon and say I'll have a Pokey Special to go please.

- Take this and others as my inspiration and arrive at something that is my own.

I don't think I'm prepared to relinquish control to LM and as a designer I want to decide all the details myself. Happy to change bits for tech reasons, and consider suggestions, but not because someone else feels it should be how they want it to be.

Also I want to wear a wedding band with it and so that is the 3 sided pave nixed.

Will have to wait till Monday to play with design as am on a course all weekend. (Some Leadership Course for local politicians at a university near Birmingham. Spent today doing personality tests - they have discovered I'm a bossy, control freak obsessed with minute details. Sounds like me alright!

)

Thanks for all your comments - it's really nice to be able to get some feedback. FI does finished items - he doesn't get the importance of prong style or mm of bands. Men

 

[just_looking!]

Are you planning on wearing this with a wedding band? Might be worth trying on some similar styled engagement rings with a selection of bands to see how it looks?

My 3 stone LM ring has a curved wedding band we had made locally (D profile) which on paper would be a horrible choice next to my knife edge engagement ring. In practice, I think it has more of a presence, but I wouldn''t have picked this if I''d been shopping online! Trying to calculate the profile of my engagement ring to make a wedding band was not a possibility!! This plain curved wedding band was supposed to be a temporary ring and I was going to get a pave band made from the template. However, I like it and have kept it!!

Some people hate a gap and others hate curved bands. I have a plain, straight band which I wear instead of my wedding set, when I don''t want to risk damaging my engagement ring. It has sentimental value as my husband proposed with it, but others would want to wear their wedding band alone and this is less easy with a curved or notched wedding band!

Hope that helps?

 

[MINE!!]

Pandora,

Sorry to hijack your thread here, but I will be in London for 2 weeks in April, any suggestions as to where I can go to see some yummy yummies?

 

[Pandora II]

The Natural History Museum has a gemstone bit - it''s ages since I went so I can''t remember how good it is. I went to see the Diamond exhibition there in 2005 that was amazing - but it had to shut because people were plotting a raid.

New Bond Street has lots of expensive designer jewellers (Tiff, Cartier, De Beers etc) as do Harrods and Selfridges and Harvey Nicks. Liberty has more unusual things. I''m normally too scared to go into half these places like Graffs - I just want to look and try things on and talk about the rocks - I don''t want the sales pitch.

(It was so much nicer at trade shows and with suppliers where I could just say - no money, but that is soooo yummy can I have a look. My non-precious gem guy used to let me take things home to play with, then if I thought of something nice to do with them I''d buy loads, if not I took them back the next time.)

Hatton Garden is a bit scruffy in places, but the windows are good - you will be constantly accosted by dealers trying to get you through the door though - easier if you''re not there with a man.

I''ll do a bit of research if you tell me the sort of thing you want to look at.

 

[Pandora II]

Well - I bought (or rather FI bought) the tsavorite that Wink found for me.

It''s a deep green 1.42ct cushion cut.

Size is 7.25mm x 5.75mm x 4.2mm (I can''t remember the exact depth but think it was this)

I saw it on the video link which was amazing! It is exactly the shade I was hoping for - I like them a forest green rather than a grass green. It is also super-sparkly.

I took a screen-shot, which I''m loathe to post as it doesn''t look like it does really. I managed to catch it when it was tilted to one side and in shadow and it looks really dark which it doesn''t when you see it for real.

Very excited and very grateful to Wink for finding me such an amazing stone. I have looked at every single one available on the web and the nearest to this in looks and colour is in the Smithsonian!

 

[movie zombie]

congratulations! i''m so glad you found a stone and i think tsavorite is a lovely way to go for an e-ring!

movie zombie

 

[Pandora II]

Wink sent me through the renderings last night - and I had to post them here to get all your thoughts:

 

[Pandora II]

That was a bit huge, so I''ve made a collage of the rest - hope size comes out okay...

 

[Pandora II]

I''m really, really pleased with all of it, just wondering whether the head is a little bit too high especially when you compared it with the height on the danielk for example.

I''ve never worn a ring like this so I''m a little nervous of having it stick up too much - feels rather vulnerable!

Also, what do you think about the thickness of the metal either side of the channels? I want lots of sparkle from the diamonds (they are 5pts down to 1pt in size) but I am too frightened to have pave when I''m thousands of miles away if it needs fixing.

 

[Kismet]

I don''t think it sticks up too much. The unfinished prongs make it look a lot taller than it actually will be. If height in a ring makes you uncomfortable, ask Wink how much distance it will be between the culet and your finger and if he can lower it any. The metal on the channel does look to be a lot to me. You may want to shrink the picture down to something that more approximates actual ring size to get a better idea of perspective because the giant sized, close-up pictures tend to make everything look too big.

I think your ring is going to look stunning!

 

[Pandora II]

I had a go at what you suggested to see the sizes better, and have thinned them down a bit on the top drawing.

I think it looks better with less metal on the channels. It makes the stone look better as well - it looked a bit too small for the setting I felt.

 

[Pandora II]

Have heard back from Wink - the channels are only 0.75mm thick so it just looks thicker on the cad than it really is. They can also adjust the height of the head when they set the stone.

Hooray!

I''m so excited.