My 'upgrade' finally reset, 2.5 Alex Parks OEC

[Inked]

It’s truly gorgeous!! Love the stone faceting and the setting is divine! Beautiful upgrade!!

thank you! forgive me, but did you change your avatar?? I feel like I knew you differently... LOL!!

 

[Inked]

Beautiful stone and setting!!! I like the tweaks you made to the new setting.

thank you! I'm still trying to decide if I went overboard with the "frame" around the diamond, in pictures it's 'too much' but in life I like it 99% of the time, LOL

 

[Inked]

That ring is crazy beautiful! The whole stack is just drool worthy.
I am desperate for an old cut lab that has some actual color to it.
O-P range and 7-7.5mm, I don't know if that will ever happen. No one wants to grow those.
Oh, and I love a puppy pic.

thank you!! you could maybe do what I just did... i wanted a transitional but the mined one i wanted was like $25k, and no one is really cutting transitional labs, so i bought a ritani MRB and sent it to SW to re-cut for me, maybe buy a MRB and have it recut?? overall i think it would be cheaper than buying one!

I agree on the color, i wanted G/H, preferably an H and GIA just graded it an F. I posted it on the grudge match thread, i will do a post about it when i get it from DK who is creating my setting. I just approved the final CAD yesterday!

 

[Inked]

Blinkers is such a cute name! Sadly my cat Ruby passed in May; I couldn’t bear to replace the photo. So the 12 is the pic on the right? It’s more in focus but the color on the left is more saturated.

Yes! Correct, the 14 is on the left and the 12 is on the right. My friend is a phone nerd and she said apple was trying to compete with Samsung so it's saturating colors more on the 14 ... but the macro pics are definitely not as crisp on the 14 as the 12

Here's another comparison with the transitional diamond, i feel like the skin on my finger on the 14 looks off and unnatural and like I over zoomed or over edited or something

This is the transitional recut, not the alex park oec , just the picture comparison purposes LOL

 

[Inked]

@Inked, Your ring is gorgeous and your dog is adorable!

thank you! I love her so much (the dog)
well, i mean the ring too but the dog

 

[diamondyes]

Let me start by saying, i am NOT sentimental. AT ALL. My original engagement ring was a disaster due to a miscommunication with the vendor, so after my (now) husband proposed and I first got the ring, it was sent back and redone 2x and i still didnt like it and wound up getting a refund from that vendor (who said what I wanted was impossible) and having it remade by the goddess Amy at David Klass. LOL so i guess it lost it's sentiment there to me, it wasnt the ring he proposed with, so it didnt matter after that. I'm super grateful to David and Amy who made my ring on paper and bad photoshop into reality.

I had a mined OEC "L" color and I loved it 99% of the time, I loved the warmth and the way it acted, but once in a while the L color bothered me because it looked dirty. I decided I wanted something whiter. The issue is my husband doesnt support material objects. For the most part i agree with him. I dont see "value" in a diamond. It's not "worth" $25k to me. I don't want to wear a $25k diamond, it would freak me out. I don't look at diamonds as a measure of wealth. i don't feel like i need it to cost $25k to be valuable to me. I don't think about the origin when i look at it. To me, a diamond is a diamond, it doesnt have to come out of the ground, It's not "less valuable" to me because it cost $7k instead of $25k. I keep using $25k because thats how much the minded diamond I would want goes for. I see my lab and it does everything it's supposed to do, it's gorgeous and sparkly and dances, and makes me happy, and it TRULY makes me HAPPIER that it didn't cost more. I guess maybe some people want the diamond for it's cost or 'rarity'? To me it's not rare, look on any diamond website, there's nothing rare about it, it just costs a lot LOL

I'm trying to articulate why I think lab diamonds are the best thing ever... LOL The thing is I love diamonds so much, and I think anyone who wants one should be able to have one. I truly believe everyone should be able to get their dream diamond, because no simulant does what a real diamond does.

Anyway, I bought a 2.5 VS1 G color OEC (cvd) from Alex Parks. Alex was great, he switched out my old diamond into my old setting for me. He let me meet the buyer of my mined diamond at his booth and he confirmed it was the diamond to her. The only trouble was that my new diamond is 8.5mm and my old diamond was 8.3x7.9, very out of round so it didn't fit in the setting very well. the prongs were holding on for dear life and i had a 'frame' around my diamond which was lost. So I asked David Klass to remake the setting with a few little tweaks, honestly no one would notice but me.

