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Claes Oldenburger posted:I'm not sure about your situation and the cause from finger shrinking, but I'd say if your fingers aren't showing any sign of getting bigger it's probably a smart idea to get it sized. Rings that aren't sized properly fly off fingers all the time, and with a piece that is important to you it's not a matter of if it's a matter of when. If you want to wait a bit to see if your fingers go back, it's probably best to not wear the ring. Sounds like good advice. It's strange being a football player shaped 5'11 guy who is going to size a pinky ring down from five and a half to four and a half.
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Mar 22, 2016 04:29
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I'd like to make a couple of rings out of braided wire, using a combination of gold and argentium wire to get a two-tone effect. If I start with dead-soft wire so I can braid without breaking the wire, will it be necessary/possible to heat-treat the finished pieces to harden them? I expect some work-hardening during the braiding process, but I don't know if it will be enough to make a strong, sturdy ring. I could also use some advice on an attractive way to join the ends together to make the ring. I don't want to end up with a big blob of solder.
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Mar 22, 2016 17:28
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30 Goddamned Dicks posted:Today I randomly popped into a jewelry store and absolutely loved this ring by Margoni: She doesn't have anything too similar in her shop right now but I think this jeweler would do a custom order: https://www.etsy.com/shop/Kulicke
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Mar 22, 2016 18:05
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So I'm planning on proposing to my girlfriend and apparently this means I need to a learn a lot about engagement rings or throw away the equivalent of a car on a piece of metal she'll almost never wear. I have my grandmother's stone so I just need a setting that is understated, elegant that it can be fitted to. Can anyone point me in a good direction to explore my options on settings?
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Mar 26, 2016 10:17
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The Puppy Bowl posted:So I'm planning on proposing to my girlfriend and apparently this means I need to a learn a lot about engagement rings or throw away the equivalent of a car on a piece of metal she'll almost never wear. I have my grandmother's stone so I just need a setting that is understated, elegant that it can be fitted to. Can anyone point me in a good direction to explore my options on settings? Cathedral
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Mar 26, 2016 19:46
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Why is she never going to wear it? Does she even want a ring then?
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Mar 26, 2016 23:24
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i like nice words
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Anne Whateley posted:Why is she never going to wear it? Does she even want a ring then? I think what he's saying is he wants to make the engagement ring into something she wants to wear on its own merits.
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Mar 27, 2016 00:14
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Anne Whateley posted:Why is she never going to wear it? Does she even want a ring then? I read this as "If he doesn't learn about engagement rings he's gonna buy something horrible that she won't like and then she'll never wear it"
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Mar 27, 2016 01:47
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Simpler than that. She rarely wears rings. I'd be buying it mostly for the proposal and then after that I doubt I'll see it on her hand but for special occasions. I'm certain she'll still want a ring as the romantic notions tied to an engagement ring are very much her thing.
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Mar 27, 2016 08:38
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The Puppy Bowl posted:Simpler than that. She rarely wears rings. I'd be buying it mostly for the proposal and then after that I doubt I'll see it on her hand but for special occasions. I'm certain she'll still want a ring as the romantic notions tied to an engagement ring are very much her thing. I won't be wearing my ring much either due to work requirements, but does she like necklaces? Claes is working on a ring holder necklace for me that I'm really pumped about, and that might be a possible option for her to still have her ring on but not necessarily on her finger.
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Mar 27, 2016 17:50
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What's the scoop on black gold? Does it wear really fast compared to white gold?
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Mar 28, 2016 03:26
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Black gold is white or yellow gold with a surface treatment. There are a few different types and they all seem pretty equal. It will wear off as the ring is worn but can be easily reapplied.
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Mar 28, 2016 06:21
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megathrust posted:I won't be wearing my ring much either due to work requirements, but does she like necklaces? Claes is working on a ring holder necklace for me that I'm really pumped about, and that might be a possible option for her to still have her ring on but not necessarily on her finger. I'd really like to see this. I'm starting a job that is going to make wearing my ring a no go. I'm getting a silicone ring (btw if someone can make these in not pink/black or body builder themed that would be great.)
