Here we go yet again....another remake of a near new ring.
2nd March 2025 - Customer location: Cairns
I have wondering if these posts about remaking poorly made jewellery have a purpose? After some thought I decided they serve a few:
They educate people reading of things to look out for.
They give you an insight into why I am hesitant to view jewellery purchased elsewhere.
They give you an idea of how many I see and how negative those meetings can be…… and why I avoid them as I get older and reduce the hours I work.
Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of jewellers out there making quality pieces, but the majority of jewellery being sold today is sub standard in my opinion. What is driving that? I am guessing that in a lot of cases the publics lack of education about jewellery all ows people to sell jewellery that has been made to maximise profit over quality, wear and longevity.
The ring above was purchased from a “Fine Jewellery” retailer and was brought to me to have a wedding ring made to sit next to it.
They did something right! Yay.
The position of the claws were the first sign something was wrong.
To the seller of this rings credit they did advise the customer that the Lightning Ridge Opal was not a suitable choice for an every day wear engagement ring. Opal damages far more easily that say sapphire or diamond and can be damaged by sharp changes in temperature due to opals high water content.
This couple have a sentimental attachment to the opal fields….so opal it was regardless. The first indication that something was wrong with the ring is the position of the claws. The should form a rectangle.
Phone snap sorry, one straight claw and a curved one to set an opal thicker on one side than the other.
This ring was so poorly made that I removed the opal from it in front of the customer using my finger nail. They were going to lose the opal from their engagement ring very soon!
A master pattern set up to take a 10x8mm oval cut opal was used to make this ring. 10x8mm is a standard oval cut size that we refer to as “calibrated”. Calibrating gem sizes allows designs to be created that can be reused via a mould and lost wax casting with calibrated gems…….. and reduce labour costs.
This opal was slightly larger than 10x8mm oval……but rather than hand make the ring to fit or recut th eopal, the maker of the ring just squeezed the opal into it. The trouble with this gem was that not only was it slightly oversize it was also thicker on one side than the other. You can see in the photo above that the gem is deeper on the right side than the left.
To get the gem as flat as possible at the top, the setter cut metal out from under the opal on the thick side and bent the claws around. Notice the angle and shape of the claws in comparison.
You are going to see more of this with the high gold price!
The side diamonds could be a little higher to make the side of the ring flow down onto the finger better.
There are two ways to reduce gold cost when you manufacture a ring and they did both with this ring:
make it as thin as possible and cut out every bit of gold from the inside of the ring
reduce the purity of the gold used.
This ring was made in 14ct yellow gold rather than 18ct gold (the norm for a quality womens engagement ring in yellow gold IMO). The ring without the opal in it weighed just 1.9 grams.
By the time I had remade it in 18ct yellow gold it would weigh 4.95 grams. That is a 225% increase in the amount of pure gold (not total weight - pure gold content) used in the ring remake. Think about it……you can poorly make 2.25 rings or one well made ring for the same amount of gold.
The flatter shape of our 10×8mm oval compared to the more dome shape of a cabochon cut on the right.
I dare say that this ring was set up for a cabochon cut opal more so than a flatter top opal. To support the opal a bit more we would raise those side diamonds a little to bridge the gap between the top of the gem to band and to also support the opal a bit more.
Enough of this, let’s make it right.
Above are mockups of the intended remake. The first photo shows pretty much the same view from the top but with heavier main claws to secure the opal. No more removing it with a fingernail!
The middle photo shows the setting allowing for the gem to be slight thicker on the right side and raising the side diamonds a little up the side of the opal.
The third photo shows the wedding ring that the customer designed to sit next to the opal ring.
The wedding ring will frequently be worn alone
A digitial mockup of the wedding ring on the customers hand to scale.
With opal not being suitable for everyday wear the customer intends to wear the wedding ring alone most of the time. It was important for her to like the look of the fitted wedding ring on her hand when worn alone. To do this I used photoshop to show the ring to scale on her hand prior to creation.
3 diamonds from a sepcial ring used it the wedding ring.
For sentimental reasons, rather than financial, three diamonds were used from an heirloom ring in memory of a late relative. I unset 4 diamonds but one was too small. Happy with the look and quote it was finally time to make the two new rings.
The finished rings
The remade engagement ring.
With the remade ring we stayed true to the top view but we went from 1.95 grams of 14ct yellow gold gold to 4.95 grams of 18ct yellow gold. The side diamonds from the original ring were reused in the remake.
The two rings together.
The customer is thrilled with the result and is now planning to do some more work with me. Sadly there is a lot of poorly made jewellery out there and as I type this I am remaking yet another. I might share that with you next but I have started saying no to more and more of this type of work. This abundance of poor quality jewellery is the main reason why I stopped repairing jewellery made by others some 12 years ago.
Article: If I did not make it I will not repair it.
I forgot to mention that the ring was also resized smaller when they purchased it. When it was resized it created more issues with the poorly fitting gem. I discovered when I unset the gem with my figner nail that glue had been used in an attempt to stabilise the opal in the ring. This was a near new ring!
Article: Why you should avoid resizing a new ring
When you have issues my advice to everyone is take it back to the person who sold it to you and have them fix it. In this case they had lost faith in the seller and preferred to have me totally remake it…….and the wedding ring.