Mother-daughter project

[mrswahs]

Hello! I'm new to the Colored Stones forum (and pretty new to PS in general). I've never been through the process of creating a custom piece. FI did my engagement ring locally and did it all by himself, so I'm looking forward to the process!

As an only child I've been very close to my parents and we really are a team as our little family unit. My mom truly is my best friend and my dad, my mentor. This October I'm getting married to the love of my life and while our little family unit (mom, dad, me) will always be there, I'm going to be starting my own family. I would really like to do something symbolic for both of my parents as a gift to present to them the night before the wedding. I haven't figured out what I want to do for my dad yet, but I have decided that for my mom I want to do matching custom RHRs for me and for her.

Her e-ring features a .25 carat RB and mine features a .76-.78ct square. So I'm thinking that the RHRs should feature stones around .5ct gemstones so as not to overwhelm hers or compete with mine. I would really like these rings to be identical other than the metal color (her wedding set is yellow gold and mine is white so we'll stick with that for these rings).

I've been looking online for gemstones and most of what I'm finding is much larger that what I'm looking for and I'm having a hard time finding matched pairs (which I was expecting to be easy given that people would want to make studs out of them!) Are there any places where it would be easier to find a matched pair than others? Also, we both like blue-purple-pink colored stones, any recommendations on something beautiful but affordable? I'm hoping to spend less than $500 on the project.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

[ETA] Eek! I'm now seeing that matched pairs can be quite pricey... so maybe they don't need to be exact after all just close

 

[MakingTheGrade]

I would try Bob Kast. He has some pairs listed, and he's also really good about doing custom requests, and his prices are very reasonable!
http://bobkast.com/index.htm

 

[Treenbean]

http://www.multicolour.com/gallery/?/gallery/pair/sapphire/

http://gemcal.com/pairs.html you can"t beat the price for the gentle rose spinel suite plus the color is gorgeous

 

[Fly Girl]

That sounds like a wonderful project. Congratulations on your upcoming marriage.

I'm constantly on the watch for matched pairs of colored stones in the size you describe. They make nice earrings and they also make nice sidestones for a ring project. When I see a nice pair, I will often purchase it even if I don't have a project immediately in mind. Just to say that your idea of close, but not exactly matching, is probably the most cost effective and prudent way to go. As you say, they don't need to match as exactly as they do when they are mounted in the same ring.

I'd suggest you could contact Dana at Mastercut Gems. When I read about your project, something along the lines of these two tsavorite garnets on his web site came to mind as a possibility. http://mastercutgems.com/index.php?page=viewgem&id=5935 He may have other stones that come in your preferred colors.

 

[Arkteia]

http://www.gemselect.com/other-gems/huge-gemstones.php

They have amazing selection of stones, at different prices, some very inexpensive, paired or unpaired but of similar size, and I am positive they can help you. I have worked with them, once, and their service was great, they returned my e-mails the same day, were very courteous, and I'd definitely recommend them.

 

[mrswahs]

Thank you thank you for the suggestions so far! I've found a lot of things that work at these websites, I just need to make a decision now