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[Laila619]

Hi Gypsy,

I love your new Steven Kirsch halo re-set! It's stunning! Can you please tell me what size melee are in your halo (and what size were the melee in the previous Ocean halo as well)? I am going to halo my 1.8 carat round stone. I don't want to add size to it per se, but I don't want the melee to be so tiny that they are just gray dots. Can you please give me your input? Thanks!!!

 

[Gypsy]

Hiya hon and thank you!!!

First, I apologize for not getting more pics of the ring up.

Second, my original halo by Ocean had 1 pointers. There were 20 of them for a total of .20 points. And they were single cuts.

My new halo by Steven is .5 pointers. There are 24 of them for a total of .12 points and they are full cuts.

The difference is that with my Ocean halo you could saw individual stones clearly whereas with my Steven halo you see a sparkly line of light. I personally love both looks. But the proportionality of my stone (6mm) to the 1/2 pointers really makes my stone the star. Whereas with Ocean I got a much larger size boost, but it looked like one large head instead of accenting my center.

As for single versus full cut. I LOVE the look of single cuts. They are a complete and utter pain to replace though. So if you go with single cuts, buy like 5 or 10 extra and just keep them so if you ever need repairs you have a replacement ready to go.

 

[Laila619]

Thank you so much for the reply, Gypsy! Hmmm. So do you think I should go with 1 pointers then? Or will that be too much of a cocktail ring look?

 

[Gypsy]

No, not cocktail. One pointers really aren't THAT big. If you are going with bright cut, then you are looking at a larger halo. But if you go with a V-cut type pave then one pointers will be okay.

Have you ever seen Daniel K's work up close? My Steven pave is very much like the pave on Daniel K settings for one carat stones that I've seen.

Or if you go to Tiffany ask to see their new super tiny Lucida bands and count the stones and divide by the carat weight. I think those are about 1/2 pointers. I wore one next to my Steven halo and the pave was close-ish. Then compare that with a band at Tiffany with one pointers (they have a few, I think the Legacy bands have one pointers).

It will give you the best idea. The Lucida pave band is very much a sparkly trail versus their other pave bands that are more 'individual stone' looks.

 

[Dreamer_D]

Laila are you thinking of going with Steven? I would really like to see you wearing your big rock lady

And my vote for your size stone would be one pointers I think.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Did you ask Frankie about hers? Because she did a SK halo on her round. It seems like she might have listed the specs, too.

Hers:

[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/forum/show-me-the-ring/steven-kirsch-2-32ct-rb-halo-ring-tons-of-pics-t159649.html']https://www.pricescope.com/forum/show-me-the-ring/steven-kirsch-2-32ct-rb-halo-ring-tons-of-pics-t159649.html[/URL]

Her mother's:

[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/forum/show-me-the-ring/timeless-luxury-steven-kirsch-rb-halo-ring-is-here-t156815.html']https://www.pricescope.com/forum/show-me-the-ring/timeless-luxury-steven-kirsch-rb-halo-ring-is-here-t156815.html[/URL]

You may want to reference whichever of these styles you have in mind and ask him what size stones would be proportional to your stone. I really love how her mother's ring is made best because I would not choose the diamonds on the side of the halo or on the doughnut (because the diamonds on the doughnut will rub a wedding band).

 

[Laila619]

Thanks for the advice ladies!

Dreamer, I'm asking Steven for a quote. I'm not sure if I'll go with him though because we just bought a house ( ) so I don't want to spend a ton right now. But maybe I'll have to bite the bullet and do it, since I don't know who else would be able to execute the halo and get such a great result.

Gypsy, 1 pointers are 1.3mm, am I right? That really might be too big for me! My stone is 7.8 mm already. I don't want to add any more size really. I want a very subtle halo. I would be doing a V cut pave halo (not bright cut) so maybe it won't be too bulky, but the 1.3mm stones are scaring me. Maybe I could ask for .7 pointers (in between .5 pointers and 1 pointers).

Diamondseeker, thanks. I love Frankie's ring too. Hers doesn't look like a cocktail ring at all!

 

[Laila619]

Ok, I have one additional question, ladies:

For a round diamond, do you like a cushion shaped halo or a round shaped halo? It will just be a plain shank. Decisions, decisions! Thanks!

