Wow, that is beautiful!! Can't wait to see it wih your diamond in it!

Finally checking back in- I forgot just how busy this week was shaping up when I posted this! Thanks so much for the kind words, everyone.

Gemcat- Thanks! You're sweet :-)
Jewelle- Yep, that's my drawing... I guess my $40,000 fine arts degree is good for a few things, but not many ;-)
Rubystarlight- Yep, it needs millgrain around the bezel for sure.
Mrs W- Thanks so much :-)
Blingaholic- I hadn't been planning on a band even when I was picturing this as a e-ring... it would just look weird I think.
Momto4- Aw, thanks... I love jewelry probably a little too much!
Missdymonds- Hehe, it was when I saw it in person finally!
Southlake- Thanks! Good memory!
BondAngel- Thanks! It's got a new purpose as it turns out, though...

I received it on Wed, I think... when I looked at it, my first thought was "gorgeous!" The second was "...and my diamond is gonna look terrible in it, and it's also clearly a right hand ring." Yeah. I have a loose LY OEC CZ twin of my stone and I set it in the setting and hooo boy, it looks awful. It wants an Asha, and to be a RHR. It just looks too modern for the stone. And the N color looks icky in it, and I rarely get "icky" out of off-colors, I love them. The setting is so bright-white, and the accent Van Graff stones are D color, the OEC looks out of place. Good excuse to try a v6 Asha, right?

I have to mention that the VG side stones, the two larger ones, are beautiful. The arrows are wee and totally perfect, and they sparkle like mad. I always thought VG stones weren't terribly firey but these are. (Could be that in larger sizes the VG stones don't look as nice?)

The workmanship is great- I wouldn't hesitate to recommend anyone to go to him. His interpretation of the sketch was spot-on, the engraving is just beautiful too. It's quite heavy. The bright-white of the rhodium/gold mix of metal is lovely too- I love how well it wears and never yellows.

And what to do with my diamond now? Well, a solution finally presented itself. I had been thinking that just about anything Van Craeynest was ideal for me, but the fact that every setting they make costs more than the diamond I bought cost. Which is just silly. And after loads of shopping for various repro settings I finally came back to thinking about a contender I'd eliminated when diamond shopping- an ebay listing with a GORGEOUS antique setting, set with an OEC diamond that just so happens to measure exactly the same as mine. Hmm. And the whole deal cost pretty much what your average Van Craeynest setting costs. Hmmm again. With a 1.08 ct diamond in it. In platinum. And a genuine antique. HMMM.

So I mentioned these points to my darling husband and he agreed that indeed, it was not a bad option. So, he said to go ahead and buy it, get it checked out by an independent appraiser and if it is what it's supposed to be, reset my stone in that setting, and resell the second diamond set into a pretty but cheap repro setting. (Since we own an antique mall, I have a venue for reselling jewelry easily.) He has been freaking out (with good reason) about how the dollar has dropped so much, and cash sucks to be in, so he's saying whatever we park our money in that isn't cash is a good thing. In fact he said I need to spend the evening shopping for more antique jewelry on eBay...

I'm thrilled because I think it would have cost pretty close to 3K to have the platinum setting itself custom made, and that's what it cost with a 1 carat K/L/M 1.08 carat SI1 diamond. Sweet! (I'm sure some will recognize the ring, it's been on eBay for a while.)

This is the ring:





Added after writing this up. Holy crap. The boy just told me to buy a 2.39 carat OEC diamond, as a way dump a bit of our cash, that I found whilst searching for mine. Well. That should be fun. Don't get to wear it though- just put it in a showcase. Oh well, it should be fun to pet for a while anyway...

Hi, I like your setting. It's really pretty

Oh, you must post pics of that bad boy if you get it!

Thanks DA! I shall, I will take a sickening amount of pictures probably. It's coming tomorrow, yay! I'm trying to be patient, though it's proving difficult. It has the same dimensions as my diamond, 6.7mm. It's possible it's a couple of color grades higher, K or M instead of N, and also SI1. So I'm just going to have to fiddle with them and decide which is prettier in person, I think. And find a setting for the extra stone to sell it in. I'm really excited to get the ring/setting, I've drooled over it for months on end. (The VG one is lovely in person, but way too modern for my OEC & it's got RHR all over it, so it'll go into rotation with my other various RHR options.)

With the setting finally chosen for my diamond I'm gonna have a bunch of new things to play with, and lots of pics!! (Four things will fall into place after this stone swappage.)

(Also, here's hoping my appraiser thinks it's an M/SI1 too, or close enough...)

I got the above ring today- it's... it's pink! It's probably a P/Q color, a few shades off of my other stone, but rather than yellow, it's pinkgrey. Not really any brown tones, maybe just a hint. No oranges. No yellows. Mostly grey & pink, and it depends on the lighting which is most prominent. I've never seen anything quite like it. "Champagne" stones tend to be browngreyyellow, but this is not. It's also not just eye clean but loupe clean, probably VS something clarity, except for a tiny chip on the girdle. The setting is freaking amazing- die struck, with the micro-millegrain that the old settings have. It's incredibly delicate. To replace the dead melee stone, the original owner sent me 4 old single cut replacements. I can't decide which one to keep! I am leaning towards my original stone, because it's a wee bit more firey (which I finally determined after a half hour staring at them in the bathroom) but they're both fireballs, so it's a tough call. And that color is just cool. It also has what I assume is strong blue fluorescence, which I've always wanted.

Here's a few pics that show the color a bit:




A giant hairy paw with the ring:

Oh its lovely!

Also I think the ring you designed is awesome, you must be very proud. I would love to wear something I designed right down to the drawings.

Do you know if you can send VG your own stones that he will set in it, or do you get the ring and have someone else set the stone? He has a ring that I'm dying to have, but I want an Asha in it instead of a VG. Would I send VG the stone or have the ring sent to me and have the stone/ring set elsewhere?

You can do either. My first ring was an Asscher, and he doesn't carry that cut, so I mailed him the Interlap. This one, I will have my fave bench man set because I'd intended to put a diamond in it, and didn't want to ship it to Mexico ;-)

Just bear in mind Juan can take a little longer making stuff than he tends to estimate... I never had any deadlines so no big deal for me, but if you have one order WELL in advance. (Though, to be fair, the two things I got from Juan were ordered early December, right at the busiest time for Xmas!)