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Help me decide between these 2 diamonds please!!

G

GMUAlum08

Shiny_Rock
Joined
May 30, 2012
Messages
143
Solasfera: 1.01, G, I1, Triple Excellent GemEx

http://www.goodoldgold.com/diamond/9516/
[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/my-solasfera-from-gog.176671/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/my-solasfera-from-gog.176671/[/URL]

or...

GIA Excellent H&A: 1.01, I, SI2, (Waiting for Ideal Scope. Light performance/leakage unknown)

http://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/I-SI2-Excellent-Cut-Round-Diamond-1456868.asp

Light performance matters most, but the inclusion on the I1 bothers me. Don't know if it will bother my girlfriend.

Currently bought the Solasfera but its within the return period. Beautiful stone, but not 100% sold on it!
 
Can you show us the GOG page for the Solasfera? I want to see more about the inclusion. And what is your stone budget?
 
diamondseeker2006|1340211598|3220255 said:
Can you show us the GOG page for the Solasfera? I want to see more about the inclusion. And what is your stone budget?
Click to expand...

does that link not work for you guys? i'm trying to keep the stone no more than 5k

Can we share videos on Price Scope? I shot some video of the solasfera and its stunning. The inclusion can only be seen at certain angles in certain lighting
 
Sorry, when I clicked up there it went to your PS thread and I didn't see that you had both links. Looking now.
 
I can hardly see the inclusion, so I guess that is good. But in person, what exactly can you see?
 
On the solasfera?

I'll try and take a picture to highlight the inclusion. But it looks like a little white spot when you look at it in certain angles in direct sunlight. It seems that if the light is shinning through the side or cutlet of the diamond, it highlights the white inclusion. if you look straight down at it, you can't see it
 
Well, I think a basket setting will help (like the Vatche Caroline that I showed you) or a halo. That way you cannot see the inclusion from the side and maybe it would reduce the chances of seeing it from the top. Have you discussed anything about diamonds with her? I am sort of clarity sensitive myself and would probably opt to go to a .90 range stone to get good color and clarity. But if she knows nothing about diamonds and would rather have a larger stone, then I think you are fine. I don't see an advantage to going to an I color and SI2 clarity, personally.
 
diamondseeker2006|1340212552|3220272 said:
Well, I think a basket setting will help (like the Vatche Caroline that I showed you) or a halo. That way you cannot see the inclusion from the side and maybe it would reduce the chances of seeing it from the top. Have you discussed anything about diamonds with her? I am sort of clarity sensitive myself and would probably opt to go to a .90 range stone to get good color and clarity. But if she knows nothing about diamonds and would rather have a larger stone, then I think you are fine. I don't see an advantage to going to an I color and SI2 clarity, personally.
Click to expand...

GoG does have a .9 VS2 I color for the same price. Essentially i'd be trading size and color for clarity.

With the other H&A I posted in my original post, I'd be trading color for clarity (and potentially light performance).

my g/f doesn't know much about diamonds. i'm sure she would be very happy with the solasfera. she just wants it to sparkle and be similar size to her tanzanite ring (.93 carats)

Let me try and take a picture of the inclusion in lighting where it shows the most.

I'd also like to get feedback from some others as well!
 
Okay so these first 3 pics were the best pics I could get of the inclusion. This is the lighting that makes the inclusion the most obvious:

IMG_20120620_145102.jpg
IMG_20120620_145247.jpg
IMG_20120620_145433.jpg

Now this last picture is what the diamond looks like without viewing the ring in direct sunlight at an angle. All I did to take this picture was turn 180 degrees around in the same room as the other pictures and snap it. I can't see it here

IMG_20120620_145747.jpg
 
Thoughts? Return solasfera for H&A?
 
Any other opinions would be greatly appreciated!
 
Bumping to hope maybe Yssie or others will see this. I really can't see anything in the pictures.
 
Not really anything I can add that you haven't said DS! Based on what GMU has said it does sound like a setting like the Caroline with a basket to break up the side view sounds like the best bet

A Solasfera is such a different look though, with the extra facets -GMU have you seen a well-cut regular modern RB in-person? If not, is there a Hearts on Fire dealer or a Jared near you? If so, I'd suggest taking your Solasfera in and doing an in-person comparison, see what type of faceting and light return you like better.

I see the inclusion in your first pic, I think
Capture_15.png


Trouble with the first JA is that there's no guarantee that the inclusion in the SI2 won't be more visible IRL through a variety of lighting types - that's something you'd have to see to judge with surety. Clarity isn't evaluated by how visible inclusions are IRL, it's a function of size/colour/location/number/relief (black on black face-up is less visible than black on white or white on black) as seen face-up through a 10x loupe - we can make some assumptions on real-world visibility based on clarity grades, but with SI2s like DS says it's always best to let your own eyes decide!
 
thanks for the input! this actually makes me feel a little better about the stone that two very knowledgeable people are having difficulty spotting the inclusion in the stone. Yssie, that's actually not the inclusion (or any inclusion) but I can see it very plainly sitting there. Maybe its just obvious to me because I know where to look. Can you see it upon looking again? Those pictures are in the most critical lighting to spot the inclusion. If someone can't see it there, they will never see it
 
The great thing is that the stone will be seen MUCH smaller in real life than we are seeing in the pictures. If you keep it, I would point out the inclusion to make sure she can live with it and if not, you can trade it in. But if you already have it set in a nice setting, just know you'll have to get the same size stone to fit well. That may mean going down in color to try to keep the same size.
 
diamondseeker2006|1340287287|3220986 said:
The great thing is that the stone will be seen MUCH smaller in real life than we are seeing in the pictures. If you keep it, I would point out the inclusion to make sure she can live with it and if not, you can trade it in. But if you already have it set in a nice setting, just know you'll have to get the same size stone to fit well. That may mean going down in color to try to keep the same size.
Click to expand...

thanks, I actually did not know that. So if I get this stone set (its not yet) and then 5 months later I trade it back to GoG for a different stone that is say .96 or 1.07, then I will have to buy a new setting as well? They can't pop this stone out and put a comparable size stone in the same setting? This is a 1.01 for reference.

