Pear and Round Moissanite Open Loop Two Stone Ring in Silver, 10K, 14K and 18K Gold

The same looping band as our single stone version, with a second stone added. A large pear sits in a half bezel where the two passes of the metal cross, and a small round is set into the upper loop directly opposite it, so the two stones mark the two ends of one continuous curve.

At a glance

• Centre stones: Pear brilliant and round brilliant moissanite, colourless, VVS clarity
• Carat options: 2, 3, 4 and 5 carat, combined weight
• Setting: Half bezel pear at the crossing, claw set round in the upper loop
• Accent stones: None, the two stones are the whole design
• Band width: Approximately 2.4 mm
• Metals: 925 sterling silver, 10K, 14K and 18K gold in yellow, rose and white
• Ring sizes: 1.5 to 13, including half sizes
• Made: To order by hand in Surat, India

A second stone in the loop

The band does not run in a circle. It leaves the finger on one side, loops up and over itself in a single continuous curve, comes back down and carries the stone at the point where the two passes meet. Seen from the side the ring is closer to a knot than to a band, and there is open space inside the loop that you can see straight through.

It is made from one length of metal rather than a shank with a head soldered onto it. That is the reason the curve is unbroken: there is no joint anywhere for the eye to stop at.

Toi et moi means you and me. The form is two stones sharing one ring and it has carried that meaning since 1796, when Napoleon gave Josephine a ring set with a pear and a sapphire side by side. It came back into general use in the 1920s and again in the last few years, and it is the only common engagement ring design that is explicitly about two people rather than one stone.

Placing the small round inside the loop rather than beside the pear is what separates this from a conventional two stone ring. The stones are at opposite points of the same curve, so the eye travels from one to the other along the metal rather than jumping between them. The empty space inside the loop stays empty, which is the whole reason the loop exists.

One thing to know about any pear shaped ring. The point is the thinnest part of the stone and the only part that can realistically chip, so how it is held matters more than anything else on the ring. On every pear we set, the tip sits inside metal rather than standing free. Set that way a pear is no more fragile than a round, and it is worth checking how any other pear ring you look at handles that tip.

Why the pear cut

The pear cut is a teardrop that marries the brilliant faceting of a round with the tapered point of a marquise. Worn with the point toward the fingernail it makes the finger look longer and slimmer. It is one of the shapes we are asked for most often, and it is cut here to the same proportions we would use for a diamond of the same outline.

How this ring differs from our other pear moissanite rings

Our open loop pear solitaire uses the identical shank with nothing in the loop, which is the purer form. Our open cuff two stone hangs both stones from free ends with a gap between them. This one closes the loop and sets a stone inside it, so it is the most complete of the three.

What moissanite actually is

Moissanite is silicon carbide, a crystal first identified by the French chemist Henri Moissan in 1893 in fragments of the Canyon Diablo meteorite in Arizona. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1906, and the mineral was named after him. Natural moissanite is vanishingly rare, so every moissanite sold as a gemstone today is grown in a laboratory.

Here is what that means for a ring you will wear every day:

• Hardness 9.25 on the Mohs scale. Only diamond and a handful of laboratory materials are harder. It will not scratch from ordinary wear, and it is well suited to a ring worn daily for decades.
• Refractive index of 2.65 to 2.69, higher than diamond at 2.42. More light is bent back to the eye, which is why a moissanite reads noticeably brighter than a diamond of the same size under the same light.
• Dispersion of 0.104, against 0.044 for diamond. Dispersion is the splitting of white light into spectral colours. This is the origin of the rainbow fire that moissanite is known for, most visible in direct sun or under spotlights.
• Doubly refractive. Under strong magnification a gemmologist can see facet edges doubled. To the naked eye it looks like extra brilliance.

Moissanite is not cubic zirconia and it is not glass. Cubic zirconia is far softer at 8 to 8.5 on the Mohs scale, it clouds and abrades within a few years of daily wear, and it has little resale value. Moissanite keeps its polish and its brightness indefinitely. It is also not a diamond, laboratory grown or mined, and we never describe it as one. It is its own gemstone with its own optical signature, and it is chosen by people who want maximum presence on the hand for a fraction of the cost of a diamond of the same size.

Every stone we set is graded colourless, the top colour band for moissanite, and VVS clarity, which means any inclusions are extremely difficult to find even under ten times magnification. Nothing is visible to the naked eye.

Choosing your metal

This ring is made to order in ten metals, so the version you choose is the version we build. There is no plating over a base metal and no filled or bonded gold anywhere in the range.

• 925 sterling silver is the most affordable way to own the design. It is 92.5 per cent pure silver, bright white, and it takes a high polish. Silver is softer than gold and it will pick up fine surface marks with daily wear, which most people come to like. It can also tarnish, and a soft polishing cloth brings it straight back.
• 10K gold is 41.7 per cent pure gold. It is the hardest and the most scratch resistant of the three gold alloys, which makes it a sensible choice for hands that work. The colour is a little paler than 14K.
• 14K gold is 58.5 per cent pure gold and it is what most engagement rings sold in the United States are made from. It balances a warm, convincing colour against real everyday durability.
• 18K gold is 75 per cent pure gold. It has the deepest, richest colour and the most weight in the hand. It is also the softest of the three, so it marks a little more readily.

