No engagement is complete without an engagement ring and yet for a short time, we thought we would never get one!
The ring you can see on the right is the one we eventually decided upon; we purchased it from Andrew Scott Jewellery here in Cheltenham. Its a beautifully cut diamond with an eye-catching sparkle, mounted on a tapered platinum band. It has a very striking modern/minimalist look – something we both loved from the moment we saw it.
However, this was not our first choice :-/
Our first ring was designed by an independent jewellery designer in Bristol. The ring took us two months to design alongside the jeweller with frequent trips down the M5 at the weekend. During the discussions the Jeweller informed us of a dubious practice where jewellers can inject a glass-resin into diamonds to improve the visual appearance and therefore price. She comforted us by informing us that she would never sell us a resin-filled stone since they can not be cleaned by standard ultra sonic means… they could shear or shatter.
Not being a diamond expert, before purchasing the ring I asked the Jeweller to organise a certificate to confirm its quality.
When we eventually travelled to pick up the ring, we were greeted by a smiley Jeweller who thrust the ring box straight in front of Hopes vision. Of course, we were both excited to see the ring and very happy with the result but after making the payment I asked the jeweller’s assistant for the certificate. She did not know where it was, but (rather weirdly) another customer in the store had spotted an envelope on the desk with my name on it. He handed it over to me and I opened up the paper inside: it was the certificate!
Straight away I spotted an unusual term: “fracture-filled“. Not knowing much about diamonds I immediately looked it up on my iPhone…only to find out that is it a pretty controversial process. Essentially it is the injection of glass-resin as previously explained by the Jeweller. Hope found a web page on her iPhone which stated that fracture-filled diamonds should not be worn all-day in case they receive a sharp impact. This wasn’t the eternal ring we wanted for an active lady!
We eventually received a full refund from the Jeweller, but not after giving her a chance to rectify the situation. Our interaction with this company ended when she tasked her assistant to call me and offer a full refund whilst requesting that ‘I continue my search for a ring elsewhere’. Nice.
She seemed entirely convinced that she was ‘caught out’ by her supplier. Something I might have believe if she had not already received the stones certificate.
