Handmade engagement rings

[hokoman]

Great work on the documented ring... Just wish the client would have gone with a better color for the center stone, it really shows up yellow in the pics.

[Honus]

Great work on the documented ring... Just wish the client would have gone with a better color for the center stone, it really shows up yellow in the pics.

Thanks everyone! I was pretty happy that my boss agreed to let me document the process. I wish a lot of the photos could have been better but that's the best I could do under the time constraints. Since my scope doesn't have a camera mount it's pretty hard getting good close up shots of the setting process.

Yep- the center stone is K color but it's actually not as quite as yellow in person as it is in the pics. In the end the client was absolutely thrilled with the ring and that's what really matters. I like to wait in the back of the shop and see people's facial expressions when they first see the finished piece. I can do the job to the best of my ability but the reality is if they're not happy then I'm not happy.

[dashDustin]

1yr + 2wks has gone by since I proposed and gotta say that the rings still blow me away. Don't know if I ever posted it but this is just after proposing at the top of Snowbird (11,000').

Instagram

[Honus]

Here's one I just finished for a client. 12 carat orange Sapphire with 328 Diamonds set in white Gold. My eyes were going a little buggy by the end of this one- LOL!

[stnphoto]

This is the first thread my wife has ever been interested in reading on the V.

[roguedog]

Love that Sapphire ring. Makes me think of the columns of the Hagia Sophia in its intricacies.. Beautiful.

How does the design process work? I'd think you'd have 10x the issues of a framebuilder and opinionated clients.

[Honus]

How does the design process work? I'd think you'd have 10x the issues of a framebuilder and opinionated clients.

Pretty simple really. We ask lots of questions and do sketches and computer models based on the information the client provides. Sometimes the client will approve a computer model and sometimes I may carve a wax pattern by hand for approval- it just depends on the job. Some people know exactly what they want and some don't. Opinionated clients aren't a problem because those people by and large have strong ideas about what they want. It's the people that don't have any idea as to what they want that are difficult to please. The only real issue I have is when someone has created a very specific design without knowing the technical details of jewelry manufacturing and is adamant about it being constructed a particular way- and in all honesty that's pretty rare. In that case I usually go through the design/construction process with them so they can understand the technical reasons behind my recommendations regarding the construction of a piece.