Reasonable price

[wiscg]

Wow I love this forum. Lots of good advice. I''m glad I stumbled across this. Anyway:

I want to know if I''m out of my mind for budgeting my e-ring as such:

$2500-$3000 for
-a hand-made platinum filigree setting (no diamonds in the setting, but a custom design)
-A round-cut (or oec? are those more/less pricey? i kinda like the way they look) diamond, in the VS2-SI1 range, a solid G or better, 0.5-0.6 weight, as good of a cut as possible.

I''m thinking $1000 for the setting, maybe $1500 for the rock? What do you folks think? Am I going to make it?

 

[valeria101]

OEC could be as much as 20% less than a modern round cut - and your price ref. seems reasonable.

I am not sure about the setting - it could likely be a bit more than 1k.

But no, the whole package is definitely not out of the ordinary - wether it makes sense to you to spend this on a piece of jewelry... oh well, this is yet another topic.

Did you ever take a look at THESE ?

 

[wiscg]

I suppose I should have looked this up beforehand, but it seems that the OEC is a lower-quality cut than the round brilliant. Is that so? This isn't something I want to skimp money on, so paying that 20% extra to get a significantly better diamond would be worth it to me.

 

[valeria101]

Well... "OEC" stands in for "Old European Cut" and tehy definitely have their charm. You seemed to mention that you prefer them in your first post and there are enough buyers looking for these cuts for their own sake, not the dsicount

.

There are nice stones and no-so-nice stones among these OECs as there are among rounds. And since they are indeed 'old' - meaning no longer made (unless someone orders one or whatever) so you'd have to go to a specialized dealer who caters for old stones. An even more 'primitive' cut the "Old Miner's" seems to be back in fashion with a bang - those would look like small 'cushion' cuts, rather deep and very fiery compared to most things modern (the rounds are too brilliant for fire to show).

On this forum, David Atlas (aca 'Old Miner'

) deals with these old stones... and some surfaced at "Diamondsbylauren".

I can definitely understand that you want to avoid the 'fashion' premium on the rounds - but the other options are by no means 'lower quality'. It just takes more knowledge and perhaps 'acquired taste' to appreciate the look of each and every.... No ofense.

For the type of ring you were looking for, I was already thinking "Old Miners" in fact... 'cause the stye was meant for them in the first place. Besides, the setting would nicely accomodate the depth of the cut.

Any thoughts?

 

[valeria101]

Not sure wether there is enough of a folowing for this line of thought, but I strongly believe that something fundamentally beautiful has been lost in the quest for more geometrically precise cuts (Modern brilliant versus Old Miners...).

I would not dare say this if old rings would not be still desired and bought and stones in the 'old' shape would not be cut nowadays to meet demand.

Here are some examples...

Old Miner's, G-VS at Fay's (and the price definitely reflects the attraction of old-styles

)

and a 'new vintage' Old Miner's cut at Diamonds by Lauren... LINK - the piece makes front line for ("Elegant Solitaires...)

I would consider an OMC e-ring as a sophisticated choice, not a bargain... Not that those stones are relatively expensive - but you will have to inquire about one, there are not huge databases of such things (not bad, I would think).


Oh well...

 

[valeria101]

BTW, is THIS] cose to what you were looking for ? The stone is not wthin your parametes, but the model and setting definitely seem so to me...

 

[valeria101]

The setting looks like it could accomodate a larger stone, if needs be.

 

[wiscg]

Val-

That last setting you have there is pretty spot-on to what I would want, other than the fact that I would like the actual dimond to sit half-way out of the setting. Sort of a mix between the setting you posted and a traditional prong setting. I've seen a lot of the filigree-style settings with the diamond set as I'd like.

As an update, I found someone in Madison (about 75 miles from Milwaukee) who does platinum filigree work by hand. I've faxed him photos and a description of what I'd like, and he's going to get back to me about the potential price and time frame. Just playing the waiting game, now.

Thanks for all your help, by the way.