Also, I'm not sure if I should even bother pointing out the inclusion. I would tell her to look it over really good and make sure she loves it. If she spots the inclusion herself and can't live with it then I will get a new stone. Otherwise, if she can't see it or doesn't care then I'm good to go. Or maybe I'll just tell her where it is. I don't know. If you don't know where it is, its hard to spot
 
I honestly can't see the inclusion either!
 
are you serious? you guys are making strong case for me to keep the diamond!
 
Well so much for that ;))

I am rather the opposite of DS - I'm not a stickler for clarity. But I'm the one wearing it so I know without doubt what I'm comfortable with, which of course is a luxury you don't have. Can you show it to a few friends and see what they think?

Either way I'm afraid two-dimensional, static photos are really bad ways to judge real-world visibility of inclusions - sometimes they make stones that look really clean IRL horrid, and sometimes they mask inclusions that are quite visible in-person. It's because visibility of inclusions is dependent on so many things a still photo just can't capture - the lighting, the exact angle you're looking from, whether the stone is moving and tilting and sparkling oh-so-distractingly, whether it's clean or dirty...

I will say that if GOG did not have a very generous upgrade policy I would also be recommending playing it safe and choosing an eyeclean stone. Once she notices the inclusion she's not going to be able to un-see it, and I think it's pretty normal for a newly engaged woman to delight in admiring & inspecting her ring up close and wind up noticing things a casual observer wouldn't!
 
GMUAlum08|1340288169|3221000 said:
diamondseeker2006|1340287287|3220986 said:
The great thing is that the stone will be seen MUCH smaller in real life than we are seeing in the pictures. If you keep it, I would point out the inclusion to make sure she can live with it and if not, you can trade it in. But if you already have it set in a nice setting, just know you'll have to get the same size stone to fit well. That may mean going down in color to try to keep the same size.
Click to expand...

thanks, I actually did not know that. So if I get this stone set (its not yet) and then 5 months later I trade it back to GoG for a different stone that is say .96 or 1.07, then I will have to buy a new setting as well? They can't pop this stone out and put a comparable size stone in the same setting? This is a 1.01 for reference.

Also, I'm not sure if I should even bother pointing out the inclusion. I would tell her to look it over really good and make sure she loves it. If she spots the inclusion herself and can't live with it then I will get a new stone. Otherwise, if she can't see it or doesn't care then I'm good to go. Or maybe I'll just tell her where it is. I don't know. If you don't know where it is, its hard to spot
Click to expand...

As long as the stone size is really close, you'll be fine. Like 6.4mm and 6.5mm will probably work.

Oh, and I agree with Yssie, we really can't tell much from the photos because we just can't see the detail very well. I also would not get an I1 stone without the trade-in policy that GOG has.

The WF stone you listed is just a virtual stone and not one that WF carries in-house, so that would not be on my list. The alternate GOG stones look fine, but I would want to be sure they are more eyeclean than the one you have.
 
I took some video of the stone. Can I email it to you guys to see what you think?
 
We aren't allowed to post email addresses on the forum.
We are also not allowed to post youtube videos on the forum, but you can probably post it there and then tell us the name of the video and we can look it up?
 
okay let me try doing that. I'll bump this thread tomorrow once i've uploaded the video
 
Okay go to youtube and search this: 1 carat Solasfera Diamond from Good Old Gold (Part 1).

Also search : 1 carat Solasfera (Part 2)

That is in regular indoor lighting with the diamond facing the window. I'll try and shoot one in direct sunlight and upload it. Let me know what you think.

The first 10 seconds are a little out of focus on the first video
 
I added part 3 shot in my office. Thoughts?
 
Did anyone watch the videos?
 
Yes, I watched... I just have nothing useful to say :sick:

The first video is out of focus and the second is from far away, and the stone is being moved too fast in both to tell anything of significance (other than that it really sparkles!!)

We can do a lot online, but determining eyeclean and determining whether a certain inclusion visible to *you* IRL from a certain distance/angle is "acceptable" is really, truly not something we can help with, unless you were to come to each of us and let us all play with the stone in-person for half an hour. And and even then we could only tell you what we think, not what you think or what you should think.


I think you clearly have reservations, and I don't think those will go away unless your SO categorically states that the stone is perfect for her. Which, of course, she can't do until the proposal, or unless you show it to her beforehand. It does seem that a higher clarity stone would give you peace of mind - so that's what I recommend: drop colour/size/branding and up clarity and see if that makes you feel better about the whole thing.
 
the first video is out of focus for the first 10 seconds and then sharpens up. It should give you and idea of what it looks like indoors at close range. i can take another video of it without moving the stone at all if that would be better.

anyways, i've decided to keep the stone. the people at GoG told me this could have been graded an SI2 and looks like an SI2 under the microscope and it was graded very strictly.

once you clear 7-8 inches, the stone is virtually eye clean and all you can see is a ball of sparkling fire and brilliance. its got great color and good size and paid half of what the same stone in SI1 clarity costs so I think I got an absolute steal here. if my g/f can even see the inclusion and it bothers her, I'll worry about trading up at that point.

dropping color, size, and probably light performance doesn't make any sense because those things will be far more noticeable than the inclusion is.

btw I took the stone to Kay (my cousin works there) and we looked at it for a solid hour and she wouldn't recommend anything comparable in her inventory over my stone. Solasfera ftw
 
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