This month I handmade a stunning platinum ring featuring a 0.84ct mid blue Sapphire with matching 0.30ct FVS pear cut diamonds on either side.
The design inspiration came form nature and my researching into the art nouveau period as well as scrollwork drawing for engraving. I am always drawn to the natural, symmetrical curved elements nature produces and wanted to recreate that in this ring. Being able to see the whole stone from windows in the leaves and petals was at the forefront of my mind as well.
I'm always trying to remember to take photos along the way. As I start to video more, I'm forgetting to take photos! I will master this eventually! ;)
As always I start with the centre stone. I bent up the setting, fused it together, as it is platinum, so it would have no joins, shaped it and attached a rod to it so I could hold it while I cut out and filed to shape the setting.
I then made the two pear under bezels on the side and soldered them to the centre setting so I had the width and angles right.
After that, I rolled out the metal for the shank, bent it up, added the bridge, and fitted the points of the pear settings into the side of the shank, as it will become the end of the setting for the pear cut diamonds.
I then marked out and cut out the leaves for the sides of the settings, bent, shaped, filed, cleaned up and eventually soldered the four leaves onto the settings, once I had fitted them in snugly to the under bezels. In the photo below, you can see I just finished soldering them on, and have yet to cut out the inside of the leaves to see the diamonds bellies through the setting. This is not needed for light, it is purely just an aesthetic look I was after.
Once it is cut out, the next task is to clean up, the entire ring. Although with platinum, you can pre polish all pieces before soldering. there is still alot of clean up required before I can set the stones and begin to engrave the ring. It must be pretty much finished and polished before I begin. Setting the stones is a job in itself. Most jewellers send their pieces off to a setter. I, however, was never happy with the quality of the work and wanted to learn myself so I was never at the mercy of anyone else's, skill, deadlines or price. Once the stones are set, it is a quick clean up again and the engraving begins!
This is a quick video I put together of the process of engraving a ring like this. It is sped up, sometimes up to 8x as it can be extremely tedious and boring to watch. :)
It gives you an idea of the process, and the time that goes into cutting a design such as this.
Hope you enjoyed the making of this one. It is available on the website in my ready to wear collection otherwise if you have a special occasion in mind, contact me for your next heirloom piece and lets bring it to life! I can assure you, its alot of fun!!
Cheers,
Alex
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