Graduating 5 stone ring - need input on size vs budget

[BoubaFris]

So I am in the process of getting a customized graduating 5 stones ring by my fave jeweller IDJ. I am thinking of a .15/.20/.30/.20/.15 on a 4.5 ring size. Dilemma. A $600 increase in budget would give me a bigger finger coverage at .15/.25/.35/.25/.15.

Is it worth it for $600 more? Which is an extra 0.7 mm in coverage from finger to finger? I also like both trellis and u prong. Which one would be better for a stand alone graduating ring? Would need some feedback/comments from the PS family. Thank you in advance for helping me decide

 

[tyty333]

I usually say go as big as your budget will allow so you won't have any
Regrets later. However, $600 for .15 ctw of diamonds sounds like a lot to me. It is hard to get prices on small stones for comparison sake.

I'll look later on when I've had some Coffey.

I like both the trellis and uprong. I'm wondering if the trellis might look really busy on these size stones? Not sure...just something to consider.

Edit...so I looked around on JA which is retail and going from a 30 to a 35 looks like about $150 difference (I looked at g/si1/vs2 stones).
(they were basically $600 to $750)
But there was about a $200 difference going between a .2 to a .25 (like $400ish to $600ish). Looks like there is a big jump at .25.
Wonder if you could go .24 and maybe not hit that big price jump? Dont know if you can get that specific with ID Jewelry. I guess
you can always ask. They seem to want to please their customers.

 

[BoubaFris]

Thank you Tyty Will try to ask them.

 

[Niel]

Yes it would be worth it to me

 

[DelsFan]

A couple of years ago I purchased a 5-stone ring from Whiteflash (I'm very happy with it, search on my user name for 5-stone thread photos that are in addition to the one shown in my avitar). If you put in the search term hawaiianorangetree and see her thread for her 5-stone ring you will more photos of a really nice 5-stone ring (hers from Brian Gavin). Both, I believe, good examples of trellis design.

As for size, one can almost never get too large a diamond. I wanted a nice graduated look for my ring and ended up with a gradation of .25, .41, and 1.01. My wife's ring is spectacular (as I'm sure, in person, hawaiianorangetree's ring is) with five A-Cut-Above diamonds. The gradation worked out as I had hoped.

a) However, if I had it to do over again I might have gone with 1.25 carat center stone, forget about the smooth gradation!
b) You "must" get super-ideal-cut diamonds or very nearly close. Regardless of what I-D Jewelry calls their premium cut diamonds (as opposed to Whiteflash A-Cut-Above or Brian Gavin's Signature), I know they can supply them - and they make all the difference.
c) There seems to be a price/carat price jump when you get to or near 0.5 carats. I would suggest asking the helpful people at I-D Jewelry about a center stone in the 0.40 to 0.43 carat range, as you should still be getting a lot of bang for your extra buck, in that size range.

My advice: It is pretty easy to search on-line on the web sites for any of the three vendors I've mentioned and see how pricing moves from .30 to .35 to .40 carats. Yes, .40 carats costs more than .35 carats, but I don't think you'd regret the extra expenditure a year from now, even for the small millimeter increase in diameter - you would have gotten the largest center stone you could "afford"

I know there has to be a stopping point somewhere when wondering how much "more" to spend, or not spend. I think the .40 carat center stone would be a good value if you could stretch the budget a little (more ).

 

[partgypsy]

I agree unless u want the graduation to be very subtle, can go bigger with the center stone, put any extra money there. I had a .47, .16, and .05 and still a nice look.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

That was really good info, delsfan! I kind of agree that the trellis setting is going to work better with larger stones, so I'd go ahead with the larger option for $600 more.

You might take a look at this thread, if you haven't already, to get an idea of different sizes of stones.

[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/the-5-stone-ring-thread.134007/page-13']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/the-5-stone-ring-thread.134007/page-13[/URL]

 

[BoubaFris]

Thank you for all the inputs. Off to read ....

 

[hathalove]

I love a five stone with smaller graduated stones. This makes me think of Bumblebees ring. She uses a .30 center then .20s and .15s. All WF ACAs in their trellis setting. If you look in the five stone thread scroll and you willl see her ring here. pretty sure she is a size 5.5. So bigger than you

[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/the-5-stone-ring-thread.134007/page-11#post-3540436#p3540436']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/the-5-stone-ring-thread.134007/page-11#post-3540436#p3540436[/URL]

 

[hathalove]

Oops. And I forget to say I do think it's worth it if you wanted a slightly bigger presence with that same kind of graduation.

 

[partgypsy]

I love a five stone with smaller graduated stones. This makes me think of Bumblebees ring. She uses a .30 center then .20s and .15s. All WF ACAs in their trellis setting. If you look in the five stone thread scroll and you willl see her ring here. pretty sure she is a size 5.5. So bigger than you

[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/the-5-stone-ring-thread.134007/page-11#post-3540436#p3540436']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/the-5-stone-ring-thread.134007/page-11#post-3540436#p3540436[/URL]

I really love this ring, this does have very nice proportions!

 

[BoubaFris]

Thank you everybody for the inputs going back to IDJ to fine tune