I just got my ring back and it's gorgeous! There has been nothing but clouds for days here but I did my best. The thing is, there is no color anywhere because it's winter!! So i will also attach a few of the old setting pics where the diamond did its thing because it was still summer and all my plants were in bloom

I love it, I might have David shave down the "frame" a little because it's much more prominent than it was before, i am seeing how I feel about it.. anyone have an opinion?? It was less prominent with my original diamond in the original setting, it was non-existent with the new diamond in the old setting and I missed it, i didn't like how it looked like a floating circle on my finger. So now, it's more prominent. To be honest in 'life' i dont really see it, in the zoomed in pics I see it.

Diamond people need to tell me - where do the colors come from?!?! Im in the woods, there's no leaves on the trees and everything is brown and grey, i am wearing head to toe black and my cell phone case is black, where do the colors come from??!!


The sun made a momentary appearance








Below was in my house, i have no room with decent light and it's been cloudy






If anyone saw my craziness on another thread... I had the iphone 14 pro and the macro pictures WERE HORRIBLE!! I had to buy a new 12 pro because I gave my old 12 to my husband. So these were on the 14 pro, so terrible this pic (below) is basically all the same setting as the above pics, and it's so grainy and blurry compared to the 12 pro pics
below is iphone 14 pro




These (below) were taken BEFORE the setting was remade, but it was summer and it was amazing all the colors!









thanks for looking! Next up - 2.72 transitional - so excited! LOL

I love all of it!!!!! How can I find out about those amazing bands though??

 

[oldcutclubmember]

thank you! I'm still trying to decide if I went overboard with the "frame" around the diamond, in pictures it's 'too much' but in life I like it 99% of the time, LOL

I know it must look less obvious in person than in the macro pics! It will probably also help with DSS

 

[Inked]

Waaow! I love the colors, if you can manage a video or 15 I would be very gracious! I just want to see all the colors and rainbows in action!

Your wish is my command! Well, i will try anyway, i never posted a video before so i may not have done it right.

This was summer before it was reset but better colors in the woods lol

https://imgur.com/a/0iOpMNF

Another one from before it was reset

https://imgur.com/a/mSp0aJQ

This was yesterday

https://imgur.com/a/mr4E6IM

 

[Inked]

I know it must look less obvious in person than in the macro pics! It will probably also help with DSS

That was EXCATLY my thought!! LOL!!!!

 

[Mooshi]

Your wish is my command! Well, i will try anyway, i never posted a video before so i may not have done it right.

This was summer before it was reset but better colors in the woods lol

https://imgur.com/a/0iOpMNF

Another one from before it was reset

https://imgur.com/a/mSp0aJQ

This was yesterday

https://imgur.com/a/mr4E6IM

Well now that is just ridiculous! I hope you enjoy it and walk into things because you are staring at your hand so often I wonder why the colors are so vibrant in the woods/summer versus now?

I saw you mention in another thread you had a MRB recut into a transitional, would you mind sharing who you went to for the recut? Thanks!

 

[Inked]

I love all of it!!!!! How can I find out about those amazing bands though??

Awww! thank you! I am very proud of my band! I wanted the cathy waterman leaf band in 18k, but it was straight and i have the weird "It has to sit flush" thing, i dont like ring gap. I tried to photoshop it as a curved band and it looked terrible. I literally tried on 100 bands and didnt like anything except the chevron band. But I didnt like the chevron band alone if i want wearing my engagement ring. So I came up with this idea to have the chevron band sit flush to my ring, and then still get my yellow gold leaf band by having the leaf band intersect it.

So I sent David Klass a horrible drawing and he was able to make it happen! It's actually one band, it just looks like 2



from David

 

[Inked]

Well now that is just ridiculous! I hope you enjoy it and walk into things because you are staring at your hand so often I wonder why the colors are so vibrant in the woods/summer versus now?

I saw you mention in another thread you had a MRB recut into a transitional, would you mind sharing who you went to for the recut? Thanks!

I literally walk staring at the ring. LOL! I have no idea where the colors come from, you can see the background it's gloomy, i have a black phone case, i dont know where all the colors come from! Now there are definitely still colors but not as vibrant and saturated as they are when the trees have leaves.

The recut was done by Ashely at Southwest diamond cutters, i only didnt do a thread on it yet because I only had my iphone 14 pro when i took the pics of it and they suck, and now I sent the diamond to David to set. It was a 3.0 ct MRB, now it is a 2.72 transitional - i chose the facet pattern i wanted.
Again, the after pic was taken with the 14pro and it's terrible but you get the idea



@Kim N also did a recut with SW - you HAVE to see hers!!!
I hope you dont mind I link your recut here!
Kim's thread below
https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/a-vc-halo-of-pink-diamonds-for-my-holy-grail.271251/

 

[diamondyes]

I love all of it! Thanks for the details!

