Klever Karats.. aka Going Platinum (Part 1)

When we got engaged a few years ago, I had well and truly done my research about engagement rings (enthusiastic much?)..

I knew I didn't want yellow gold, and that white/silver tones suited my colouring better, but in my research found that the 14K  white gold in Australia is a kinda gunmetal grey colour, and gets it's shine from being Rhodium plated, which gradually wears away and needs to be re-done every 12-18 months.
When I was chatting to a jeweller, she seemed awfully surprised that I knew about this, and offered me a job!  I laughed, and she said "no, I'm serious.. would you like a job here?".

Sigh - can you imagine working with sparkly things all day? :)

So, when I realised that platinum is almost 100% pure and didn't require plating, just perhaps the odd polish to buff out those little wear and tear scratches, I thought that was for us.  Only one snag.. in Australia, you're looking at about 4-5x the price of white gold, for platinum.
I got a quote for a 2mm wide rounded band engagement ring setting with 6 claws (Tiffany-style) -not including the stone, and in 2007 it was >$2000.. whaaaat?

After a bit of research, I discovered that platinum is common-place for engagement and wedding rings in the US, and as such, rings are made en-masse in moulds.  This appeared to be the point of difference.. I spoke to a trusted jeweler, who explained that the reason they were so expensive here is because it isn't as commonly used, so when it is requested, the ring is hand made, hence you're paying for the jeweler's time and expertise.
A-ha!

I researched and researched, and in the end found a platinum setting from eBay seller Pompeii3 Jewelry for around AUD$450 including shipping. 
There was always a chance that it wouldn't be genuine, but as it needed to be modified slightly to fit our stone, the jeweler could verify whether it was genuine for me.

The jeweler put our stone in the setting, and had to melt a little of it to do so, so could definitely verify that it was indeed platinum, win!

So... a beautiful, durable, quality engagement ring was born... for a LOT less.

It was baffling.. I thought getting a ring made would definitely cost more than one already made sitting in a store window, but it was a much more affordable option.

.. How to buy the correct ring size from the US on eBay in my next post..