Amelia was conceived and born because we just threw caution to the wind – and this ring was created in sort of the same spirit.
This is my experience with Leon (some of it copied from the "Would you risk a Leon?" thread.) I really want to stress that because this is MY experience, it does not discount the experience that others have had, should that experience have been less than stellar.
My experience with Leon was very positive, and as I said, extremely LIMITED. I think 1 longer call (and by longer, I mean 5-10 minutes) and 2 short 2-minute conversations (one of them was to shorten the engraving so he needed to know if that was OK). I think I''ve exchanged only a half dozen emails with him, at most, and those were very short. All were before I had the longer conversation with him about the ring style. Once I had that conversation, we did not talk again until the ring was done.
In that conversation, I essentially said, you got my stone, what do you think? He said 5 stone. I said, I love that idea, have fun! I also said, I like pointy prongs and swooplicious curves. He said, I know what you like. Again, this all took part in the "long" conversation.
When came time to pay the balance without knowing what the ring looked like (never a CAD, photo or anything else) I got a case of the YIKES. Sending money without knowing what I was getting?
That sort of strikes me as crazy. I am probably Leon''s ideal candidate. I''m generally laid back, have no idea what I really want for a ring and am happy to leave it at the hands of the jeweler. I have no vision, but I know I like his stuff. Even after all this, when faced with the task of sending the balance of the payment by CHECK (Leon does not take credit cards in any way, shape or form), I fully admit, I had a moment of, huh? How nuts is this!
Now, if *I* (ms. ok-whatever) thought that, I can''t imagine what the average, normal person would be feeling. I was pretty antsy about wanting to see the ring. I mean, don''t we all come to PS because we are savvy consumers? What savvy consumer would pay the entire balance for a product she won''t even get a picture of before she pays? Is this smart buying?
However, having been a PS member for many years, I don''t think I''m totally nuts because I''ve probably seen every Leon ring that a PSer has posted. The man has an eye, and when things have gone awry, in many cases it is because the ring owner wanted something done in a certain way (which I think he will do, even if he doesn''t think it is the best way to set the ring). I had an idea of what to expect from him and my experience with him was not out of line with that expectation. I''ve taken notes from PSer experiences and made my decisions based on what I read.
Probably the biggest one was
Ellen’s aqua. I so appreciate many of the long time PSers (and short timers too, of course) sharing their Leon stories because I can paint a somewhat accurate picture of how he might act in certain scenarios. With Ellen’s story, I made note not to ever send him a stone under 9 on the mohs scale!
But the ring itself convinced that that I should not cut Leon out of the picture because no other PS featured vendor (meaning the list I got to choose from for the generous PS gift) on here has consistently made me gasp and think, “Wow, that is just perfection.” I felt comfortable sending a sapphire (9 on mohs), but an aqua? I don’t think Ellen was making up her story (and in fact her review was very fair and objective, IMHO), so I took note and had to decide if I was comfortable working with Leon with what I had. There many other stories I read where I took notes on what might work, and what might not. I think in doing so, I was able to figure out a way to work with Leon that would not result in any issues –mainly, to let him do what he wants and have no expectations. Hahaha.
If you have a solid vision of what you want, he may not be the right guy for you. He''s a designer, not a benchman. I don''t know if I''d recommend to a Pricescope noobie to work with him. If you know a thing or two about Leon, have a good feel about his work and are not a micromanager, then it probably will be a great working relationship. You also probably have to have a thicker skin.
Would I work with Leon again? Absolutely. MY experience was that he was a gentleman and easy to work with. He turned out the product I knew he would. Rachael was also easy to work with. I called him today to thank him and he did make a point of thanking me to design the way he thought would look best. And of course, that conversation was also short, hee hee.
All that being said, this is a
CUSTOM ring and it’s been louped and checked out in macro photos. There IS something “wrong” with the ring. I’ll post the photos and will say more about that after they are posted…
