Finalizing design for price quote - advice needed for halo and side stones

[pierrotlunette]

Hi Everyone!
I've posted a couple of times re: our diamond search and custom ring design. We've tossed a few ideas back and forth, but I think my heart has settled on the following:



We bought the pear from Leibish a few weeks ago, but I've been looking for a couple of other options to try to stay within our budget. We now really need to make a decision, but I want to get your collective advice re: the specs. of the above design (which I described to Leibish - the above is their mock-up):

Two side pear diamonds, F+, Clarity – VS 1-2, Total weight: around .40 carats, or .20 carats each

Round brilliants, F+ preferable, VS1-2 clarity, estimated total weight .10 carats.

The center stone's dimensions are 9.25 x 5.54 x 3.23.

I'm wondering if a) the round melee (which, if my math is correct, should be about .005 mm each) are large enough to sparkle at all, and b) if the small pears are also large enough. If I go with Leibish I feel good about them sourcing well-cut melee and creating a lovely setting, but I do want to be certain I'm not going to have buyer's remorse over the pave. The above dimensions are the ones their bench recommended.

If I did ask for larger stones in the halo (1.3 mm), then we'd have to scrap the pear sides due to cost. I like them very much in the current design, so I'm torn.

I'd be grateful for any thoughts you all would share!

 

[tyty333]

You might look at this thread about half way day. Gypsy has a stone that she had in a 1 point halo on and in another setting with a 1/2 point halo.
Her stone was a 5.8mm so a lot smaller than yours. These pictures should help give you some prospective.
https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/005-vs-01-the-micropave-debate-continues.169068/

I'm not sure what kind of math you did but are you sure your bench/jeweler didnt say .005 of a carat which would be 1/2 pointers which would
be about 1mm? 1 pointers would be about 1.3mm.

Could you give up the side pears, do the larger halo and do pave on the shank? Will that fit in the budget?

 

[mrs-b]

You might look at this thread about half way day. Gypsy has a stone that she had in a 1 point halo on and in another setting with a 1/2 point halo.
Her stone was a 5.8mm so a lot smaller than yours. These pictures should help give you some prospective.
https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/005-vs-01-the-micropave-debate-continues.169068/

I'm not sure what kind of math you did but are you sure your bench/jeweler didnt say .005 of a carat which would be 1/2 pointers which would
be about 1mm? 1 pointers would be about 1.3mm.

Could you give up the side pears, do the larger halo and do pave on the shank? Will that fit in the budget?

I agree with all of this ^^^ I'm also suggesting a graduated pear halo, which I think looks killer - keeps the melee in the same proportion as the center stone; as the stone widens so does the melee. Very visually interesting.

And I agree with tyty - the side stones are 'a bit much'. Go with the pave on the shank.

Good luck!

 

[pierrotlunette]

Thanks to you both for the reply! Mrs-B - do you have a link to that graduated pear you posted? I've never seen one like that (and couldn't find it in a google search). I'd be interested to see the remainder of the ring. It's lovely and so different!

Tyty333 - thank you for weighing in (and being helpful in the initial stone search - as you can see, I did wind up wandering away from ovals after ordering and looking at about a dozen stones!). I'm avoiding pave on the shank because I'm a musician and play the piano several hours a day. I've tried on several rings with pave shank (including eternity rings) and find them uncomfortable if they slip just a bit to the left or the right, so as much as I love the look, it's a practical concern. We'll probably just pair this ring with a plain band, which means the blingy part really has to work when it's face up!

I did read that thread and noted Gypsy's comments about her reset, which is what led me to ask the question about the melee (and yes - you caught the typo re: .005 being carat weight, not mm). In some ways, that post made me more confused, as several PSers said to never go lower than 1 pointers.

My fiance and I talked it over last night and decided to bite the more expensive bullet and have Leibish do the setting. The specs. above were proposed by their bench without having a budget provided, so I'm going to trust (at least for now!) those dimensions. I'll get them to price out 1/2 pointers vs. pointers and see where we land.

Because they have a 3-d map of the stone, they said they can get the setting done in about three weeks and ship it to NY to be set, which is a good bit shorter than other jewelers with whom we spoke. I will get to have input in the design process, so I can make adjustments once I talk with their bench.

TLDR: I'm still not sure which size melee to get, but I'm going to cross my fingers and hope the Leibish folks will guide me in the right direction.