 

[Mooshi]

@Inked Sweet! Thank you for all the info, and the link to Kims! What was the recut process like, were there patterns you were able to choose from, or just "OEC please"? Were there specific things/parameters you needed to look for when buying the MRB? I think this is the only way I'll be getting my hands on a huge OMC/antique cushion.

 

[Begonia]

Your wish is my command! Well, i will try anyway, i never posted a video before so i may not have done it right.

This was summer before it was reset but better colors in the woods lol

https://imgur.com/a/0iOpMNF

Another one from before it was reset

https://imgur.com/a/mSp0aJQ

This was yesterday

https://imgur.com/a/mr4E6IM

D@mn!
Sighing.

 

[LLJsmom]

Congratulations @Inked . Your diamond is beautiful as is your ring. We can all love different diamonds for different reasons. And the nice thing is we don’t need to understand why people like what they like in order to appreciate how pretty a stone is, and yours is gorgeous.

 

[JV36912]

Your wish is my command! Well, i will try anyway, i never posted a video before so i may not have done it right.

This was summer before it was reset but better colors in the woods lol

https://imgur.com/a/0iOpMNF

Another one from before it was reset

https://imgur.com/a/mSp0aJQ

This was yesterday

https://imgur.com/a/mr4E6IM

Those pastels. I'm swooning SO looking forward to seeing how you set the transitional diamond! Will it be similar to this one or are you going in a completely different direction?

 

[Inked]

Congratulations @Inked . Your diamond is beautiful as is your ring. We can all love different diamonds for different reasons. And the nice thing is we don’t need to understand why people like what they like in order to appreciate how pretty a stone is, and yours is gorgeous.

thank you!

I always like to understand everyone's perspectives! Often posters come on here and ask, "is it mind clean to you?" or "do you regret it" or something to that effect but I never saw anyone ask the opposite, and I wanted to understand it... or maybe I dont.... because right now I live in this blissful bubble where i think they're exactly the same, so now instead of one ring, i have 2 rings, a necklace, and another Cartier bracelet on the way... hahaha!

 

[Inked]

Those pastels. I'm swooning SO looking forward to seeing how you set the transitional diamond! Will it be similar to this one or are you going in a completely different direction?

Thank you!
So the inspiration for the transitional diamond started out with this ring



i made some small changes, i added diamonds to the shank and the donut

 

[JV36912]

Thank you!
So the inspiration for the transitional diamond started out with this ring



i made some small changes, i added diamonds to the shank and the donut

Wow! It's going to be stunning!!

 

[Inked]

@Inked Sweet! Thank you for all the info, and the link to Kims! What was the recut process like, were there patterns you were able to choose from, or just "OEC please"? Were there specific things/parameters you needed to look for when buying the MRB? I think this is the only way I'll be getting my hands on a huge OMC/antique cushion.

When i was shopping for the modern round, knowing i was recutting it, i still tried to find one with a slightly smaller table, like under 55%, I went with the color I wanted, and HPHT. I went WAY bigger than I needed. I wanted to end up around 2.5ct but I started with 3 carat, because I told him, cut as much as you need and sacrifice as much as necessary to get the perfect result. To me, the round cut labs were pretty cheap so adding more carat weight wasnt marking it up too much. The only bad thing is they charge by the starting carat on re-cut, so it cost a little more because i went bigger.

I actually wanted a transitional, not OEC. Transitionals can be more like a checkerboard or more like a chunky round cut, so I absolutely told him what i wanted, Around 2.5 ct, around 8.5mm, but if it's bigger - awesome! i sent him these 2 pictures and said this is what i wanted the facets like






And he absolutely gave me exactly what i asked for

Its bigger, at 2.72 and 9mm but no complaints here!

 

[MamaBee]

@Inked Beautiful! Your diamond and setting are stunning!!

 

[Mooshi]

When i was shopping for the modern round, knowing i was recutting it, i still tried to find one with a slightly smaller table, like under 55%, I went with the color I wanted, and HPHT. I went WAY bigger than I needed. I wanted to end up around 2.5ct but I started with 3 carat, because I told him, cut as much as you need and sacrifice as much as necessary to get the perfect result. To me, the round cut labs were pretty cheap so adding more carat weight wasnt marking it up too much. The only bad thing is they charge by the starting carat on re-cut, so it cost a little more because i went bigger.

