It all happened quite slowly

The search for the perfect diamond finally came to an end x-mas week. Two beautiful diamonds arrived in the post, one of them, which one diamond supplier had been looking for, for weeks, ticked all the boxes, it was the right size, colour, clarity and shape. 1.20ct, F/SI1 cushion, and most importantly the price was right.

Then there was the second stone, slightly smaller, 1.01ct, but it was D colour, and VS1, and the same price. So what do you do?? And what did I do? I had a good hard look at both stones, and then realised that the 1ct stone was getting me very excited, and that was the feeling I had been waiting for, for all those months while stones came and went because they didn’t do it for me. This bad boy did.

The 2 cushion diamonds that arrived at the same time. The stone i chose is the one on the left. Click on the image if you'd like to have a closer look.

What having the 2 stones in front of me made me do was, follow my own advice. Time and again I tell customers to choose quality over quantity. For the briefest of periods I have to admit to being very torn, but then the more I looked at both of them, the more the D-colour stone was it. It’s a very hard feeling to describe, I got excited and very happy. So I took a few pictures and sent them on to my darling, just to keep him in the loop and up to date on everything. This was also pure necessity as he was stuck in Cork due to the bad weather which made travelling up and down everyday a bad idea.

Enough about the weather, lets talk about my stone again. The shape is another thing that swung it, it was just the right proportions. I had been swinging between a rectangular shape and a more square one, but I’m very pleased that I have ended up with a more rectangular diamond.

The Chosen One!

I was telling someone about my quest for a cushion and he asked me, why, if I didn’t know what i wanted was I so set on getting a cushion shape. That was a good question, and it made me think for a minute and then it bubbled to the surface again, the main reason being is that it most resembles an old cut stone and I love love the softness of the shape.

So I have my stone, now what to do with it???

Frustration Station

It’s been while since my last post and lots of other things have happened in the mean time, Prince William and Kate Middleton got engaged, diamonds have been demanding record prices at auction, and one lady in the UK reported the theft of her snowman to the police. But one thing that hasn’t changed??? I’m still no further with finding a suitable diamond to make my fabulous ring. I have a few people on the case, and I was sent some lovely stones again during the week, but they just weren’t right, this time it was size. I have to admit that sourcing a diamond hasn’t been a top priority the last 5/6 weeks, as I’ve been very busy at work. Which isn’t something I’m about to complain about. One of the things that has kept me busy are the Beacon pendants I’m doing for Wish, a fab little shop in Skibbereen. We did a limited edition pendant in August, which proved to be ridiculously popular, so we now have a different design, called Silver Beacon. Also super popular and this time it’s not a limited edition!

Silver Beacon

Now xmas is just around the corner and a part of me would have liked to have had the ring ready by now. It’s a strange deadline xmas, for presents it makes sense. But you hear people say, oh we’ll be moving house and we’ll be in for xmas. Talk about putting yourself under pressure. Having a deadline can be good, as you have something to work towards, but it has to be a realistic one, and for me xmas is such a busy time of year that it was a fanciful deadline to set myself, so I got over it and got on with my work!

I mentioned Kate and William earlier, and maybe its an old story already, and I should have posted about it at the time, but i still think it would have been really nice if they had split the ring between the 2 brothers and then they both could have given their future brides something that was very dear to them. Another reason I say this, is because I think the ring is a little bit too old-fashioned for Kate Middleton. But that’s my humble opinion and I’m also in the business of redesigning jewellery, so its nothing strange to me.

For now I should just worry myself about my own ring….