Elmorton
Ideal_Rock
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2007
- Messages
- 3,998
Hello all! I used to post pretty often on PS - this wonderful community was very good for me when I was a just married newlywed, moved to a new city, and needed a "water cooler" of friends to chat with (who also happened to love bling, of course!). It's been awhile since I had anything to share, but since I lurked a TON for this project (okay, and because I don't have any friends IRL who will understand my excitement) I'm back to PS to share my new, er old, anniversary ring.
This is a lot of back story, but why not? I'm not sure when DH and I started discussing an upgrade, but due to PS it happened pretty darned quick. When we moved here, I was stringing together part-time teaching jobs, so we used to joke that an upgrade would be my "Tenure or Ten-Year Anniversary ring" - whichever came first (I use the term upgrade very loosely, since my DH haates the idea - he worked very hard to save for my beautiful ER and WB, so he was not on board with something that was just a bigger version of my current set).
Pretty soon after we moved, I found a wonderful local jeweler, J H Revell in Bettendorf, IA, and pretty quickly started plotting what kind of tenure/ten year ring I wanted to start saving for. I love Richard Homer stones (James did a gorgeous custom ring for my mom's Richard Homer pink tourmaline), so DH and got the idea of a sapphire and diamond ring, since those are our birthstones. Then for a birthday, DH gave me a diamond-haloed amethyst RHR that I love, and the sapphire just didn't seem what I wanted anymore.
After seeing the 5-stone rings taking off on PS, I dragged DH to see some rings. The finger coverage was exactly I wanted and it was the not-engagement ring style that DH liked. But we were halfway through year 3 of our marriage, so 5 seemed a little meaningless in terms of symbolism. Then DH said "I'm pretty sure I made you 5 promises in our wedding vows" - and I went back, and he was totally right. Around this same time, I settled into a job that I love (in education, but not faculty - so there went my "tenure" idea!), and DH started asking what kind of budget I realistically wanted to set if we were to do something for our 5th anniversary. So the new plot was to get a 5-stone ring.
James had recently expanded into estate pieces shortly after we moved here, and I fell in love with old cuts as they were getting popular on PS, too. Three or four years ago, DH bought me a little estate ring from Revell from the 20s-30s, and as an old-cut lover, I was always drooling over the gorgeous old cuts in both original and re-made settings at Revell, so pretty much everyone at the store knew how much I love old cuts (we've been told that I'm one of the 5 customers they have who are obsessed with them) and it was a no-brainer to source OECs for the ring. At Revell, they get a steady stream of old cuts, since do buy gold and diamonds. Jeff, who is a buyer/jeweler at Revell, once made a comment at one point that he has a theory that in Iowa, we have a strange availability of old cuts because in 60s and 70s when everyone was re-cutting, Iowans were less likely to bother with changing their diamonds and just left them alone. Whatever the reason, Revell/Jeff always has a beautiful collection of stunning old cuts and knowledgeable staff who appreciate them.
DH and I explained that we had a very long timeline for this ring - at this point, a year and a half - and Jeff said that it was perfect. I'd been pricing out 5-stones with modern RBs, and had an expected budget, so we were shocked when the quote Jeff gave us came in at much less. So this started the diamond hunt. Every few months, we'd stop in, and Jeff would show us a new diamond and they'd get set aside. We were shooting for about 2 cts.
My birthday fell around Easter this year, so mid-project, DH gave me a mini-version of Jame's signature cross in rose gold and Jeff found a little old cut (I think it's more of an OMC) for it. Then in about May, the ball really started rolling. We were up to 4 stones, and with our June anniversary coming soon, we started working on the setting. I brought in a zillion photos from PS, got CADs, the wax - and ended up with a ring on my finger just in time for our anniversary.
I have about a zillion photos, so hopefully I remember how to post them - but what follows is my 2.01 ct, OEC with 18 kt white gold prongs/trellis and rose gold band, size 8 made by J H Revell. CADs are also by J H Revell.
This is a lot of back story, but why not? I'm not sure when DH and I started discussing an upgrade, but due to PS it happened pretty darned quick. When we moved here, I was stringing together part-time teaching jobs, so we used to joke that an upgrade would be my "Tenure or Ten-Year Anniversary ring" - whichever came first (I use the term upgrade very loosely, since my DH haates the idea - he worked very hard to save for my beautiful ER and WB, so he was not on board with something that was just a bigger version of my current set).
Pretty soon after we moved, I found a wonderful local jeweler, J H Revell in Bettendorf, IA, and pretty quickly started plotting what kind of tenure/ten year ring I wanted to start saving for. I love Richard Homer stones (James did a gorgeous custom ring for my mom's Richard Homer pink tourmaline), so DH and got the idea of a sapphire and diamond ring, since those are our birthstones. Then for a birthday, DH gave me a diamond-haloed amethyst RHR that I love, and the sapphire just didn't seem what I wanted anymore.
After seeing the 5-stone rings taking off on PS, I dragged DH to see some rings. The finger coverage was exactly I wanted and it was the not-engagement ring style that DH liked. But we were halfway through year 3 of our marriage, so 5 seemed a little meaningless in terms of symbolism. Then DH said "I'm pretty sure I made you 5 promises in our wedding vows" - and I went back, and he was totally right. Around this same time, I settled into a job that I love (in education, but not faculty - so there went my "tenure" idea!), and DH started asking what kind of budget I realistically wanted to set if we were to do something for our 5th anniversary. So the new plot was to get a 5-stone ring.
James had recently expanded into estate pieces shortly after we moved here, and I fell in love with old cuts as they were getting popular on PS, too. Three or four years ago, DH bought me a little estate ring from Revell from the 20s-30s, and as an old-cut lover, I was always drooling over the gorgeous old cuts in both original and re-made settings at Revell, so pretty much everyone at the store knew how much I love old cuts (we've been told that I'm one of the 5 customers they have who are obsessed with them) and it was a no-brainer to source OECs for the ring. At Revell, they get a steady stream of old cuts, since do buy gold and diamonds. Jeff, who is a buyer/jeweler at Revell, once made a comment at one point that he has a theory that in Iowa, we have a strange availability of old cuts because in 60s and 70s when everyone was re-cutting, Iowans were less likely to bother with changing their diamonds and just left them alone. Whatever the reason, Revell/Jeff always has a beautiful collection of stunning old cuts and knowledgeable staff who appreciate them.
DH and I explained that we had a very long timeline for this ring - at this point, a year and a half - and Jeff said that it was perfect. I'd been pricing out 5-stones with modern RBs, and had an expected budget, so we were shocked when the quote Jeff gave us came in at much less. So this started the diamond hunt. Every few months, we'd stop in, and Jeff would show us a new diamond and they'd get set aside. We were shooting for about 2 cts.
My birthday fell around Easter this year, so mid-project, DH gave me a mini-version of Jame's signature cross in rose gold and Jeff found a little old cut (I think it's more of an OMC) for it. Then in about May, the ball really started rolling. We were up to 4 stones, and with our June anniversary coming soon, we started working on the setting. I brought in a zillion photos from PS, got CADs, the wax - and ended up with a ring on my finger just in time for our anniversary.
I have about a zillion photos, so hopefully I remember how to post them - but what follows is my 2.01 ct, OEC with 18 kt white gold prongs/trellis and rose gold band, size 8 made by J H Revell. CADs are also by J H Revell.
It's beautiful and I love the rose gold too! 
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