I know frugal and Jewelry don't necessarily go together, but I saw a few moissanite posts here in a general search I did before making this purchase, and figured you might want to hear about my experience with an even more affordable option than the affordable option for diamond-like high quality jewelry. in a vacuum this purchase was still expensive, but relatively speaking it was very cheap. it looks like they offer a variety of other pieces of jewelry, and I know they also sell individual stones that you could get mounted locally in something like an engagement ring.
for those not familiar with moissanite, the newer colorless stuff (ones made with older tech had a yellow color) is almost indistinguishable from diamond with the naked eye and definitely not noticeable to a layman. the physical properties are pretty close too
Here are some quick cell phone pics I took before bringing it to a local jeweler to get checked. I'll mess around with my higher end camera and see if I can get a better result and may repost that if there's interest. imgur compression was crap but this site seems to work
https://lensdump.com/i/wezma
https://lensdump.com/i/weSue
https://lensdump.com/i/wenAk
- $950 including DHL shipping, etc.
- 160 mm length
- 14k white gold
- 4 prong design
- Hearts and Arrows cut
- forever one DEF/VVS
- 39x 4 mm stones.
here are similar options I found from C&C with G/H/I stones and from MoissaniteCo with G/H stones
with diamonds of a similar color/clarity they're north of $20,000
the goldsmith checked it over, was pretty impressed, and guessed I paid $2-3k, which makes sense given the MoissaniteCo option above. he said from him, the gold and labor alone would be $1500+ and was a bit shocked at the price I paid. the only issues he found were 3 prongs that didn't have the point touching the stone, leaving a gap here. even with the fee to fix that, it's still quite a bargain. I'm talking to Tianyu to see if they're willing to pay for part of it.
Thank you u/autumngirlsoup for your help here and for your earlier posts about Tianyu.
to find them, download the Alibaba app (not Ali-express) and search for Tianyu Moissanite. You start an inquiry, and go back and forth asking for prices on different specs. when you're satisfied you can pay through PayPal. they gave me the option of using a transfer to friends type of transaction that doesn't have fees (but also doesn't have buyer protection) and you're welcome to go with whatever you're comfortable with. I paid and they started work on the 9th, it was ready and shipped on the 26th, and arrived on the 31st. not bad in my opinion, considering they are making it custom and setting 39 stones.
if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask. I'd definitely feel comfortable buying more from them.
February 02, 2018 at 07:15PM
