Honestly, Does this setting bother you?

[VINA]

First, I would like to aplogize to the owner of this ring. When I first saw this ring, I immediately notice the unevenly set stones. This definately bothers me.

If you look at the ring from your left:

Stone 1 is low.
Stone 4 is tilted.
Stone 6 is high (edited - I wasn't sure people can see it)

The rest of the stones are perfect. I had this similar problem with my mother-in-law ring and the [local] jeweler reply was "...it's custom work - it's one of a kind." We later have another jeweler replaced the setting because it bothered her.

 

[rogue]

Hmm. I think the reaction you got is a fairly common jeweler response to custom, hand-made work. I think you can probably spot a lot of misalignments and such that most people can't -- for example, while most people would be able to see the tilting in stone 4, probably the majority would see no issue in number 6, and that includes the jeweler you are taking it to to ask for a repair. I think it would bother me a bit. My e-ring mounting is custom, and some of the princess cut sidestones are uneven in the channel setting. I am fine with it, most probably because it's not that noticeable unless you tip and turn the ring various angles, and I'm certainly not going to risk integrity issues by having a mere human reopen the channel and reset a few stones. That being said, I think for my wedding band, I might go to Facets/Signed Pieces and order a machine set channel set princess eternity ring. I examined a couple and they are much better than the hand set channels I have seen -- I have no idea why hand made is more coveted. I mentioned this to Jerry at Signed Pieces, who grabbed my ring from me, looped it, and said I was crazy ("I normally don't say this, but whoever did that ring did a great job."). Sigh. Picky.

EDIT: It seems there was an edit to your original post as I was writing this. You no longer mention an issue with stone 6, but I think the same holds true for stone 1. I think the fact that you initially wrote that something was wrong with stone 6 and then removed it is interesting--it goes to show that any flaws anyone may initially see can go away once the ring is turned ever so slightly or the light is reflecting differently. That may be one reason why people aren't bothered by these small imperfections.

 

[monarch64]

I think #4 being tilted bothers me more than #1 being a little lower than it should be. Either imperfection would bother me, though, period, even if it IS a custom-made piece. Maybe I''m just a perfectionist, or I''m crazy, but from the picture you posted, both imperfections would drive me insane over time. Just my .02.

 

[meluvdiamonds]

My eternity band is like that too. I am too scared to take it to a jeweler because I dont trust anyone. haha! I don''t even wear it because some of the diamonds feel loose. I need to find a trustworthy jeweler.

 

[Mara]

nope that wouldn''t bother me. i have a 10 stone ring that has some uneven stones but i never see the imperfections in it because of the sparkle. i also really don''t view the side view that often in reality, i don''t mind things being a little off...i figure i am going to dent and bang that ring up anyway so what does perfect get me to begin with. custom especially is not ''perfect''...but everyone has their own threshhold of what is acceptable, and it''s great to find a vendor or jeweler who listens and is willing to make things right for you when they are not to your specs.

 

[VINA]

Once they cut the groove, I think it's too late to fix it. They have to really do it right the first time. I know it's not easy but I have seen it done right (pefect) before.

Is this something we should consider as normal setting work? Any jeweler here? I would like to hear from WINK

 

[ladykemma]

nope wouldn't bother me at all. after all, it's "hand-did".

 

[mrssalvo]

yep, it would bother me. I don''t think it should be considered normal and acceptable at all. If it were my band, I''d have the vendor fix it

 

[mrssalvo]

Date: 8/24/2006 5:32:51 AM
Author: ladykemma
nope wouldn''t bother me at all. after all, it''s ''hand-did''.

not a good excuse to me. I''ve seen both handmade and cast eternity rings that did not have uneven stones or prongs...that one looks like poor workmanship...

 

[C Smith]

Stone four is border-line for my tastes, but overall, I wouldn''t make a big deal of that. It wouldn''t really bother me. Human hands don''t make perfection in my experience in many instances. They make things with "character". That said, some guys are skilled enough to normally keep the character to a minimum

 

[cpster]

Yes, it bothers me.

 

[JohnQuixote]

Date: 8/24/2006 8:10:38 AM
Author: mrssalvo
yep, it would bother me. I don''t think it should be considered normal and acceptable at all. If it were my band, I''d have the vendor fix it

We agree. If your mother-in-law could see unevenly set stones in her ring it’s unacceptable.

Vina, when did your mother-in-law purchase from Whiteflash? We don’t recall this issue. Did she contact us? We regret that she had another jeweler replace the setting, as I know we’d appreciate the opportunity to fulfill our role as her vendor.

