A Tourmaline Ring Rebirth

Here's a ring I recently gave a new design and life to.  It was inherited, and my client wanted to do something different--something that would show off the large, hot pink stone to its full advantage.  This is what we started with--yellow gold simple band with prong setting surrounded by tiny diamonds:

A shot to show the scale of the stone--LARGE!!!

We discussed some of my bauble rings and reticulated jewelry and decided to design something along those lines.  This is the approved drawing of the ring--featuring a bezel set stone, reticulated band, silver bubbles, and diamonds:

And the finished ring!  It's truly spectacular!  I LOVE it!

A few additional shots to see the whole design.  My maker's mark stamped in the band, along with the year and sterling (upside down).

The stone is set in a fine silver step bezel with an open back to allow the light to pass through and reflect on the facets. 

A couple of little diamonds from the original ring are tube set among the bubbles. 

A success story for sure!

Heart Diamond Ring Story

One of my favorite things to do with jewelry is take something you own and don't wear and turn it into something you will.  I've been fortunate to create many pieces in this way for many people.  Just recently, I was working with a client who inherited some of her mother's jewelry and had promised she'd wear the diamond ring.  Unfortunately, mother and daughter's taste in jewelry was a little different.  But that's the wonderful thing about jewelry, take stones out of their current setting and new ideas are easy to imagine. 

Here's the original ring:

Yellow gold, asymmetrical in design, diamond baguettes, and a 4.72 ct heart shaped diamond.  The client wanted simple... classic... more "her."  I felt that was an easy goal to achieve. 

We came up with the design--a classic and pretty semi-mount, cathedral style band with a prong setting to hold the heart stone.  I worked with one of my contacts and used their cad system to create the ring design.  These are the computer generated designs:

After the ring came from the caster, it was time to put it all together.  There's an added level of anxiety that comes along with using a client's stones.  Often they are fragile and not replacable.  But, it's worth my stress to transform it. 

Nine small diamonds on either side were set first.

Then came the heart stone...and WOW!!!

A new contemporary classic! 
And she loved it! 
Thank you for the opportunity to create such an important piece of jewelry with deep meaning and lasting memories. 

Another amazing ring transformation to follow. 

Reticulation with Liver-of-Sulphur Patina

I love the look of reticulated metal and the jewelry I've made with it, but lately I've felt the need to play with it a little more.  So I thought it would be fun to really work with the texture by using liver of sulphur on the metal and then highlighting the baubles with a high shine.  The effect is wonderful!

This ring was the first experiment with the oxidizing effects of liver of sulphur and it's quite striking.  The apricot sapphire glows with the shine of silver surrounding it, while the blackened background sets a real mood. 

In this pin, I experimented with using less patina--I sanded away a lot of the black from the surface with steel wool, while allowing it to stay deep in the grooves of the highly textured surface.  I'm intrigued by the watery feel to this piece.

I'm loving this cuff!  The overlap, sprinkled peridot gemstones, and shiny baubles are set off by the blackened background.  I think this combination has a lot of potential and I'm eagerly looking forward to continuing with this new direction.