Please PLEASE help - is there supposed to be this much air between prongs & diamond?

[Love Street]

I''m freaking out - this is DH''s first jewelry purchase for me and I''m afraid there''s something wrong with the expensive "handmade" setting for these martini studs

They just arrived after a week of dreaming about them and refreshing the fedex page every five minutes, but my elation immediately gave way to panick when I examined them up close, both with a loup and without.

A picture''s worth 1000 words - so I''ll just post away and PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE PSers tell me if this is normal (I have nothing to compare it too - these are my first diamond studs ever

) I''m just so worried that with this amount of air between the prongs it would be constantly catching on my hair and that it''s not as secure as it should be.

Thanks so much in advance

Here''s the first photo...

Diamond 1:

 

[Love Street]

Diamond 1 continued...

 

[Love Street]

Diamond 1 continued...

 

[Love Street]

Diamond 1 continued...

 

[neatfreak]

They could certainly be pressed down more than they are on the stone and probably should be. But I am no expert.

 

[Kaleigh]

It looks like it''s seated properly but the prong definitely needs to be pushed down. I''d call the vendor and send them back to be fixed. Shouldn''t take long to fix. Is it just on the one earring?

 

[Love Street]

Diamond 1 continued...

 

[Love Street]

Diamond 1 continued...

 

[Love Street]

OK now this is the other one - Diamond 2:

 

[Love Street]

Diamond 2 contd....

 

[FrekeChild]

Yikes. Not only are the prongs wonky, but the whole earring looks...off balance and tilted. I'm no expert and I think those puppies need to go back ASAP!
ETA: Off kilter. Is it just me that looks like the basket is not centered on the post. (I'm making up my own terms here...because I'm not sure of the real ones)

 

[Love Street]

Date: 4/25/2008 1:31:30 PM
Author: Kaleigh
It looks like it''s seated properly but the prong definitely needs to be pushed down. I''d call the vendor and send them back to be fixed. Shouldn''t take long to fix. Is it just on the one earring?

Thanks Kaleigh - no, both earrings are like that. And this was James Allen''s $325 "handmade" setting...

The diamonds are small: .30 so I initally thought that maybe that was the problem, but every prong on each earring has air - some worse than others has you can see.

 

[Love Street]

Date: 4/25/2008 1:35:28 PM
Author: FrekeChild
Yikes. Not only are the prongs wonky, but the whole earring looks...off balance and tilted. I''m no expert and I think those puppies need to go back ASAP!
ETA: Off kilter. Is it just me that looks like the basket is not centered on the post. (I''m making up my own terms here...because I''m not sure of the real ones)

I was wondering that too, but didn''t want to say anything in case other people saw it by themselves - like you did!! I wonder if part of it is the camera angle, or my eyes playing tricks on me, but I don''t know...

 

[Love Street]

Some more of diamond 2....

 

[Love Street]

I feel like I''m not even capturing the amt of air that I''m seeing, which is why I took multiple pics of the same prong.
Here''s more of Diamond 2:

 

[Love Street]

Diamond 2:

ETA: oops wrong pic and now I cant remove it.. I'm too frazzled now.

 

[Love Street]

Diamond 1 again..

 

[Cleo]

Woah....

I would absolutely not accept those as being set to an acceptable standard, personally. The prong tips are raised from the surface of the diamond and could easily catch on hair or clothes. This could result in potentially hurting yourself, losing the earring altogether, or lifting the prong further and losing the diamond.

I would return them immediately, along with copies of your photographs and request that they be reset.

If it makes you feel better I had a similar problem with my engagement ring, set by a local B&M....

I''m sure James Allen will put it right for you.

x x x

 

[Love Street]

Date: 4/25/2008 2:38:29 PM
Author: Cleo
Woah....

I would absolutely not accept those as being set to an acceptable standard, personally. The prong tips are raised from the surface of the diamond and could easily catch on hair or clothes. This could result in potentially hurting yourself, losing the earring altogether, or lifting the prong further and losing the diamond.

I would return them immediately, along with copies of your photographs and request that they be reset.

If it makes you feel better I had a similar problem with my engagement ring, set by a local B&M....

I''m sure James Allen will put it right for you.

x x x

Thanks for your reply Cleo. I had the same thoughts re: snagging on hair and clothing - I just didn''t know if this was typical for small settings like this, expecially handmade ones. I know lots of PSers have martini settings on stones in this size range (.25 - .35 each) but in my pre-purchase research I didn''t see this problem come up at all...

I wonder if it''s a function of the setting being hand made? Or white gold vs. platinum? (These are WG).

Thanks for confirming I''m not going crazy...

 

[Love Street]

OK, just a few more photos - I tried to be methodical and take a photo of each prong on each diamond, so here goes...

(I forget which I called 1 vs 2 above so starting over)

Diamond A, Prong 1:

 

[Love Street]

Diamond A, Prong 2:

 

[Love Street]

Diamond A, Prong 2 again - this is a "claw prong" - but not in a good way

 

[Love Street]

Diamond A, Prong 3:

 

[Love Street]

*********************

I''m sorry to inundate with posts and photos - I guess it''s my way of venting... so thanks for putting up with it.

OK, now we''re on to Diamond B, Prong 1:

 

[Love Street]

Diamond B, Prong 1 again:

 

[Love Street]

Diamond B, Prong 2:

 

[Love Street]

Diamond B, Prong 2 again...

 

[Love Street]

Diamond B, Prong 3....

And this is it for photos. DH was so looking forward to my getting these, and he let me pick them out myself which I wanted to do, so I hate to rain on our parade by being so nit-picky - but I guess I just wasn''t expecting to see this from JA''s expensive handmade setting (which I agonized over since it''s so much more $ than other settings, but decided the quality & craftsmanship would be worth it in the end...

)
I will call JA but after I talk to hubby...

Thanks for listening to my pity fest!!!!

 

[Diamond*Dana]

It looks like the prongs just need to be pushed down more, they look like beautiful earrings otherwise! Don''t worry about it, I know that it is not fun when things you look forward to do not work out, but I am certain that you will be super happy in the long run!

 

[SYC]

Oh no! I''m really surprised by these pictures. I have the same setting, and while the prongs aren''t dead on the stone, there definitely isn''t that amount of air b/w the prongs and the diamond. An independent appraiser actually told me that the prong work on the earrings was very good.

You may want to ask them if they made a mistake and gave you the stock martini settings instead of the handmade ones. It''s hard to tell from the pictures, but the posts do look a little thicker than they are on mine. Maybe you can ask them to check and let you know if they gave you the right settings. Either way, they should be able to fix the prongs.