itty bitty emerald cut -- thoughts? (stone 1 of eventual 5)

[GemFever]

Hi guys!

I'm starting a new project, planning to slowly collect about 5 ECs and then set them into a bezeled 5-stone band based on an inspiration picture I found in SMTB (not sure if it belongs to anyone on PS or where the pic originally came from, it was posted as an inspiration photo).



Today I requested an ASET for this stone. I don't have it yet, but I want to start a thread and get opinions. I've never shopped for ECs before, so it's a completely new fancy to me.



.30 G VS1
table: 64
depth: 69.1
ratio: 1.25
dimensions: 4.21*3.38*2.33
girdle: thick-very thick

http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/emerald-cut/0.30-carat-g-color-vs1-clarity-sku-238377

The .3 would be one of the stones next to the center stone (which I'm guessing will end up being .5-.7ct). The outer stones would be even smaller. Looking at the inspiration photo right now I just realized that the .3 is fatter than the stones in the inspiration pic. Perhaps I should go for a more elongated look... but I do prefer slighly fatter ECs in general.

Any and all advice appreciated!

 

[GemFever]

Re: itty bitty emerald cut -- thoughts? (stone 1 of eventual

Follow up question -- in the video, I can see the GIA-inscribed number reflected in the facets quite a bit. Is that normal? Bad? Really bad?

 

[0-0-0]

Re: itty bitty emerald cut -- thoughts? (stone 1 of eventual

It's normal to see the inscriptions in JA's videos. They are not visible in person without visual aids. I'm hunting for an EC too and I'll be writing up my experience when I'm done, hopefully by this weekend.

But in short I think there's very little anyone can say for certain without seeing the stones in person. I compared 2 stones from JA with nearly identical specs on paper, but they performed very differently when viewed in person.

Stone 1 is noticeably leaky and shows missing steps when tilted. It also looks surprisingly tinted next to stone 2, perhaps due to the diminished light return. http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/emerald-cut/0.51-carat-e-color-vvs2-clarity-sku-100240

Stone 2 looks better than stone 1 and shows attractive steps when tilted, but has excessive obstruction in my opinion, roughly where the darkest black bars are in the photo. http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/emerald-cut/0.54-carat-e-color-vvs1-clarity-sku-201754

Hope my impressions help somewhat!

 

[blingymo]

Re: itty bitty emerald cut -- thoughts? (stone 1 of eventual

Gem, does this mean you are ready to pass on that french cut beauty??!!

 

[GemFever]

Re: itty bitty emerald cut -- thoughts? (stone 1 of eventual

Thanks thbmok!!! Your links are helping me to realize that I have absolutely no idea what to look for. The vids look so pretty. Oh boy, I'm suddenly so intimidated. I hope your EC project comes out beautifully!


Blingy, lol, if I decide to sell the frenchies I'll let you know first! But I'm over the moon with them right now. Wearin' them every day

 

[Dreamer_D]

Re: itty bitty emerald cut -- thoughts? (stone 1 of eventual

I like it, and I like the proportions. Do you know the crown height?

 

[slksapphire]

Re: itty bitty emerald cut -- thoughts? (stone 1 of eventual

hi there,

i love the idea for your ring and the design. i am not very experienced in diamonds, so take this with a huge grain of salt, but i strongly encourage you to do more research about acquiring a bunch of emerald cuts that will sit next to one another before you buy any.

the reason for my caution is because the side stones for my sapphire ring are emerald cuts, E/F, VS+. the sizes are 6X2.5mm, 5X2.5mm and 4X2.5mm. it was incredibly difficult to source emerald cuts that look good TOGETHER. initially i started out looking for individual stones. then i decided to look for them in pairs. this helped a little, but then putting the pairs together was difficult. since emerald cuts have subtle flash rather than brilliance, the cutting style matters a lot. after months of trying out different pairs of small diamonds, i gave up and had them custom cut.

hopefully you will have much better luck than i. but i'd hate for you to buy a diamond and then have a difficult time trying to match it.

good luck and i'll be looking out for your progress!

