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Just wanted to ask if anyone is planning to go to the gemstone shows in a few weeks. If so we should have a meet up.
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Jan 23, 2015 06:45
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I'm going to Tuscon for Feb 6-8, kinda short but I hope I can find some neat stuff.
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Jan 23, 2015 06:51
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Super jealous, I am missing it again. Maybe next year!!
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Jan 23, 2015 14:09
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LLSix posted:My fiancee wants to get a custom made wedding ring that looks similar to this one: Quality Gold is one of our major suppliers, and while they're extremely good at what they do (identify/source/import stuff that sells) I wouldn't use them for 'fine' work or custom work, especially on an engagement ring. As others have said that ring is a relatively crude stamp compared to the mount you originally posted. I'm guessing the metal weight is far lower as well. I was trying to price out similar Comfort fit refers to how the inside of the ring is shaped. Normal 'flat cut' rings are where the metal is just flat; comfort rings are concave on the inside, so the entire ring isn't contact with your skin, just edges. Generally the wider a ring is the more you're going to notice comfort fit, but it's mostly used on traditional bands that don't have central gem settings like this one. All that said, it does seem expensive for the ring, maybe see if you can get the gram weight out of him. The sapphire price is what concerns me. This is a similar one from one of my guys: http://www.stuller.com/products/heart-genuine-blue-sapphire/242005/?groupId=92028 I'm not going to say what my price is exactly, but $435 on that is between 300%-600% markup. He might have a better stone (for example this one is heat treated); JohnnyRnR might know better on the stone pricing.
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Jan 24, 2015 00:25
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Zratha posted:Super jealous, I am missing it again. Maybe next year!! It'll be my first time there, not sure what to expect!
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Jan 24, 2015 01:27
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Xun posted:It'll be my first time there, not sure what to expect! Try not to buy anything the first day. You won't be successful, but try. Anyway, I'm going as well.
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Jan 24, 2015 01:39
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Anyone have a suggestion on where to buy an eternity ring for my 10th anniversary? Also would this match the simple bands we bought 10 years ago?
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Jan 24, 2015 03:48
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Scaramouche posted:All that said, it does seem expensive for the ring, maybe see if you can get the gram weight out of him. The sapphire price is what concerns me. This is a similar one from one of my guys: We're going to see another jeweler tomorrow and I'll keep what you said in mind about asking about how many grams of gold in the band too. It looks like the current price of gold is ~$42 a gram, so the metal value of a 14k ring is going to be a little less than $42/gram (other half the weight is cheaper metals but add back in something for profit) and then something for labor? Does that sound right? Is it okay to negotiate on price or is that going to tend to result in a lower quality ring? LLSix fucked around with this message at 05:31 on Jan 24, 2015 |
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Jan 24, 2015 05:24
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Ropes4u posted:Anyone have a suggestion on where to buy an eternity ring for my 10th anniversary? Do you have pictures of your bands? Also what gems/metal would you do for the eternity ring? LLSix posted:Thank you. He said he'd have to order the sapphire, and the price he quoted me was straight out of his supplier's book. Maybe the book showed the MSRP instead of his price? That's still a hell of a markup. Re: The sapphire - it might not be a markup. Like I said, if he's buying the one I showed then probably yeah, but keep in mind that it's a heated sapphire of pretty generic provenance. If he's got some crazy natural unheated super cut super color shine gem it might be possible, but that price seems high. For example: http://www.amazon.com/Awesome-Royal-Unheated-Sapphire-Certify/dp/B008UOKYQI/ (2ct unheated sapphire for $399). Note: DO NOT buy loose gems for things you care about on Amazon, I'm just throwing that out there as a comparison. Re: Pricing by metal weight. I realize you're just looking for some certainty, but this is probably a Bad Idea. We are a volume/mass market business so I don't have a lot of exposure with how custom jewelers work, but I can see a guy being a little affronted by someone coming up and saying "ok, it's 3 grams of gold so that's 3 * 42 = $126 + your labor. How many hours will it take and how much do you charge an hour??" I mean first you're assuming that he bought the gold today, at market rate and not say 6 months or 2 years or at some point in the future. And that's assuming he even has access to market rate buys. Also, this is something of an art if that makes sense. It's like going to a painter and saying 'ok the canvas and paint will cost $100, how many hours will it take?'. I mean yeah, use it as an internal baseline, but I wouldn't haggle with it seriously as a talking point. I personally haven't bought a custom piece from a custom guy so I have no experience on whether it's okay to haggle or not. Claes and JohnnyRnR probably have more experience with that.
