Looking for custom cut engagement ring, historical jewelry store, or experienced diamond ring designer in Ontario
Q.I'm looking for a very special ring for engagement. Does anyone knows where I can get a well-experienced designer to make a custom cut diamond ring ... possibly from a well-known and/or a historical jewlery store? Possibly in Ontario, Canada. If not, I need to know where and I need to think about if I can afford to get there ... or have them deliver to me by courier (only until I know I can trust them). I do have budget though (i.e. around $8,000 in canadian dollars; after tax if applied). I know exactly what the ring should look like. Shapes should look like Tiffany's "fancy shape ring" (see http://www.tiffany.com/expertise/diamond/rings/engagement_fancy_ring....) ... but I can't afford that price. Clarity and carat are not important at all, but the ring should look big enough which will look well on her long finger. Also, no color (i.e. no green, no blue, no red, etc.). Normal color is fine (i.e. white? clear?). Can anyone please help me and give me some pointers?
A.Normally, we refer to "custom cutting" as being something we do to stones, which are cut from rough materials to the finished gems we use. In the case of the jewelry mountings themselves, it's usually called custom MADE. Using that terminology might be less confusing, though I understood what you wanted easily enough. To your actual question, you seem to want a pretty standard three stone engagement ring, with a round center, and pear shaped diamonds on the sides. While the one you show at Tiffanies is nice, they're hardly the only folks who make such a traditional design. You could probably have almost any decent goldsmith in your area make up the mounting, to fit stones he or she could order for you. It might even be possible to order a mounting like that already made up as a blank mounting, from one of several findings manufacturers, or if not, one could take a fairly heavy weight solitaire style mounting, and add the heads (the prong setting assemblies) to hold the side pear shapes. I have no doubt that there are many readers of this newsgroup with the needed skills to build such a ring for you. In the unlikely event you don't find someone easily, contact me off list and I'll give you some links to follow to folks with web sites who could easily fulfill your request. By the way, as to stones, size really isn't everything. While you may not need or want the finest grades in color, clarity, or cutting, DO pay attention to them. Cutting and color grade in particular have a lot to do with how attractive the stones are, and if clarity gets really low, then the stones can quickly become really ugly, which will defeat your purpose
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