Purists... how far do you go?

[Mayk]

My hubby recently upgraded my Diamond earrings with Grace For a big birthday. Now I’m not comfortable wearing them to some business meetings. I’ve been thinking about lab diamonds for travel and work.

Not sure how I will feel about them. When I finally find the pair I want to try…they may end up on loupe troop. For now still hunting. Would like to fine OEC I-J in the 1.00-1.25 each for Studs.

 

[autumngems]

My hubby recently upgraded my Diamond earrings with Grace For a big birthday. Now I’m not comfortable wearing them to some business meetings. I’ve been thinking about lab diamonds for travel and work.

Not sure how I will feel about them. When I finally find the pair I want to try…they may end up on loupe troop. For now still hunting. Would like to fine OEC I-J in the 1.00-1.25 each for Studs.

There is a pair of OEC listed on Preloved 1.75ct

 

[Mayk]

There is a pair of OEC listed on Preloved 1.75ct

Temptress!

 

[Autumn in New England]

Tyty's thread (which I do not want to thread-jack) about earth mined vs. lab grown got me thinking (again) about how far one is willing to go. I am a purist... and it is a real mind clean PITA. For instance, I only want earth mined non-enhanced in any way diamonds. And colored stones... so unheated sapphires and rubies, untreated/unoiled emeralds. And everything else (spinels for instance). But not just big stones, little ones also! So bands... melee. And other small stones too. Even period pieces where sims are the norm... I just can't do it. It's a real bummer -- mentally and on the wallet! But my brain is all about the realness. The rarity. The real-ity, if you will.

Am I alone? Pleas tell me I'm not alone...

I am right there with you, Dee. It's cutting and polishing for me only. However, I do have one exception, which is minor oiling for emeralds. And the reason being that the finest colored Muzo material is just about impossible to find in decent sizes without jardin and some extent of oiling. Since it's a type III gem, and the enhancement doesn't affect color, I give it a (reluctant) pass.

 

[Lovey Lace]

This is so interesting. I'm a purist when it comes to colour, cut, and clarity, and I am an absolute stickler to those standard I've somehow come up with. I don't like to wear anything under 4cts, really I prefer 5+. Unfortunately, I am not in the <0.1%, which means taking everything together, I can only wear sims or lab-created stones and I have no problem with that as long as the 4 Cs are satisfied. Let me elaborate.

The first thing my brain has to be satisfied with is the cut. This means that for coloured stones, I *need* them to be precision cut, similar vein for diamonds, I'd need them to be XXX, rated by a very reputable lab, etc. Any sort of wonkiness or asymmetry would drive my OCD brain batshit crazy. I'm only talking about realistic scenarios here, where I'm using the money earned from working to buy something. So if you're thinking, "If someone gave you a 10ct unheated Burma ruby, you wouldn't take it because it's not precision cut?" No, I'm not talking about those hypothetical situations that would never happen to me.

For clarity, I'm looking for VVS2 or above, very ideally we are at VVS1. My purist brain would not be happy with a bunch of flaws, even if most of them or all of them are not visible under whatever x magnification. I guess clarity is the one where I'd have the most wiggle room, I could live with a VS. But SI? Forget about it, I'd rather wear nothing.

Diamond colors, I wouldn't want anything below an F. I don't care if the G or H "faces up white". I'd *know* it's not a D/E. Warm stones like below an H? Again, I'd rather wear nothing.

I like large looking stones. For fancy shapes, my sweet spot is 5ct+, but would be ok wearing a 4ct+.

Lastly, I'm frugal AF. My heart physically hurts when I spend a lot of money. It hurts doubly much when I spend money on unnecessary stuff. I think about all the good that money can do in the world, but I selfishly spent it on buying something with no utilitarian value. I'm also a bargain hunter, which means that I get a rush when I find something that's extraordinarily cheap but is the same brand or quality.

Where does that leave me? I'm a purist in a very different, if not opposite way, from the majority here. Dare I say here that I would actually prefer to wear a precision cut, flawless, big o' rock of a simulant or a lab-made, rather than a very included, low coloured, ok-cut, small diamond, even if they were priced exactly the same.

