One of my first rings I carved ever (oh so long ago) was a mermaid ring with two mermaids up each side, very art nouveau (in fact, I think I used a photo of an old art nouveau lamp as inspiration for one of my girls). It turned out kind of great, even though the anatomy was a little, well, off, let’s just say, and the stone I chose, while sentimental, wasn’t exactly a show-stopper. I still have that ring. Why I didn’t carve figures for so long, I don’t know why, because while very challenging, tiny figures in gold are just so damned cool!

This new one is in 18K with a little 5 point blue diamond; she’s around 8mm wide. Now I’ve got three more rings in the works with tiny figures on them and I cannot wait. There’s no stopping now!

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These are a pair of bands I carved for some friends. They call each other “Spatzle” (“sparrow” in German, possibly in dialect), so I carved a pair of sparrows sitting on a branch. And because the dogwoods were fully in bloom when I made these, and blooming dogwoods are about the best, I added a single flower across from the birds. 14K white gold.

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This was a delicate little branch wedding band made to snug up against my Scattered Ginkgo & Diamonds Ring. Because the recipient was not intending to solder the two rings together (thus keeping them perfectly lined up always), I made sure that the band would work when it was not lined up in its spot. It has a breezier, lacier look when unaligned, and looks to be a part of the original ring when fit together.

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This is definitely one of the more unique pieces I’ve made recently, combining unusual design motifs (two alligators holding a center stone in their mouths + lettering) with multiple stones. The client specifically was after a rough-hewn medieval look.

As it turns out, I’m not super good at rough-hewn (too much of a perfectionist) in that I can’t bring myself to leave hammer marks in from stone setting, or make my carvings look primitive, or whatever it is I felt might make a piece look very old. What I could do was fake it a little by arranging more prominent carve marks here and there, and the choice of 18K royal yellow gold was perfect, especially with a little patina here and there to make details more prominent. I absolutely love how this ring finished out. My alligators turned out rad!

The diamond and the two belly rubies were old family stones with sentimental value, and we added a new third ruby to sit above the diamond.

The back of the ring had the Latin “FIDEM” inscribed in.

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Delicate eternity band in 18K rose gold (which has such a lovely peachy hue to it). I have it set with a handful of little colored diamonds ranging from champagne to golden yellow, yellowish orange, reddish brown. The entire band is warm and wonderful.

The band is a classic 18K white gold band, which has a slightly warmer hue than the 14K white alloy. (A couple more photos after the link… Continue reading →

A wide version of my earlier white oak bands; this one in 18K yellow gold. I love how this ring turned out; these leaves make for such an awesome design on rings. Pretty soon the neighbor’s oak tree is going to dump about 17 metric tons of these puppies all over my roof/yard, and that will be a very different kind of awesome.

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Oh hello! Did summer happen? Because I can barely remember it for the blur of activity and happenings and craziness that consumed it (and me). We had tons of family come visit us, went camping about fifty times, basked in the insanely hot (for Portland) weather, and it pretty much took me twice as long to get any of my orders completed. My clients were extraordinarily gracious about my slowness (thank you!!). On top of it all, we moved both house & studio across town to cut down on commutes. I can’t believe how much crap we have, and yet we still have to go to the store to buy things like a trash bin for the bathroom.

On to more interesting stuff: here is a ring I finished a couple of months ago. 14K rose gold tidepool-motif band with anemonies, a sea star, rockweed/seaweed, a hermit crab, sand dollars… I had so much fun carving this ring.

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One of my oldest friends from when I was a kid got married recently and I got to make their rings! Forget-me-nots in 18K yellow gold with tiny 1.5mm stones in the flower centers and a single larger stone. His band had a pared-down version of the design intaglio-carved onto a wider band + a couple of flush-set stones.

I have no idea why I haven’t yet done forget-me-nots, because it makes for an awesome design motif.

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Rose and butterfly eternity ring in 18K rose gold. More photos after the click: Continue reading →