Contemplating (colored!) MMD + colorless 3-stone e-ring

[forestbrook]

We received three stones (the radiant PR02, pink/purple PB33, and blue BB570) yesterday and spent the day checking them out in different light conditions. All of them are much prettier in person than in video or pictures.

http://d.neadiamonds.com/videos/BB570-PB33-PR02-fluor.mov
http://d.neadiamonds.com/videos/BB570-PB33-PR02-sun.mov

The blue is really beautiful, BUT it clashes with my skin tone (Asian/olive/yellow), so that's out (for me). We both actually liked PR02 more than expected and PB33 less than expected. To us, PR02 is more sparkly and a bit lighter in person than in the videos (though still fairly dark and not very sparkly until you get it in good lighting) and PB33 is much pinker in person. I guess I'd say PB33 is a general dusky rose sort of color and I was hoping for something that's more to the red (Crayola Brick Red or Infra Red or Maroon) or purple (Crayola Plum) side of things (purely because I think it's too girly-pink for me to wear on a regular basis). PR02 is like a super sparkly amethyst with reflections that flash purple and purple-red but in some lighting conditions it looks like Crayola Tropical Violet (more flat/dark).

http://www.crayola.com/explore-colors.aspx

Among the three, I think we're leaning towards PR02, but we're waiting to hear back from Eric about whether there might be other more reddish options in the pipeline.

 

[periwinklegirl]

Hi forestbrook,
Excellent choice! A purple diamond!!! The radiant looks stunning in the indoor video. But quite dark in the sunshine.
It's amazing how out of all those modifiers, it's the purple that really comes through the most.

Hope it works out for you!

 

[forestbrook]

Ok ok ok ok, we've found the one! Eric sent us PB12 and it arrived today. It wasn't listed previously but he suggested it when we said what we liked/didn't like about the ones we looked at last week: and we love it! The video is pretty representative (of course the sparkles aren't visible in the video).

Official DNEA stuff:
http://d.neadiamonds.com/lab-created-diamonds/PB12
http://d.neadiamonds.com/videos/PB12.mov

We took some pictures (but oops, forgot to clean off our greasy fingerprints). It's the one on the left in the first photo and one on the right in the bottom two photos. The second photo shows the fluorescence pretty well. The third photo makes all 3 diamonds look darker than they are in person, but the color is close.

 

[thorns]

Wow, that's pretty. I love the peach/pink streakiness.

 

[forestbrook]

Wow, that's pretty. I love the peach/pink streakiness.

Thanks. It's actually not streaky in person, it's more like the center "glows" with a lighter red/orange color. In sunlight, it looks like it's on fire!

 

[Niel]

wow i bet thats stunning in real life! i cannot wait to see this when its finished!!

 

[periwinklegirl]

Congratulations!!! Beautiful choice!

 

[Niel]

Have you went to have it set yet? I was thinking today about how you wanted to go preloved if you could.... and I remembered a really lovely 5 stone set that my local jeweler was selling as an estate piece. Now irrelevant because you aren't around Michigan, but my point was that often B&M jewelers sell estate mounts/setting. Might be worth a pop in to a few and see if they have anything nice.


If you have gone to have it set.... I can't WAIT to see the finished product!

 

[forestbrook]

After looking at settings in stores and looking on PS pre-loved and other sites suggested, we didn't find anything we really liked (we decided the classic 3-stone look was ok but liked setting #4 better. We're working with Eric (at DNEA) on renders for the setting (it will be palladium)!

 

[Niel]

Oh cool! I saw this setting and thought of you (third down) with the partial bezel

http://blog.theknot.com/2013/03/26/7-engagement-rings-that-wow/

 

[forestbrook]

Oh cool! I saw this setting and thought of you (third down) with the partial bezel

http://blog.theknot.com/2013/03/26/7-engagement-rings-that-wow/

Ahh that IS pretty! Unfortunately one of the things we discovered while trying on settings in person is that settings that are asymmetric in that style look weird on my finger! We loved the look in pictures but when it came down to it, it just didn't look good on me.

 

[Niel]

Oh cool! I saw this setting and thought of you (third down) with the partial bezel

http://blog.theknot.com/2013/03/26/7-engagement-rings-that-wow/

Ahh that IS pretty! Unfortunately one of the things we discovered while trying on settings in person is that settings that are asymmetric in that style look weird on my finger! We loved the look in pictures but when it came down to it, it just didn't look good on me.

Oh I figured you were set on your design now but I saw that and thought it was really "you" (as much as I know anyway )


I can't wait to see this thing. You make MD want a colored diamond so badly.

