Platinum Engagement Ring ?
My fiancee (soon-to-be) and I are planning on using the diamond from his
mother's wedding ring (she passed away when he was six years old) in my
engagement ring. I'm really touched by what we're doing--the ring will
become an important heirloom. We live in DC now, but will be getting
married in, and moving to, Chicago. Does anyone know anything about buying
a setting, or getting a setting made for a ring? I really would like
platinum . . . We're just not sure how to go about getting this done, and
we've no idea what it will cost.
We also used an heirloom diamond. It was Robert's great-grandmother's,
passed on to Robert's mother and it meant a lot to me that she suggested
we use it since she knows how I love antique jewelry. I, too, wanted it to
be set in plantinum and specifically an antique style setting. I started by
looking in the phonebook under regular jewelers who listed that they sold
"estate" and "antique" jewelry. We looked at many of these places who had
some nice settings. Most however were not platinum, but white gold.
One jeweler we tried sold some estate pieces but also dealt with a company
called "Whitehouse" who makes platinum (and gold) settings from the same
casts that they were using 100+ years ago. The jeweler had a catalog
from Whitehouse. We chose my setting from them. It's from the Edwardian
period, around 1910. It's very beautiful! The jeweler will be making the
wedding band to go with it.
If you are interested, I'm in Baltimore and can strongly recommend the
jeweler we dealt with. Just send me an email message and I'll give you
his name and phone number. DC isn't that far away and this guy was VERY
nice.
As the owner of Associate Jewelers Inc, a 24 year professional union tradeshop
I can tell you for certian that platinum is a very demanding metal for sure,
and if you're going to have something made by someone make sure that you ask
them to show you things they have made before, for even a jeweler who's expert
with gold can be totally lost in platinum...
I have a page all about platinum custom order by the way, in my very large and
growing web site... We do many custom projects vis that web, with full
previews, drawings and to say it's working falls a bit short of the truth :)
Just make sure that you get what you want, and it's done right...
No excuses count in special order {Grin}...
Rings are priced according to the amount of metal in them, and the
amount of work put into them. I know, elementary, but it does need
restating for the following reason: my platinum band was in the high
$300s, because I have a tiny ring finger and I didn't want a bulky
band (it's flattish, but not completely). Joe's 18k band, on the other
hand, cost over $100 more, because he has a larger ring size, and he
chose a band with milgrain edging. I *did* try on a platinum band
that was about $900 (I saw the price *after* I decided not to get it--
good thing!), but it was a lot heavier and bulkier, so I didn't buy
it. Platinum is very durable, so I don't think it matters if you
get a thick or a thin band, as long as you like it. And there's
always white gold, which is less expensive but looks very nice. I
honestly can't tell you why I chose plat.; I was just drawn to it.
And it's not as if we have lots of $$! We just choose to spend it
differently than other couples might.
When we went looking for settings for the engagement ring, the cost
difference was about $800 between white gold and platinum ($2500). My
matching platinum band (very plain) cost about $360, 3mm wide in DC area.