 

[Demon]

This is so interesting. I'm a purist when it comes to color, cut, and clarity, and I am an absolute stickler to those standard I've somehow come up with. I don't like to wear anything under 4cts, really I prefer 5+. Unfortunately, I am not in the <0.1%, which means taking everything together, I can only wear sims or lab-created stones and I have no problem with that as long as the 4 Cs are satisfied. Let me elaborate.

The first thing my brain has to be satisfied with is the cut. This means that for coloured stones, I *need* them to be precision cut, similar vein for diamonds, I'd need them to be XXX, rated by a very reputable lab, etc. Any sort of wonkiness or asymmetry would drive my OCD brain batshit crazy. I'm only talking about realistic scenarios here, where I'm using the money earned from working to buy something. So if you're thinking, "If someone gave you a 10ct unheated Burma ruby, you wouldn't take it because it's not precision cut?" No, I'm not talking about those hypothetical situations that would never happen to me.

For clarity, I'm looking for VVS2 or above, very ideally we are at VVS1. My purist brain would not be happy with a bunch of flaws, even if most of them or all of them are not visible under whatever x magnification. I guess clarity is the one where I'd have the most wiggle room, I could live with a VS. But SI? Forget about it, I'd rather wear nothing.

Diamond colors, I wouldn't want anything below an F. I don't care if the G or H "faces up white". I'd *know* it's not a D/E. Warm stones like below an H? Again, I'd rather wear nothing.

I like large looking stones. For fancy shapes, my sweet spot is 5ct+, but would be ok wearing a 4ct+.

Lastly, I'm frugal AF. My heart physically hurts when I spend a lot of money. It hurts doubly much when I spend money on unnecessary stuff. I think about all the good that money can do in the world, but I selfishly spent it on buying something with no utilitarian value. I'm also a bargain hunter, which means that I get a rush when I find something that's extraordinarily cheap but is the same brand or quality.

Where does that leave me? I'm a purist in a very different, if not opposite way, from the majority here. Dare I say here that I would actually prefer to wear a precision cut, flawless, big o' rock of a simulant or a lab-made, rather than a very included, low colored, ok-cut, small diamond, even if they were priced exactly the same.

It's interesting how very different we all are! The first diamond I bought was a J color. I realized that 'white' diamonds were not what I loved. (When I first joined here I had zero interest in diamonds because from what I had seen they all basically looked the same to me - white, round - meh.

So, I mostly stayed in the colored stones part of PS. Anyway, I bought the J thinking it would be a little yellow, since I read posts of so many people asking "is this too yellow"? I like the J for what it is - a white round diamond. It also has an inclusion that I can't see without a loupe, but I don't mind that because I like looking at it. My next was a W-X, which I much preferred the color of, and it has an I-1 grade setting feather which again, I don't mind because I can't see it, and 2 jeweler/gemologists said there should be no worries about breakage. And lord knows I've knocked it into things many times. I have a color shifting spinel that I love partly because of it's 'bubble' inclusions.

And then I found out there were colored diamonds! I only have a few and they're small, but this is where my heart is. I have a tiny chameleon with an indented natural, a small fancy green yellow with a very small inclusion, a fancy yellow with a couple small inclusions, a small olive colored diamond, a small brown with a couple of very tiny chips and an inclusion, and my favorite of all - my fancy intense green yellow. It's clarity is the highest of all my diamonds - VS2 - and yet it has twinning wisps, crystals and 5 naturals - one of which is on the crown and just looks like a tiny extra facet, and one of which is indented, on the crown side of the girdle. None of this bothers me because they are so tiny that, again, I can't see them without a loupe. I kind of like the indented natural because it's just above and to the left of the GIA inscription which would make it easy for me to identify should it ever get stolen or lost. It does have the inscription, but it is so tiny it's hard to read, since the diamond is small.

