Radiant Question

[Lady5]

Hey Ladies,

So I was browsing LM's website and was looking through his descriptions of each diamond shape...he makes his preferences very apparent! He calls Radiant cuts "the failed son of an elegant Emerald cut and frivolous Princess cut."

Okay so Radiants are by far not my favorite looking stones either, with the exception of the hearts and arrows variation (like the POH), which I have sort of had my heart set on for a while now. After reading LM's description of Radiants, I'm a little concerned. It says that color shows as a much darker color in Radiant cut stones, which is the reason why many of them are in Fancy colors.

I guess my question is, will the hearts and arrows variation of Radiant cuts show color the same as the more common Radiants? Or does it not apply?

 

[madelise]

You'd prob get better advise on RT than LIW, but I'll try. It doesn't apply. It's because of the crushed ice appearance that keeps the color trapped inside instead of letting it reflect out of the stone. If you go through DBL's inventory, you'll see almost all of his colored stones are cut with this crushed ice appearance.. and his newer antique cut line doesn't appear as richly yellow as those crushed ice cushions. Get your POH. I got the opportunity to see WebDiva's lovely POH one afternoon, and seriously, that thing BLINDED me. She was talking with her hands, and I had to shield my eyes. If you're interested in it, you'll love it. I think the POH is a great opportunity for you square-cut lovers to get something with great optics!

Take everything you read on LM's blog with a grain of salt. He tends to write a lot of his stuff using his "humor", which I don't get. To each their own, but just know he's trying to be funny with half of his analogies or whatever. He wrote fishtail pave is the cheap crap on toy rings, and that made me as my own pave is fishtail-like. BS.

 

[Enerchi]

Hi Lady 5 - I think you may want to ask the mods to move to Rocky Talky - just hit the "report concern" button on the top right and it will be magically relocated!

As for the radiants --- I was in NYC and had a FANTASTIC visit with David at DBL and saw a LOT of rings and loose diamonds . I think if you were to check out some of the radiants on their site, you would be hard pressed to consider them poor cousins of anybody! I'm thinking I need one of every cut now!

For the coloured stones, I understand that the faceting is meant to reflect colour, more so than light performance, which is key for a white diamond radiant. A colourless radiant would have a few more facet design options and I *think* the facet design is selected to maximize light, weight, clarity... but that may require further input from an expert!

I know I'm on a bit of a "DBL HIGH" at the moment, but David is very easy to talk to and if you have questions, just call him up! He'd be happy to chat with a PSer and help you with your shape selection.

 

[madelise]

Yes, David is amazing, he always offers his advice on RT.. but if OP isn't even interested in a regular radiant, I don't think it's necessary. If she is to call anyone, I think she should call a POH vendor, since the POH is exactly what she's had her heart on.

 

[Lady5]

Thanks for the info ladies! Sorry for posting in the wrong forum. I requested it be moved.

 

[Lady5]

Yes, David is amazing, he always offers his advice on RT.. but if OP isn't even interested in a regular radiant, I don't think it's necessary. If she is to call anyone, I think she should call a POH vendor, since the POH is exactly what she's had her heart on.

Yes, I seem to just ooo and ahh over POH! as well as asschers! There's just something about those cut cornered squares that draw me in! POH is branded by GOG, correct? but can other vendors source similar stones? At this point I would probably go with GOG but I'd still like to know my options.

 

[madelise]

Yes, David is amazing, he always offers his advice on RT.. but if OP isn't even interested in a regular radiant, I don't think it's necessary. If she is to call anyone, I think she should call a POH vendor, since the POH is exactly what she's had her heart on.

Yes, I seem to just ooo and ahh over POH! as well as asschers! There's just something about those cut cornered squares that draw me in! POH is branded by GOG, correct? but can other vendors source similar stones? At this point I would probably go with GOG but I'd still like to know my options.

I'm actually confused by that.. I thought it was, but other jewelers sell em too.

 

[Lady5]

Perhaps it's not. For some reason I always thought it was but if you google it theres actually a website where you can search retailers that carry them (GOG being one of them). Interesting.

