Thursday, August 1, 2013

Wedding Ring Re-Make: J Pratt Designs

Everyone is always asking about my 10-Year Anniversary ring re-make, here are the details

Custom Jeweler:
http://www.jprattdesigns.com/
Facebook Page (has better ring photos):
https://www.facebook.com/jprattdesigns

My Old Ring
Original ring was only solitaire, white gold with one marquis stone .92 karats.  If you have other diamonds laying around (who has that?!)  they can use these in your ring also, and give you cost of the metal in your old ring.  Since I just had a cheap white gold band, I kept it for a keepsake instead of selling it for the gold.



Vintage Ring Inspiration Photos
Photos I found on the internet, from on-line estate auctions






J Pratt Process
Once you are at J Pratt, they won't let you use photos of anyone else's rings!  So you go through books and tag photos of other rings they have done.  Here are some that I tagged.  They tried to talk me out of the bezel setting, but the original ring I saw had that setting so that is what I chose (small photo of another bezel setting below).  They will only use yellow gold or platinum metals, no white gold.   It's very scary not being able to try on any rings to see what you like, so you just have to trust them. 



Final Holly-Ring
Once you choose the ring styles, they sketch-up on paper some ideas- even laying out real pave diamonds on the table on the design.  You approve the sketch and the price.  (My price for 52 pave stones + platinum setting was $4500).

Once you leave, they take some creative license and come up with something they think you will like.  You come back to see this design in wax, and your actual diamonds are mounted.  You still don't get a real sense of the final product however.  With the wax, the overall look is kind of like polka-dots.

You will see the new mounting makes the original marquis stone look twice as large.  I'm very happy with the design... now I need a right hand ring!  The "point" at the bottom of the ring with a little pave stone is the JPratt trademark- all of their rings have this



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