I think I could carve snake rings until I was blue in the face. Here are a pair of snake wedding bands in 14K with tiny oval black star sapphires set into their mouths. I’ve never tried to set a stone on the side of a ring before, and it wasn’t all that different from normal setting, but figuring out a way to securely hold the ring solidly sideways where I could have good access for working the setting was complicated. I managed, but I have a sneaking suspicion it could have been accomplished with a bit less awkward…

The original plan was to carve scales onto both snakes, but I got halfway there, and the contrast in texture just looked so nice. We decided to leave it be and I’m glad we did!

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Snake ring #2: Coiled snake wedding band with 2mm diamond in 18K brushed gold. I burnished the ridge of the snake’s body mirror bright, which stands out nicely against the matte finish. I did a bit of research into the structure of snake heads for this one. Did you know that each scale on a snake’s head has a name and is more or less consistent throughout all the species? Science, man.

It pairs nicely with a solitaire, of course, as many things are improved by the addition of a large diamond. The little dip in the snake band snugs in well with the low-profile solitaire.

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Well, it’s about time I finished this ring. I started it nearly a year ago and had it cast easily 6 months ago. Then I stressed over what would be Thee Perfect Stone to set in the top. Against the intensity of the 18K yellow color and the epicness of the snake motif, I decided that I needed a ruby to go here.

Then I couldn’t find one. Well, not one that I liked. I wanted a really red one that was actually clear inside, which is a hard bargain when it comes to rubies actually. The vast majority of them are a purplish red to downright pink in color, and it’s rare to find any that are truly clear inside. The whole “pigeon’s blood” ruby thing is, in my opinion, some seriously misguided romanticism. I mean, I’ve seen a dead pigeon before.

So I sat on it until I went to the Tucson gem show and spent two days on a quixotic search for the awesomest reddest rubies of specifically the right size for my ring. Out of the hundreds of gem vendors and tens of thousands of rubies there, I found three stones I liked and I bought all of them.

Many more photos of all angles after the jump! Continue reading →