 

[chrono]

Re: itty bitty emerald cut -- thoughts? (stone 1 of eventual

There is less forgiveness when you are looking to bezel set 5 ECs. Not only must the LxW ratio match (the two outer pairs) but the proportions have to be right. Then there is also the shoulder width to consider. It would be odd to have one with wide shoulders and another with skinny shoulders. With the stones being under 0.5 ct, I don't think the ECs having different flash styles will matter that much when compared to SS's larger ECs. Just throwing out my thoughts since I think that even though you have time on your side, you've picked a very challenging project.

 

[GemFever]

Re: itty bitty emerald cut -- thoughts? (stone 1 of eventual

Thanks Dreamer! I don't know the crown height... but it is a pretty stone, isn't it? Bummer, but I think I'm going to have to take the hold off because I'm suddenly very intimidated by the project. I'll probably still go through with it some day, but I need more $$ in my project budget to be able to get several stones at once to play with.

Slksapphire -- your ring is just incredible! Thanks for your advice. May I ask, when you had the stones custom cut -- how did you know that the optics would be good alongside the proper dimensions?

Chrono -- thanks for your input. I got a small taste of the challenge yesterday when I tried to find a second .3ct stone to match the one that caught my eye originally. Not so easy at all. How would you go about making this project happen, if you were me? Is there a more standard or "classical" set of EC proportions that would be easier to find in pairs? Maybe I should start with the main center stone. That way, if I can never find the right sides tones, I'll at least have one pretty and decently sized EC to use for another project.

 

[chrono]

Re: itty bitty emerald cut -- thoughts? (stone 1 of eventual

I don't know how much time you are willing to devote to this project. If you are talking months, it is possible. If you are talking very well cut ECs that all match up.....not so easy. I've seen ECs run the gamut in ratio and looks. I wish there were an easy way to pick pairs out. Yes, it is best to start with the center stone, then start choosing sides for it, much the same way one approaches a 3 stone EC project.

 

[GemFever]

Re: itty bitty emerald cut -- thoughts? (stone 1 of eventual

I don't know how much time you are willing to devote to this project. If you are talking months, it is possible. If you are talking very well cut ECs that all match up.....not so easy. I've seen ECs run the gamut in ratio and looks. I wish there were an easy way to pick pairs out. Yes, it is best to start with the center stone, then start choosing sides for it, much the same way one approaches a 3 stone EC project.

I was thinking months, maybe even up to a year. I don't have the budget to get all the stones at once in any case. So this was going to be something fun, I'd learn about a new fancy cut, get a cool ring. Then plop everything in my beloved yellow gold I I think I'll wait till I have a nice budget for the center stone and start there.

Thanks for the advice, everyone!

 

[Dreamer_D]

Re: itty bitty emerald cut -- thoughts? (stone 1 of eventual

I think you would need to let a vendor do the hard work of sourcing the whole suite for you.

 

[GemFever]

Re: itty bitty emerald cut -- thoughts? (stone 1 of eventual

I think you would need to let a vendor do the hard work of sourcing the whole suite for you.

But that kind of takes the fun out of it, no? To be honest, I'm not as much dying to get the completed ring, as I'm looking for an opportunity to continue the diamond hobby. I'm a bit tired of OEC searching (haha!), always looking for bigger, guessing color, taking risks... so I thought I'd look for smaller stones with nice GIA certs and fun video visuals.

 

[slksapphire]

Re: itty bitty emerald cut -- thoughts? (stone 1 of eventual

if i were you, i would work with a jeweler just to see how difficult it will be to source the stones (whether through him/her or by yourself).

for my ring, my jeweler sourced over 30 pairs of ECs of various sizes, colors, etc. then we tried putting them together with the center stone using the blue modeling "clay" that jewelers use. we never got a complete set that worked, but after moving the combinations around (what seemed like a hundred times!), we came up with the sizes we wanted (and figured out we would have to get new ones cut in order to make the ring work). going custom was NOT my intent at the outset, but turned out to be the only good option for this project.

also, my largest EC, the 6X2.5mm, was just over 0.3ct (each). the rest of them were smaller than 0.3ct. in my opinion, even though they were tiny, a consistent cut was was the most important "C". i went with E/F but that was overkill. i'm sure anything down to I would probably have been fine. and they were VS+ ... anything eyeclean would have worked, too.

