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- Jan 11, 2006
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We are at a very nice mountain resort this weekend and the little town has a wonderful downtown street with very high end shops. My in-laws have a house here and I have been here several times, but usually I am with other family when we go shopping. So for the first time today, my daughter and I were able to go jewelry shopping, and this could also be known as Jewelry Heaven.
There are several shops with new and consignment jewelry, and I am talking shops with 5-10 ct. diamonds, 20 carat diamond necklaces, sapphire, emerald and ruby rings fit for royalty, and everything you can think of in very fine jewelry. One was having an Elizabeth Locke trunk show, and that was a sight to behold. I am sure there was well over a million dollars of her items in high carat gold and many colors of gemstones. Whew! Amazing!
Anyway, one had a lot of beautiful diamond rings and I noticed that there were some antique settings so I looked more closely at the diamonds. I suspected that some had OEC's although it was hard to tell in the lighting. The owner wasn't there, and naturally I knew more about the jewelry than he did, but he was extremely nice to let me try on anything I wanted. So I had him pull out several antique rings for me, and as I suspected, they all had OEC's. They ranged from about 1 to 3.5 carats! Two of the 4 were beautifully cut, although one had more girdle chips than I would have been comfortable with. There was one with a beautiful 1.5 ct. stone and a mint condition setting. Had the owner been there, I might have made an offer, but I already knew from a previous price question that the guy working today wasn't able to deal on the higher priced items. We did not have a camera, but my daughter did take one picture with her Ipod of the 3+ carat diamond. We can't get it on the computer here, and I barely even have an internet connection here. Sorry for no pictures (if I go back tomorrow I might try again with my phone). But the 3 ct. diamond was in a lower color, and I still loved it! That was such a relief to realize that I have a lower color tolerance for these chunky cuts than I do for mrb's! The setting reminded me of Dreamer's new setting other than it had something like 8 prongs and not the bezel.
One reason I am writing is to say that in the smaller stones, I really couldn't look at them in the case and tell that much difference between a mrb. I felt like I understood why Dreamer, Demelza, Mara, BrightIce, and others are getting the larger OEC's, because you can see the facet patterns better in those. I will honestly say that I think I could wear a 2 ct. OEC for an engagement ring. And I am planning to look at an AVR next week to compare.
In addition, I did get to try on a 5+ ct. solitaire with baguette sides...I thought of Phoenix!!! The stone was beautifully cut but I am not sure if it was ideal cut. There were diamonds larger than that, and I could only dream of the lives of the women who had once had these pieces!!!
There are several shops with new and consignment jewelry, and I am talking shops with 5-10 ct. diamonds, 20 carat diamond necklaces, sapphire, emerald and ruby rings fit for royalty, and everything you can think of in very fine jewelry. One was having an Elizabeth Locke trunk show, and that was a sight to behold. I am sure there was well over a million dollars of her items in high carat gold and many colors of gemstones. Whew! Amazing!
Anyway, one had a lot of beautiful diamond rings and I noticed that there were some antique settings so I looked more closely at the diamonds. I suspected that some had OEC's although it was hard to tell in the lighting. The owner wasn't there, and naturally I knew more about the jewelry than he did, but he was extremely nice to let me try on anything I wanted. So I had him pull out several antique rings for me, and as I suspected, they all had OEC's. They ranged from about 1 to 3.5 carats! Two of the 4 were beautifully cut, although one had more girdle chips than I would have been comfortable with. There was one with a beautiful 1.5 ct. stone and a mint condition setting. Had the owner been there, I might have made an offer, but I already knew from a previous price question that the guy working today wasn't able to deal on the higher priced items. We did not have a camera, but my daughter did take one picture with her Ipod of the 3+ carat diamond. We can't get it on the computer here, and I barely even have an internet connection here. Sorry for no pictures (if I go back tomorrow I might try again with my phone). But the 3 ct. diamond was in a lower color, and I still loved it! That was such a relief to realize that I have a lower color tolerance for these chunky cuts than I do for mrb's! The setting reminded me of Dreamer's new setting other than it had something like 8 prongs and not the bezel.
One reason I am writing is to say that in the smaller stones, I really couldn't look at them in the case and tell that much difference between a mrb. I felt like I understood why Dreamer, Demelza, Mara, BrightIce, and others are getting the larger OEC's, because you can see the facet patterns better in those. I will honestly say that I think I could wear a 2 ct. OEC for an engagement ring. And I am planning to look at an AVR next week to compare.
In addition, I did get to try on a 5+ ct. solitaire with baguette sides...I thought of Phoenix!!! The stone was beautifully cut but I am not sure if it was ideal cut. There were diamonds larger than that, and I could only dream of the lives of the women who had once had these pieces!!!
It's pretty random looking, and just a little chunky disco ball.
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