Another for Greg's portfolio of wax carved creations.
The brief for this ring was to create a piece that looked obviously handmade - specifically - like a Roman ring that had been unearthed from the ground.
Grazes, lumps, bumps, and all the markings of centuries of compression underground.
When it comes to this style of jewellery, CAD is not the way to go. Not only did CAD not exist in Ceasar's heyday, but texture is hard to replicate in a natural looking way via CAD programs.
Why make a process harder when the traditional methods create not only a more authenticate piece but a better looking one too.
Greg crafted this piece by hand from a block of solid blue wax. Blue wax has a fairly high melting temperature so it stays quite solid whilst being worked on in your hands. It is the same wax that you may have seen used by jewellers running wax carved ring workshops.
The benefit of creating a ring like this in wax as opposed to metal is that it takes on the markings of the files and tools in a very soft complimentary way, as opposed to the harsh lines of metal hitting metal. Another benefit is being able to melt the surface to add extra texture and smooth over markings.
The setting for the cushion cut diamond was also made from wax. The heavyweight bezel follows the same aesthetic - the bezel shows some texture but lets the ring shank shout with the loudest markings.
The edge of the bezel encasing the diamond is polished to a high shine, this highlights the stone and makes a statement of opposing finishes.
When you highlight one area this can help to make a design look more considered. For example if the bezel wasn't polished, you could think that we had forgetten to polish the ring. By highlighting this area, it shows that the unpolished is being celebrated for all its perfect imperfection.
Unfortunatly we didn't get any photos of the making process of this one, Greg is too quick! We will try and get some process snaps of his next wax creation as the techniques used are fascinating to see.
If you would like to challenge Greg to a handcrafted piece please do get in touch with your ideas and inspirations and we can see what we can create together.
We hope you enjoyed reading about our latest wax carved creation.
Element x
