This was a custom engagement solitaire in 18K white gold with a ~1/3ct diamond. I carved a scrolling leafy/arabesque design and worked in initials of the bride and groom. At the bottom of the band is a pi symbol. More images after the jump! Continue reading
18K yellow gold art nouveau-style pendant with cyclamen motif. This is a pendant riff off a ring I did a while back:
The original design sketch. I ended up making two of these: this one-of-a-kind version for a client, and a second version with a different flower style that I will develop ultimately as a piece for the shop.
More photos after the jump… Continue reading
These wedding bands tell the story of a relationship. Daniel & Alicia chose a number of themes and motifs that were personal and significant to them, I made a million sketches, and when we finally got the design nailed down, I began to carve.
The rings were ultimately cast into platinum (Pt950/PtRu). His is 6mm width and hers, 4mm.
A pair of parrot feathers.
** many more images after the click! Continue reading
Ring carved with morning glory motif. I went very three-dimensional here—kind of a Rivendell vibe. 14K palladium white gold, lavender sapphire and diamond.
I don’t often use the palladium white gold alloys (14K or 18K palladium white gold); it amazes me how every alloy is different from one another. The color of the 14KPd white is deeper—steelier even—than the standard 14K alloy I normally use (nickel alloy). I feel like it also takes a more intense polish than the 14K nickel white, but maybe it is an illusion of the darker color.
A LOT more images after the jump… Continue reading
14K white gold, 1/3 carat diamond set into a blooming rose. Pretty pretty!!
18K gold wedding bands carved with oak leaves and acorn clusters.
Katherine’s husband is a botanist and the two of them have a particular fondness for white oak trees. I designed this set of wedding bands with three leaf/acorn clusters wrapped around the band. Each time I carve a new ring, it is my new favorite, and these rings are no exception. I think they turned out beautifully.
And some wax images..
Lunar landscape rings. I carved a scale version of the moon’s South Central Highlands (craters Ptolomaeus to Clavius, roughly) onto a pair of wedding bands. His is palladium 950 and hers is rose gold with a tiny pink champagne-colored diamond set into a cute little crater called “Hell.”
To behold the mildly embarrassing geekery that preceded these rings (and see a zillion more photos), please read the rest of the story… Continue reading
Hand-carved Forest of Trees band with eight (I believe) recycled diamonds (picked out of old jewelry the client sent me). I am damned happy with how this ring turned out. It was a long time in the making, with no fewer than fifty thousand emails back and forth with the client beginning in October of last year I think it was, extensive research into how not to be charged customs for stones and metal that she was sending me to use in the ring, extraction of stones and recycling of old gold, and then I began carving! Whew!
The design started out as “trees” and finalized to be Ancient Oak Forest on a Bright Night with Rising Full Moon and Early Evening Stars peeking through the branches.
Here’s a shot of the early wax. I sort of ran with the initial ancient oak theme and got a little overzealous with the trippy branches. “Healthy happy oaks!!” called the client. I fledged out the trees with leaves and this toned down the creepy Halloween vibe that was threatening.
Moving around the ring. Main stone was about 4mm in diameter and the rest of the little guys were around 2mm. It is really hard to get good photos of bright shiny things that have a lot of texture and detail. I have to say though, no matter how nice something might look in the photos, it ALWAYS looks at least ten times better in person.
When I at last finished the ring and had it packaged and ready to ship, we were chagrined to find the Canadian post on strike; no mail was being delivered in the country unless by private courier. After a couple of weeks, things had been “settled” and the ring was shipped and delivered without incident (or customs charges! Hooray!).
The choice of 18K white gold was I think perfect. It is not as white as platinum, palladium, or even 14K white; I do not rhodium plate my white gold. It has a very slight yellowish cast, which makes it look like metallic ivory to me. Warms it up a little and gives it a more antique-y feel. It worked nicely to represent a silvery moonlit night.
14K gold Pond Lily ring set with customer’s salvaged 3.8mm diamonds! I had to do some reworking of the petals and bloom sizes to accommodate the diamonds and the finished piece looked pretty sweet.
Mmmmmm buttery.
Why hello there!
I carved this ring for an Australian surfer/rock climber/outdoorsy kind of guy. We have the weather-worn beach tree, the breaking wave, and an operculum shell, which is a hard spiraly bit that gastropods use to seal their shells tightly closed. We used to find them on the beaches in Central America but I had not previously known what they were actually called.
The ring is carved and cast in palladium.
