Sparklycushion
Rough_Rock
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2013
- Messages
- 1
I just got my custom engagement ring from Steven Kirsch, and it's everything I hoped it would be! Pricescope posts helped to steer us to Steven and I want to give back and share my story as well 
I've always loved the Harry Winston "One" design but couldn't justify the brand markup. My fiance and I looked at other micropave settings (e.g. DeBeers, Tiffanys, diamond district, etc.) but didn't find anything like the "white on white", "delicate", "pillowy" feel of a HW cushion micropave.
We made an appointment to see Steven Kirsch because he was highly recommended on PS and he is known for delicate micropave work. Turns out he also made rings for Harry Winston - woo hoo! In our first appointment, he basically found us "the diamond" - which we weren't expecting at all. It was a very unique cushion cut just within our budget (G, 2.29). If we hadn't seen it, I probably would have gotten a modified cushion with a "crushed ice" look because it's the most common cushion cut these days. The unmodified cushion cut is more similar to a round brilliant, so it shines with "clean facets", not like "crushed ice." I forget what the actual cut is called, because there are many variations of the unmodified cushion cut. It turned out that I liked the unmodified cut much much better - not saying modified cuts are bad, just not my preference! Anyway, Steven made us feel very comfortable and didn't push us to buy the diamond and he was candid in educating us about diamonds, and we just felt he was the real deal. When we set to designing the ring, he was also patient with me even though I had many (probably exorbitant) details and specs regarding the ring. Steven walked me through what can be done vs. what shouldn't be done. We walked through several iterations of how to optimize all the tiny components of the ring - shank width, melee size, how high the basket should sit above the finger, how to make the four prongs holding the basket, angle of prongs holding the basket, size of the donut of the basket, how high to set the diamond in the basket, etc. etc. He listened to my descriptions and basically made them all come true in the ring. When I first saw the ring, I could only think "WOW THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED - HOW DID HE DO THIS?!" It's pretty stunning, and when I walked into HW, I couldn't really notice the difference in the quality of my setting from their settings. For me, it is actually better than the HW setting because we tweaked certain details that we didn't like in the HW design. Also SK uses D color melees, which I think is higher than HW melees (I might be wrong, but that's what the SA told me). It's clear that SK is a master jeweler and an artist. I'm so glad my fiance found Steven, it was great to work with Steven and his setting makes all the difference. See pics below! The camera doesn't exactly do it justice because it was really hard to focus on the ring.
I've always loved the Harry Winston "One" design but couldn't justify the brand markup. My fiance and I looked at other micropave settings (e.g. DeBeers, Tiffanys, diamond district, etc.) but didn't find anything like the "white on white", "delicate", "pillowy" feel of a HW cushion micropave.
We made an appointment to see Steven Kirsch because he was highly recommended on PS and he is known for delicate micropave work. Turns out he also made rings for Harry Winston - woo hoo! In our first appointment, he basically found us "the diamond" - which we weren't expecting at all. It was a very unique cushion cut just within our budget (G, 2.29). If we hadn't seen it, I probably would have gotten a modified cushion with a "crushed ice" look because it's the most common cushion cut these days. The unmodified cushion cut is more similar to a round brilliant, so it shines with "clean facets", not like "crushed ice." I forget what the actual cut is called, because there are many variations of the unmodified cushion cut. It turned out that I liked the unmodified cut much much better - not saying modified cuts are bad, just not my preference! Anyway, Steven made us feel very comfortable and didn't push us to buy the diamond and he was candid in educating us about diamonds, and we just felt he was the real deal. When we set to designing the ring, he was also patient with me even though I had many (probably exorbitant) details and specs regarding the ring. Steven walked me through what can be done vs. what shouldn't be done. We walked through several iterations of how to optimize all the tiny components of the ring - shank width, melee size, how high the basket should sit above the finger, how to make the four prongs holding the basket, angle of prongs holding the basket, size of the donut of the basket, how high to set the diamond in the basket, etc. etc. He listened to my descriptions and basically made them all come true in the ring. When I first saw the ring, I could only think "WOW THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED - HOW DID HE DO THIS?!" It's pretty stunning, and when I walked into HW, I couldn't really notice the difference in the quality of my setting from their settings. For me, it is actually better than the HW setting because we tweaked certain details that we didn't like in the HW design. Also SK uses D color melees, which I think is higher than HW melees (I might be wrong, but that's what the SA told me). It's clear that SK is a master jeweler and an artist. I'm so glad my fiance found Steven, it was great to work with Steven and his setting makes all the difference. See pics below! The camera doesn't exactly do it justice because it was really hard to focus on the ring.
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