December 30th 2011

I will share with you the design process of my last job of 2011, an 18ct gold Pearl and diamond dress ring. Happy New Year! 

My last job for 2011 was a pearl ring and I thought the process of its creation would be a good example to share with you on the site.

At my first meeting with the customer I was shown her pearl and asked to put together some suggestions for designs. At this early stage in the process it is important for me to get some idea of the customers preferences for jewellery styles.

I gathered up a group of images from which the customer selected two that she liked. The band from one photo and the diamonds around the pearl from another stood out to her as features that she liked. I now created a graphic to show her what the pearl would look like in a design using both features.

Once the photo was created I then needed to change the band to reflect the customers preference for all white gold and wider at the base.

In the photos I used to create this design the pearls shown were all round. My customers pearl was a slightly off round button shape and that is not reflected in the photos. I could have edited up the photos to reflect this but the customer did not require it. The flattened/button shape of the pearl was one of the things that she particularly liked about it. She disliked how high many of the pearl rings she had seen sat off the finger. It would be my job to set the pearl as low as possible and to also hide the slightly off round shape of the pearl.

With the design approved I was now able to accurately quote on the ring. The quote was approved but if it had not been it at this stage of the process that I can make changes to the design to match a budget if required. I can then alter the images to reflect those changes. If I am unable to come up with a design in my customers budget range that they are happy with then we either put the job on hold or cancel it. 

Getting back to this ring, the customer approved the quote and paid a 30% deposit. It was now my job to turn that digital image into a real piece of jewellery. The finished ring pictured below was created in 18ct palladium white gold and used a total of 52 round brilliant cut diamonds.