Under the light, the faint pinkness is very obvious. So, would it even make sense to switch out my stones?
I could keep these stones as backups in case I lose any in my current ring. I could also repurpose these included stones into a pendant I want to make for the pinkish purplish marquise I bought a while back. My original intention was to replace all my ring’s accent stones, but I think that will largely depend on how well they sparkle in the light when I receive them. My bet? I may not opt to do that now.
under the loupe it looks exactly how I wanted it to.
I do love the clarity of these diamonds. The Indian supplier and gemologist I went through to get pinker stones only has melees in the I3 range, which are pretty heavily included and not optimal for light return at most angles. Most of them are basically opaque and she didn’t really have a good way of even displaying them properly on camera. It’s very hole-in-the-wall / back alley / not great quality purplish pink boart diamond, but that was kind of what my intention was anyway. I wasn’t looking to buy collector edition multi-thousand dollar Argyle pink melees in my engagement ring.
I mean, that is an attractive idea, but finding an appropriate non-scammer supplier seems very difficult. I was talking to my Thai supplier about the high quality super uniform-looking pink diamonds from Africa and the Argyle mines and the prices were deemed not only a red flag by Chat GPT in the per carat weight estimates, but it just felt off and he didn’t have any paperwork certifying where the stones came from or lot number or anything. It felt like they were likely using lab created stones and passing them off as natural. Or if they were natural, they were probably heat treated. I don’t know, but it just felt off. And I can’t really explain why I felt that way, I just didn’t feel like that was a good deal.
Now, after consulting with Chat GPT, I also realize I probably got a bit taken with my pink boart melees. Per carat, they range in the $300-900 range. I paid about $540 including tax and shipping. I think $540 was a bit steep considering the heavily included nature of them, but I guess I will have to decide when I receive them.
If they don’t sparkle, or some of them flash more gray than anything, then I may just have to use them in the pendant or some other project. And maybe in like 5 or 10 years, I can “upgrade” my engagement ring with Argyles if it really still matters so much to me. But right now, it isn’t on my list of things I must do.
Where I’d get them, I’m not sure yet.