 

[lumpkin]

Over all, no, would not bother me. The picture is larger than the ring and you had to tell me what was wrong with it for me to see it, so in actual size I probably would not notice it, especially on someone else''s hand. Now, if it were my own ring and I had time to really study it (which, of course would I do) then eventually I would notice it, but it wouldn''t plague me with dissatisfaction. In fact I have a hand-made band that has engraving on it and it doesn''t match on both sides. I like that, actually, because it distinguishes it from something that has been mass produced. I also have a ring with milgraining on it from the 30''s and it''s ALMOST perfect. It''s very fine milgraining and every once in a while there is one bead that is just a tiny bit larger or smaller and spaced just a split hair differently than the next bead. My husband has a mass produced band (of his choice) with really tiny, perfect, evenly spaced beads and it looks mass produced to me. Oh, well, I love the arts and crafts block print wall paper, too, LOL! To each his own.

 

[VINA]

Date: 8/24/2006 11:20:24 AM
Author: JohnQuixote

We agree. If your mother-in-law could see unevenly set stones in her ring it’s unacceptable.

Vina, when did your mother-in-law purchase from Whiteflash? We don’t recall this issue. Did she contact us? We regret that she had another jeweler replace the setting, as I know we’d appreciate the opportunity to fulfill our role as her vendor.

John,

Her ring was set by a local jeweler not WhiteFlash.

I am supprised that a few folks find it ok. Setting is just as important as choosing the beautiful stone especially for small stones. That is why designer rings look so good. They have well-made settings.

If you put a CZ in Leon Mege settings, no one will know it's a cubic (without examining it close)

 

[Mara]

everyone is going to have their own personal thresshold with what is acceptable for them. i personally don''t strive for perfection in something like my jewelry or rings. i don''t know why, i just don''t. but other people are super anal about small things and that''s totally their perogative. i just know that my eye can''t pick up things that my 50x macro camera can, so why bother scrutinizing it in real life. also i agree that some of the most unique hand made things don''t need to be PERFECT in every way. i like a little variety and sometimes you can look at a ring or similar and know it''s hand made because it looks non-mass produced. this is partially why designer rings don''t always appeal to me.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Vina, my guess is that this photo your posted is from WF since John recognized the picture. He must have thought it was a picture of your MIL''s ring. That was kind of him to speak up and acknowledge that the ring needed repair, though.

Things like that do bother me. I wonder if we asked the same people what clarity diamonds they prefer if those not bothered by the setting imperfections would also be the ones comfortable with SI2 clarity.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

I think some of the effect may be different crown heights of the diamonds.

A good setter will line up the girdles.

But stone 4 is a killer.

When you look at the ring from the top you would pick that up because the table glare would give it away in many situations.

 

[VINA]

Hi Mara,

You can see these unevenly set stones pretty easily. No magnification needed. Actually, everyone who look at her ring for a little bit see the tilted stone right away. You can even feel it with your fingers. I know some PS people loupe their prongs and complain about dent or scratches on prong tips. Now, that''s anal...

 

[VINA]

How would a setter go about fixing a ring like this. Does he start fresh with a new setting or remove the stones from this setting and then solder gold wires into the affected prongs, re-groove and close the prongs again? I know it is hard to work on prongs once cut and finished.

 

[Mara]

Date: 8/24/2006 7:29:08 PM
Author: VINA
Hi Mara,

You can see these unevenly set stones pretty easily. No magnification needed. Actually, everyone who look at her ring for a little bit see the tilted stone right away. You can even feel it with your fingers. I know some PS people loupe their prongs and complain about dent or scratches on prong tips. Now, that's anal...

Vina...I guess that picture you posted up above is of a WF ring...because you labeled the image 'wfbad' (nice!).

In this quote up above, it sounds like you know the girl who owns that ring since you said you can see the uneven stones without magnification, and also that you can see the tilted stone right away. So it sounds like you have seen this ring in person?

I'm curious what the idea was of this post, asking would people be okay with this kind of worksmanship...do you know the owner of that ring, and if she is unhappy with the WF ring, did she ever bring it to their attention? WF is typically excellent about customer service and if someone is unhappy, they try to fix it.

This thread is starting to sound a little odd, please clarify.

 

[JohnQuixote]

Date: 8/24/2006 7:03:22 PM
Author: VINA

Date: 8/24/2006 11:20:24 AM
Author: JohnQuixote

We agree. If your mother-in-law could see unevenly set stones in her ring it’s unacceptable.

