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- Jun 3, 2008
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Hi, everyone! I'm hoping you can help me figure this out. Sorry, this is gonna be long:
I ordered a cushion-cut aquamarine from Jeff Davies on eBay back at the end of November. It took forever to get here because it was coming from Thailand and I'm in the US. So while I was waiting for the stone to arrive, I ordered a platinum setting for it from diamondmounts on eBay, and had them custom-make it to the measurements of my stone. The setting arrived and it looked gorgeous! There's a good bit of pave on it and all of the diamonds looked lovely. (Of course I louped it the second I opened the box, just like any good PSer would.) When the stone finally got here, I was thrilled with it and immediately took the stone and setting to my local B&M jeweler to go ahead and get it set as planned. Here's where things get weird . . .
When I dropped the stone and setting off, I asked the jeweler if he could do claw prongs when he sets the stone. I even showed him another ring of mine that has claw prongs that I love (it's an oval morganite in a 14k rose gold LOGR setting) and asked if he could make them look like that. He said it shouldn't be a problem and it should be ready in about a week. He quoted me $159.00 for the work.
Exactly a week later, they called and said the ring was ready. This was yesterday. I went to the shop (walking distance from my office) and picked up the ring. I should've louped it before I left the store, but this jeweler is very well respected and they've done minor repairs for me in the past, so I felt sure that everything would be fine. The prongs did look a bit chunkier and longer than I had expected, but I know claw prongs aren't the easiest to create, so I was willing to let it go since everything else seemed to be OK. I paid my $159.00 and walked back to my office, feeling pretty happy with my new ring.
A short time later, I was looking at the setting and thought I saw that one of the melee diamonds on the underside of the setting was missing! I louped it to make sure, and I was right! Also, upon closer inspection, the center stone appeared to be a little bit loose in the setting. I held the ring up to my ear and shook it and I could hear the center stone rattling in the setting. I immediately called the B&M shop to let them know about these issues. They apologized and told me to bring the ring back in and they would fix it.
I took it back to them today and spoke directly to the jeweler (the same one who originally told me that claw prongs wouldn't be a problem). He implied that the missing stone might have already been missing when I dropped the setting off to them (it wasn't), but he did agree to replace it and tighten up the center stone. I asked about re-working the prongs to be shorter and more claw-like, as it appeared that he hadn't done anything with the prongs at all other than just bend them over the edges of the stone. He stated that claw prongs, while aesthetically pleasing, aren't very secure and the way my aqua is cut won't allow for the claw prongs to grip it in the same way as the claw prongs on my morganite ring grip that stone. He said this is because the crown on my aqua is much steeper than the crown on my morganite. (Which is true, but I'm not entirely sure how the crown height of the stone affects the prongs?) He also stated that the platinum is "butter soft" and that it "should have been tempered when the setting was made." I don't know what he means by that, exactly.
Does this guy know what he's talking about? Or are my expectations just unreasonable? This is my first piece of platinum jewelry and my first cushion-cut stone, so I'm not sure about any of this. Thanks for any advice you can give me!
I ordered a cushion-cut aquamarine from Jeff Davies on eBay back at the end of November. It took forever to get here because it was coming from Thailand and I'm in the US. So while I was waiting for the stone to arrive, I ordered a platinum setting for it from diamondmounts on eBay, and had them custom-make it to the measurements of my stone. The setting arrived and it looked gorgeous! There's a good bit of pave on it and all of the diamonds looked lovely. (Of course I louped it the second I opened the box, just like any good PSer would.) When the stone finally got here, I was thrilled with it and immediately took the stone and setting to my local B&M jeweler to go ahead and get it set as planned. Here's where things get weird . . .
When I dropped the stone and setting off, I asked the jeweler if he could do claw prongs when he sets the stone. I even showed him another ring of mine that has claw prongs that I love (it's an oval morganite in a 14k rose gold LOGR setting) and asked if he could make them look like that. He said it shouldn't be a problem and it should be ready in about a week. He quoted me $159.00 for the work.
Exactly a week later, they called and said the ring was ready. This was yesterday. I went to the shop (walking distance from my office) and picked up the ring. I should've louped it before I left the store, but this jeweler is very well respected and they've done minor repairs for me in the past, so I felt sure that everything would be fine. The prongs did look a bit chunkier and longer than I had expected, but I know claw prongs aren't the easiest to create, so I was willing to let it go since everything else seemed to be OK. I paid my $159.00 and walked back to my office, feeling pretty happy with my new ring.
A short time later, I was looking at the setting and thought I saw that one of the melee diamonds on the underside of the setting was missing! I louped it to make sure, and I was right! Also, upon closer inspection, the center stone appeared to be a little bit loose in the setting. I held the ring up to my ear and shook it and I could hear the center stone rattling in the setting. I immediately called the B&M shop to let them know about these issues. They apologized and told me to bring the ring back in and they would fix it.
I took it back to them today and spoke directly to the jeweler (the same one who originally told me that claw prongs wouldn't be a problem). He implied that the missing stone might have already been missing when I dropped the setting off to them (it wasn't), but he did agree to replace it and tighten up the center stone. I asked about re-working the prongs to be shorter and more claw-like, as it appeared that he hadn't done anything with the prongs at all other than just bend them over the edges of the stone. He stated that claw prongs, while aesthetically pleasing, aren't very secure and the way my aqua is cut won't allow for the claw prongs to grip it in the same way as the claw prongs on my morganite ring grip that stone. He said this is because the crown on my aqua is much steeper than the crown on my morganite. (Which is true, but I'm not entirely sure how the crown height of the stone affects the prongs?) He also stated that the platinum is "butter soft" and that it "should have been tempered when the setting was made." I don't know what he means by that, exactly.
Does this guy know what he's talking about? Or are my expectations just unreasonable? This is my first piece of platinum jewelry and my first cushion-cut stone, so I'm not sure about any of this. Thanks for any advice you can give me!
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