Trying to decide on a setting for OctaCZ

[HDer]

So I reserved the pink OctaCZ.

However, the setting Melissa suggested costs a little more than I would like for a travel ring.

So here are the choices I've seen:

https://www.stuller.com/products/bu...mmendationSource=SiteSearch#/mounting-options (10K RG one Melissa suggested, but a bit more expensive than I would like)

https://www.etsy.com/listing/252911441/caimao-14kt585-white-gold-85mm-cushion?ga_order=price_asc&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=cushion gold mount&ref=sr_gallery_9 (Melissa said they can work with a cushion setting for the Asscher)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cushion-Cut...ng-/222644241639?hash=item33d6a184e7#shpCntId

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Semi-Mount-...281217?hash=item4b173ade81:g:Fx0AAOSwq1JZE3tO (with the resizing fee this might not be worth it)

Melissa also suggested continuum silver, which has the advantage over sterling in that it's much harder (supposedly comparable to 14K gold) but shares the disadvantage in that it will also tarnish. I'm a bit wary because I got my g/f a Tiffany's necklace that tarnished and she didn't like it as much after that.

Another option would be to just get the CZ now and wait and see if we go to China or India later on or if gold prices decrease.

 

[whitewave]

Hum. I have no suggestion but can't wait to see the CZ!

 

[Austina]

I like the 1st and 3rd ones. Do you have a photo of the stone please?

 

[HDer]

I don't. But I did find this video:

Not sure if it's the same one. I'll ask Melissa on Monday.

Here's another option I found. Looks like even Karl's used them back in the day.

http://www.jamminggems.com/ladies-square-eight-8-prong-ring-setting.aspx

Price is 210 set for YG/WG (might have to call them to see if they do RG) or 30 dollars in sterling! Sterling's going to tarnish and deform sooner or later, but for 30 bucks, maybe I can just get it to tide me over if I can't find the right one now.

I like the kcjewelry one. It's up for bidding so final price might end up a little higher. But 180 (shipped and resized) with a pave isn't bad at all. Will need to ask Melissa if the stone will fit though because the dimensions on the picture show 7.8mm. Does anyone have kcjewelry's e-mail? It'd be easier to e-mail them than ask over eBay.

 

[HDer]

Here's one with a halo: http://www.ebay.com/itm/10K-Yellow-...814997?hash=item3620fef9d5:g:62YAAOSwi-9ZkxFd Might be excessive for a travel ring though.

 

[Austina]

Now I've seen it, I think I'd definitely go with Rose gold, I think it'll be stunning and bring a little more colour and contrast. I like the halo setting too. If you can get any of them for near the starting price, I don't think you can go wrong.

 

[MollyMalone]

Although this is presently intended to be a travel ring, it's not outside the realm of possibility that once you two have the OctaCZ in hand, she'll be captivated enough by the color and cut to want to wear it more often, as a right-hand ring, in real life.

But even for just a travel ring, I'll counsel against either of the kcjewelry semi-mounts -- unless Melissa has recently seen comparable items from the same vendor & deems them acceptable. Think you'll be disappointed in the standard, so-called H SI1 - SI3, diamond melee from the Chinese manufacturers: the usual advice on the Colored Stones forum* has been to upgrade the melee, which bumps up the price quite a bit. Those two semi-mounts are very lightweight -- even including the diamonds, both are under 2 grams; the non-halo'd semi-mount is closer to 1.5 grams. And to further keep down the cost of those particular settings, the melee diamonds are cast with the gold. So the melee diamonds can end up not sitting evenly. Plus, those diamonds will be susceptible to popping out, especially given the thinness -- width-wise and depth/thickness-wise -- of the shank.

So these are the reasons I'm concerned you will end up regretting the purchase of either one of those semi-mounts. Stuller, on the other hand, is a good value & their work is nicely finished (i've used Stuller mountings for some of my colored gems) even tho' their settings aren't priced as cheap.

If you've not already seen it, here's the page where Wink cautions that not just any ol' jeweler can be trusted to set a CZ & he gives pointers for jewelers who may not be familiar with the pitfalls:
http://winkcz.com/education/setting-jewelry-with-cz/

Like everyone else here, I'm looking forward to pics once the OctaCZ is yours!

