Platinum Trilogy Of 1.5ct Princess Cut Diamond & Baguette Rubies
By Joseph McGarr
After seeing a trend for the dainty and delicate over the past few years, it's been fun this year to work on several rings that are quite the opposite. One being this princess cut stunner.
This ring was created to match a customers existing wedding ring, crafted by a designer that she could no longer find. The wedding ring had a similar statement shank width and depth, and was flush set with coloured princess cut sapphires.
The princess cut diamond echos her princess cut sapphires and the baguette rubies match the sapphires. They surely make a statement set.
This ring was a purely bespoke design. Sometimes customers come to us with ideas, or we often mix and match settings and shanks from pieces in our showroom. This one was the customer's own design and one that needed a little working out as you will see with the CAD designs.
Usually the first stage of designing a piece of bespoke jewellery is to work out a rough design idea, but before any CAD work can begin, it is important to source and order the stones.
Once the stones have been decided upon and ordered, we have the exact dimensions and can begin the CAD. It's amazing how much the measurement of the same carat weight stone can vary.
It's equally important with coloured stones as well, especially if you have your heart set on a particular shade.
Once the stones arrive, the white tack comes in handy. It's great to place the stones on, so you can see the arrangement that previously only existed in your mind or on paper. It's great for working out layouts and seeing if different sizes are needed.
In the case of these rubies and this princess cut diamond, the customer was happy with her selection so we got started on the CAD drawing.
Drawing the design out to scale with a good ol' fashion pencil and paper is usually the method we use to confirm the design with the customer before starting with the CAD drawing. This helps to make sure we are all on the same page, as with so many setting styles available and varying jewellery terms to describe designs it's easy for details to be misinterpreted.
As was the case with our first CAD drawing. The first design shows the stones set via bars, which the customer wasn't taken with.
For the second design option the CAD design was altered to full bezel settings, encasing the full perimeter of the stones. This was the style that the customer liked and proceeded with, she liked the idea of the stones being fully encased and secure.
This is the benefit to using CAD and seeing an approval image, it's helpful to see a 3D detailed drawing of how the ring will look before it is cast into your chosen metal. If you need some extra reassurance before committing to the design, it is also possible to view a 3D printed model of the ring too.
The final result came out brilliantly, the strength of the chunky bezels works with the heavyweight shank. Delicate claws would look out of place on such a wide band. The right angles and size of stones all work in harmony to create a bold statement piece.
"I've always liked statement rings and wanted one to go on my right hand to complement my wedding ring. I was hoping to be able to contact the original designer but unfortunately he was no longer available.
As a 25th wedding anniversary present, I was looking for something truely unique and simple. My husband suggested visiting the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham which is where our search started.
My original wedding ring is quite bold with a princess cut diamond and pink, yellow and blue saphires set in 18ct white gold. So finding somewhere that could create a bespoke ring based on a design I had sketched was a deciding factor.
Element was the first jewellery boutique we went into and we both instantly felt that their approach to creating a bespoke design was perfect. Still, we did look around and it became clear that the team at Element really had the best approach. No hard sell from Ellie, just a normal conversation of ideas on gems, colours and price, without pressure to sign there and then.
The next day I commissioned them to design the sketch I had drawn. I opted for a lab grown diamond as I was keen to have something that was environmentally less impactful as well as more affordable and two rubies either side. I was sent a couple of CAD drawings which they were happy to tweak and it took about six weeks to get the finished ring.
It was posted to me, as I don't live in Birmingham, to try on and check for size. It was everso slightly too big and so it was returned, resized and back with me in two days.
I absolutely love it and everyone I have spoken to, Ellie, Rachel, Greg and Joe have been fabulous. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them if you want something a little bit different."
A big thank you for entrusting us to bring your idea to life!
