21st May 2021 - Customer locations: both Cairns

If you look at the two photos above in comparison you would think that the diamond on the left is slightly larger than the one on the right. That would be incorrect, as they both have the same diameter.

The two photos above are from a single photo of the two rings side by side, you can see the reflection of the rings to the side in the metal. Lets have a look at the full photo next.

Whenever I take a photo of a ring I fill the frame with that ring which means the smaller the finger size of a ring the larger the main gem will appear in a photo. The ring on the left is a size “I” for Indian and the one on the right 4 sizes bigger at size “M” for Moroccan. Both diamonds have a diameter of 5.45mm.

I wrote an article about this design aspect quite a few years ago after running into the issue when customers tried to recreate designs that they had seen in photos.

I would often get asked “why does my diamond look smaller than the one in the photo I sent you but it is the same size?”. The answer is that the diamonds are the same size but the hand/finger sizes are not.

Article: Those damn hand models

There are other differences with the two rings above such as design, position in the photo etc that might effect how big or small the diamonds will appear but today we are going to talk about the relationship between finger size and design.

Showing the design to scale

Customers want to know how a ring will look on their hand. To show them this during the design process I take two photos of their hand, one with a ruler in it and another without. I then align those two photos so the hand is the same size in both.

Using the photo with the ruler in it I can digitally edit the design onto the hand to scale. I use the photo without the ruler to present to the customer how the design will look on their hand and finger size.

I use a version of this process with almost every piece of jewellery I make and it often it leads to changes that avoid disappointment.

Both of the above rings use a .60 carat main diamond. One customer chose to use a design I have made before with no changes and the other (the ring shown above) decided to take a setting from one design and add it to the band of another.

They are both surprise proposal rings and may be remade with changes to the design and/or to the correct finger size. You can read about my proposal ring process in this article.

Article: The proposal ring

Which leads me to this thought and probably the next subject for a post here.

Buying/sourcing gems is only easy if you do not care about the end result, be that either the aesthetic of the piece and/or the quality of the gems. Given a couple of recent events I think I might right an article about why almost all the time I decline to work with gems purchased elsewhere.

Above are two of a “set” of 4 sapphires that i was asked to make into a ring. This was a job that I should have said no to but took on because the customer has been with me for a very long time and the gems were a keepsake purchased on a holiday.

Starting and getting into this job a long way did not cost the customer any money but did cost me quite a bit. No way around it….these gems are crap, I never finished the ring and should have been more upfront with the customer at the start. I have had a few of these “live and learn” moments of late. Here are a few notes on the gems:

1. did not match in size

2. colours did not match

3. cutting did not match

4. many external flaws such as chips and scratches

5. many internal flaws.

If you have tried to call me in the last week between 5 and 7pm I probably did not answer. I have been working crazy hours for the last couple of weeks and to refresh before a late night at work I have been heading down to Barron Gorge to sit by the river and wait for the sun to set.

I hope you all have a great weekend.