Jonathan --

Our ring is finally DONE, and on Sandra's finger.

My first word, when the diamonds were mounted and I saw it all together, was: "WOW!" which says something about the stones, since we were under a skylight and fluorescent fixture. Sandra just grinned. [Sandra- I'm sitting at the computer reading what Charles has written and as I'm typing in my two cents worth those diamonds are glowing on my finger.]

We found a local goldsmith (Sako, at Object Design in Vancouver BC) who was happy to work with us on a custom mount.   We did lots of legwork, looking at 3-stone mounts at local jewelers, actually measuring a few, to find out what Sandra really wanted -- how wide, how high, how many prongs, . . . . -- you know the drill.  We decided on a an 18K yellow-gold band, and sprung for a platinum head, rather than white gold.  Sako's work is very nice.  Good goldsmith is timeless.   And the rocks sparkle so nicely, next to each other !!!!! <g> [Sandra - As Sako said, " each of these diamonds is not shabby on its own, so when you put the three together, they just take off."]

Let me start this story from the beginning (since it _is_ a testimonial).

Sandra decided that she wanted a 3 stone diamond ring.  It's her first-ever piece of _real_ jewelry, and she wanted a nice one.   We didn't know what "nice" entailed . . . We started out at local jewelers, and knowing next to nothing about diamonds,  searched the Net looking for information.  Sandra knew that she wouldn't buy diamonds over the Net -- it was too big a purchase, and there was no way of knowing whether she would like the stones when they arrived.    But there was lots of good information -- we found Diamond Talk, and the Nice Ice site, very useful.  We talked with people via e-mail, and over the phone.  And we found Good Old Gold -- ah, the mother-lode of diamond information.<g>   We spent lots of time looking at pictures; and reading all the information available, a good way to find out all the information your local jewelry store sales people will never give you.    We bought a loupe, and finally an IdealScope. The local jewelers either (a) didn't have really well-cut stones (and we quickly understood how important "well-cut" is), or (b) wanted outrageous prices for them.   And AGS- or GIA-certified stones were hard to come by.  We were not happy.  Neither were the local jeweler's.   "We'll call you when we find something" -- but most of them never did.  At some point, Sandra changed her mind about an Internet purchase -- she considered buying stones from Good Old Gold, because (a) she could get enough information to feel comfortable ordering, (b) she could return them if she didn't like them and [c] it was the only site that had pictures of the stones.

Jonathan put together three  very nice stones (.46 F/VS2, .23 G/VVS1, .23 G/VVS2, all AGS Ideal, H&A patterns) and when they finally appeared on his Website, after lots of soul-searching ("should we wait for higher brilliantscope scores ?"), Sandra decided that she would  look at them, and off went the bank draft.  We brought them through Canadian Customs ourselves.   They were duty-free, but there _is_ an "excise tax" we weren't expecting.  In spite of that, we saved considerable money over buying the stones from the few high-end local retailers who could supply them. Then we stared at them, and stared, and stared -- amateurs trying to simulate years of professional judgement.  [By this time we were starting to understand how to use the IdealScope -- it does take some practice.]  Yeah, they looked pretty good!  It took Sako a few weeks to get the mount together.   We brought the diamonds out of the vault, he cut some notches into the prongs and clamped them into position, and... "WOW!"   They leap right out at you like head lights on a moonless night. ...... Gee,  we think we're sounding a little like Jonathan when he discribes the various stones on his site. - Well now we know why.

Two more happy customers for Good Old Gold.