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Help in Minneapolis - Fixing loose stone in Leon solitaire

sparklz

sparklz

Rough_Rock
Joined
Feb 11, 2008
Messages
30
The stone in my Leon Solitaire is moving slightly. Do you think it is possible to find someone local who can tighten the prongs? I love my ring and don’t want to mess up the delicate claw prongs, but I also don’t want to deal with sending the ring through the mail (back to Leon). Does anyone have a trusted jeweler in the Twin Cities area that they would recommend, or should I just send it back to Leon?

The two jewelers that came to mind for me were Knox Jewelers and Continental Diamonds. I went to Knox a couple of years ago to get a quote on a custom wedding band and was unhappy with the experience, so I have been leaning toward Continental Diamonds. Any thoughts?
 
Re: Help in Minneapolis - Fixing loose stone in Leon solitai

My family has been using Innsbruck Jewelers for over 20 years now. Steve (he has owned it since it opened) and his crew are amazing to work with. They have bench jewelers on site so the work is done right there and never sent out to anyone else. They are located on Silver Lake Road in New Brighton (about 10 minutes north between both Mpls and St. Paul)

You will not be disappointed! Tell them Julie says hi!
 
Re: Help in Minneapolis - Fixing loose stone in Leon solitai

Sparklz, I am sorry to hear that. It is the second one we have seen recently with this problem. May I ask the size of your diamond?
 
Re: Help in Minneapolis - Fixing loose stone in Leon solitai

CD has pretty good customer service but they are a little more expensive than I've seen other places. To set a stone of the same size between them and another place it was $165 vs $55... I recently got a size quote to size a ring from 6.5 to 7.5 and they quoted me over a hundred dollars.. I wrote it down somewhere but I think it was $150 .. another placed asked for $52. They have a nice selection though and they did the prongs on my solitaire exactly how I wanted it :bigsmile:



Does anyone else recommend any other jewelers in MN?
 
Re: Help in Minneapolis - Fixing loose stone in Leon solitai

I don't have a jeweler recommendation, but I wanted to say that you are smart not to send it back to Leon to fix. Mine was the other solitaire that became loose recently and it was much easier to get it fixed locally. Since I didn't have any idea where to go, I did a search on Yelp and then visited different (custom) jewelers to see their level of work.

Fortunately I was able to find a place to tighten the prongs and polish it for a good price, and I hope you can find one too. Good Luck!
 
Re: Help in Minneapolis - Fixing loose stone in Leon solitai

Knox Jewelers in Uptown Minneapolis has great custom rings. My sister dealt with them before and has been happy with thier service. I am currently dealing with Laurie Kottke jeweler near Lake Calhoun, super nice to work with them!
 
Re: Help in Minneapolis - Fixing loose stone in Leon solitai

Jmtomaui – Thanks so much. I hadn’t heard of Innsbruck Jewelers, I will definitely consider them!

Diamondseeker – My diamond is 2.08 carats. I think I remember reading the other thread. I was shocked when I noticed the movement in mine today. It doesn’t spin completely around, but there is definitely noticeable movement. I will have to be more careful with it in the future. I just had a baby and have been wearing the ring. I slide my hand under him quite a bit when I pick him up and I bet one of the prongs caught some fabric or something and got a little bent.

Bean – Thanks for the feedback on CD. Cost is a factor, so I may look around a little before going to them. The reason I thought about CD is because they carry Crafted by Infinity diamonds and I have seen threads about the events they sometimes host. I would like to find a local jeweler to establish a relationship with for future purchases and work on my current pieces when stuff like this happens. Would you recommend any of the other places you have gotten quotes from? I have had two rings sized in the last year at Stavrakis Jewelers in Burnsville. One was a plain platinum band and I think they charged me $25 to size from a 7 to 7.5 and they did it while I waited. The other was a 14K white gold ring with channel set diamonds from a size 7 to a size 8.5. I think they charged around $125 for that one and it took about a week or so. I was 100% pleased with the work on the plain band. The channel band turned out ok, but the finishing on the back of the band isn’t great. I don’t think I would trust them to work on my e-ring. There are so many small family owned jewelry stores...it is hard to tell which ones are good. I will have to check out the one Julie recommended above.

Calibali – Thanks, Glad you found someone to fix yours!
 
Re: Help in Minneapolis - Fixing loose stone in Leon solitai

G Allen has benches on site and does a lot of work for other jewelers. Reasonable prices as well and they have more colored stone jewelry than most stores. You can take a look at the work in their cases. I have no idea about delicate Leon claws, since those aren't my thing. You'd have to ask. Speak to Gary.

I also had work done at CD. Very pleased with the results. Love going to that store, especially during the "Meet the Cutter" events for Infinity.
 
Re: Help in Minneapolis - Fixing loose stone in Leon solitai

Thanks. I was just wondering because Harriet's stone was large and in a very thin setting. Mine is 1.63 and my setting was not as delicate as hers. But I will say, any setting can have a prong pulled loose accidentally, so that is probably all it was in your case.

For what it's worth, I choose more expensive jewelers to do that kind of work because I know they are used to picky customers like me and it is so worth it to pay what it takes to get it done right! So CD sounds great to me, although it sounds like Innsbruck might be nice, too, if it is convenient for you. I do like it that CD carries Infinity Diamonds.
 
Re: Help in Minneapolis - Fixing loose stone in Leon solitai

Noobiediamond – Thanks for the suggestions. I have been to Knox before but haven’t heard of Laurie Kottke, I will have to check them out. Thanks!

Fly Girl – Thanks for the suggestion of G Allen. I will probably take my ring in and ask Gary about the prongs. It sounds like everyone is very pleased with the work at CD, I will have to stop in and talk to them as well.

Diamondseeker – Yes, It was Harriet’s post I was thinking of when you mentioned others having problems. It is interesting that Calibali had the same issue as well...I suppose with how delicate the prongs are it is bound to happen over time. I didn’t ask Leon for anything special, I left everything up to him, so I am not sure how delicate my ring is compared to others. I have had it since Nov of 2008 and wear it almost all the time. This is the first issue I have had. I agree with you about paying what it takes to do it right the first time. Since this is my e-ring and my most expensive piece I am leaning toward CD. Thanks for your input!

Everyone - Thanks so much for all the help! I now have a couple places to consider and I don’t have to send my ring back to Leon!
 
Re: Help in Minneapolis - Fixing loose stone in Leon solitai

Just wanted to say that I did the same thing...just sent the diamond to him and told him to set it in the classic solitaire! But my original plain 4 prong setting had a prong pulled loose one time, so it can happen with any setting!
 
Re: Help in Minneapolis - Fixing loose stone in Leon solitai

I also posted last week about my diamond being slightly loose in my BGD setting. I am planning to send it back to them to get it fixed, but I must say I am a bit upset that it is already loose only 1 week after we received it from them! Doesn't that seem a little soon? I hope it is just the result of me having hit it on something or maybe something the appraiser did with it, and not a reflection of the quality of the head/prongs on the ring. I have only read and experienced great things about BGD, so I hope this is just a fluke.

Anyway, good luck with getting yours fixed, sparklz...sounds like you have some good local options. :)
 
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