Vina, when did your mother-in-law purchase from Whiteflash? We don’t recall this issue. Did she contact us? We regret that she had another jeweler replace the setting, as I know we’d appreciate the opportunity to fulfill our role as her vendor.

John,

Her ring was set by a local jeweler not WhiteFlash.

I am supprised that a few folks find it ok. Setting is just as important as choosing the beautiful stone especially for small stones. That is why designer rings look so good. They have well-made settings.

If you put a CZ in Leon Mege settings, no one will know it's a cubic (without examining it close)

Vina, forgive the confusion. Is the ring in the photo yours then? You said no magnification was needed to see the issues, so I assume you have it in your possession. If this is the case we’d like the opportunity to bring it in and see what you’re seeing.

Thanks to laser technology recutting prongs is an option. If this is a perceivable issue that bothers you we would be glad to address it. We’re here to make things right with our product.

 

[Kaleigh]

I''m confused as well VINA, please clarify this for us.

 

[Ellen]

The way I read it, she found this pic of just some random persons, that represented a similar problem she had with her own MIL ring. Just using this pic as an illustration. But I could be wrong.

 

[mrssalvo]

the first post leads me to believe that Vina doesn't know the owner of the ring, just using it as an example of what her MIL's ring looks like and wanted to know if most people would find it acceptable. I agree though that there is now some confusion and clarification from Vina would be helpful.

I also know that if the owner of the ring alerts WF their customer service is excellent and they will do what they can to make the customer happy

 

[Mara]

that is how i read it at first too, ladies...but then she said in her most recent post, that there is no magnification needed to see the stones (and that picture is really grainy so i don't know how that can be determined from the picture as i had to squint to see the problems she mentions), and then she said that the 'tilted stone' is easily visible when anyone looks at the ring for a bit of time.

it sounds like the 4th stone in this wf ring she is talking about, the tilted stone specifically, not her mother in laws where she did not mention specifics, so it made me think she's seen the ring in person. anyway, yes clarification would be great.

 

[VINA]

Mara,

Yes, the picture is a ring made for someone here by WF. I don't know the person; but I know her PS screen name . I cropped the picture so that no one can recognize the setting. My MIL setting is no longer around for me to post a picture but I the moment I saw the above ring, it reminds me of her ring right away.

I am very picky about settings. What I wanted to know if that is the kind of work you expect when it come to setting diamonds because it's hand-made. I am glad to find out that a few people do see what I see.

To explain the wf-bad1.jpg filename. I did not notice it until you mention it. After using Photoshop to crop the image, I named it bad.jpg. I got an error when I upload the picture. I assume it's because there is probably a file called bad.jpg so I changed the name to bad1.jpg but it's still would not upload. I then added the wf- at the beginning and it uploaded with no error. I did not even know that the filename show up on your post.

Again, the purpose is to see whether other people see what I see and that I am not too picky. The filename is unintentional.

 

[VINA]

Date: 8/24/2006 8:31:15 PM
Author: Ellen

The way I read it, she found this pic of just some random persons, that represented a similar problem she had with her own MIL ring. Just using this pic as an illustration. But I could be wrong.

You read it right...

My MIL ring is a five stones ring. The tilted stones is in the middle and it look exactly like that. Yes, you notice the tilted stone right away when looking at the side without loupe or camera. Her stones are 0.16 each.

 

[VINA]

Date: 8/24/2006 8:23:23 PM
Author: JohnQuixote

Vina, forgive the confusion. Is the ring in the photo yours then? You said no magnification was needed to see the issues, so I assume you have it in your possession. If this is the case we’d like the opportunity to bring it in and see what you’re seeing.

Thanks to laser technology recutting prongs is an option. If this is a perceivable issue that bothers you we would be glad to address it. We’re here to make things right with our product.

John,

Thanks for clarifying WF position. Most of us know that WF will make thing right.

 

[moremoremore]

Geez. I dunno...but I'm thinking it is poor taste to picture someone else's ring as a "bad' example..even if you preface it by saying no offense.... Yikes. And it's not even your own ring that you have a problem with. I'm not trying to start, just maybe pointing this out for your consideration...I'm not sure the thread does any good other than to possibly make someome feel bad about their ring and to make it WF look bad...Hmmmm. And no, it wouldn't really bother me...I realize it won't be perfect and people won't notice...

 

[VINA]

Moremoremore,

That's why I cropped the picture so that no one can recognize the ring. It's cropped to show the problem I am talking about. It's only about 5% of the larger pictures. It looks like any other muti-stones ring out there.