 

[periwinklegirl]

After looking at settings in stores and looking on PS pre-loved and other sites suggested, we didn't find anything we really liked (we decided the classic 3-stone look was ok but liked setting #4 better. We're working with Eric (at DNEA) on renders for the setting (it will be palladium)!

Can't wait to see how it looks!

 

[periwinklegirl]

forestbrook,
Any updates?

Looking forward to seeing your pics!

 

[forestbrook]

Don't worry, I didn't forget! We finalized the design last week (got kinda busy with work) and it's being made as we speak! I can't post the renders since it's sort of based on an existing design, but I'll definitely post pictures once the ring arrives!!

We ended up arriving at a design that blends almost all the settings we considered. From the top, it looks like the Sholdt (#3) because the arms criss-cross on either side of the head, but actually the head is both split shank and trellis style and the diamond almost looks like it's floating suspended between the prongs, tension-setting style, based on the renders. We stuck with pave along one of the arms (instead of both) so that it's less blingy, and the pave is inset into a groove, so it's effectively like a channel setting. Alas step cuts weren't doable given how thin the twisty arms were, so we went with 1.3mm rounds.

 

[Niel]

bah!! sounds so cool! cant wait to see

 

[periwinklegirl]

Don't worry, I didn't forget! We finalized the design last week (got kinda busy with work) and it's being made as we speak! I can't post the renders since it's sort of based on an existing design, but I'll definitely post pictures once the ring arrives!!

We ended up arriving at a design that blends almost all the settings we considered. From the top, it looks like the Sholdt (#3) because the arms criss-cross on either side of the head, but actually the head is both split shank and trellis style and the diamond almost looks like it's floating suspended between the prongs, tension-setting style, based on the renders. We stuck with pave along one of the arms (instead of both) so that it's less blingy, and the pave is inset into a groove, so it's effectively like a channel setting. Alas step cuts weren't doable given how thin the twisty arms were, so we went with 1.3mm rounds.

Sounds great! Looking forward to seeing it!

 

[forestbrook]

Well, as it turns out, when Eric said it'd be ready in ~4 weeks, he really should've said two weeks!! It's here!!

It's just as we were envisioning and we're very pleased with the result. The whole process of designing and having DNEA make the ring for us was great -- I'm really not sure how Eric is able to spend so much time with each customer! My gmail account tells me we went back and forth >70x by email. On the practical side, we actually ended up spending quite a bit less than I originally thought we might (which is good since we both just finished grad school) and we ended up with the ring we wanted. It's sparkly but not too sparkly; not too girly; visually eye-catching because of the colored diamond. The boyfriend is planning to tell everyone that the diamond was produced in a lab with relativistic electron beams and he's pretty pleased about that!

We're very happy with the choice of going with palladium. I compared it against some of my other jewelry (platinum, sterling silver, white gold) and I really can't tell the difference. (Also happy I won't have to get it rhodium plated since it seems like the type of hassle I wouldn't want to bother with).

Pics attached. Thanks all for your advice and suggestions!!





taken with flash so you can see a little bit of the sparkle

 

[forestbrook]

Two more pics:

the diamond is sorta suspended (similar to tension style!) between the four prongs, we liked this a lot when we were designing the head


pic taken by DNEA

 

[periwinklegirl]

Gorgeous!!! Stunning!! Beautiful!

You must be thrilled! The relativistic electron beams factor is very cool too! I personally love that my fcds are lab grown!

Congratulations all around and thanks so much for sharing!

 

[Niel]

Oh its lovely!! I'm glad you love it. So unique

 

[forestbrook]

So now that I actually have the ring, I can answer my own original question. I happen to own a pair of ruby earrings from Blue Nile. Here's a picture for comparison against the red diamond from DNEA. You can clearly see the difference -- the diamond is clearer and has more internal flash and depth.



closeup

 

[Niel]

oh i love that last shot. Im glad you went with a colored diamond over a sapphire or other colored stone. What wedding band will you wear with it?

 

[forestbrook]

We're probably just going to use the same rings (we designed a meteorite/rose gold/titanium engagement ring for him - yup, he gets one too!). We're not huge jewelry wearers, we're pretty pragmatic about things, and we'll be paying for the wedding mostly ourselves, so we'll see how much wear we get out of these rings first.

Right now I'm trying to learn how insurance for this type of ring would work. I checked and assuming the quote on the Jeweler's Mutual site is correct, it would make sense for us to get insurance even though we're in the lowest premium tier (if the ring was lost within the next 50 or so years, the premiums paid would be < cost of replacement). If the ring was lost/stolen, the setting itself can be remade by DNEA since they should still have the computer design (CAD) file. The diamond itself is sorta irreplaceable, though! Who knows how many batches DNEA would have to make before they ended up with a similar diamond!