David Taylor - Master Jeweller - Cairns Jeweller

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Second time is a charm

1st October 2021 - Customer location: Cairns

Gumnut and leaf ring - aged 9ct yellow gold

Most pieces of jewellery I make are unique.  That means that even if I have created something similar in the past there is almost always some aspect of the design that I have not made previously. I have never made a Gum nut and leaf wedding ring before.

When making a piece of jewellery for the first time there is a trial and error aspect to it’s creation. As well as the trial and error process I like to make a draft of the piece once I feel I have the design how the customer wants it.

The draft also allows me to show customers that struggle with images alone a roughly finished version of the piece we are about to make.  At the draft stage we can also decide to make any small changes that will make the piece perfect for them.

Pattern repeats 3 times around the ring.

For rings that cannot be resized at all or not well,  the draft is perfect to use to resize to the exact finger size for this specific design on the allocated finger.

Article: Rings that cannot be resized

Article: Why you should avoid resizing a new ring

The ring shown in this article is a draft that will be melted down. This is one of those designs that has the pattern all the way around and has a very limited scope to be resized.  

Usually I make the drafts in silver but for this one I wanted to show the customer the colour of the tarnished gold.  I also wanted to practise adding the rough texture and determine which areas to polish and not polish.  The customer wanted and earthy feel and I think we have achieved that.

Form My World this week sunset in Barron Gorge on Wednesday the 28th of September. Now that I am settled in a bit more at the new location I am getting back to my sunset breaks in Barron Gorge when I can.

Sadly however a late afternoon break in the Gorge usually means a bit of night work back at the office :) I hope you get the chance this week to explore some of our wonderful country.