Do you have a cultured/created/MMD engagement ring?

[BlackEyedDog]

Hello all! Longtime lurker, first time poster here.

I know for certain that I want a blue stone in my engagement ring. It''s going to be either a natural sapphire or a blue diamond. Suffice to say mined blue diamonds are going to be out of our price range. I''ve done a fair amount of research on created diamonds sold through Gemesis, Chatham, and Takara. So, I''m inquiring as to whether anyone here has a man-made colored diamond engagement ring. What was your appraisal (for insurance purposes) experience like? Pictures are definitely welcome!

Thank you!

 

[EEFranklin]

My two cents...our customers have never had any issues insuring their blue diamond jewelry. Usually just the invoice works in most cases, but we have provided written appraisals to many. The value of created blue diamond jewelry is within the normal insured range (up to $15k or so), so should be insurable through most anyone.

I know of at least a couple people with PS accounts and a created diamond, so hopefully they can add their perspective too.

Here is a picture of a fancy intense blue in a tension-set Steven Kretchmer Helix ring.

 

[periwinklegirl]

Hi there,
I''m only a little ahead of you in the process here, but we''ve chosen my stone and ring from D.NEA Diamonds (I went for fancy vivid blue based on Eric''s advice - and thanks for the picture Eric!).

So I''ll soon be able to answer questions! And I highly recommend D.NEA over the others - their customer service is great - can''t beat a 30-day return policy and lifetime upgrade. Chatham only re-sells other companies'' diamonds, and why deal with a middle-man?

Good luck!

 

[periwinklegirl]

Oh and by the way, I have a lab-created sapphire for my right-hand ring, got it from Sylva Rocks (another company with excellent customer service). I get endless compliments and envious looks!

 

[RaiKai]

My original wedding ring/band has a 6x4mm natural vibrant blue ceylon sapphire. But....I am having a new e-ring and band being custom made and am going with a 7mm round created blue sapphire.

I did not even consider going for a natural one this time around. While created, they are after all made of the same properties and the price can't be beat. I can also get a FAR more beautiful (and larger) created sapphire (or any other gem) than I could possibly afford if I went real for this ring....though I could spend a lot more money I really don't WANT to to be honest! I don't think I will have any issue telling people it is created either. I have never been one to buy into the diamond/wedding industry complex anyway.

Not all created gems are created alike and I searched quite diligently. I took as much time as some on here take looking for natural diamonds I think! The sapphire I ended up buying has such amazing colour (the company calls it a Kashmir blue - they have a few other blues, as well as created rubies, emeralds, etc). They do hand cut them, and the cut is just amazing. Anyone who has seen it unset so far is really taken by it. Actually, I believe the company who makes the Takara diamonds also owns the one that makes these sapphires! On their "forums" and customer gallery they have many examples of beautiful rings made with either Takara or created sapphire stones.

Enjoy your search! I am sure whatever you end up going with it will be beautiful!

 

[mepp]

I went with d.nea for a matched pair of fancy intense blue side stones (with a mined white diamond as the center stones). they look great, and my fiancee loves them. i like eric a lot, and i found him great to work with. I would''ve liked to post the results to the "show me the ring" forum, but I believe that mmd''s are still not to be discussed outside of this category.

the only hesitation i would have in buying a (larger) center stone is that the diamonds aren''t getting appraised by GIA or AGSL -- mostly EGL. i''ve heard that an "ideal" cut for a blue diamond is not as formulaic as the ratios/angles widely agreed upon for white diamonds. The argument goes that the ratios for white light return are different than for blue light return. If that is true, it makes it even harder to evaluate a stone before buying. If you are crazy about cut quality (and who on this msg board isn''t?), you may have to emphasize that clearly with the company you purchase from. You might wish to buy a few stones to look at, and return all but the one you decide to keep. d.nea had a pretty easy return policy when I dealt with them. best of luck!

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Date: 4/5/2010 12:35:17 AM
Author: mepp
I went with d.nea for a matched pair of fancy intense blue side stones (with a mined white diamond as the center stones). they look great, and my fiancee loves them. i like eric a lot, and i found him great to work with. I would''ve liked to post the results to the ''show me the ring'' forum, but I believe that mmd''s are still not to be discussed outside of this category.

the only hesitation i would have in buying a (larger) center stone is that the diamonds aren''t getting appraised by GIA or AGSL -- mostly EGL. i''ve heard that an ''ideal'' cut for a blue diamond is not as formulaic as the ratios/angles widely agreed upon for white diamonds. The argument goes that the ratios for white light return are different than for blue light return. If that is true, it makes it even harder to evaluate a stone before buying. If you are crazy about cut quality (and who on this msg board isn''t?), you may have to emphasize that clearly with the company you purchase from. You might wish to buy a few stones to look at, and return all but the one you decide to keep. d.nea had a pretty easy return policy when I dealt with them. best of luck!

The color in a syn fancy diamond is often very very pale (exception is yellow''s) so the cut is aiming to make the color more intense and saturated which is best done with cuts that in colorless diamonds are often referred to as crushed ice or crushed glass. These cuts do not have the same brilliance because they are aiming to lengthen ray paths inside the stone. The best light return colorless stones do the exact opposite.
Anther thing - colors like pink and blue in say vivid are no where near as intense and such a dark tone as more common colors like Yellow. So vivid blue would be just a about between say pale ceylon sapp and nice aquamarine.