 

[diamondseeker2006]

No, I like Frankie's rings a lot and do not think they look like cocktail rings. But I wouldn't want the diamonds any bigger than those, and maybe a tiny bit smaller to be in proportion to your diamond. Maybe you can ask Steven what size hers are and then go one step smaller.

With this particular setting, I like the halo to be the same as the shape of the stone..Gypsy's is perfect for her asscher and Frankie's are perfect for her round. The time I like a cushion halo with round stone is when there is a metal edge around the halo such as the Vatche Grace.

 

[Gypsy]

There are some cushion shaped halos I love. But as a rule I prefer a delicate round frame around a round stone. I like Frankie's mom's. But I prefer my profile. I like the wires bowing out, not in and I like that I don't have a donut, so I can do a flush fit band. And I'm not one for pave on the gallery wires. But I like the way Frankie's stone is set... higher up so it really shows off the crown (mine is set the same way).

Here's my advice to keep costs down. Go with Steven, but do a single row of pave for the halo. Plain metal gallery and high polish on the on the 2mm shank. Tell him you want the same proportions as Frankie's mom's melee to center stone ratio and you want your stone set up a little, like Frankie's.

Keeping the pave just on the top of the halo will keep melee costs (which are really fricking high right now) down and the high polish metal is really lovely and fluid from the profile and from the top down.

IF you like the proportions on my current ring, ask for him to maintain that but for your size stone.

The nice thing about him is you can TALK to him. Just tell him what you want and have him propose something back. And if you want to tweak, tweak. He won't mind. He wants you to be happy.

I contacted (combo of email and phone) him like 5 times about my gallery wires ( I was REALLY worried about them because they were the part of my original ring Ocean knocked out of the park and I was worried about him replicating them). He did a great job. And was VERY patient.

 

[ml2]

love love love the plain shank!

our first attempt at our custom round halo was actually "screwed up" by the setter's mistake of adding diamonds to the band... (if you can ever call more diamonds a screw up, that is)

per gypsy's suggestion, we found a new goldsmith and are a couple short weeks away from done yay... just wanted to post the "inspiration" custom ring we saw in the place we're having it done/redone... this ring is actually a .88 RB (much smaller than yours) with 1.1 mm diamonds in the halo (so somewhere in between half pointers and 1 pointers)... on a 4.5 ring size... just to give you some perspective on a similar design! (ignore the large, loose wedding band hanging out underneath...)

 

[Dreamer_D]

I think with this style halo I like a round halo with a round stone. I like the cushion halo when it is the bead set pave in a channel, like the vatche Grace.

 

[Laila619]

Thanks ladies!! I think I too like the round halo better for this type of ring.

ml2, that ring is STUNNING! Wow! Can you give me details please? Who made it? And who is designing your ring? Thanks!

 

[ml2]

HAPPY to help! The people on here are sooooo generous with their advice and time, it's the least any of us amateurs can do when we get good advice is to pass it along! the one in the pic is a custom ring design by Joe Escobar Diamonds in Campbell, CA. My fiance and I had been searching for something very similar and had even had the ill-fated first one made by a goldsmith in SF that just wasn't up to snuff on the pave work and a few other details including the "extra" diamonds...

Gypsy and a few other super helpful PSers suggested the new place, and we walked in and saw the one I posted above - we're setting a 1.05 round and made some other slight modifications, so it'll look a little different than the original, but it'll be pretty darn close... the pave is just a WORLD above the other place that did the first ring and I'm so excited to see it finished! soon!!

 

[Laila619]

ml2, how exciting for you! Please be sure to post lots of pics when your ring is done, I bet it will be amazing!! I guess the original mess up was a blessing in disguise of sorts. What is the profile of your ring going to look like?

 

[ml2]

I absolutely will! you're right that it was a blessing in disguise, but I was really worried my fiance wouldn't get his deposit back or that we'd be stuck with trying to "fix" a messed up version, and it just wasn't the good feeling you want to have about the process, so I'm SO grateful that we got to start over with the new place - they seem like real pro's!

the gallery of the ring is going to be very simple - dainty cathedral setting up the sides with four stems set in "tulip" style (so he called it - so not a straight V-shape), no donut (is that what that's called?) so my eventual wedding band will sit flush... with a shank somewhere around 1.8 mm... everything rounded, with no flat, squared-off or sharp edges... that's the idea anyway!