cushionsearcher
Rough_Rock
- Joined
- May 9, 2002
- Messages
- 36
This is going to be a long story as it chronicles everything my fiance and I went through to find the perfect engagement ring for us but hopefully this can help other people who are looking for cushions...
How my search for cushions started…
I had never really cared too much for any of the engagement rings that I had seen (the DeBeers design your own ring site, etc.), until I saw a close-up picture of Ashley Judd’s engagement ring in the February 2001 issue of Glamour and saw my first cushion-cut diamond. It was through googling ‘cushion cut diamond’ that I came across the Pricescope forum. I cannot stress how incredibly wonderful Pricescope is and that’s a testament to all the regulars who post on the forum. The forum has far and away been my best source of knowledge. I’d also like to thank Dave Atlas for answering personal e-mails from me regarding cushions (2 years or so ago now) and for the knowledge that he has provided on Pricescope, in particular, the tool that he created to view the shape and length to width ratio (it really helped me to determine what I was looking for in my diamond shape) and the Ideal proportions for fancy cut charts.
Since I know that everyone here stresses the importance of cut, I was looking to find ‘ideal’ proportion numbers for a cushion. Unfortunately, I was advised that cushions do not have ideal numbers and that I really needed to see them in person. I started by going to B&M stores because I wanted to see cushions in person. I found it almost impossible to find any. I did have one mall jeweler order one or two of them in for me, but he couldn''t give me any numbers on the stone (it was uncertified) and it really wasn''t very nice looking - bad bowtie effect. That was my biggest problem with cushions - being able to see any in person. After striking out a lots of B&M stores, I figured I would have to make the purchase from an internet dealer) I knew that I wouldn''t make the final purchase without seeing the diamond in person, but I also couldn''t ask a jeweler to order 20 or so stones for me to see in person.
The way I started searching was using the search engine on Pricescope. But first I needed to come up with some cut criteria #''s, so I began by looking at the AGA cut classes for fancy shapes. There is no ''standard'' for cushions so I kind of compared round, oval, radiant and emerald ideal numbers to come up with a set of my best idea of ''ideal cushion'' numbers for evaluation a diamond sight-unseen. I figured decent ranges for an ideal cushion would be:
Table: 57-63%
Depth: 60-65%
Crown: 12.5-14.5%
(Please note there is NO experience behind these numbers what so ever, just an amateur making a best guess based on similar shapes – I’m sharing so that someone else in a similar situation might be able to use these numbers if they like the look of my cushion)
I then determined the size, color, clarity, etc that I wanted and plugged those numbers into the pricescope search engine. There were a lot of matches. At first I contacted Whiteflash and they were nice and courteous, but I couldn''t see their diamonds in person anywhere and although they sent me images of the diamond certifications, they couldn''t get me magnified pictures or lightscope images or any other sort of analysis, so I decided that it''d be best to work with GOG, since they were both an internet and a B&M store and because I was really impressed with the tools that they use to evaluate stones - check out their website if you haven''t already (www.goodoldgold.com)
I sent the table/depth info above as well as the following to GOG for my search:
Carat: .90 - 1.2
length to width ratio: 1.13 - 1.3
Color: D-I
Clarity: IF - SI1
Originally, I had filled out a form on their site and Marie had gotten back in touch with me. She said that they didn''t really have access to any cushions that met my criteria at that time. At that point we weren''t in a big rush, so she said that she''d e-mail us if she found anything. About a month or so after my first contact w/ GOG I contacted them again (Jonathan directly this time) and told them that I was interested in looking at some stones that weekend as my fiancé (boyfriend at the time) and I would both be in NYC. (We live in NH, but I’m staffed in NYC and Chris would sometimes come to visit me there.) I gave Jonathan the criteria above and he sent me a list of diamonds that matched my criteria (although he didn''t determine the length to width ratios). He then asked me to tell him my top 5 picks. I narrowed them down by what was important to me (length to width ratio, color, clarity, etc). I sent him the list and he was able to get three of them in for me in a really short timeframe which was wonderful.