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Mar 31, 2016 13:59
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SlaveToTheGrinds posted:I'd really like to see this. I'm starting a job that is going to make wearing my ring a no go. I'm getting a silicone ring (btw if someone can make these in not pink/black or body builder themed that would be great.) I dunno how Claes feels about stuff in progress being posted so I'll defer to him/wait until the final product is done to post mine- but if you go on etsy and search for ring holder necklaces there are a lot of examples! They're great because with many of the designs you don't have to remove the necklace to put the ring on/take it off. I wanted a pendant shaped like a wish bone that was made of gold instead of sterling so it would be more durable.
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Apr 1, 2016 02:31
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When you are getting a ring resized to a smaller size, should you ask for the gold that is removed? It seems like it would be a significant amount.
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Apr 2, 2016 06:48
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SlaveToTheGrinds posted:I'd really like to see this. I'm starting a job that is going to make wearing my ring a no go. I'm getting a silicone ring (btw if someone can make these in not pink/black or body builder themed that would be great.) megathrust posted:I dunno how Claes feels about stuff in progress being posted so I'll defer to him/wait until the final product is done to post mine- but if you go on etsy and search for ring holder necklaces there are a lot of examples! They're great because with many of the designs you don't have to remove the necklace to put the ring on/take it off. I usually leave that up to clients, but in this case I'll wait till it's done due to the stone setting. Not much longer now  It's looking fantastic!EDIT: Captain Log posted:When you are getting a ring resized to a smaller size, should you ask for the gold that is removed? It seems like it would be a significant amount. Most people do not, a full size down requires 2.5mm of metal to be removed which usually ends up being less than $10 in your standard engagement ring. We happily return it to people if they do ask, but most jewellers (the older guys I know) see it as a "tip". Claes Oldenburger fucked around with this message at 20:49 on Apr 2, 2016 |
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Apr 2, 2016 20:45
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JohnnyRnR posted:Black gold is white or yellow gold with a surface treatment. There are a few different types and they all seem pretty equal. Cool thanks. Just making sure it isn't some gimmick poo poo that I'll regret.
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Apr 3, 2016 05:17
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Captain Log posted:When you are getting a ring resized to a smaller size, should you ask for the gold that is removed? It seems like it would be a significant amount. The jeweler keeping the gold is factored into the cost of resizing. It's one of the reasons why jewelry repairs are so affordable.
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Apr 7, 2016 04:57
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Is 2 weeks to have a ring resized a bit excessive? When I dropped it off the jeweler said it'd be 7-10 days because he didn't have a piece of gold big enough and had to order some. I really don't want to bug the guy because I know some people don't work well when bothered, and from what I've read this ring doesn't sound very easy to size. 3/8" band,+1.5 ring size, bezel setting, and real emeralds. e: Istopped in today. He sent it out to be laser welded as to not gently caress up the emeralds with heat. So I'm alright with that. I can't wait to get it back though. fps_bill fucked around with this message at 19:40 on Apr 9, 2016 |
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Apr 7, 2016 19:46
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  How difficult would it be to as 1.5" to this bracelet? The guy who has it is selling it for a hair under scrap price and I was giving serious thought to picking it up till I found out it's only 7.5" and I need a 9".
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Apr 12, 2016 21:16
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JohnnyRnR posted:The jeweler keeping the gold is factored into the cost of resizing. It's one of the reasons why jewelry repairs are so affordable. Cool. I think I will ask but I won't be put off if the guy wants to keep it. I'll even say, "Hey, I'm not sure what's standard." I keep gold and silver so I would like it if possible. Having a little nugget of my great grandfather's ring would be cool. It's a pain, things keep fluctuating but I think I'm going to need to get it resized. Not sure how my pinky would shrink with age and four sounds tiny for a five eleven two hundred pound man, but it's better than losing an heirloom.
