Michael B. ''experts'' please reply

[Jas12]

Me again

I am a little confused over the Michael B. Princess line right now. I ordered the Princess setting to accomodate a 1.57 carat stone (even though I was partial to the petite princess in person) b/c my jeweler said that I could not set a stone of that size in the petite. I have since talked to Michael B. and they have told me that I can indeed set the stone in a petite if I really want to. I thought everything was sorted in my mind until i started looking at other peoples michael b''s and realized that they do pave in more than one style.

My question: Is the Petite Princess bead set pave, and the Princess a fishtale pave? I am going on mrssalvo''s post so maybe she can weigh in, since she seems to be giving great advice to me lately

Any clarification would be great! I will call Mathews again if need be (but i''ll try to avoid long distance charges first and talk to u guys)

 

[mrssalvo]

Hi Jas,

both the michael b princess and the petite princess come in either the beadset pave or the fishtale pave. Bill Pearlman told me the beadset pave is the most popular. When comparing both, it was the style I prefered too. But you can get either in either width. HTH..

 

[Mara]

why would you not be able to set a 1.5 in the petite princess?? that''s ridiculous. sounds like your jeweler has been smoking the crack pipe.

 

[Jas12]

Not only did I not get told I could set the 1.5 in a petite, I did not get informed on the setting options. I have no clue what style (fishtail or bead-set) is being made for my ring. Should I not have been asked, or at least informed!?
And don''t get me started on the week he spent locating certs for radiants and princess cut stones when I was asking for a cushion....i am SO done with him....

 

[mrssalvo]

oh Jas, i'm so sorry

. i guess the good news is there is no way Michael b has started on your ring so you still have time to find out and correct if need be exactly what you are getting. Definitely confirm with the Michael b people. Also, what style did you see in the store? that is probably what your vendor ordered..

 

[Cehrabehra]

Date: 7/19/2006 10:16:17 PM
Author: Jas12
Not only did I not get told I could set the 1.5 in a petite, I did not get informed on the setting options. I have no clue what style (fishtail or bead-set) is being made for my ring. Should I not have been asked, or at least informed!?
And don''t get me started on the week he spent locating certs for radiants and princess cut stones when I was asking for a cushion....i am SO done with him....

Yes, IMO you should have been included on the option! But I don''t suppose there are ''informed consent'' rules in the jewery business

As for the cushion - I feel your pain! LOL Looking for a cushion was such a headache and I''m sure nothing will be done about that until it is demanded by consumers. Right now the demand is on the rounds and I''d say a good 90% (or more) attention is on that cut. For me, going BACKWARD from a cushion to an OMC is certainly spinning some heads in dismay and confusion LOL Good luck Jas!

 

[genette]

When I was interested in the Michael B pave setting, I contacted Michael B''s son Matthew. He advised me that anything under 1.5 ct or 1.5ct would look better with the petite princess style. He said that the width of the band would be thin enough to make the center stone look bigger without having the pave stones over power the diamond. I was obsessed with that setting and thought I really wanted it until I came on here and saw many other ring possibilities, but the Michael B rings will always be a favorite of mine but just not their price.

 

[dani13]

Date: 7/19/2006 5:34:55 PM
Author:Jas12
Me again

I am a little confused over the Michael B. Princess line right now. I ordered the Princess setting to accomodate a 1.57 carat stone (even though I was partial to the petite princess in person) b/c my jeweler said that I could not set a stone of that size in the petite. I have since talked to Michael B. and they have told me that I can indeed set the stone in a petite if I really want to. I thought everything was sorted in my mind until i started looking at other peoples michael b''s and realized that they do pave in more than one style.

My question: Is the Petite Princess bead set pave, and the Princess a fishtale pave? I am going on mrssalvo''s post so maybe she can weigh in, since she seems to be giving great advice to me lately

Any clarification would be great! I will call Mathews again if need be (but i''ll try to avoid long distance charges first and talk to u guys)

Jas-

I vaguely remember also being told that the petite princess setting could not accomodate a larger stone (over 1.5 ctw). Since your stone is 1.57, I would think they could make the necessary accomodations, since that number is not far off...I remember them saying that if the stone was larger than 1.5. then their princess setting would be the setting they would recommend....I am pretty sure it says that on the Pearlmans website as well....

As far as the beadset vs fishtail, it just comes down to what you prefer. Beadset is more delicate, whereas fishtail is more substantial- it''s just a personal choice...for a cushion I would personally probably go with a thin beadset band, but that is strictly imo....good luck!

 

[Jas12]

Dani, you are right, they do ''recommend'' the princess for the 1.5 and over, however they said they would set it in the petite if I wanted (my jeweller certainly didn''t give me this option even though he knew I liked the petite better). I also agree that the delicate band would look nice with the cushion.
I am hoping mrs salvo is right and that they have not started work on the settings yet! My project today will be to figure all these details out, and find out what my jeweller has ''chosen'' for me--ha!

 

[mrssalvo]

good luck Jas..please keep us posted on what you find out..

 

[Jas12]

This is getting silly....
so i called my lovely jewelers and asked about the fishtail vs bead-set issue. They had no idea what I was talking about, but ensured me that they would contact Michael B. and get back to me.
So they did, basically saying that Michael B. thought the fishtail definition was hilarious and that they only do one type of pave!?!
Never one to doubt PS''s I called Matthew''s myself. He said he had never heard of the fishtail term, but they do use "v-set'' (which of course is the same idea, and he didn''t belittle me like my jeweler''s email did!), He also said that they don''t used bead-set all that often due to the lack of light to the diamond (therefore effecting the sparkle). They could, however, do this if requested.
Soooo, I am getting a ''v-set'' pave band apparently....glad that one is cleared up. Anyone have anything to say about that?

