Yearly Archives: 2013

art nouveau carved solitaire with peachy sapphire

14K rose gold carved padparadscha sapphire

Art nouveau/arabesque motif hand-carved solitaire in 14K rose gold with awesome 7mm peachy-colored sapphire (padparadscha). Even though the carving style is not as three-dimensional as some of my designs, it was just as hard (harder?) to carve in that I needed to keep the between-design areas nice and smooth, with no bumps or divots. I think the effect is really cool!

14K rose gold carved padparadscha sapphire

And the uber-rosy warmth of the whole piece is amazing! I’ve had many more orders this year than ever for rose and peachy colored gold. More pics after the jump: Continue reading

holiday vacation info

Jenny & the Cat Club ornaments

As usual, I’ll be taking a couple of weeks off from mid-December (or thereabouts) to early January. I’ll be shipping up until then for packages to arrive by christmas, but I’ll be needing all orders in by this week! (I.e., by Nov. 15th.) Otherwise, I’ll be back up and running in early January 2014!

[Jenny & the Cat Club ornaments in paper mache. We make new ornaments for the tree every year (as we had never done a tree before having a kid) and these were last year’s batch. ps: if you have a five-ish year old child, I highly recommend the ‘Jenny & the Cat Club’ books; sweet stories, great illustrations.]

the peony ring

18K Carved Peony Ring

I had been contemplating carving a peony ring for a long time. But I had all these reservations, like how to make it NOT look like a rose, how to make it awesome without making it just honking huge and heavy, how to deal with all those freaking pokey petals. Finally a client asked for a peony ring and kicked me into gear.

18K Carved Peony Ring

The idea was a solitaire-style cocktail ring, but with an elaborately carved three-dimensional peony bloom as the focal point rather than a diamond or other stone.

18K Carved Peony Ring

18K Carved Peony Ring

18K peony ring & platinum diamond solitaire

I like the way it looks paired with another solitaire!!

Many, many more photos after the click! Continue reading

snake band #2

18K snake ring with diamond

Snake ring #2: Coiled snake wedding band with 2mm diamond in 18K brushed gold. I burnished the ridge of the snake’s body mirror bright, which stands out nicely against the matte finish. I did a bit of research into the structure of snake heads for this one. Did you know that each scale on a snake’s head has a name and is more or less consistent throughout all the species? Science, man.

18K snake band with diamond solitaire

It pairs nicely with a solitaire, of course, as many things are improved by the addition of a large diamond. The little dip in the snake band snugs in well with the low-profile solitaire.

More pics of course! Continue reading

split ring in 22K

hand-carved split-ring in 22K with 2mm diamond

This started off as an idle doodle in my notebook, then I kept passing by it on my way to other more serious pages and it would catch my eye. So I just carved it one day when I was feeling like I had a bit of free time. And it sat on my bench for a few weeks, making me look at it… It’s just not the super-carvey typicalness I usually do so I wasn’t sure if it was worth casting. Something about it is really appealing though so I finally threw it in with my last batch of castings, and did it in 22K no less. I’ve been wearing it around and I kind of love it.

hand-carved split-ring in 22K with 2mm diamond

I photographed it on my left hand, but I’ve been wearing it on my right. The diamond & little scrolly bit are very slightly off-set and balance better on the right hand. The diamond, by the way is a 2mm VS+ clarity top light brown diamond (maybe L-O color?), but honestly, it didn’t look it in the paper and it certainly doesn’t look it set into the metal. The only way I can tell they are off-color is if I open up a paper of F colors next to it. Those puppies are blinding.

hallmarks

I FINALLY ordered my hallmarks. I had 14K and 18K before, but now I also have PT950 (platinum), PD950 (palladium), 22K, and some cute little for-fun ones: a “CW” for my initials and a little butterfly. You can sort of see the butterfly on the right in this zoomed-in crop. I’m still getting used to stamping things. I was always really paranoid about stamping my pieces because many of my rings are carved all the way around and the pressure required to stamp in the mark can potentially damage the delicate bits in the carvings. I’m still figuring it out. It’s tricky to get a nice complete stamp if the ring is not totally flat on the inside (mine are rounded), or narrow (some of mine are), or is not smooth on the outside (many of mine aren’t). Also, each alloy is a different hardness, so I have to get used to how hard to push. I overdid it a bit on this one I think.

MORE photos after the jump! Continue reading

solitaires

COLORS!! These are some of the first solitaires I’ve made using non-white metal. LOVE them:

14K rose gold cushion-cut diamond solitaire

This is a cushion-cut diamond set in 14K rose gold. This is also the first ring I’ve made using a cushion and I love how it turned out. The diamond looked awesome in the pink gold.

18K diamond solitaire with rosy eternity band

18K yellow gold diamond solitaire with Rosy Eternity band (diamond, garnet, alexandrite, sapphire, and peridot used).

MORE more more pics after the click. Continue reading

peacock feather ring and storybook band

Peacock Ring and Storybook Band in 18K white gold

Did I promise some pretty pictures of Mexico? Here: let me distract you with some recent projects!

18K Double Peacock Feather Ring with opals

Double Peacock Ring using Grandmother’s opals (taken from an old ring) in 18K white gold. I LOVE this. The opals were old and delicate (as opals are) but still had a lot of life left in them. I set them recessed down into the ring a little bit to protect them from bonks and scratches, and then gave the recessed areas a little bit of patina to make the stones pop out a bit more.

18K Wave-Peacock feather-Sun-Mountain storybook band

The “storybook” ring had a series of pictures around the band that had personal meaning to the wearer: a breaking wave, peacock feather, sun, Mt. Rainier, and bubbles scattered here and there! Also done in 18K white gold.

I remember seeing Navajo story rings (and bracelets) in Arizona and always liked the idea that a band could tell a story, perhaps about the wearer. A ring that could bring memories as it turns on your finger.

A LOT more images after the jump! Continue reading

arabesque eternity band

Carved Eternity Band with diamonds, 18K white gold

This is the wedding band I carved to match an engagement ring I made last year. It’s crazy petite at ~2mm width and the diamonds are 1.5mm. I snapped it in half more than once during the carving process but happily, wax is melty stuff and I bloobed it all back together in the end! It’s 18K white gold. I love how it turned out.

Carved Solitaire & Eternity Band with diamonds, 18K white gold

Paired with a solitaire I was making around the same time! (more images after the click: Continue reading

i’m back!

San Pedro Bay, Sonora MX

I’m back from my trip! We went sailing in the Sea of Cortez (Sonora, MX) on my father in law’s trimaran. We all had a lovely time swimming, sailing, beachcombing, eating tacos, and visiting the pearl farm! I took lots of photos and I’ll get a post together soon.

Meanwhile, please do not hesitate to (ahem) remind me if you had contacted me before or during my absence. I’m wading through emails here and I feel like I’m missing some.

Sailing in the Sea of Cortez