* The Colored Stones forum is the PS community where, historically speaking, more people have purchased the Chinese semi-mounts & even there, enthusiasm for them has waned in the 4 years since I joined PS because the general consensus is that the quality isn't what it used to be. So although i purchased a couple of semi-mounts Lord of the Gem Rings 10-12 years ago, i doubt i'll use LOGR again, especially since their better settings are not great bargains nowadays.

 

[HDer]

Thanks @MollyMalone. Yes, I agree getting a pave melee from China might not be the best idea unless I'm certain about the quality control (i.e. maybe if I inspect it in person in China).

I'm leaning towards getting the jamminggems or Tripp's:

http://www.tripps.com/index.php?p=product&id=38843

Will have to ask Melissa if she has any experience with them and prefers to set it or have me send it to them to set.

Still need to call them and see if either can do rose gold.

Another option as mentioned is to just do sterling. At 15 dollars for the setting and another 15 for sizing and mounting it's practically disposable, and we can always wait to see what else we want to do with the CZ.

 

[HDer]

Another reason pushing me towards just getting sterling silver is the fact that the CZ will eventually (Wink says in one of his videos 3-5 years is a good life expectancy) get scratched or damaged in some other way, leaving me with a 200/300 dollar gold square setting that may or may not be reusable.

Of course, if that happens I don't know how I will ever find another 8mm Octavia since these are being discontinued, and if I do find a 3 carat Octavia diamond it's going to cost me both kidneys.

So maybe the right thing to do is to never let it out of the original packaging... my precious...

EDIT: for a pink 3 carat Octavia I might have to throw in the liver and heart too.

 

[Austina]

Interesting to read MM's experience of Chinese mounts. I know you've already bought the stone, but if it's just a travel ring you're after, would it be cheaper to just buy a premounted CZ?

You can get something like this here in the U.K., CZ set in Rose gold overlaid sterling silver really inexpensively

 

[MollyMalone]

Thanks * * * I'm leaning towards getting the jamminggems or Tripp's:
[URL]http://www.tripps.com/index.php?p=product&id=38843[/URL]

Will have to ask Melissa if she has any experience with them and prefers to set it or have me send it to them to set.
Still need to call them and see if either can do rose gold.

Another option as mentioned is to just do sterling. At 15 dollars for the setting and another 15 for sizing and mounting it's practically disposable, and we can always wait to see what else we want to do with the CZ.

[COLOR=#000000]A couple of FYIs re Jamming Gems & Tripps:
* JG's mountings "as is" are not fully finished-polished. Thus, the notation on the page you linked, [I]Additional Sizings/Settings and Polishing available below[/I], and why [I]Mounting is Tumble-Finished Only (no extra charge) [/I]is the first of the drop-down menu choices under [I]Set Gem and Polish. [/I] (I thought this was true of Tripps' mountings as well, but apparently not.) Karl K could do the final work himself; you'll need to pay to have that done. JG charges less for that than I expect WinkCZ will, but I would not have either JG or Tripps set the OctaCZ -- a unique stone that you won't be able to replace if JG or Tripps ruin or damage it while it's in their possession.
So if you end up deciding upon a mounting from either JG or Tripps, I would have Melissa order the mounting so it's sent directly to WinkCZ. That will be faster and cheaper than you paying twice for shipping: 1st to you and then from you to WinkCZ.

* Both JG and Tripps mournings are pre-notched, meaning they come with the "seat" for the center stone already done. Illustrations of not notched vs notch for seat:
[ATTACH]594318[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]594319[/ATTACH]
That's a nice convenience, especially for home hobbyists, but the ready-made seats may not be correct or in the right spot for the OctaCZ -- and why I'd ask Melissa to make appropriate query of either company rather than you being the middleman in this respect.

Also, have you asked Melissa about the risks, if any, of removing the OctaCZ from a silver setting you first purchase and later setting it into a gold mounting. if this were a generic CZ, i wouldn't be hyper about it -- even tho' CZs are more brittle than diamonds -- 'cause it would be easy and very cheap to replace the original CZ if it were to be damaged in the transition to a subsequent setting. But replacing the OctaCZ several years from now won't be an option for you. And I do think you two won't be happy with a silver setting as the OctaCZ's "forever home."

