Calla Lily ring in 14K rose gold with a really cool blue-green Montana Sapphire. Annoyingly, my photo light box made this stone look really boring. Here is a video of it outside in the shade where it looks awesome and lively. The stone did, however, change color dramatically depending upon the lighting: sometimes more greenish/aqua, and other times more smoky blue. More pics after the click! Continue reading
It has been really fun to see how this ring transforms with each new and totally different stone I make it with. I’ve been lucky enough to get to try it with the original boulder opal of course, this glossy and awesome smoky semi-black Lightning Ridge opal, an insanely gorgeous carnelian that looked like jelly candy, and a gorgeous white opal with a flash of turquoise running through it. I love the different vibes each stone lends this ring. I’m ready to make more!
This is the nicest carnelian I’ve ever seen; it is all natural color and actually the original stone was larger and I had it cut down to fit this setting. The diamonds in this and the smoky black opal above are both antique Old European Cut diamonds.
Pairing a bright green-blue paraiba tourmaline with this opal was a brilliant idea. It looked so good against the yellow gold and really brought the blue and green flashes out of the opal.
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Giant oval Tanzanite set in an 18K white gold bezel solitaire carved with poppies! I gave this solitaire a nice prominent height, and carved poppies all the way around the bezel. I’m always up for carving my favorite flower, and this ring turned out so nicely.
Tanzanite is a cool stone: it shows slightly different body colors depending upon the type of light you view it in; sometimes more purplish violet, sometimes more blue. When it comes out of the ground, it shows three distinct body colors depending upon the axis from which you view it: blue, purple, and a reddish brown. The rough crystals are then heated to remove the reddish/brown color and you are left with a blue/purple stone that is what you typically see in jewelry.
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Just a simple and lovely set of brushed-finish ridged wedding bands in platinum. 3mm and 8mm I believe they were. More photos after the click: Continue reading
These wedding rings were really interesting and fun rings to carve. The groom was from Hatteras Island, NC and wanted his ring to have the types of waves seen off Hatteras Point carved around his band. There seems to be something of a convergence zone with two currents coming together and so the waves often come up into little splashing peaks. A photographer named Daniel Pullen has a series of photos of these waves in his “Cape Point” section.
For the bride’s ring, we did a more of a swirling stream with leaves floating along. Both rings are 14K gold.
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This was a ring using the center diamond from my client’s maternal grandmother, and the side stones came from her paternal grandmother. I’ve never made this ring using anything but a round center stone, but the pear shape seemed like it would work all right so we went for it.
And I love how it turned out. The shape really is perfect in this ring. I really love to put together a ring with antique or sentimental family stones; it’s fun to muse about where the stones might have come from, all they might have seen, and having them together in a new piece is a nice reminder of the women from whom they came.
And of course ginkgo leaves are one of the best design motifs ever—interesting biological history + aesthetically pleasing = a perfect combination.
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Epic Crowned Heart & Dancing Ladies ring featuring an amazing 6.86ct 14mm+ black diamond heart, a tidy passel of rose-cut diamonds, an Old European cut diamond, and a little ruby. This ring was designed around this cool black heart and went through a lot of iterations en route to the finish line. It was so worth it—it turned out SO nicely!
Here’s a video of that stone in action too; it’s a glitter monster.
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New solitaire for the shop! This one is a little bit sturdier and made to accommodate stones in the 1.5ct range (~7.5mm), though I kept it very low profile. I art deco-ed out a little on this one and carved in subtle ‘facets’ to give it a little geometric interest. I think it turned out supercool!!
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This is a pair of wedding bands I did some months ago that were of a smooth twisted rope coil morphing into scattered leaves, then back to the smooth coiled rope as you work your way around the band. They were cast into 18K and turned out pretty cool I think!
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More snake rings: BIGGER snake rings. This ring I carved around a sweet boulder opal I just couldn’t pass up because I thought it was like looking down upon a little tropical inlet, like maybe in the Baja perhaps, specifically around here… I got a nice little Old European cut antique diamond to accent the piece and finished it up a couple of weeks ago! LOVE how it turned out. I was hard pressed to let it go, and honestly, if it weren’t one of my favorite clients who bought it, I may have had to keep it myself.
This is, however, a new studio piece and I can customize (different stones, change up the diamond, 14K, 18K white or yellow gold, etc.) and adjust for size. It’s now listed in my Etsy shop!
See how amazing this ring is? It makes even my ratty old studio sweatshirt look chic! (I kid.)
The other ring in this photo is my Coiled Snake Solitaire—also available in the Etsy shop.
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