 

[gem_anemone]

I'm no expert and I have an "E" stone, but my cut cornered H&A stone (basically POH) is white, white, white and sparkly! You can get square H&A cuts at GOG, Brian Gavin (Quadex). I've seen some for sale at James Allen, but at JA you have to look at the photos and pick them out yourself as they don't give them a special label there and they have very few (usually around 2 carat). I got mine locally at Helzberg as they sell a branded cut that is similar to POH and Quadex (could be the same, but I don't know their source). I know that a lot of PS users here will poo-poo that jeweler, but I love their warranty and the store is 5 mins from my house. And I didn't pay more for my stone than I would have at other jewelers, but this is only because I got an "E" and not an "H" or "I". At Helzberg it is the luck of the draw of whatever stone they bring in. They have minimum spec they have to meet in order to sell you a certain ring. Lucky for me the specs on my diamond were way better than minimum, so everything evened out. I could have saved $$$ and got a warmer stone from a PS vendor, but I love the look of a white diamond.

 

[madelise]

That's right! The Quadex! How could I forget


BUT.. every time someone's interested in a POH.. I always have to ask if a 1.7-ish stone is in your budget. GOG's 1.7 VVS one has been "on sale" since about a year ago, during one of their POH sales (when WebDiva bought hers). They never raised the price back, and it's still available. $12k for a 1.7 I VVS stone is pretty sweet of a deal when compared to the 1.7 H SI that's going for $20k. I'm shocked it hasn't sold yet.

 

[gem_anemone]

That's right! The Quadex! How could I forget


BUT.. every time someone's interested in a POH.. I always have to ask if a 1.7-ish stone is in your budget. GOG's 1.7 VVS one has been "on sale" since about a year ago, during one of their POH sales (when WebDiva bought hers). They never raised the price back, and it's still available. $12k for a 1.7 I VVS stone is pretty sweet of a deal when compared to the 1.7 H SI that's going for $20k. I'm shocked it hasn't sold yet.

I just checked that out! The $12K is cut pretty deep. I wonder if it faces up smaller than the $20K and that is why it is lower priced? It also has fat arrows. LOL.

 

[Lady5]

There's been one stone in particular on GOG's site that I've been eyeing for some time now.

I guess my dilemma is deciding where to actually buy from when the time is right. For some reason I feel a sort of loyalty to Jonathan at GOG despite having never met or purchased anything from him yet! I guess because I learned so much from him on his website when I initially starting researching that I just developed a trust with him. haha Is that weird? Anyways, I also love LM's work, which puts me in a situation I'm sure many PS's have faced. Like many of you, I don't get LM's "humor" nor do I particularly care for it...but his work is stunning and I'd LOVE to have one of his rings. Problem is, LM doesn't seem too fond of setting stones from GOG. I read in a different thread that someone suggested you have Perry source your stone if you're having it set by LM. That would be fine by me, I guess I could trust LM's guy being that the quality of work is so great. Problem is, if I get a LM I think I would want it to be my forever ring, so it might take a while to build up to that. I'd prefer a sort of "temporary" setting until we could upgrade the stone to the dream size with the dream setting. Also, I believe LM's website says you only get one upgrade with a stone purchased through him. What if I want to go bigger after my one? ugh. Decisions, decisions.

I might be looking too far into this too soon, but I like to think a ahead.

Any thoughts?

 

[madelise]

There's been one stone in particular on GOG's site that I've been eyeing for some time now.

I guess my dilemma is deciding where to actually buy from when the time is right. For some reason I feel a sort of loyalty to Jonathan at GOG despite having never met or purchased anything from him yet! I guess because I learned so much from him on his website when I initially starting researching that I just developed a trust with him. haha Is that weird? Anyways, I also love LM's work, which puts me in a situation I'm sure many PS's have faced. Like many of you, I don't get LM's "humor" nor do I particularly care for it...but his work is stunning and I'd LOVE to have one of his rings. Problem is, LM doesn't seem too fond of setting stones from GOG. I read in a different thread that someone suggested you have Perry source your stone if you're having it set by LM. That would be fine by me, I guess I could trust LM's guy being that the quality of work is so great. Problem is, if I get a LM I think I would want it to be my forever ring, so it might take a while to build up to that. I'd prefer a sort of "temporary" setting until we could upgrade the stone to the dream size with the dream setting. Also, I believe LM's website says you only get one upgrade with a stone purchased through him. What if I want to go bigger after my one? ugh. Decisions, decisions.

I might be looking too far into this too soon, but I like to think a ahead.

Any thoughts?

Buy your diamond from whom you want to buy your diamond from. Choose by considering their trade in/ buy back/ trade up policies. Take BGD, GOG and whomever else sells these types of diamonds, and look into their policies. It's extremely important, especially since you know you will be upgrading in the future.

Have you looked into Victor Canera or Steven Kirsch?

The way I see it is, the bulk of the $ spent is on the diamond, so stress more on the policies of the company who sells the diamond. If a setting vendor refuses to take your stone bc of any ill feelings, then move on to the next setting vendor.