ETA photo re seating from WinkCZ page re Setting CZs:
[ATTACH]594323[/ATTACH][/COLOR]

 

[soxfan]

Another reason pushing me towards just getting sterling silver is the fact that the CZ will eventually (Wink says in one of his videos 3-5 years is a good life expectancy) get scratched or damaged in some other way, leaving me with a 200/300 dollar gold square setting that may or may not be reusable.

Hmmmm....Melissa told me they can last a lifetime if you take care of them? I was going to have CVB set mine in a simple soli, with the hopes of putting an AVC or antique cushion in there someday. If the stone's life expectancy really is only 3-5 years, I guess I'm going to have to rethink that....

 

[HDer]

Hmmmm....Melissa told me they can last a lifetime if you take care of them? I was going to have CVB set mine in a simple soli, with the hopes of putting an AVC or antique cushion in there someday. If the stone's life expectancy really is only 3-5 years, I guess I'm going to have to rethink that....

This is what I'm going off of:

I think with the new technology, "if you take care of them" yes they can last forever, or close enough to forever. The issue is that accidents happen especially to rings so just like the ring itself, eventually the stone will get beaten up.

I mean if you think about a regular diamond ring, not just the setting, but even the diamond, will if worn enough, get a chip or a scratch. The difference is that chips and scratches on diamonds can be repaired whereas for a CZ they're probably not worth repairing.

 

[HDer]

So I ended up going with the cheapo sterling silver setting from jamminggems for now.

Surprisingly after a bit of conversation they recommended their four prong round setting vs. the 8 prong square I was originally going to get.

http://www.jamminggems.com/sterling-classic-round-deep-v-premium-ring-setting.aspx

Just around 30 dollars including shipping.

I think it'll be enough to tide us over for now. Assuming she likes the stone and doesn't scratch it or lose it in the next year or so we'll probably look at setting it in something more permanent and a bit fancier.

 

[HDer]

So we got the ring set from Jamming Gems. Attached are a few pictures. Apologies for the poor quality. Still getting the hang of taking ring pictures with my smartphone.



Initial impressions:

As you can tell from the pictures the stone is very saturated pink. So I don't think anyone will mistake it for a real diamond.

It is, however, quite beautiful and gives off some very nice flashes of fire, some of which you can see from the pictures.

As you can tell the ring is a little big. This is an unforced error on my part. Jamming Gems offers the ring in size 6 but offers to resize it for all of 9 dollars. I told them to hold off resizing to 5.5 because I was afraid that there would be variance in sizing between rings. But it's just a little too big for her ring finger and we'll probably have to send it back to be sized, after we get the regular ring of course.

Even at this size, the Octavia pattern isn't really that noticeable unless I look at the ring from head on. To be honest, the Octavia aspect of this ring is probably more for me than for her.

From what I can tell Jamminggems did a really good job with the setting. I'd definitely recommend them for people who want to get an inexpensive setting that costs all of 30 dollars.

 

[HDer]

 

[OoohShiny]

I think that looks great, and thank you for posting the info/recommendation for JammingGems - they seem really excellent value.

Did you send the stone to them to be set or did you get it set locally?

I was looking at a pendant setting if I'm able to get hold of an OctaCZ for the good lady:
http://www.jamminggems.com/cast-pre-notched-square-octo-pendant-setting.aspx

 

[HDer]

I think that looks great, and thank you for posting the info/recommendation for JammingGems - they seem really excellent value.

Did you send the stone to them to be set or did you get it set locally?

I was looking at a pendant setting if I'm able to get hold of an OctaCZ for the good lady:
http://www.jamminggems.com/cast-pre-notched-square-octo-pendant-setting.aspx

Thanks! Yes, I had Melissa send it to them and had them set it. They were the ones who talked me out of the square setting in favor of the round one for the Octavia, so would definitely give them a call.

A pendant would be really lovely. Hope to see yours soon!

 

[whitewave]

It is really pretty!!!

 

[HDer]

Here's a more in focus picture of the OctaCZ, using my USB microscope:

 

[HDer]

Sorry to resurrect this very old thread but there's another last of its kind pink Wink OctaCZ listed on DB right now:
https://diamondbistro.com/category/252/CZ/listings/56814/Wink-CZ-cut-like-asscher-octavia.html

Was super tempted to buy it but what would we do with 2? A bit too big for earrings methinks.