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Jan 24, 2015 06:46
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Trying to calculate the cost of a ring off of the metal content doesn't really work. You aren't just buying the ring. You're paying for the overhead & paycheck needed to keep the jeweler in business. Everyone has to pay a small share of their electricity, insurance, rent, materials, etc. It's just part of the process.
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Jan 24, 2015 07:00
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Scaramouche posted:I'm not going to say what my price is exactly, but $435 on that is between 300%-600% markup. He might have a better stone (for example this one is heat treated); JohnnyRnR might know better on the stone pricing. The sapphire Scaramouche linked isn't one that would be particularly pretty. So it's cheap. A more gem sapphire in a higher quality would wholesale for $400-600. So most likely your jeweler picked something nice midway between the two to stay in the budget. My advice is to go look at the stones. If you like them and it is in your budget then you've found the perfect ring. Most importantly you want to find someone you can trust. Everyone tries to get a "deal" on jewelry, but without significant education you'll be unable to do your due diligence efficiently or correctly. I forget who said it first, but "If you don't know jewelry then know your jeweler."
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Jan 24, 2015 07:13
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The real value of jewelry is what it's worth as a piece of art. The better the jeweler, the bigger the difference between the raw materials price and the value of the finished piece. And the price of the raw material is pretty variable and subjective for everything but diamonds, so... FAKEEDIT: yeah what Scaramouche and JohnnyRnR said. Personally, I've always been open for negotiating on my prices, but I'm a bit of an extremophile as far as the jewelry trade goes. If someone knocks my 30 dollar pendant down to 25, I don't really fight that much.
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Jan 24, 2015 08:35
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Punted and bought a 7 stone shared prong diamond ring off whitefish. Pro-Tip: Start shopping earlier than 8 days before the anniversary. Ropes4u fucked around with this message at 02:46 on Jan 26, 2015 |
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Jan 24, 2015 13:08
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JohnnyRnR posted:The sapphire Scaramouche linked isn't one that would be particularly pretty. So it's cheap. A more gem sapphire in a higher quality would wholesale for $400-600. So most likely your jeweler picked something nice midway between the two to stay in the budget. My advice is to go look at the stones. If you like them and it is in your budget then you've found the perfect ring. This is pretty much what we did after talking to the other jewelers in town. We're going to be getting her that ring at the price originally quoted. Now I need some help finding a ring for myself. I didn't much like any of the rings we looked at for men. I'm leaning towards something heavy. The larger and more ostentatious, the better. I figure this way it'll do a better job of reminding me I'm married  That seems to be the exact opposite of the current style. I'm currently leaning towards a plain tungsten ring (because I like how heavy they are) if I can't find something I really want. Anyone got any designs or pictures of large/ostentatious rings? Bonus points if they're made out of tungsten or they've got something crazy awesome like an LED light built into them.
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Jan 31, 2015 23:10
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LLSix posted:made out of tungsten Be aware that tungsten can have a cobalt binder or a nickle binder-- the cobalt kind can cause contact dermatitis. We had to get my husband another ring because of it. It was just a cheapie from Amazon so we got what we paid for. He said he was "allergic to marriage." 
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Feb 1, 2015 00:17
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I wear a signet ring. That's kind of the de facto standard for men wanting larger rings. There are a thousand options for them: Engraved crests or initials, gemstones with designs carved into the top, stone or metal inlays inside of other materials, etc. My ring has my wife & I's initials carved into it. A quick google images search will show all the different options. And if you want REALLY crazy go with a gigantic gemstone. You'll look like Fat Elvis, but it will be noticed.
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Feb 1, 2015 00:21
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LLSix posted:This is pretty much what we did after talking to the other jewelers in town. We're going to be getting her that ring at the price originally quoted. I'm going with a Titanium Wedding ring. It's pretty chunky and they do some cool designs with the metal, but it's really light. Bonus is that they're really cheap(which is just as well as she's having Platinum). They're also pretty hard wearing, which is a big plus for me as I have a habit of scratching jewellery. It's kinda like this  They can do all sort of crazy stuff with Ti.  Or check this one out from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Mens-Black-Titanium-Grooved-Rainbow/dp/B0046XRSHU/ref=pd_sbs_jw_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=006D5DVJPTNQFDZVSADS
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Feb 2, 2015 10:29
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You could always try Mokume Gane
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Feb 2, 2015 13:42
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Xun posted:I'm going to Tuscon for Feb 6-8, kinda short but I hope I can find some neat stuff. Let's meet up for lunch on Friday. Also try to loop in Tunicate. The phone number on my website forwards to my cell. Give me a call.
