Jewelry Redesign Story #43: Parents’ Rings Get a Stackable Redesign

THE REDESIGN CHALLENGE:

Erin has been holding on to these three rings that belonged to her parents for years. Although she has worn them in the past, she realized that she found them to be too chunky for her taste. 

Instead of allowing the rings to sit in a drawer, Erin came to us looking for a redesign of the rings that would be more modern and delicate in order to better suit her style. Erin looked forward to honoring the gift of her parents with jewelry that she would be interested in wearing on a daily basis. 

Although she wanted a different design, Erin had realized that she did like wearing all three of the rings together as a stack and requested that our redesign would allow her for creative mixing and matching of the order of the rings for a more dynamic overall look and versatile styling. Although we started with three rings, Erin said that two rings would satisfy her interest in having multiple and stackable rings. 

Erin was also excited to use the redesign as an opportunity to celebrate a milestone and her bright future after moving to San Francisco and planning to open a store of her own there. 

THE REDESIGN PROCESS:

initial sketches

We created a few different options for two stackable rings for Erin featuring different band shapes that would still nest perfectly together. We offered her an option with a chevron-styled ring, two rings that featured a number of bezel-set diamonds, and an option that included a criss-cross style embedded band ring. 

Erin selected the option with the many bezel-set diamonds on both of the stackable rings. 

 Rhino modeling

The Rhino model was an essential step as we wanted to create a tight nesting fit for the two rings. 

We also needed to pay close attention to making sure that each of Erin’s diamonds fit into the design for the new rings. This can be a very tedious process as many old jewelry pieces are not made with calibrated diamonds, which means that although the stones may have come from the same original jewelry piece, they are all of different sizes. 

Although the Rhino modeling for a piece like this can be difficult, we are happy to do it as these challenges are an integral part of what makes jewelry redesign such a complex and special process for both the owner and designer of a specific jewelry piece. 

Casting

The casting on the piece was a moment of truth as we needed to make sure that all the diamonds would fit in the bezels and that we had enough metal prepared to set each and every diamond from the old rings into the multi-bezeled new design. 

We were so glad when our casting revealed that all of our hard work paid off and each and every diamond would fit perfectly into the two rings which also fit perfectly together.

 THE REDESIGN REVEAL:   

The finished jewelry

The new rings fit together perfectly and fit perfectly on Erin. She was so excited to bring these rings with her to her new beginning in San Francisco and we were so excited to celebrate her bright future with a milestone ring that she would be happy to wear on a daily basis.

Materials: 14k yellow gold ring with round diamond in bezel setting

Manufacturing Level: Medium

Design Level: Medium

Looking for a redesign to suit your style? Get started here.