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Apr 22, 2016 06:28
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Ring shopping is awesomely confusing...even the second time around! My budget is $4500 for the diamond and I'm trying to get 1 carat for that amount...looking at James Allen, this seems possible, but holy poo poo there's so many little minute differences that I just can't tell what's important and what isn't. From my research, cut seems to be the most important thing. Again, James Allen has this 'hearts and arrows' thing that is exclusive, but would Ideal be just as good? Basically what I'm trying to ask, for a 1 carat princess cut diamond, what's the worst characteristics you would go with and still be perfectly happy with for that budget? Keep in mind, I don't care about inclusions you can only see with a loupe because we're never going to be looking at it through a microscope...color I'd put a little more thought into, if you can visibly tell that it has a yellow tinge to it or not. What I'm thinking is: COLOR: No higher than I CLARITY: No higher than SI1 POLISH: No idea SYMMETRY: No idea FLUORESCENCE: No idea Then it goes into girdle and all that stuff and I'm still hopelessly lost. Any advice? I'm also looking at Platinum for the setting...is there any reason to go white gold instead? My ex had a white gold ring and I didn't like the fact that we'd have to go have it replated or whatever every few years. nwin fucked around with this message at 01:39 on Apr 25, 2016 |
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Apr 25, 2016 01:26
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fps_bill posted:
Difficult enough that you're going to be paying some labour + materials for sure. It can be done but it's not something that would be done super quick. Best to take it to a local jeweller (like the one you visited) and see what they can do. Worst case scenario is you now have it for it's scrap price. Captain Log posted:but it's better than losing an heirloom. Sure is! Finger sizes are super weird and can change but ultimately but I wouldn't risk it. SMDFTB posted:Ring shopping is awesomely confusing...even the second time around! $4500 for a one carat means you're going to have to sacrifice something. My go to colour/clarity is SI1 F-G and then as high a cut as you can find/want to pay for as it makes a big difference. Lower than G and you're drifting into off colour stones, and lower than SI1 and you're drifting into inclusions that may or may not be visible with the naked eye. Sometimes they're on the side and a prong can hide them, sometimes they're smack dab in the middle of the table. It is in James Allen's best interest to make a stone look as desirable as possible despite the flaws it has, including marketing terms and custom cuts like the whole 'hearts and arrows' thing. It's a modified cut that they can market as being something above the rest when in fact it's just that, a different cut (which only applies to round stones). I have only ever trusted GIA with grading stones, as I personally believe the other grading companies fluctuate too much, or are just plain garbage. "Worst characteristics" is unfortunately totally subjective. Some people are totally fine with a three carat I1 K stone purely because of its size, while others would prefer a VVS1 0.80ct D because of the quality. Don't worry too much about the other characteristics (other than your bolded list), in the end diamonds are all priced on how they look regardless of what the paper says. What feels like a deal is someone deciding that's the maximum they can get for the stone they're selling before it even gets to a retailer who adds their own markup (James Allen, Blue Nile, etc.) EDIT: My brain is usually in CAD prices, so after checking my wholesalers $4500 USD seems about on par with a SI1 I well cut stone with no fluorescence. Platinum is a darker grey metal, and can be slightly more difficult to repair depending on the design. There are more white gold alloys these days that do not need rhodium plating at all. Claes Oldenburger fucked around with this message at 06:49 on Apr 26, 2016 |
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Apr 26, 2016 06:34
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Anyone cut gems here? I'm lonely 
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Apr 26, 2016 07:35
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Xun posted:Anyone cut gems here? I do! Well...my equipment is on order and I have a handful of lovely garnet rough. So give me a month and then I will have a handful of poorly cut ALSO lovely garnets haha. It's something I've wanted to learn for so long and finally I have been able to get the tools I want.
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Apr 26, 2016 17:17
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I cut cabs, though not very well.
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Apr 26, 2016 21:12
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SMDFTB posted:Ring shopping is awesomely confusing...even the second time around! I got a F, SI1 for my wife for about that amount, but it was from an estate sale. Got it set in a rose gold tacori ring and my wife loves it. Ask your jewelry store if they have any estate diamonds on hand, you can get a way better diamond for your money.
