A unique diamond
June 2nd 2017
This blue diamond ring has a great story. I love it but some might think it odd. Wonderful that we are all different. The rings creation also shows how a design in a photo might not scale well to a different hand and/or diamond size.
The desired design
My customer asked me to set the blue diamond into this setting she had seen on my website. A design that was created out of modifying another design and featured in an article back in 2015.
The desired design.
The first mockup
The above ring was made to a finger size of H and featured a 4.7mm diamond. It is a classic example of scale in photos that I wrote about back in 2012. Rings made to smaller finger sizes make diamonds look larger in photos.
This customers finger size was 6 sizes bigger at N and the diamond smaller at 4mm in diameter. This is how it scaled into that design, “underwhelming” was the word I used when I showed it to the customer.
Modified to a smaller gem size on a larger finger. Underwhelming.
The revised design
I am going to cut a few iterations of the design out and go straight to the design that we decided upon. The ring was now to be made in all white gold and a distinct wave to the design. She loved the look of this once I had edited it into a photo of her hand.
The draft
With the photo approved I created a draft in silver. We discussed some aspects of the design as she was able to try it on and it was decided to make no changes. At the same time I modified the finger size of the draft until it was perfect. I was ready to make the ring.
The silver draft on the design layout.
All done
The ring was created in 18ct Palladium white gold and despite its small appearance weighs a hefty 4.7 grams. The bottom part of the band is solid to support the lighter form of the top. This ring is to be worn every day.
The great part of the story
What is truly special to this ring is that the blue diamond was created using carbon from some hair of a deceased family member. Some may find that odd but I love the concept.
This brings me to a topic that I will cover in the future, synthetic diamonds are here and you cannot tell them apart by just looking at them or using diamond testers.
I will leave you to ponder comments regarding the identification of synthetic diamonds made by Bill Sechos the director of Gem Studies Laboratory (Sydney) recently in a trade magazine.
"Just looking at the stone with a loupe is not enough as the synthetic diamonds look just like a natural diamond. Diamond testers are also useless because they identify the stone as diamond but cannot differentiate whether it is natural or synthetic.
Absolute foolproof identification involves sophisticated spectrometry in order to study the minute difference in the internal structure of the stones being tested."
Bill Sechos, GSL Australia.