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Jewler made custom wedding band for me, but I'm not sure about the quality.

pecoman

Rough_Rock
Joined
Aug 1, 2021
Messages
1
Over the course of 5 months, I worked with a Jewler in my area to design my wedding band. I'm not someone who wears jewelry, and I wanted the ring to be special, so the stones were ones that I found in my travels around the world. The garnets were from a rough, uncut geode that I got from Antarctica when I worked there.

I've had 2 other rings made by this jeweler, so I trusted them to do good work. We worked on a design, and they told me that they would see what they could get from the geode. I didn't hear anything back, so after a month or so, I emailed them and they said they got a good number of workable pieces. I was very excited, and we finalized the design in May.

Skip to June, and I had only heard from them once, after I reached out the them at the end of June to check on the progress, and they informed me that the band was finished, but because the stones were so small, they would require several passes at the shop, and that they would be in touch with updates.

At the end of July, I ended up calling them to check about the status, and they told me it was finished.

I picked it up, and after bringing it home and getting a good chance to look at it, I'm pretty unhappy and unsure what to do.

I know that small stones are often held in with epoxy, but the work itself seems sloppy. The garnets I'm pretty sure are actually just crushed stone in resin, and part of what makes me believe this is that when the girl at the counter retrieved my ring, she also happened upon an enveloped with what looked like crushed garnet in it. They gave me back quite a lot of the geode, so I'm not sure how much they really took from it. There is also quite a bit of give if you push your fingernail into the garnets, like pushing into soft plastic.

The rhodium plating seems like it was done after the garnets were set, and there are parts of the ring where you can see the gold around the setting.

The sapphire has resin overflow onto the inner band.

The jeweler had not discussed with me about crushing the garnet and putting it in resin. I honestly am not even 100% sure if that's what they did. I feel that I have been incredibly amenable, and understanding during the whole process. Considering that we started in March, and that I approved the design in May, I feel like the end result does not reflect the high price I paid.

I'm sorry for the long post, but I'm looking for other opinions on the piece. I don't even feel angry, just sad. The ring itself looks like it was a rush job, and very amateurish. I'm not even sure of what to ask the jeweler to do to fix this for me.

TL;DR
Jeweler worked on my ring for months, had poor communication, and the end result isn't great.
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foxinsox

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Jul 18, 2015
Messages
4,061
Oh my. I feel your sadness because that’s a deeply disappointing piece of work for something that should be lovely. No useful advice sorry but you’re right to be disappointed by this.
 
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westofhere

Guest
You’re right to be upset. That’s ridiculously horrible workmanship. I’d write the jeweler off and find another. If you can get a refund, by all means too, but the ring they made is so shoddy it’s not worth fixing. Maybe just let the geode be a geode, and have a new band made. Even an “off the rack” band from Blue Nile would be better :( .
 
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westofhere

Guest
What the jeweler should have said is, “We don’t know how to facet stones” or “We can’t facet these stones because ________” and then asked how you wanted to proceed. They should not have crushed your garnets and used resin.

(Btw I had no idea there were garnets in Antarctica. That is very very cool).
 

ItsMainelyYou

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Jun 27, 2014
Messages
4,761
Aw man, I feel for you.
Yeah, this, this is not good. The work level here is unacceptable. it isn't salvageable as is, I don't think.
I don't understand the crushing and epoxying that happened here. Try for a refund if you can and then find a jeweler with skill. What you want can probably be done depending on crystal size in the geode with a skilled craftsperson to execute it.
 

MRBXXXFVVS1

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Dec 5, 2019
Messages
1,450
I'm sorry that you had this poor experience. Can you have a conversation with the jeweler to better understand the process they took in creating the ring? I would be professional, honest about how it didn't meet your expectations, and kindly ask for a refund. Do you have a photo of the remaining geode?
 

Mreader

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Aug 14, 2018
Messages
6,078
I can’t believe they had the nerve to even give that to you. I would also ask to return for a refund and go somewhere else. And I’m sorry this happened- ugh so upsetting!
 

yssie

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Aug 14, 2009
Messages
27,242
I’m a little confused... Was your understanding that they would be faceting melee from the rough you supplied? Or were you and your jeweller both in agreement that stone chips would be used?

Regardless, the work is really sloppy. They should at least be burnishing those chips in with metal, I should think. I’m very sorry about your experience - your frustration and skepticism isn’t misplaced at all.
 

Beaders Secret

Rough_Rock
Trade
Joined
Aug 2, 2020
Messages
29
This is a very disappointing situation.

I would add that glue and stone setting, in the context of work by a jeweller, shouldn’t even be in the same sentence let alone found in the completed work.

Stone setting is a special skill and art, and many if not most bench jewellers work arm in arm with a setter, and vice verca. It’s not a shortcoming in a jeweller to outsource stone setting.

Any stone setter worth their salt would not even consider use of glue.

Regarding the facetting or not, of the garnet it’s immaterial to the consideration of glueing, a stone setter could work with any shape.

In this type of band, a common setting style would be a “Flush or Gypsy Setting” its a setting technique that is very secure, very flexible with smaller stones, and offers the stone good protection in the band (and looks good)

I hope you get a satisfactory outcome to this
 

LilAlex

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Mar 3, 2018
Messages
3,590
As @yssie said above, if the expectation was that there would be facet-grade material in the stones you supplied, they should have alerted you when there was not -- instead of just forging ahead. I think an honest broker would say "Nice idea, but -- trust me -- you're not gonna like it if I do what you are asking."
 

GeliL

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Oct 30, 2018
Messages
276
I would have went off on them the second I received this ring.

When you finalized the design, did they give you a sketch or CAD of any kind? Did they tell you about how the stones would be set? Did you receive some pictures after the geode was faceted? I would definitely suggest talking to them and push for a resolution because this is just unacceptable. I am so sorry.
 

Rfisher

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Oct 19, 2013
Messages
5,487
I agree fully, that if a vendor is going to employ epoxy or glue in any fashion- they should tell you upfront.
Not have it be a surprise in the finished product and you have to ask if that’s indeed what was done.
I don’t know, however, that I agree that small stones are often glued, unless the project budget comes in somewhere near costume jewelry?

I think your idea was a great one, OP.
The execution of it, however, was a letdown.
Hope you come to an amicable resolution.
 

LilAlex

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Mar 3, 2018
Messages
3,590
Wasn't 100% what "look" you were after and then I just saw this. I get it now -- cool idea!

The execution matters a lot.

(I do not know this vendor.)

cigar band.png
 

Beautiful-disaster

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Jul 14, 2020
Messages
373
Wow - you must be incredibly disappointed after the wait and all the thought put into it. I’m a big one for sentimentally and appreciate beauty in the weird and unusually different things in life… but I would be very regretfully asking the take the sapphire out and give it back to me with a refund and I would stay from scratch.
If this isn’t an option I would take the ring to another jeweller (an old one with decades of experience who does his own bench work) and have them look at at and price having diamonds put in and finished correctly.
I feel like your jeweller wasn’t upfront with you about their skill level or the expected finished piece. Did they draw you up some artwork first?
This is hard because there are usually no returns on custom bench work and they will want the bench work hours paid for even if they refund the material worth as they can reuse it.
So any way you look at it this is going to cost you more money.
(Still better then it sitting in a box never being worn and haunting you with sad feelings).
Hopefully you have the type of jeweller who cares about their clients happiness and will offer to do a certain amount of work to it for free.
If this is the case then I would suggest looking into some stones you would be happy replacing them with - perhaps you have another piece of jewellery that is sentimental you can use the stones from.
 
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