This ring is probably the most insane ring I’ve carved yet—and I mean that in the best way possible. It is in rose gold with a D/VS2 trillion-cut diamond. I made it last year and I can’t believe I forgot to post it already; just had the draft sitting in my box all ready to go..

One side.. And the other below:

Many more photos (and words) below!

Things begin simply enough, with a simple triangular diamond (.39ct & D/VS2). It was a bit tricky finding a diamond for this; originally we were hoping for one with more rounded sides to fit with the shape of the center of the trefoil celtic-style knot, but nothing the right size or well-enough cut was forthcoming. This particular stone was just really nice and the D color would contrast really nicely against the warm rose gold.

My finger size in this pic is a 6, so this is not an extremely large ring..

So the diamond of course forms the center of the celtic trefoil and a heart woven together. Simple!

The first side has the crucifix Jesus figure.

I have about zero religious education or upbringing. Luckily for me, my client provided me with no less than a 14-page spreadsheet with a detailed list of all the motifs and imagery he wanted to include in this ring, descriptions and photos cobbled from old stained glass windows, paintings, etc. His inspiration was Martin Luther’s wedding ring from the 1500s, which is insanely detailed.

Jesus has a teeny thorned crown, a cut in his side and his blood is spilling out into two vessels: a chalice on one side and an 8-sided font on the other.

Under his feet are a skull and a serpent. The original idea was for a fully formed demon creature and full skeleton, but “we” reduced it to a skull and serpent because I had about 3mm of space to work with here.

Beneath the snake and skull is a chain with broken links in the center, and beneath that are crossed keys. Finally, beneath the keys is a beehive.

We drove through Utah last summer and I remember seeing that the highway sign logo was of this beehive symbol. I thought maybe Utahns had a propensity towards beekeeping, but now I suppose it has more to do with religious symbolism.

Moving on to side two! The tiniest little Adam & Eve you ever did see! They are standing underneath the tree with a snake curling down out of the branches, and Eve has a fruit in her hand.

Heads to toes, I think the figures were around 11mm tall. I really like my Eve; she had a very sweet expression for having a 1mm face. I talked my client out of fig leaves or anything covering up the spicy bits because at this scale a three-lobed fig leaf achieves, somehow, quite the opposite intention.

Did I mention that the recipient of this ring’s requests were for the ring to be on the petite side, “fairly simple and not gaudy.” (!!) I believe aside from rose gold and a triangular-shaped diamond, she was 100% in the dark about the design.

Beneath the feet of Adam & Eve is the sacrificial lamb.

Beneath the lamb are the Commandment tablets. I didn’t know this (surprise), but they were said to be #1-3 on one tablet, then #4-10 on the second. My client wrote out the Hebrew numbers 1-10 for me to try to fit on there. What I should have thought of was that Hebrew is written right to left rather than left to right; someone pointed that out to me when I posted some images on Instagram. Embarrassed that I should have figured that out and switched my tablet order (I don’t know much about Hebrew, but I do know some in general about languages), I looked it up and the Internet said that while Hebrew is written right to left (as with Persian, Arabic, etc.), numbering is actually left to right. Maybe it is fine as is after all.

Finally, beneath the tablets is an incense censer.

The very base of the ring. Last, but not least, we graciously accommodate her wishes for ‘fairly simple.’

I do love to poke fun at this ring because it is just so over-the-top and dense with action, but honestly, I’m really very proud of this ring. Initially I wasn’t entirely sure I’d be able to pull something like this off. And it was certainly challenging and entirely epic to carve. In spite of my religious ignorance (though now I’m 14 pages the wiser) and all my space constraints for the amount of detail we wanted to put in there, I feel like this ring turned out kind of amazing.