I have a gorgeous Julian Lovato turquoise ring that unfortunately has damage to the turquoise. The stone is firmly in there - nothing moves, so the damage is mostly cosmetic. The damage consists of a crack and chip. I tried to get photos of this.
My question is, does it still hold value as a Julian Lovato piece even with the damaged turquoise? I’m not even sure what type of turquoise it is, although I do know he was known for using some really nice stones.
It was really hard to get a good pic of the turquoise. My camera couldn’t capture all the blue variances within the webbing. The webbing is reddish with some of the veins looking on the purple side.
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The ring in its current state is devalued. Replacing the stone with one of equal or better quality will restore value. Hope this helps.
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Nice ring—it’s a shame about the condition of the stone. It’s definitely worth significantly less as a result. However if this were my ring, I would choose to keep the cracked stone rather than replace it. My reasoning is that since Julian Lovato is widely recognized as one of the masters of NA jewelry I would want to keep his vision as much intact as possible. If you have someone else choose, cut, shape and set a replacement stone, you will essentially have a piece that’s only half Julian Lovato. Especially if the stone is secure, I’d personally choose to keep it as is.
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I wonder how it would turn out if you had the cracks cleaned up and did inlay, maybe coral, onyx or something like solid blue turquoise or somthing white and sparkling?
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Thank you. I tried to get photos where the damage was evident, but when just wearing the ring in most light the damage isn’t as evident, and the beauty of the turquoise still shows. I wouldn’t want to replace the stone for myself, because I still enjoy it as is. But if I end up selling it down the road, I’d have no idea for how much. Is it worth $50? $100? more with damage? I’ve got no idea.
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Thank you. I wouldn’t replace the stone for my own use, just because I still enjoy it even with the damage. It sounds like though, if I ever sold it, I would need to replace the stone first?
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Love the hand design. Really nice : )
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There was an artist, Kalin Kirby-Moss (now passed), who used to restore stones like yours. Her technique was to fill cracks with epoxy, smooth the affected area and use acrylics to recreate the natural look of the stone. The results were pretty amazing. If you know an artist who works in acrylics or oils, you might ask them if they’d be willing to tackle it.
If you wanted to sell it, I would recommend replacing the stone.
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I was thinking along those lines @mmrogers. Buy some brown two part putty epoxy (might need white and black also to blend for the correct shade) and some matching color turquoise chips and give it a go if you can’t find someone. I did that years ago when someone had a damaged stone but wanted to keep it.
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