So I'm a purist only in that my diamonds and stones have to be natural and untreated (except, as I said earlier, heat for corundum). I'm not a purist in D-Z diamond color other than the lower the better, for me. I'm (obviously) not a purist in clarity. As long as it doesn't interfere with sparkle, I'm good, and actually prefer them to have inclusions I can look at with a loupe, as long as they aren't likely to cause breakage. Size doesn't matter to me at all and I can't imagine I'd be comfortable going much bigger than my .71 W-X - (I could probably go with more carat weight if a diamond was deep like an old mine and not a flashier round) - I don't like drawing attention to myself and find that I kind of move my hand out of sight if someone appears to be noticing it. I don't do that with my colored diamonds, as I don't think most people around me recognize them as diamonds, and they're smaller. I have diamond studs, but all my others are in rings because they are for my enjoyment, not everyone else's.

I'm slightly a purist in preferring 14K & 18K gold. Mostly yellow, but I do have some white.

 

[Demon]

I just thought of one other way I'm a purist - I won't put a diamond in a cup to enhance it's color. Yellow gold to play the color up or not distract from it, but no cups to make it look more yellow.

 

[MMtwo]

@Dee*Jay circling back around to say I love this thread and have visited it a few times. Fascinating to see how different folks collect and value jewelry.

 

[Dee*Jay]

Thank you MM! I've read every single response, even if I wasn't very active here for a bit.

And I'm sorry this thread took a negative turn there for a little while... but I'm glad we're all family and got over that!

 

[MMtwo]

Thank you MM! I've read every single response, even if I wasn't very active here for a bit.

And I'm sorry this thread took a negative turn there for a little while... but I'm glad we're all family and got over that!

Just a case of hiccups

 

[AGBF]

14k gold is my preference. 10k seems too costume jewelry-ish to me and I worry that 18k might be too soft. 22 and 24k look strange to me, like brass or something. I know that's hilarious since it literally IS pure, or nearly pure, gold. But I'm not used to seeing it, so it looks "off" to me, aside from the softness issue.

I enjoyed reading what you wrote, @seaurchin. My largest diamond is only a little over 2 carats. At one point I wanted to trade up to a 3 carat, but I do not want to go below an F color and I have only bought D colored stones in the past 15 or so years. Never below VS clarity, either. So I never made the leap to a 3 carat.

But I used to react to high karat gold the way you do. It used to look cheap to me. I loved the soft (in color, not hardness) yellow of 14K gold. Now I do not go for what would please my eye in a piece of clothing. (I would love a pale yellow dress or skirt.) The gold calls out to me, so I like it rich.

 

[AprilBaby]

No purist here! Lab or mined, I love them all! My only requirement is at least 14 kt yg. No surprise here as I am an unorganized, fly by the seat of my pants person. Would most of you purists here consider yourselves very organized?

 

[Demon]

No purist here! Lab or mined, I love them all! My only requirement is at least 14 kt yg. No surprise here as I am an unorganized, fly by the seat of my pants person. Would most of you purists here consider yourselves very organized?

Organized? I do not know what that word means!

 

[MMtwo]

I would love to know how many folks here are on the spectrum, or have it close in their family? Women "show" differently for the most part, but they tend to be collectors of things. Little professor syndrome.

Just an idle curiosity...I am not pushing anyone into a diagnosis or anything

 

[Demon]

Interesting, I hadn't thought of that. No one in my family that I'm aware of.

 

[MissGotRocks]

No purist here! Lab or mined, I love them all! My only requirement is at least 14 kt yg. No surprise here as I am an unorganized, fly by the seat of my pants person. Would most of you purists here consider yourselves very organized?

Yes, purist here and very organized - lol! Could be a connection I guess - I can be very OCD about the things that are important to me - and I determine what is important and what is not - lol!

 

[Dee*Jay]

Interesting question AprilBaby!

I am VERY VERY organized. I also got a little nutty looking at/for something when I set my mind on an item. That doesn't only apply to jewelry BTW. Never been diagnosed with anything, nor has anyone in my immediate family that I know of, but I fully confess to a likely case of OCD.

 

[88_star]

I don't know about organized. I like to *think* I'm organized and I certainly try. But my husband likes to tell me I'm the most unorganized organized person he knows.