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Apr 27, 2016 01:54
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Scarodactyl posted:I cut cabs, though not very well. same never inclined to even try faceted stones
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Apr 27, 2016 02:19
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So, I'm just trying to understand here...from looking around, it looks like I can find a diamond that works for me with that budget...but this is to my untrained eye. Can anyone tell me what would be wrong with these? http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/princess-cut/1.00-carat-f-color-vs1-clarity-sku-1046330 http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/princess-cut/1.02-carat-g-color-vs2-clarity-sku-971823 http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/princess-cut/0.97-carat-g-color-vs1-clarity-sku-574711
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Apr 27, 2016 02:25
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SMDFTB posted:So, I'm just trying to understand here...from looking around, it looks like I can find a diamond that works for me with that budget...but this is to my untrained eye. Last one has a small inclusion on the table, first one might be a bit deep, but first two seem fine. They offer free shipping right? I suppose you could always get a few to see in person and send the ones you don't like back? I think it's important to see how they look in person before making a final decision.
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Apr 27, 2016 03:52
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laxbro posted:I got a F, SI1 for my wife for about that amount, but it was from an estate sale. Got it set in a rose gold tacori ring and my wife loves it. Ask your jewelry store if they have any estate diamonds on hand, you can get a way better diamond for your money. Seconding this. I am not a rich lady, but my diamonds are loving awesome because they're 100+ years old and the mines were just not as picked over back then.
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Apr 27, 2016 16:09
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Claes Oldenburger posted:I do! Well...my equipment is on order and I have a handful of lovely garnet rough. So give me a month and then I will have a handful of poorly cut ALSO lovely garnets haha. It's something I've wanted to learn for so long and finally I have been able to get the tools I want. Dang I'm super jelly. I'm an amateur too, usually faceting on my university's super old machines. Someday I will own my own machine. What cut do you think you'll do first? Mine was a super basic 8 sided round cut. Don't think it could even be called a brilliant lol. Scarodactyl posted:I cut cabs, though not very well. I tried to do cabs but could never polish them right, what gives 
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Apr 27, 2016 20:25
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Xun posted:Dang I'm super jelly. I'm an amateur too, usually faceting on my university's super old machines. Someday I will own my own machine. What cut do you think you'll do first? Mine was a super basic 8 sided round cut. Don't think it could even be called a brilliant lol. Cool that they have the tools to do it though! The college I did my goldsmithing training at had no gem working tools  What sort of stuff do you like to cut?I'll honestly probably do the same. Some sort of basic "round" cut to figure out how the machine works and see just how bad I am at meeting facet points haha.
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Apr 27, 2016 23:08
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Claes Oldenburger posted:Cool that they have the tools to do it though! The college I did my goldsmithing training at had no gem working tools I usually do quartzes or beryls since they don't have any cleavage to worry about and have nice colors. I don't really have a favorite cut, but I know that cuts that aren't radially symmetric are a paiiinn. Even when I tried a rectangle I couldn't get the proportions how I wanted since the girdle would always end up uneven. Still have no idea why.  Surprisingly getting facets to meet was pretty easy since you cut every facet to the same height in symmetrical cut. We had to do it super old school by listening to how the gem sounds against the lap since our machines are also super old, but I hear new ones have fancy smancy meters that tell you? The hardest part for me personally is polishing, sometimes I swear the gem is somehow gaslighting me by "unpolishing" itself. Aka it looks nice from one angle but then looks like poo poo from another
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Apr 28, 2016 10:38
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Xun posted:I usually do quartzes or beryls since they don't have any cleavage to worry about and have nice colors. I don't really have a favorite cut, but I know that cuts that aren't radially symmetric are a paiiinn. Even when I tried a rectangle I couldn't get the proportions how I wanted since the girdle would always end up uneven. Still have no idea why. Cleavage planes are a great example of things I need to learn, covered them slightly in studies but really need to know what's up for faceting. I definitely understand you wanting to avoid them. The new machines definitely have fancy shmancy meters. Not only that but hard stops so when you bring the stone down it won't move below a certain level to help keep angles/measurements the way you want them. You can set the hard stop so when you rotate the stone on the index gear it'll cut to the same level/angle on every spot you change the gear to. Definitely takes a LOT of guesswork out of the whole thing, especially with odd shapes or non symmetrical stones. The one I'm getting looks like this:  Some stones will unpolish themselves! They will cut themselves with their own grit, so those assholes might just be gaslighting you. What dicks. I recently designed and cast this ring for a client of ours (she didn't like it, what a butt) so we ended up making her something else but the colour of Paraiba Tourmalines is just so nuts.  I totally understand her not wanting it for an everyday ring, but the colour is amazingly a natural one and pretty mesmerizing.
