hippi_pixi
Brilliant_Rock
- Joined
- Nov 25, 2010
- Messages
- 639
Back story
So I've been on here for... 3 or 4 years. just learning for the first few and posting for the last year or so. always been interested in old cuts but did get drawn to the performance of H & A diamonds but decided that the actually facet pattern and obvious arrows didn't do it for me. where as the OEC's on here definitely were. I grew up admiring my mums omc ering and 3 stone rings so it was destiny really.
So i found it hard to buy in Australia because the only OEC's i could find here were in the original settings and the sellers estimate were all over the place. I've seen stones i was told were J's that looked like they could have been U/V's. and i just didn't feel comfortable enough to make an informed decision about any of them. so i looked at USA online retailers and there were so many stones out there with proper certification but i still felt uncomfortable buying based on pictures. if i had bought a stone/ring in my price range and had to return it i could be out thousands of dollars for postage and tax when it entered the country. i had to be 100% sure before i bought anything and i wasn't/
i said to my partner you've always wanted to go to the US... lets do it! so we booked a 2 week trip
starting in los angeles 4 nights, drive to vegas (in a mustang convertible!) for 3 nights, a week in NYC and then 2 night stopover in LA again before we heading home. We visited Singlestone, H Moradi (on our way to Vegas), OWD and GOG. everyone was delightful, we saw some fantastic stuff and decided on a 3.5 from Adam.
He started off with maybe like 15 stones and we basically went through them pretty quickly as i was just looking at their light performance and yaying and naying and putting aside the brightest ones. it was narrowed down to 3. one was faaaantastic but way out of my budget so we had to put it aside. and between the 2 left the 3.5 just grabbed me more.
So its a 3.5 M VVS2. the culet was difficult to see under loupe and impossible to see with the naked eye so adam had it enlarged for me just the tiniest bit. now you can see it with the naked eye but you do still have to look quite closely. and we wanted it set for to wear it home for peace of mind. we almost had it put in a temp tiffany setting but it's not my style so i asked if he had any old setting lying around. he had a few and then he pulled out a setting that was perfect. exactly what i wanted but a bit battered n bent out of shape. the stone was a perfect fit and he thought his benchperson could fix it completely. its probably not flawless but looks pretty good for an antique. and i love it!
long backstory i know but i love reading them on here myself and anyone who doesn't would have already skipped ahead by now anyway
This is Adams photo of the stone
The setting in it unaltered state
more photos coming
So I've been on here for... 3 or 4 years. just learning for the first few and posting for the last year or so. always been interested in old cuts but did get drawn to the performance of H & A diamonds but decided that the actually facet pattern and obvious arrows didn't do it for me. where as the OEC's on here definitely were. I grew up admiring my mums omc ering and 3 stone rings so it was destiny really.
So i found it hard to buy in Australia because the only OEC's i could find here were in the original settings and the sellers estimate were all over the place. I've seen stones i was told were J's that looked like they could have been U/V's. and i just didn't feel comfortable enough to make an informed decision about any of them. so i looked at USA online retailers and there were so many stones out there with proper certification but i still felt uncomfortable buying based on pictures. if i had bought a stone/ring in my price range and had to return it i could be out thousands of dollars for postage and tax when it entered the country. i had to be 100% sure before i bought anything and i wasn't/
i said to my partner you've always wanted to go to the US... lets do it! so we booked a 2 week trip
starting in los angeles 4 nights, drive to vegas (in a mustang convertible!) for 3 nights, a week in NYC and then 2 night stopover in LA again before we heading home. We visited Singlestone, H Moradi (on our way to Vegas), OWD and GOG. everyone was delightful, we saw some fantastic stuff and decided on a 3.5 from Adam.He started off with maybe like 15 stones and we basically went through them pretty quickly as i was just looking at their light performance and yaying and naying and putting aside the brightest ones. it was narrowed down to 3. one was faaaantastic but way out of my budget so we had to put it aside. and between the 2 left the 3.5 just grabbed me more.
So its a 3.5 M VVS2. the culet was difficult to see under loupe and impossible to see with the naked eye so adam had it enlarged for me just the tiniest bit. now you can see it with the naked eye but you do still have to look quite closely. and we wanted it set for to wear it home for peace of mind. we almost had it put in a temp tiffany setting but it's not my style so i asked if he had any old setting lying around. he had a few and then he pulled out a setting that was perfect. exactly what i wanted but a bit battered n bent out of shape. the stone was a perfect fit and he thought his benchperson could fix it completely. its probably not flawless but looks pretty good for an antique. and i love it!
long backstory i know but i love reading them on here myself and anyone who doesn't would have already skipped ahead by now anyway
This is Adams photo of the stone
The setting in it unaltered state
more photos coming
)
300x240.png)