I was initially freaked by the heart-shaped diamond, as I’m unused to designing for non-round-ish stones, but it turned out far easier to accommodate a heart than I thought. I think this ring turned out awesomely, and now I’m a heart convert.

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Angel ring! This one was a lot of fun, but very frustrating at times to carve. I probably cut her nose off 5 times in the process of shaping her teeny face, and had to reposition and rebuild a lot of body parts (toes, boobs, etc.) that were originally just a little… off. I’m really happy with how she turned out. I had fun wearing her around my studio while taking photos and getting the packaging ready, and then I was sad to see her go.

She is 18K gold and is holding an antique 3mm Old European Cut diamond.

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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 →