(continued below)
How my search for cushions started…
I had never really cared too much for any of the engagement rings that I had seen (the DeBeers design your own ring site, etc.), until I saw a close-up picture of Ashley Judd’s engagement ring in the February 2001 issue of Glamour and saw my first cushion-cut diamond. It was through googling ‘cushion cut diamond’ that I came across the Pricescope forum. I cannot stress how incredibly wonderful Pricescope is and that’s a testament to all the regulars who post on the forum. The forum has far and away been my best source of knowledge. I’d also like to thank Dave Atlas for answering personal e-mails from me regarding cushions (2 years or so ago now) and for the knowledge that he has provided on Pricescope, in particular, the tool that he created to view the shape and length to width ratio (it really helped me to determine what I was looking for in my diamond shape) and the Ideal proportions for fancy cut charts.
Since I know that everyone here stresses the importance of cut, I was looking to find ‘ideal’ proportion numbers for a cushion. Unfortunately, I was advised that cushions do not have ideal numbers and that I really needed to see them in person. I started by going to B&M stores because I wanted to see cushions in person. I found it almost impossible to find any. I did have one mall jeweler order one or two of them in for me, but he couldn''t give me any numbers on the stone (it was uncertified) and it really wasn''t very nice looking - bad bowtie effect. That was my biggest problem with cushions - being able to see any in person. After striking out a lots of B&M stores, I figured I would have to make the purchase from an internet dealer) I knew that I wouldn''t make the final purchase without seeing the diamond in person, but I also couldn''t ask a jeweler to order 20 or so stones for me to see in person.
The way I started searching was using the search engine on Pricescope. But first I needed to come up with some cut criteria #''s, so I began by looking at the AGA cut classes for fancy shapes. There is no ''standard'' for cushions so I kind of compared round, oval, radiant and emerald ideal numbers to come up with a set of my best idea of ''ideal cushion'' numbers for evaluation a diamond sight-unseen. I figured decent ranges for an ideal cushion would be:
Table: 57-63%
Depth: 60-65%
Crown: 12.5-14.5%
(Please note there is NO experience behind these numbers what so ever, just an amateur making a best guess based on similar shapes – I’m sharing so that someone else in a similar situation might be able to use these numbers if they like the look of my cushion)
I then determined the size, color, clarity, etc that I wanted and plugged those numbers into the pricescope search engine. There were a lot of matches. At first I contacted Whiteflash and they were nice and courteous, but I couldn''t see their diamonds in person anywhere and although they sent me images of the diamond certifications, they couldn''t get me magnified pictures or lightscope images or any other sort of analysis, so I decided that it''d be best to work with GOG, since they were both an internet and a B&M store and because I was really impressed with the tools that they use to evaluate stones - check out their website if you haven''t already (www.goodoldgold.com)
I sent the table/depth info above as well as the following to GOG for my search:
Carat: .90 - 1.2
length to width ratio: 1.13 - 1.3
Color: D-I
Clarity: IF - SI1
Originally, I had filled out a form on their site and Marie had gotten back in touch with me. She said that they didn''t really have access to any cushions that met my criteria at that time. At that point we weren''t in a big rush, so she said that she''d e-mail us if she found anything. About a month or so after my first contact w/ GOG I contacted them again (Jonathan directly this time) and told them that I was interested in looking at some stones that weekend as my fiancé (boyfriend at the time) and I would both be in NYC. (We live in NH, but I’m staffed in NYC and Chris would sometimes come to visit me there.) I gave Jonathan the criteria above and he sent me a list of diamonds that matched my criteria (although he didn''t determine the length to width ratios). He then asked me to tell him my top 5 picks. I narrowed them down by what was important to me (length to width ratio, color, clarity, etc). I sent him the list and he was able to get three of them in for me in a really short timeframe which was wonderful.
(continued below)
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