 

[arkieb1]

Re: itty bitty emerald cut -- thoughts? (stone 1 of eventual

I don't know how much time you are willing to devote to this project. If you are talking months, it is possible. If you are talking very well cut ECs that all match up.....not so easy. I've seen ECs run the gamut in ratio and looks. I wish there were an easy way to pick pairs out. Yes, it is best to start with the center stone, then start choosing sides for it, much the same way one approaches a 3 stone EC project.

I was thinking months, maybe even up to a year. I don't have the budget to get all the stones at once in any case. So this was going to be something fun, I'd learn about a new fancy cut, get a cool ring. Then plop everything in my beloved yellow gold I I think I'll wait till I have a nice budget for the center stone and start there.

Thanks for the advice, everyone!

If that is the case would you be willing to wait and find a genuine ring like the one in your pic? I saw two of them about two to three months ago on ebay, one was a fair price and other other was a killer price but it sold quickly.... At the moment there is a 3 stone one and a more complicated ring with an antique EC in the middle and other stones around it. But these 5 stones do pop up from time to time. Just wondering because it might be cheaper and indeed easier to buy a true vintage one than try and recreate one.

 

[GemFever]

Re: itty bitty emerald cut -- thoughts? (stone 1 of eventual

Thank you so much for sharing your experience, Slksapphire! It makes sense to let the professionals really go the extra mile to make the ring perfect. I'm making mental notes on the color, proportion, and clarity. Don't want overkill anywhere, esp on my budget

Arkieb... Hmmmm... ebay you say That's a dangerous place for me to go! But I do so love it there. Maybe I'll try that route. But how can one be sure that the ECs in the vintage rings are great performers? Part of my plan was to learn all about ECs and hand-pick them. But if a beautiful Art Deco ring with some EC components showed up on ebay for a good price, I'd probably be all over it. Well, in a couple months. Not enough budget right now unless it was like $500.

 

[arkieb1]

Re: itty bitty emerald cut -- thoughts? (stone 1 of eventual

Thank you so much for sharing your experience, Slksapphire! It makes sense to let the professionals really go the extra mile to make the ring perfect. I'm making mental notes on the color, proportion, and clarity. Don't want overkill anywhere, esp on my budget

Arkieb... Hmmmm... ebay you say That's a dangerous place for me to go! But I do so love it there. Maybe I'll try that route. But how can one be sure that the ECs in the vintage rings are great performers? Part of my plan was to learn all about ECs and hand-pick them. But if a beautiful Art Deco ring with some EC components showed up on ebay for a good price, I'd probably be all over it. Well, in a couple months. Not enough budget right now unless it was like $500.

I can keep a lookout for you this 3 stone is NO bargain, but the 5 stone that I saw a couple of months ago like it had nice stones & it went for a killer price anyway here is an example;

http://www.ebay.com/itm/200976029411?ssPageName=STRK:MESINDXX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1436.l2649

Or one a bit more out there;

http://www.ebay.com/itm/370921648220?ssPageName=STRK:MESINDXX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1436.l2649

The point is they do exist....

 

[Dreamer_D]

Re: itty bitty emerald cut -- thoughts? (stone 1 of eventual

I think collecting MRBs would be easier. I think collecting ECs would be... frustrating more than anything else.

 

[GemFever]

Re: itty bitty emerald cut -- thoughts? (stone 1 of eventual

Arkieb, thanks for those links! Perhaps vintage is the way to go.

Dreamer... MRBs! But that would be too easy

 

[SillyMonkee]

Re: itty bitty emerald cut -- thoughts? (stone 1 of eventual

Not in yellow gold, but maybe useful as a set of pre-matched stones?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/30s-Vintage-Designer-Diamond-Wedding-Band-Deco-20s-Emerald-cut-ANNIVERSARY-Ring-/360767687651?pt=US_Wedding_Bands_with_Diamonds_Gemstones&hash=item53ff6e0be3

Of course, doesn't allow for the thrill of the hunt, nor the spacing of the purchases.

 

[GemFever]

Re: itty bitty emerald cut -- thoughts? (stone 1 of eventual

Thanks SillyMonkee! I've seen that one. Too pricey for me at this point, but I like the way you think!