glitterata
Ideal_Rock
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2002
- Messages
- 4,628
This goes out to all you fellow ruby lovers with tiny budgets.
I've been craving a richly red ruby ring (who hasn't?), but I don't have a $50K budget for a big natural beauty. I don't even have a $1K budget. So my choices were: Get a synthetic, get something tiny, or get incredibly lucky. I pored through ebay, etsy, TRR, poshmark, etc, hunting for an unheated, 4 carat, perfectly red treasure being sold as a garnet, but so far no luck.
But I did find this little ring, which will have to tide me over until Lady Luck strikes. The ruby is teeny tiny, just 3 x 4mm, a third of a carat at most--the color and size of a raspberry drupelet. It's in its original ~1910-30 art deco setting, platinum with single-cut diamonds. The setting is very worn, with the engraving mostly gone, and the ruby's table facets are very abraded. The stone sings with light in the sun. My photos aren't really showing the beautiful, deep, bright red color.
I would say the hunt is over, but of course the hunt is never over. That huge, perfect, natural, sold-as-garnet ring is out there, and I'm going to find it.
In sunlight, early evening on the solstice:
It gets much pinker in the sun. The fluorescence is fierce!
With a sapphire ring from the same era:
See? Silk! Natural! (Also, very abraded facets.) I took this photo with my cheap little digital microscope.
Fluorescence (the diamonds, too):
I've been craving a richly red ruby ring (who hasn't?), but I don't have a $50K budget for a big natural beauty. I don't even have a $1K budget. So my choices were: Get a synthetic, get something tiny, or get incredibly lucky. I pored through ebay, etsy, TRR, poshmark, etc, hunting for an unheated, 4 carat, perfectly red treasure being sold as a garnet, but so far no luck.
But I did find this little ring, which will have to tide me over until Lady Luck strikes. The ruby is teeny tiny, just 3 x 4mm, a third of a carat at most--the color and size of a raspberry drupelet. It's in its original ~1910-30 art deco setting, platinum with single-cut diamonds. The setting is very worn, with the engraving mostly gone, and the ruby's table facets are very abraded. The stone sings with light in the sun. My photos aren't really showing the beautiful, deep, bright red color.
I would say the hunt is over, but of course the hunt is never over. That huge, perfect, natural, sold-as-garnet ring is out there, and I'm going to find it.
In sunlight, early evening on the solstice:
It gets much pinker in the sun. The fluorescence is fierce!
With a sapphire ring from the same era:
See? Silk! Natural! (Also, very abraded facets.) I took this photo with my cheap little digital microscope.
Fluorescence (the diamonds, too):
Is there anyone who hasn't thought this was a fleeting possibility? lol Only one time has this happened to me, and it was a turquoise necklace I had been coveting but couldn't find. The seller didn't know it was designer and just listed/sold it as a basic turq necklace. Saved a few $$$. But I like your scenario better!
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