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Feb 3, 2015 18:37
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Im very jealous of you guys going down to Tucson. I am not in a position to hobby it up down there at the moment Look at some nice stuff for us stuck in this thread!
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Feb 3, 2015 21:29
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JohnnyRnR posted:Let's meet up for lunch on Friday. Also try to loop in Tunicate. The phone number on my website forwards to my cell. Give me a call. Haha sure! As long as you can stand the ~goon awkwardness~ I'm sad that I'll be missing the "main" show apparently but I got tests that week 
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Feb 6, 2015 06:21
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Call my cell and I'll buy lunch. 1pm at the AGTA show foodcourt. Invitation is open to anyone that wants to come.
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Feb 6, 2015 15:58
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Ah butts, I wish I could go this year  Have fun everyone! Please take lots of pictures and post them to this thread so I can e-ooh and ahh at them 
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Feb 7, 2015 01:41
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 Some lovely phone photos, but I got 2 chunks of ruby, the orange is sapphire, 3 color change cubic zirconiums aaaand a giant slab of amethyst. It's all synthetic but I don't care. It'll sparkle the same when cut!
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Feb 7, 2015 04:09
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I work for a 3d printing company that makes castable plastics specifically for jewelry. The printers have details around 50 microns, so they can do pretty much anything you'd want. If any of you do digital ring design, pm me. I'll gladly print you out and mail to you a ring you've designed so you can try casting it!
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Feb 7, 2015 09:03
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Mathhole posted:I work for a 3d printing company that makes castable plastics specifically for jewelry. Post some pictures!
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Feb 7, 2015 15:08
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Xun posted:
 That is a giant slab of amethyst! Cool pieces Mathhole posted:I work for a 3d printing company that makes castable plastics specifically for jewelry. The printers have details around 50 microns, so they can do pretty much anything you'd want. If any of you do digital ring design, pm me. I'll gladly print you out and mail to you a ring you've designed so you can try casting it! Do you work for B9Creator :O If so I have one of your machines!
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Feb 7, 2015 19:26
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Claes Oldenburger posted:Do you work for B9Creator :O If so I have one of your machines! No, I work for FSL3D. We're just launching our line of projector-based printers for jewelry. We've got a laser-diode SLA already. I'll post a few pictures tomorrow, but the print quality is very similar to B9. The quality is similar, but we've got nicer software and our machines will be cheaper. The resin is also quite a bit cheaper and actually leaves less residual ash in the burnout procedure. Sorry to sound like an advertisement... It's a learning process. Anything we've known to look for and measure, we've made as good or better than B9. I'm sure we've missed a couple thing here and there, though.
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Feb 9, 2015 04:01
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Mathhole posted:No, I work for FSL3D. We're just launching our line of projector-based printers for jewelry. We've got a laser-diode SLA already. I'll post a few pictures tomorrow, but the print quality is very similar to B9. I'm very curious about the laser diode version. Mine (as you know) is DLP right now and dealing with projectors is hands down the most aggravating part of the machine. Can the laser diode version do 30 micron x-y-z? EDIT: I noticed Z can do 25-30ish (which is great!) but if the laser size is 80 would that make the x-y min be 80? DOUBLE EDIT: Looks like the laser version doesn't use the resin that can be cast
Claes Oldenburger fucked around with this message at 21:32 on Feb 11, 2015 |
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Feb 11, 2015 21:26
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The laser SLA uses castable resin as well. We sell one resin that is 'ultra-castable' and produces almost no ash, but most of our resins are castable and leave less ash than B9 resin anyway. The laser spot size is something around 80 or 120 microns, but the positional accuracy is closer to 5 microns. so while you can't get as sharp of fine details (especially negative feature details), you can get smoother prints. The same is true for Formlabs machines, but they have a smaller build area and more expensive resin. In practice, the DLP has crisper details, more accurate prints, and fewer print failures. But the build area is smaller, and the printer is more expensive. We have two DLP printers comming out. One that uses a UV LED that works beautifully without any hiccups, and one similar to the B9 that uses an off-the-shelf projector. Sorry I haven't gotten around to posting some photos. I've been pretty busy, but I'll try to get some to post tomorrow.
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Feb 12, 2015 07:58
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Mathhole posted:The laser SLA uses castable resin as well. We sell one resin that is 'ultra-castable' and produces almost no ash, but most of our resins are castable and leave less ash than B9 resin anyway. The laser spot size is something around 80 or 120 microns, but the positional accuracy is closer to 5 microns. so while you can't get as sharp of fine details (especially negative feature details), you can get smoother prints. The same is true for Formlabs machines, but they have a smaller build area and more expensive resin. Yeah the LED one seems quite nice. My B9 is an older model and I'll end up upgrading at some point, I'll definitely keep your company in mind!
