Jewelry Redesign Story #45: Melt Your Rings and Melt Your Heart: The Story of Four Relationships in One Ring
THE REDESIGN CHALLENGE:
Grace came to us with four valuable gold rings and a very unique redesign task.
Each of the four rings that belonged to Grace had come to her during the course of four different past relationships, whether ex-boyfriends or husbands. Grace admitted that she loved each of the rings and appreciated the time that she spent with them, much like each of the individual relationships that they represented, but she was looking to find a way to honor the loves of her past with one single ring that would offer her all of her past love and memories with a little less baggage — both emotionally and in jewelry form.
Grace wanted her new ring to be representative from the point in her life that she is at now, a place in which she is highly independent and with whom her primary relationship is with herself, a comfortable and confident businesswoman. Although this is where she is in her personal growth journey, she is still incredibly excited to honor all the love from the relationships that helped to bring her here. Although her relationships didn’t get a second chance, Grace was certain that she wanted her rings to have one.
One of the most important things about this ring — now that she was the one doing the selecting and designing for herself rather than having others make such decisions for her — was to be certain that her new ring was completely suited to her style and taste.
Grace noted that she loved a maximalist style in her jewelry which was a perfect fit for this design challenge. With so many gorgeous materials to work with, creating a beautifully loud and extravagant piece was a simple matter of reconfiguring all of the many stones and metals that she already had.
THE REDESIGN PROCESS:
initial sketches
We came up with a few design ideas for Grace that incorporated all of her stones. One of the most important design problems with a ring style like this was to make sure that the ring would not be too heavy for Grace to wear or for the band to support the many stones we would be including in it. Those stones can get heavy quickly, especially when there are so many!
We ended up falling in love, along with Grace, with a design that set her stones in a bezel setting and with thick rims around them that would secure the weighty stones inside the band (we would hate for Grace to lose these items of such monetary and emotional value!). Enriched by a band of 18k yellow gold, the ring really highlighted each of the stones and diamonds above all.
We also had a few leftover diamonds that we were able to make into another earring that Grace would be able to wear on a different occasion while still helping her to remember her rich history of love.
Rhino modeling
In order to keep the ring from being too heavy for Grace to wear, we included some open space in the band surrounding the bezels of the individual stones. This allowed the design to have both a strong base for the stone’s security while offering Grace a lightweight, wearable piece that would also fit on Grace’s finger.
Casting
We were so glad that the new ring seemed to have a nice weight to it once we finished our casting. This was so crucial to our design as we wanted Grace to feel as comfortable wearing her ring as was with her independence and herself.
THE REDESIGN REVEAL:
The finished jewelry
The final piece of jewelry turned out stunning — a vibrant and rich piece that is as strong as Grace herself is. Both our team and Grace herself can’t wait to represent her confidence and independence through this maximally styled piece that suits her just as she is now. Just like Grace, this ring is making a statement.
Materials: 18k yellow gold ring with diamonds, blue sapphire, and ruby in a bezel setting
Manufacturing Level: Medium
Design Level: Medium
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