18% thinner was the result.
12th September 2023 - Customer location: Brisbane
An engagement ring from 2019.
I made the above engagement ring back in October 2019. The main gemstone is Moissanite and the ring 950 Platinum.
Some size drafts from another job.
The customer was in Brisbane so to confirm the size and the design of the engagement ring at the time I made up a draft and Express Posted it down to them. I wanted to make sure that the design was right and also the finger size was also spot on. The last thing we wanted to do was resize a brand new ring.
As with the engagement ring the design for the wedding ring was all done remotely via email. On the computer I was able to do a digital mockup that showed her how the design she had in mind would look on the hand.
A photo taken by the customer in Brisbane of the draft wedding ring next to her engagement ring.
With the design confirmed I created a draft in silver to see if I could get the fitted shape right without needing the engagement ring to be sent back to me. In the end it turned out the fit was just not quite right so the engagement ring would be sent to me so I could do the job perfectly.
Something was not right with the draft!
There was also another thing that was worrying me in the photo that the customer emailed of the wedding ring draft next to the engagement ring. The outside edges of the rings were not lining up.
Outside edges do not align at the same finger size?
I had made the draft wedding ring to the same finger size and thickness as the engagement ring yet they did not align.
After I mentioned this to the customer she informed me that she had the ring resized larger in Brisbane. When the engagement ring arrived back to me I discovered that it was now 2 sizes larger than when I had made it. The ring had been stretched larger.
I made the base of the ring 1.6mm thick, it was now 1.3mm after someone else had resized it.
During the resizing it had become 18% thinner. I think I could have resized it with less of a reduction but please note, resizing a ring by joining a new section in, cutting a section out or stretching will all reduce thickness to some extent no matter how well the job is done.
The “Talk”
The finished wedding ring ready to send to Brisbane.
For most of the making of the engagement ring I dealt with the partner of the recipient of the ring. I should have followed up more after the proposal to make sure the recipient knew how to look after the ring better….and to avoid resizing it as much as she could.
It was now nearly 4 years after the ring was made and I was having “ The Talk” about how to care for your jewellery with this customer. All of my customers know this very blunt “Talk” all too well :)
Like most people she thought resizing a ring was a harmless process. This is not true, some rings cannot be resized at all and others if resized outside their tolerance can be destroyed. Fortunately for this ring I originally made it to a thickness of 1.6mm which meant that whilst not ideal, at 1.3mm after being resized it was still fine.
Resizing a second time later may be another matter. Especially if the same person performs the job and reduces the thickness by 18% again…that would mean the ring would then be just a touch over 1mm thick/thin :(