Having Trouble Designing a Ring... Ruby Pave Halo

[SFDfirefighter]

Hi,

I am trying to design a ring & am having trouble. Maybe it''s because I''m a concrete person & am not great at visualizing a finished product made up of lots of small pieces...

Problem 1... Finding THE Ruby: I seem to be liking the fire-engine or stop-light sorts of rubies... the purple or pinks don''t really grab my attention. (Before anyone suggests it: yes, I know spinels can be a gorgeous red like rubies, but I really am set on a ruby)... I''ve been checking out some of the sites listed on here - Cherry Picked (seems like there are so few "for sale" stones & so many sold ones? drives me bonkers :p), Wild Fish Gems, Natural Sapphire Co. (which now has rubies?),

So: Ruby - FireEngine/StopLight Red, Round/Oval/Cushion... About 1-1.5 carats (I think?)

Halo/Pave setting? I really like these settings -- though maybe not the split shank? It''s hard to picture how the stone would sit in the final ring -- Some of the halo settings seem to place the stone pretty high above the halo which I don''t love as much -- but if it''s more flush, is that then considered a bezel setting? Any disadvantage to bezel settings in terms of what the stone will look like? Is it possible to do the halo & pave on the shank with smaller diamonds without it''s becoming micropave?

NSC Halo w/ Pave

Leon Mege splint shank pave halo

Whiteflash Bezel Halo w/ Pave

Perhaps it''s my lack of photoshop skills - maybe that''s all it would take? How do you take the leap & decide that''s what you really want?

Please, just a little help? I''m pretty lost!! THANK YOU for any suggestions/help you may have!

SFD Firefighter

 

[neatfreak]

First, I would suggest calling some of these places. Often they have inventory that hasn't made it to their websites. And the reason NSC is carrying rubies most likely is because they are both the same stone (corundum), so it isn't too weird.

As for the "is this what I really want" thing, it's hard to do. I suggest going into some stores and looking at some lower end gemstone rings. Many of them have halos and if you know you love it in a "cheap" ring, then a fancier stone and setting will just be the cat's meow ya know? As for the bezel vs. no bezel, the strip of metal around a stone is the bezel. So you can have a bezel with prongs even if you want. But I also like the clean look of a bezel and it shouldn't be a problem especially if you go custom. Same thing with the height of the stone, you can always have it set well into the ring with either prongs or a bezel.

And do you have a budget? Fine rubies are EXPENSIVE and rare so be prepared to put in a good search and pay good $. I also would try contacting Wink Jones at Winfield's Jewels. He always seems to have great connections for colored stones.

 

[SFDfirefighter]

NeatFreak,

thanks for such a quick reply!

Of course it would make sense for NSC to carry rubies... corundum... silly me!

You asked about budget - we had been talking about something in the range of $7-9K... Neither of us really knows much about jewelry at all so the budget is still loose... We were thinking the setting would probably be maybe 2K if in platinum, so about $5-7K for the ruby?

I found a thread from a while ago comparing the Bezel vs. Bezel w/ prong from Whiteflash -- Mara has a picture of both & I am pretty sure I like the simple bezel setting without the prongs as it looks cleaner...

From the looks of the picture, the stone looks just as amazing, but is that in fact true, or is some of the color or brilliance lost with the bezel setting?

Thanks for the suggestion to contact Winfield''s for a stone : )

SFDfirefighter

 

[neatfreak]

I too like the clean lines of the bezel. A bezel will make a colored stone a bit darker, but a halo will do the same thing really, so it''s a good idea to make sure the vendor sourcing the stone for you knows you want to bezel it so you can get a slightly lighter stone.

It doesn''t make a well cut diamond look different though. Wink also does custom settings and also has access to lots of other settings, so you could talk to him about that. He''s a real stand up guy, he posts here often.

 

[ma re]

Setting is considered a bezel if there is a strip of metal completely encircling the stone, so one of those two rings you showed on the photo is not a bezel set (it''s prong set with a halo).

Bezel will darken the color and reduce brilliance. Now, that might not be overly important for a ruby, since they''re not known for having strong brilliance in the first place (color intensity is obviously their strongest point). And also, rose gold bezel might actually do good for a slightly lighter ruby - it will darken it and probably make more red.

To do pave with larger stones on a shank is actually tricky. If you go for larger stones you can''t use many of them and in the end you get like one row of diamonds on the shank, which is not exactly "paved with diamonds" - ends up looking more like a bead and bright setting. But there''s nothing wrong in using slightly larger stones in halos, as long as they''re not too big in relation to the center stone.

 

[oldmancoyote]

Just one more thing - bear in mind that corundum is heavier than diamond, and coloured stones are generally cut deeper than diamonds so a 1ct ruby (or sapphire) will be 10-20% smaller in surface area than a 1ct diamond. Couple that with the lower RI and dispersion ("liveliness"), and the stone may look smaller still. While 5-7k is a reasonable amount for a good quality 1ct ruby (not an absolute top quality Burma stone, though), you may find it looks relatively small compared to what you expect if you are basing your expectations on diamond rings of similar weight. I''d definitely consider a halo - with or without a bezel setting, depending on how light your chosen stone ends up being.

For stones: also take a look at R W Wise (www.rwwise.com) - they have some absolute stunners (not cheap, but truly beautiful).