gardnerranch
Rough_Rock
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2008
- Messages
- 23
I have been "lurking" on this forum for months and it has REALLY helped me tremendously. Now that I am honing in on my final product (my ring will be finished soon!), I thought I would share what I''ve learned to help others out who want something similar. I have actually been married for quite some time, and my ring was a custom set family diamond that went back 4 generations in my family. It was a 1.5 carat stone, antique, beautiful and more sentimental than I can express. So imagine my heartbreak when I went out to do chores outside (I never take my rings off) and later discovered my entire ring had slipped off my finger in the freezing cold, and I hadn''t noticed until it was long gone. I have really searched... but to no avail (no doubt it made a tastey snack for our livestock, *sigh*). That is another story, as is my bout with the insurance company! To make a long story shorter however, I will just focus on the search for the replacement ring.
My original ring was a one of a kind, so it was quite suprising to me that when I searched for new settings and stones, I kept coming back to the ornate legacy setting at Tiffany''s. I even went to try it on. What I LOVED about this setting was its understated elegance- pure class! It somehow achieved the balance of being ornate and delicate at the same time. It was so light! I also did a lot of research on diamond cuts and pricing, but I will not go into that here either... I think there is plenty written on it already. As it relates to this discussion, the patented diamond on this ring was pretty, but it was more the totality of the ring that I fell in love with, not the step cut cushion itself. However, I was not getting fully reimbursed by my insurance company for the amount they were happily taking premiums on for years and at the same time I am not wanting to downgrade diamond size or quality for my replacement, since that would seem like adding insult to injury in this situation. Although I did try on a 1.3 carat fancy legacy at Tiffanys and I thought the ring overall was just beautiful and I would not have felt like I settled at all, the $30,000 price tag made that not so much of an impulse buy. (In order to get a comparable size to the stone I had, albeit a much better quality from Tiffany I was quoted $47,000! And the option to downgrade in quality was not available from Tiffanys, since this ring is in such short supply). So I decided to have a ring "inspired" by this one created (e.g. a replica) as the blue box was 100% unimportant to me, and I don''t buy diamonds for resale; I buy them to wear and enjoy. I did find a company that advertised they could do this for a very reasonable price. I kept looking and looking for a photo of this setting on line, and all I ever came up with was the simple legacy, or stock photos, no hand shots or examples by custom jewelers of the Legacy with Graduated Side Stones (aka "ornate" or "Fancy") which I much preferred to the simple one because the aethetics appealed much more to me, as well as the fact that it seems more unique.
So I worked with this jeweler to create it. I have attached a picture here of their product. As you all can see, this ring is HUGE and has lots of BLING (they certainly didn''t skimp on the diamonds- size or quality. The quality met with my approval and the company was extremely nice to deal with. That being said, this ring is very different from the ring I tried on at Tiffanys. It was much bulkier and flashier than what I had in mind. I was reminded that if I had been able to see a picture in advance, I would have picked up on the nuances of scale and proportion, and I would have gone a different route. I do want to emphasize that this company was very gracious with me and they have really stood behind their return policy. They were sorry that were not able to achieve my vision. They also felt that it was as delicate and detailed of a product as they were capable of making, so in good conscience they would be happy to refund my money. I have attached a picture here of the ring they created on my hand, since I intend this to be a helpful post for those looking to re-create a ring similarly inspired. I will not name the company, because I do not intend to discredit them in any way- they have been a pleasure to work with and have been professional in every way. I will say however that I have since learned that when rings are hand made (versus rendered on a computer and cast) it is extremely difficult to achieve the demure scale and pin point precision which I believe this setting calls for, whicvh is exactly what I was looking for. I am not saying it is impossible to make by hand at all. Surely I am no expert. But this is what I have experienced. So needless to say I returned the ring and went back to the drawing board again. Afterall, you don''t buy these things everyday and I viewed this as my one shot at getting the ring of my dreams, or forever hold my peace. I will post the sequel to this saga in a commentary to follow.
My original ring was a one of a kind, so it was quite suprising to me that when I searched for new settings and stones, I kept coming back to the ornate legacy setting at Tiffany''s. I even went to try it on. What I LOVED about this setting was its understated elegance- pure class! It somehow achieved the balance of being ornate and delicate at the same time. It was so light! I also did a lot of research on diamond cuts and pricing, but I will not go into that here either... I think there is plenty written on it already. As it relates to this discussion, the patented diamond on this ring was pretty, but it was more the totality of the ring that I fell in love with, not the step cut cushion itself. However, I was not getting fully reimbursed by my insurance company for the amount they were happily taking premiums on for years and at the same time I am not wanting to downgrade diamond size or quality for my replacement, since that would seem like adding insult to injury in this situation. Although I did try on a 1.3 carat fancy legacy at Tiffanys and I thought the ring overall was just beautiful and I would not have felt like I settled at all, the $30,000 price tag made that not so much of an impulse buy. (In order to get a comparable size to the stone I had, albeit a much better quality from Tiffany I was quoted $47,000! And the option to downgrade in quality was not available from Tiffanys, since this ring is in such short supply). So I decided to have a ring "inspired" by this one created (e.g. a replica) as the blue box was 100% unimportant to me, and I don''t buy diamonds for resale; I buy them to wear and enjoy. I did find a company that advertised they could do this for a very reasonable price. I kept looking and looking for a photo of this setting on line, and all I ever came up with was the simple legacy, or stock photos, no hand shots or examples by custom jewelers of the Legacy with Graduated Side Stones (aka "ornate" or "Fancy") which I much preferred to the simple one because the aethetics appealed much more to me, as well as the fact that it seems more unique.
So I worked with this jeweler to create it. I have attached a picture here of their product. As you all can see, this ring is HUGE and has lots of BLING (they certainly didn''t skimp on the diamonds- size or quality. The quality met with my approval and the company was extremely nice to deal with. That being said, this ring is very different from the ring I tried on at Tiffanys. It was much bulkier and flashier than what I had in mind. I was reminded that if I had been able to see a picture in advance, I would have picked up on the nuances of scale and proportion, and I would have gone a different route. I do want to emphasize that this company was very gracious with me and they have really stood behind their return policy. They were sorry that were not able to achieve my vision. They also felt that it was as delicate and detailed of a product as they were capable of making, so in good conscience they would be happy to refund my money. I have attached a picture here of the ring they created on my hand, since I intend this to be a helpful post for those looking to re-create a ring similarly inspired. I will not name the company, because I do not intend to discredit them in any way- they have been a pleasure to work with and have been professional in every way. I will say however that I have since learned that when rings are hand made (versus rendered on a computer and cast) it is extremely difficult to achieve the demure scale and pin point precision which I believe this setting calls for, whicvh is exactly what I was looking for. I am not saying it is impossible to make by hand at all. Surely I am no expert. But this is what I have experienced. So needless to say I returned the ring and went back to the drawing board again. Afterall, you don''t buy these things everyday and I viewed this as my one shot at getting the ring of my dreams, or forever hold my peace. I will post the sequel to this saga in a commentary to follow.
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