 

[mrssalvo]

Jas,
sorry you've had so much trouble with your jeweler. I do remember Bill saying the "fishtale" as we pricescopers call it is also called v-step or step down pave. anyway, i'm glad you were able to find out what you are getting. I'm sure you'll be very happy with the ring once it's done. Are they doing the princess or petite princess?

also wanted to add, that I had both the v-step and beadset rings here and much prefered the bead set. If I remember correctly Bill Pearlman told me the opposite, that he doesn't sell much of the v-step. As long as you know what you are getting and you are getting what you want I'm sure you'll be happy..

 

[mrssalvo]

Date: 7/20/2006 3:58:48 PM
Author: Jas12
He also said that they don't used bead-set all that often due to the lack of light to the diamond (therefore effecting the sparkle).

just wanted to say this seems kinda silly to me. isn't light reflected from the top? what do all the bezel set people do? I've seen Leon Mege and other designers do both styles and they are just that, styles. I didn't think it had anything to do with the sparkle

Here's the link to my thread comparing the styles and widths side by side. I thought the v-step had a lot more metal and didn't sparkle as much. it just wasn't as pretty to me.

 

[Jas12]

hi

Matthew said that they rarely do the bead-set?? Maybe he meant the opposite?

I don''t know how i got to the point where the more people I talk to the more confused I am. I guess it has to do with the fact that I am doing everything via email and over the phone, throwing around terms, and trying to describe things like pave styles with my limited diamond vocab. i am sure i have a part when laying the blame, but even talking to the people at Matthew''s has been hard. I have spoken to 3 different people regarding the size of setting a petite can acommodate and got 3 different answers/suggestions! Plus I should be going through my jewler to do all this, but that requires too much patience and trust I can no longer extend.
I wish I could take all this back and work soely with Mark.T. but alas, I have placed a deposit and I am got to stick this out.

I''ll keep u posted, like you, i think i much prefer the bead-set, and if that was the concensus on your thread, i am unsure why they don'' make many
thanks for listening (my fiance says thanks too!)

 

[mrssalvo]

Jas, i know it does get overwhelming and honestly the average person probably cannot even tell a difference. Having the right jeweler can really make life easier when it comes to this kind of stuff but I do know several pricescopers have worked with matthew and been fine. I''d tell them you want the petite princess bead set and see what they say. even email a picture...you can use mine if you want showing them which style you are describing. i''d want to make sure you are on the same page as them.

 

[Kaleigh]

Good luck, I hope it all works out for you. Please keep us posted!!!

 

[Jas12]

I will do that today. I think i figured out exactly what the problem is: my jeweler has been giving me info that is different from what Michael B. has, so when I call between the two places it just results in confusion and conflicting answers. We are getting somewhere now (i hope).

You are right, the average person would never know the difference or indulge in these particulars. In fact I was probably one of those people 7 months ago! Now I''ve become an obsessive, stressed-out (insert descriptive word here). I think it is the dishonesty and the slimy salesperson syndrome that bothers me most. I have never encountered this problem before with any other major purchase and I can''t seem to let it go.

 

[radiantgirl]

Jas12 - I just recently got engaged and have the Michael B. petite princess with the french pave style (that's the term my jeweler used) with a square radiant. I absolutely love it. I was debating whether to get the bead-set or french pave style, and I am so glad that I went with what I got. It is all personal preference though. The thing I didn't like about the bead-set was that it didn't seem like it would sparkle as much, and I didn't like the straight wall of metal on each side.

Here is my thread in the LIW section, if you want to see an upclose photo of my ring. The pictures are not that great, and I haven't started a SMTR thread yet due to the fact that we haven't been able to take better pictures of the ring. Everyone that has seen my ring mentions about how shiny and sparkly my ring is!

https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/im-engaged-take-me-off-the-list.47799/

Also - the pic that Mrssalvo has on her reply is a bead-set petite princess band, and a frenchstyle pave princess band. The widths of those 2 rings are different. The petite is about 2.0 mm and the princess is about 2.2 mm. I can tell the difference of the widths in person. That's probably why a lot of people pick the bead set one because it is dainter due to the width of it. My petite princess size is perfect especially since my ring size is soo small.

 

[Jas12]

Thanks radiant girl

your comments are in line with the info matthew gave me (he said the v-set pave--their term--looks sparklier) my jeweler is not in right now, so I have not yet got all the details straightened out, but I am glad to hear that u like your ring. I am sure I will like any Michael B. setting, they are all sooooo well made, Iam just being super picky b/c of what i've been through the past 6 months.

ohhhhh, i just looked at your pics--soooo nice!!!! and u helped a great deal with my decision. I have a 1.5 box radiant now, and have small fingers too (3.75), so it was great to see what it would probably look like. i am getting a sqaurish cushion now (loooong story) but the look will still be similar

Thanks so much

 

[Goldenrain]

I just proposed to my gf with a 1.72ct diamond mounted on a Michael B. princess setting with diamond tips.

There are actually three types of princess settings: Classic, Princess, and Petite Princess. They are 2.5mm, 2.35mm, and 2.0mm in thickness, respectively.

Petites are indeed recommended only for diamonds 1.5ct or below (down to 0.5ct). Princess is great for 1.0-3.0ct, although it can accomodate bigger if necessary.

There's also three-sided versions of all of these rings now. Formerly there was only a three sided version of the classic and princess (no petite). However, a 2.0ct and above is recommended for the three sided princess.