For Hikerchick

[Kismet]

I didn''t want to steal Gypsy''s thread so here are my thoughts on the vendors I''ve used.

Bostonian: They were very nice to work with and Alexandra was a total sweetie. She''s the one who sketched out the design (I had a picture of an estate piece that I wanted copied using my green chrysoberyl.) and did the CAD work. She also helped me pick out the right color for the sidestones. I liked working with her very much. On the downside, they broke my chrysoberyl and there was an issue if it was a natural stone or even genuine chrysoberyl or not. They did replace the stone at their expense though. Though they are relatively local to me, I don''t live or work downtown so getting there is rather a pain for me and most of the back/forth of the design work was done via email. I think I would trust them with diamonds or more mainstream colored stones. They also did some repairs for me on some of my grandmother''s white gold jewelry and I can''t see where the repairs were made.

 

[Kismet]

And a second pic of the Bostonian Ring

 

[Kismet]

Michael E. (gemshoppe.com): Michael was nice to work with as well but I don''t think I clicked as well with him as with Alexandra or Peter Lees. He took a relatively long time with my project, but once again I told him "no rush". He was easy to work with via email and answered my questions/concerns pretty promptly and was fine with making changes to the design or telling me why he couldn''t make changes.

 

[Kismet]

And a second pic of the zircon ring done by Michael E.

 

[Kismet]

Peter Lees: Peter was very nice and personable via email and I would definitely work with him again. He has a design on his website (a pendant with the trillian citrine) that I wanted done for a five sided stone. After he said he could do it, I pretty much let him run with it and didn''t enquire about the design after that. So this was a pretty hands off process for me. He did take a very long time to complete the project (3 months) but to be fair I told him ''no rush'' and he also moved his house during that time and packing/unpacking took a lot longer than he expected. I can''t post pictures of the finished product since I purchased the stone from a banned vendor but if you go to peterlees.com and look for the snowflake pendant you can see the design on which mine was based.

 

[hikerchick]

Kismet,

THANK YOU very much. I really appreciate your effeorts to provide me all that info. I am looking into getting a few pieces made sometime in the next year and am considering Bostonian Jewelers. Which of the 3 vendors were the most reasonably priced? BTW, did the gemstone end up being a fake or did you figure out it was real? Thanks again.

 

[MustangFan]

Your rings are so unique and pretty, love them both!

 

[Kismet]

Date: 4/9/2007 10:49:45 AM
Author: hikerchick
THANK YOU very much. I really appreciate your effeorts to provide me all that info. I am looking into getting a few pieces made sometime in the next year and am considering Bostonian Jewelers. Which of the 3 vendors were the most reasonably priced? BTW, did the gemstone end up being a fake or did you figure out it was real? Thanks again.

You''re quite welcome. It''s nice to have a discussion about jewelers other than Whiteflash and Leon Mege (who seem to dominate a number of forums). Bostonian was actually the most expensive, they quoted me $1200 for that ring. It''s also the lightest of the three; the other two are very hefty pieces. Both Michael E. and Peter Lees quoted me $800 but I ended up paying less for both because of how long they took. These were spread out in time as well. The Michael E. piece was done in July 2005, the Bostonian in May 2006 and the Peter Lees in August 2006.

The status of the stone was never decided conclusively to me. I didn''t want to spend a great deal on it so I had an appraiser give it a once over. The RI ended up being right on the edge of the range or just outside (I forget now) for chrysoberyl.


MustangFan: Thank you kindly. I do love my colored stone jewelry.

 

[kcoursolle]

Gorgeous eye-candy on this thread!!

 

[hikerchick]

Date: 4/9/2007 1:21:45 PM
Author: Kismet
You''re quite welcome. It''s nice to have a discussion about jewelers other than Whiteflash and Leon Mege (who seem to dominate a number of forums). Bostonian was actually the most expensive, they quoted me $1200 for that ring. It''s also the lightest of the three; the other two are very hefty pieces. Both Michael E. and Peter Lees quoted me $800 but I ended up paying less for both because of how long they took. These were spread out in time as well. The Michael E. piece was done in July 2005, the Bostonian in May 2006 and the Peter Lees in August 2006.


The status of the stone was never decided conclusively to me. I didn''t want to spend a great deal on it so I had an appraiser give it a once over. The RI ended up being right on the edge of the range or just outside (I forget now) for chrysoberyl.



MustangFan: Thank you kindly. I do love my colored stone jewelry.

I love that peridot ring, the colors go together so well. Was the Bostonian piece WG or platinum? And did the price include the sidestones?
As far as Peter Lees, was there any issues with communication over distance and is there a picture of that piece?
And when you said in one of your previous posts that you felt that Bostonian could handle more popular gemstones, do you mean like Topaz and Amethyst?
Thank you again. I do love hearing about the different custom jewelers, it opens up other options, though for me it will come down to price because of our financial abilities at this time in our lives.

 

[poptart]

I like both of your rings! The first one especially!

*M*

 

[Kismet]

Date: 4/9/2007 4:26:24 PM
Author: hikerchick

I love that peridot ring, the colors go together so well. Was the Bostonian piece WG or platinum? And did the price include the sidestones?

As far as Peter Lees, was there any issues with communication over distance and is there a picture of that piece?

And when you said in one of your previous posts that you felt that Bostonian could handle more popular gemstones, do you mean like Topaz and Amethyst?

Thank you again. I do love hearing about the different custom jewelers, it opens up other options, though for me it will come down to price because of our financial abilities at this time in our lives.

All of those pieces are 14k gold; white gold for the Bostonian ring and yellow gold for the other 2. The Bostonian price included the sidestones. When I brought in the chrysoberyl I had the impression that she had not worked with one before, so I would be hesitant about having them make a piece for a more non-mainstream stone. I think they would be fine working with Amethyst or Topaz.

I didn't have a problem communicating with Peter Lees at all, but then again for that project I was pretty much hands-off. Our email exchange about the design went something like this: Me- can you make that snowflake design for a five sided stone? him-Yes I can. That would look good. Me-ok, do it. Here is the inspiration piece from Peter's website:

 

[Skippy123]

wow, I love the color combo! Gorgeous!

 

[Pandora II]

Gorgeous Chrysoberyl - very high on my want list in both the cab and faceted forms.

What are the side stones? Are they garnets?

 

[Kismet]

Date: 4/9/2007 9:27:38 PM
Author: Pandora II

What are the side stones? Are they garnets?

The side stones are actually pink tourmaline.