Flash, I honestly NEVER noticed the window effect in that ring of yours until you pointed it out! I was too mesmerized by the blue-green sparkles!

This might be how the majority of others end up reacting to mine, hopefully. Or maybe I personally just won't notice it on my ring...

As with yours, my emerald has to be in pretty harsh indoor lighting or super-bright, head-on sunlight for my window to actually show and bother me... So maybe I'm overthinking this...

I know that I definitely want the stone bezeled, and I think I'll keep the weave basket as it is. I look forward to more pictures of awesome emerald rings, though!!

Hi all,
Just wanted to jump in here and clarify a couple items:

1 - Inclusions are not going to affect 'windowing' unless they are so bad that they simply block out light.

2 - Windowing is largely an inherent property of the refractive index of the material.

3 - Cutting can try and minimize windowing, but that is largely bounded by the properties of the material.

4 - The larger the stone, the more easily you will notice any windowing.

Emerald has a very low refractive index (1.57 - 1.60) vs. say CZ at approx 2.16 or diamond at 2.417 or the highest, Amora Gem at 2.66 - 2.71.

Thus, emerald is inherently going to have more windowing than most gems.

Changing the setting isn't going to affect windowing of the gem itself, it will only help mask how noticeable it is to an observer by providing a background that blends in more (i.e. a metal background is less noticeable than a finger showing through).

I've posted a short article on our site with more details on refractive index and a listing of the RI of most gems:
Gem Refractive index listing and info about refractive index

Hope that helps,
Less

Thanks less, so essentially, what you are so saying is that her emerald is exactly as it should be considering it is practically inclusion free, a large stone, and an emerald.

Since most natural emeralds are heavily included and practically opaque (so there isn't a noticeable window) I didn't want mine to be so obviously perfect. For realism, as compared to natural emeralds the average person sees, ours don't really compare. Although, they are better clarity and color than most, and mimic the finest of emeralds....just not the ones many people get to see or acquire. For me, I was self-conscious of that.

Initially, mine was too darn perfect, and you have to admit it looks pretty good ;P, but I have since decided not to worry about any of that and love it for what it is suppose to be.

ETA: When I say realism I mean how realistically attainable/affordable it is. I do undersatand that the Avarra emeralds are real emeralds.

Emanuela: check this out!

EC Emerald 3-stone stunner

On point 3 Less, that's true but certain cuts are more suited to some materials than others. As in, faceting patterns have been created specifically for or optimised for different material.

http://www.silversupplies.com/catalog/books/faceting.shtml

which actually was something I was going to ask in the BTD Kashmir sapphire thread... will the H&A be optimised for corundum?

Flash, that ring is so yummy!! And the window was the second thing I noticed. The color jumped out first; it's so perfect... And then "Wait... is that?... Yeah, that's a window." I'm sure that my fixation on studying my emerald in every type of lighting and at every angle is the culprit behind this. >_<

But that's good; I still admire the color before I study it for imperfections.

I still love my emerald, though, and I yearn to see it in my hands again. Hopefully these two years will go by quickly!

Hi BMV,
Yes, the H&A cut for our sapphires is being developed expressly for the optical properties of Sapphire (corundrum).

Basically, it's a repeat of the same thing we did for the H&A Amora gem, where we had to test and model and test to calibrate the H&A for the exact optical properties inherent to the material.

Each material has it's own optimal angles based on that materials refractive index, dispersion, etc. and so you can't just take the angles optimized for diamond, for example, and then cut that into a higher or lower refractive index material and expect it will look nice

Hope that helps!
Less

I'm sure that your ring will be beautiful, no matter the setting Emanuela, but I gotta say, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the mark morrell one.