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Feb 12, 2015 19:06
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Here are some pictures! This shows roughly the build area of the 1080p projector:  Here's a ring we had casted and set:   And here are a few of my favorite rings. The blue, partially transparent color is our casting resin. That rust red color is not available for purchase yet. The rust red pigment doesn't burn clean, but it's still manageable, and it has the best details of any other resins we've tried. 
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Feb 13, 2015 02:16
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Mathhole posted:And here are a few of my favorite rings. The blue, partially transparent color is our casting resin. That rust red color is not available for purchase yet. The rust red pigment doesn't burn clean, but it's still manageable, and it has the best details of any other resins we've tried.
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Feb 14, 2015 05:50
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Mathhole posted:Here are some pictures! Yeah that's the thing with the B9, the red resin doesn't cast perfectly unless you're casting yourself because then you can dial everything in and actually get really great casts. Those models look good, although a bit rough. Have you tried doing a 30xy build area? For a lot of us the smaller build area isn't an issue since we are printing tiny things, but the increased resolution makes a world of difference when doing casting cleanup. So much less time filing!
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Feb 14, 2015 19:41
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Claes Oldenburger posted:I'm not sure where they are getting their lab created sapphires, but the ones I can source are certainly not that cheap for that size. Who knows maybe they get a massive bulk discount? Also the setting in those pictures is very poorly done I got 10.5mm (bigger than this 8mm) sapphires grown using the flux method for $33 for 6 gems from Pehnec. I'm not a jeweler but they seem really nice to me .
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Feb 15, 2015 09:17
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. To be honest even trained gemologists I doubt could say for certain if anything is wrong with it unless the stone is in front of them.
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Evil Robot posted:I got 10.5mm (bigger than this 8mm) sapphires grown using the flux method for $33 for 6 gems from Pehnec. I'm not a jeweler but they seem really nice to me That's awesome! The fact that they are nice to you is the most important thing.
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Feb 17, 2015 20:00
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I'm looking for a men's wedding band and had something pretty specific in mind. I'm looking for two tone rose gold and titanium. The jewelry store that I bought the engagement ring at quoted $684 for the wedding band, which seemed really high for a mostly titanium ring. I found one that looks at first glance nice on amazon for about $150 http://amzn.com/B00DMTOT3U but I'm not sure if the vendor is legit. Any advice on whether the jeweler is reasonable or if there's a better place to look for a simiair ring?
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Feb 17, 2015 23:28
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Leviathan Song posted:I'm looking for a men's wedding band and had something pretty specific in mind. I'm looking for two tone rose gold and titanium. The jewelry store that I bought the engagement ring at quoted $684 for the wedding band, which seemed really high for a mostly titanium ring. I found one that looks at first glance nice on amazon for about $150 http://amzn.com/B00DMTOT3U but I'm not sure if the vendor is legit. Any advice on whether the jeweler is reasonable or if there's a better place to look for a simiair ring? Most rings like that (titanium/contemporary metals) are going to be from similar manufacturers, so that stores markup is considerably higher because of all the costs associated with owning a store. Scaramouche who posts in this here thread might have something in his inventory that you're looking for, at a better price. Styles of titanium/rose I think are going to be somewhat limited.
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Feb 19, 2015 02:08
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I know nothing about jewelry and have a few questions. I really like this band, it's made of bronze. If I ordered the band online, could I take it to my local jewelry store to have a gem added to it? Could they set it in bronze or something that's a similar color and have it not look terrible? Finally, if I'm planning on wearing this every day for the rest of my life, is bronze an ok metal to go with or should I get it in silver? I really like the look of bronze. Regarding gems, this is probably a dumb question, but do you just walk in and ask to look at their loose gems? Is most of the stuff pre-cut or do you choose the rock and your preferred cut?  E: Would a round opal look okay with this? Koivunen fucked around with this message at 02:06 on Feb 20, 2015 |
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Feb 19, 2015 02:49
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Claes Oldenburger posted:Most rings like that (titanium/contemporary metals) are going to be from similar manufacturers, so that stores markup is considerably higher because of all the costs associated with owning a store. Scaramouche who posts in this here thread might have something in his inventory that you're looking for, at a better price. Styles of titanium/rose I think are going to be somewhat limited. I kind of figured as much. I'm sort of frustrated that most of the titanium/rose gold combos seem to be plated, rather than having a solid ring of rose gold set in the titanium. It seems like something like that would be in my price range but there's no real way to tell who is just charging more for plating.
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Feb 19, 2015 15:49
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