I actually wanted a transitional, not OEC. Transitionals can be more like a checkerboard or more like a chunky round cut, so I absolutely told him what i wanted, Around 2.5 ct, around 8.5mm, but if it's bigger - awesome! i sent him these 2 pictures and said this is what i wanted the facets like






And he absolutely gave me exactly what i asked for

Its bigger, at 2.72 and 9mm but no complaints here!

Wow so helpful thank you! What mm did you start with? That's a decently small ct loss. Why HPHT over CVD?

 

[Inked]

Wow so helpful thank you! What mm did you start with? That's a decently small ct loss.

It was 9.3mm to start. I was very surprised that I lost so little to be honest!

Interestingly it was G color VS2 with IGI and several vendors warned me that sending to GIA could result in it coming back with an H color, but I was fine with that because I actually wanted H color …and it came back as a GIA VS1 F color. Oh well.

Why HPHT over CVD?

Because @DejaWiz and @Kim N said so... LOL!
They just said that HPHT was more 'rare' (CVD is more common) and that its grown like an earth diamond, multidimensionally, so it's the closest to an earth diamond. It's harder to find them, especially in a lower color, and there's no filter for it on ritani so you just have to click on each report to find one.

 

[Alistra]

Yes! Correct, the 14 is on the left and the 12 is on the right. My friend is a phone nerd and she said apple was trying to compete with Samsung so it's saturating colors more on the 14 ... but the macro pics are definitely not as crisp on the 14 as the 12

Here's another comparison with the transitional diamond, i feel like the skin on my finger on the 14 looks off and unnatural and like I over zoomed or over edited or something

This is the transitional recut, not the alex park oec , just the picture comparison purposes LOL

Thank you for posting the comparisons! I loved my iPhone XS's macro photos and videos, but my newer 12 mini is a total disappointment as far as pictures, especially close-ups of jewelry and flowers. I thought I would upgrade to the 14 Pro because they advertise dazzling photo capabilities. I am now thinking I will save money on "upgrading" my phone and focus on an antique cut lab-grown ring to celebrate my upcoming 25th wedding anniversary (not until 2025, but my husband is on board and I have started collecting inspiration pics and ideas on who I want to do the recut, etc).

Your ring is stunning by the way! I am adding to my inspiration folder

 

[Mooshi]

It was 9.3mm to start. I was very surprised that I lost so little to be honest!

Interestingly it was G color VS2 with IGI and several vendors warned me that sending to GIA could result in it coming back with an H color, but I was fine with that because I actually wanted H color …and it came back as a GIA VS1 F color. Oh well.


Because @DejaWiz and @Kim N said so... LOL!
They just said that HPHT was more 'rare' (CVD is more common) and that its grown like an earth diamond, multidimensionally, so it's the closest to an earth diamond. It's harder to find them, especially in a lower color, and there's no filter for it on ritani so you just have to click on each report to find one.

All super helpful thanks! I've since contacted SWD about a recut, exciting! Cool that yours changed colors with the recut, I wonder if it could happen the other way?

 

[DAF]

Gorgeous!

 

[W2W]

What an absolutely stunning diamond. Congratulations.

I was about to say yes to some H&A studs but you may have thrown a monkey wrench in my plan.

 

[distracts]

@Inked I remember your ring when you first got it and this diamond is just as gorgeous!

And yes SAME re: the iphone camera. They've gotten worse, and it does some sort of automatic image filtering which messes with the colors of color stones as well - I have tried to take so many pics of my new(ish) blue sapphire and it'll look perfect for a split second then the pic will "snap" into bad colors. I don't want to buy a separate camera, tbh, so I'm considering moving away from the iphone next time I get a phone, even though I'm fully in the apple ecosystem.

Have you shared details of your wedding band anywhere? Where did you get it? I'm obsessed. (The one with leaves and a diamond chevron.)
eta oh lol I see this was answered several posts before mine.

 

[Inked]

What an absolutely stunning diamond. Congratulations.

I was about to say yes to some H&A studs but you may have thrown a monkey wrench in my plan.

LOL! I bought my studs as H&A because I feel like i cant see them anyway, and no one's getting that close to me to see them either... hahahaha! I am obsessed with old cuts and as much as I appreciate their 'wonkiness' and do miss that uniqueness at times, (like I wish this wasnt SO PERFECT) but I love that I was able to get my dream diamond for a price I was willing to pay LOL