Things go very wrong on the way to successfully making this ring
5th May 2023 - Customer Location: Blenheim, Queensland
The finished ring is much loved by the customer.
The customer I made this ring for has been with me for over 15 years. I have made many pieces for her in the past and she knows the process I use very well. Initially I thought sourcing that 1 carat Asscher Cut diamond would be the biggest issue. It took me some time to find a really good gem but in the end it was the sapphires that caused all the grief.
Initially those shoulder gems were to be diamonds.
During the design process it was decided to have sapphires on the shoulders. At the start they were diamonds. There is a symbolism for the use of sapphires but I do not know it.
I needed to source a matching set of two tapered baguette cuts in the size, colour and shape required to make the design. It is pretty easy to get matching sets of tapered baguettes in diamonds but I could not find any in sapphires and changing the design was not an option.
A set of 3 baguettes in Sydney that I hope to get a pair of tapered baguettes recut out of.
I did find some baguettes that sounded very promising if I had them recut to tapered baguettes. Photos are never the best way to judge gems, you really need to see them. Dust, finger prints, reflections and light angles can all alter the way a gem appears in a photo.
The gems were in Sydney and I was on a tight schedule so I took a shortcut that in the end cost me big time.
I asked the Sydney gem broker to send the parcel of 3 gems to my gem cutter who was also in Sydney to have her pick out the best two and recut them for me. Normally I would insist on approving the gems myself before purchasing them to be recut but time was against me.
After the gem cutter received the gems she informed me that she could get a nice pair out of the three gems. Great news.
All was good I thought.
Express post from Sydney to Cairns via Brisbane then Melbourne = one week.
It took a week for the gems to be recut. I was on a tight schedule to have this ready to be taken overseas for a holiday proposal. Now the good old Australian freight industry decided to slow me down.
I watched online as the parcel that should reach me from Sydney in two days went to Brisbane and then back down to Melbourne before heading to Cairns. Another week lost waiting for them to arrive.
The rejected non matching pair…..what a waste :(
Once the gems did arrive things got as bad as they could get. You see I have very high standards for what I call a pair and matching colour….and my customer does as well.
The industry standard however is much lower than that mainly due to it being so hard to source good matching natural gems in an array of sizes, shapes and gemstones. The recut gems were not a good enough match in colour for me to use. I had just paid by weight for oversize gems then paid more to have some of that weight cut off only for them to be a useless/worthless pair.
My mistake not the cutters
The ring was created in 18ct yellow and white gold.
I should have never delegated the task of matching the gems to the gem cutter. It was not fair to her.
To make things worse I used an estimated average starting weight of each gem given to me by the broker to quote on. After the gems were recut I got the invoice and the weight was 30% higher than the estimate!
The gems are sold by weight and I now had a 30% increase in the cost of these useless gems. This just became a very expensive mistake.
The solution
I had lost two weeks out of a very tight schedule waiting for those gems to be recut and then arrive. I had to start searching again and sourced another set of baguettes that would also need to be recut.
Long story short, they were a good pair and I received them a bit over a week before the rings was due for delivery…….. and it had to be posted to Brisbane.
I was now working late nights and the weekend to get the ring finished and then had to trust the freight industry to get the ring to Brisbane before my customer flew overseas. I think we made it with about 4 or 5 days to spare.
Lessons learned
do not delegate the matching of gems ever
allow far more time for the post and others to hold you up
do not do jobs like this on a tight time frame ever…..say no.
All of the above I should well and truly know by now at my age. In the end the search for these gems, the stuff ups with recutting, post and then searching again put the job behind by a month. As soon as I need to outsource anything I seem to get let down badly. I really should know by now.
At my stage in life I think I need to say no more often. Luckily we made the deadline and the customer loves the ring.