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Apr 28, 2016 21:38
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Claes Oldenburger posted:I recently designed and cast this ring for a client of ours (she didn't like it, what a butt) so we ended up making her something else but the colour of Paraiba Tourmalines is just so nuts. That ring looks amazing, like a tropical beach. If I get some scratch I know who I'll be talking to about a ring like that! It's simply beautiful.
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Apr 29, 2016 01:04
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Xun posted:The hardest part for me personally is polishing, sometimes I swear the gem is somehow gaslighting me by "unpolishing" itself. Aka it looks nice from one angle but then looks like poo poo from another Claes: Cleavage is usually not too hard to manage. Anything parallel to the cleavage plane itself will be exceptionally hard to polish, so you want to make sure you don't orient it so that it's parallel to one of your facets. That usually doesn't take too much effort, though some newbies might find the nice flats provided by a cleavage plane (particularly in topaz) to be a tempting place to put their stone's table, which will only end in tears.
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Apr 29, 2016 01:13
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Claes Oldenburger posted:
Yeah so she didn't want it, whats the price? Shoot me a PM if its available
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Apr 29, 2016 04:51
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Claes Oldenburger posted:I recently designed and cast this ring for a client of ours (she didn't like it, what a butt) so we ended up making her something else but the colour of Paraiba Tourmalines is just so nuts. Wow! That looks amazing. Sucks that the lady didn't want it though, you'd think she would say something earlier. Scarodactyl posted:Good advice Idk, maybe my prof was scaring us but he told us that if you have a facet parallel to the cleavage plane the gem might CLEAVE IN TWAIN!!!  And about polishing, how do people polish gems on modern stuff? I've mentioned that we use super old machines and I think the way we were taught to polish might be a bit out of date as well. We have special polishing laps with different oxides on them, and when we polish we fiddle around with the angle and stuff to make sure we get the whole facet instead of just the right corner or something.
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Apr 29, 2016 12:22
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effika posted:That ring looks amazing, like a tropical beach. If I get some scratch I know who I'll be talking to about a ring like that! It's simply beautiful. Thank you! The colour is amazing and "tropical" is a perfect way of describing it. Scarodactyl posted:Claes: Cleavage is usually not too hard to manage. Anything parallel to the cleavage plane itself will be exceptionally hard to polish, so you want to make sure you don't orient it so that it's parallel to one of your facets. That usually doesn't take too much effort, though some newbies might find the nice flats provided by a cleavage plane (particularly in topaz) to be a tempting place to put their stone's table, which will only end in tears. Great to know, thanks! I just got the Tom Herbst faceting book from Amazon and am amazed at the amount of information in it. This is going to be a long month waiting for the tools. Goodpancakes posted:Yeah so she didn't want it, whats the price? Shoot me a PM if its available PM Sent. Xun posted:Wow! That looks amazing. Sucks that the lady didn't want it though, you'd think she would say something earlier. Haha yeah it was her fiance who made the Paraiba decision (a pretty ballsy one if you don't know what she wants) so I guess when he proposed she didn't like the stone colour. The same way as they cut them, spinning laps with progressively higher diamond grit. The laps I'm getting are 600/3000/60,000 so assuming your machine is trued up, you can cut a ring of facets on the 600, move to 3000 lap, set same angle and cut the facets with a finer grit exactly the same way, repeat for polishing. That's a super basic description, it can also involve using the cheater which fine tunes an angle so the facet is cut or polished flat as opposed to just one corner like you had mentioned.
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Apr 29, 2016 16:32
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