Yellow gold is gold alloyed with silver and copper. Rose gold takes more copper, which gives the warm pink tone and also makes it the hardest of the three colours. White gold is alloyed with palladium or nickel and then finished with rhodium plating, which is what gives it that bright white face. Rhodium wears thin over time and wants redoing roughly every one to two years, which any jeweller can do quickly and cheaply. Every gold ring is stamped with its karat mark.

Choosing your carat size

This ring is offered in 2, 3, 4 and 5 carat centre stones. Carat is a unit of weight, not of width, so here is roughly what each one measures across the face of a pear cut:

• 2 carat is the most chosen size. It is unmistakably a statement stone and still sits comfortably under a glove or a coat sleeve.
• 3 carat is a clear step up in presence and photographs beautifully. This is where most people land when they want the ring to be the first thing anyone notices.
• 4 carat covers the finger generously and suits longer fingers and larger ring sizes particularly well.
• 5 carat is a red carpet stone. It is the size people ask about across a room.

If you are between sizes, order the smaller centre stone in a richer metal rather than the larger stone in the cheapest one. A well made ring in 14K or 18K gold ages far better than an oversized stone on a thin shank.

Made to order in our own workshop

Mapple Gems is a family run jewellery workshop in Surat, in Gujarat, India. Surat is where roughly nine out of every ten diamonds in the world are cut and polished, and the bench skills that grew up around that trade are what this ring is built on. We are not a dropshipper and we do not hold finished stock. When your order comes in, a goldsmith casts your metal in your size, a setter places every stone by hand under a microscope, and the piece is polished, checked and photographed before it leaves us.

Making takes ten to fourteen working days for most orders. Shipping is free worldwide and fully insured, and it is normally three to seven working days once the ring has left the bench. Buying direct from the bench is the reason a ring like this costs what it does here rather than several times more on a high street.

Caring for your ring

Moissanite attracts skin oil and hand cream the same way diamond does, and a film of it is the single most common reason a ring looks dull. Soak the ring for ten minutes in warm water with a drop of washing up liquid, brush gently behind and underneath the stone with a soft toothbrush, rinse and pat dry with a lint free cloth. Once a fortnight is plenty.

Take the ring off before the gym, gardening, swimming pools and hot tubs, and before using bleach or oven cleaner. Chlorine attacks the alloys in gold over time and it will do nothing good to sterling silver. Store it on its own rather than loose in a box with other pieces. Have the claws checked by a jeweller once a year, which takes two minutes and is usually free. White gold will want its rhodium refreshed every one to two years.

Questions people ask about this ring

Can I have this without the small round?

That is our open loop pear solitaire, which is a separate listing in the same shank. Either way we build to order, so tell us which you prefer.

How large is the round stone?

Roughly a fifth of the pear, scaled to whichever carat option you choose so the proportion holds at every size. The carat you select is the combined weight of both.

What colour and clarity is the moissanite in this ring?

Every centre stone is graded colourless with VVS clarity. Colourless is the top colour band for moissanite, and VVS means inclusions are extremely difficult to see even under ten times magnification. The grades are the same on every metal and every carat weight, and on every ring we cut and set in our own workshop.

Will people be able to tell it is not a diamond?

Not by looking. Both stones are colourless and brilliantly cut, and at arm length they read the same. In direct sunlight moissanite throws more rainbow coloured fire than a diamond does, which some people love and which is the only tell most people would ever notice. Telling the two apart with any certainty needs a thermal or electrical conductivity tester, or a loupe and the training to read facet doubling.

Does moissanite get cloudy or lose its sparkle over time?

No. At 9.25 on the Mohs scale it is one of the hardest gem materials there is, and it does not abrade, cloud or dull with wear the way cubic zirconia does. What makes any ring look dull is a film of skin oil, soap and hand cream on the underside of the stone. A few minutes in warm soapy water with a soft brush restores it completely.

What ring sizes can I order?

We make sizes 1.5 to 13, including every half size. Choose your size at checkout. If you are unsure, measure a ring that already fits the correct finger, or ask a local jeweller to size you, and remember that fingers run slightly larger in hot weather and late in the day.

Can the ring be resized later?

In most cases yes. Any jeweller can work on a plain section of shank. Resizing is harder where the band is set with stones all the way round, and moving more than about two sizes in either direction is better done by remaking the shank. Contact us first and we will tell you exactly what is possible for your ring.

How long will it take to arrive?

Every ring is made to order in our workshop in Surat. Allow ten to fourteen working days for making, plus three to seven working days for insured worldwide shipping. If you have a proposal date, tell us when you order and we will confirm whether we can meet it.

Is the metal solid, or is it plated?

It is solid throughout. 925 sterling silver is 92.5 per cent pure silver, and the gold options are solid 10K, 14K or 18K alloy stamped with the karat mark. Nothing in this range is gold plated, gold filled or gold bonded. White gold carries a rhodium finish on the surface, which is standard for all white gold everywhere and is refreshed every year or two.

Do you offer engraving?

Yes, and there is no charge for it. Tell us the wording when you order and we will engrave the inside of the shank. Most people choose a date, a set of initials or a short phrase. Allow up to about twenty five characters.

What is your returns policy?

Returns are accepted within thirty days of delivery on an unworn ring in its original packaging. Because every piece is cut, cast and set to order, engraved rings and rings made to a non standard specification are handled case by case. Write to us and we will sort it out.

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