Is this stone cut well? yellow cushion cut sapphire

[sweetleila]

First, NSC’s customer service is to die for. Steven has been as kind and supportive as all of you. He offered to recut the stone, and is sending me another stone in the meantime.

FrekeChild, I haven’t yet approached any of the cutters you all graciously recommended. Did Dan source the rough and then cut it for you, or did he have something with which you fell in love?

Elmo, Thank you for outlining the areas on the stone! You were right about the area under the table being “dead” if that means it doesn’t reflect light back up. I don’t know if it is windowed per se (I tried to read through it and I could not). I love the style of the cut, the larger facets reminiscent of an old mine cut, the color and the size. I just want the whole stone to glow the way the four sides do. There is quite a bit of depth in the pavilion. I thought that the problem was it was too deep. I was thinking that to fix the problem, they’d increase the angle of the culet, thereby reducing the depth, but I am no expert.

T-lover, No brown tones, very pure ripe lemon color. I agree with your observation on attention to detail with the cutting of sapphires in general. I’m going to see the other stone they send and then see the recut on this one. If neither of those works, I will try one of the lapidaries on pricescope. At this point it is less daunting to go through NSC, than to source rough and have it cut.

I’m sorry for not addressing every point made by every person. It doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate them. I’ve just got to start packing and head out of town before it gets any later. I cannot thank you all enough for your comments and support I hope you all have a very happy Thanksgiving!

 

[FrekeChild]

Date: 11/26/2008 7:35:42 PM
Author: sweetleila
FrekeChild, I haven’t yet approached any of the cutters you all graciously recommended. Did Dan source the rough and then cut it for you, or did he have something with which you fell in love?

Desperately Seeking Spinel
That is my thread for finding an ering stone. It''s long so I''ll just summarize it for you.

I contacted Barry Bridgestock (my favorite cutter because of his chunky facets), Dan Stair (my other favorite cutter because he''s awesome AND his stones are amazing), Gene of Precision Gems, John of GemRite, Jeff White, and Peter Torraca. All of these gentlemen were so incredibly nice and truly amazing to work with.

Gene had stones that were exactly what I had in my head, but they were out of my price range (until FF raised the budget at least, but by then it was too late).

John had some really light blue rough that he cut for me, and the stone ended up almost white, which wasn''t what I wanted, and he didn''t have any other blue rough.

Jeff White was out of my price range, and didn''t have any rough like what I was wanting.
(BTW, our budget was incredibly tiny--total for the ring was under $1k to start and then FF upped it to $2k--no idea what it will end up being in the end.)

Peter brought in some amazing rough, cut an emerald cut blue spinel for me, and FF decided he wanted a round.

Barry had two darker stones-an oval and a round, that he offered to me, but he ended up telling me that they were too dark and that he didn''t think they were quite what I was looking for. He got a new parcel of rough and cut me a 1.2ct, 6.5mm round. This became my first ering stone.

Dan had some rough, decided that none of it was what I was looking for, and then brought in some more rough. I''m not sure what he thought of the rough when he got it, but he ended up cutting a 6x8mm oval for me, sent it to me although he had voiced his doubts that it was right. About a week later I ended up spotting this amazing pink spinel on his site, and I asked him if I could trade the blue oval for the pink round. So we did. (And the pink spinel is currently my favorite gemstone.) At this point FF already had Barry''s stone. But then Dan got a new HUGE parcel of rough, and blue spinels started popping up on his site everyday. One caught my eye, a 1.26ct, 6.4mm blue spinel. This became my second ering stone.

And now the choice is FF''s. I have only seen online pictures of both stones, but I have enough of both Dan and Barry''s work that I know that both stones will be absolutely stunning. So I''ll be thrilled with whatever I get, AND I end up getting 2 stones out of the deal! Can''t complain about that!