Jewelry Redesign Story #65: When Two Become One
THE REDESIGN CHALLENGE:
Camila came to us with her engagement ring. The ring had an additional band which allowed her to stack her wedding band to her engagement ring which features a bezel setting that sits flat on her finger. She wanted to combine both the engagement and the additional stackable rings into one engagement ring. Camilla wanted her new ring to have a diamond band in a yellow gold channel setting featuring the diamond in the center in a low profile. Camila requested a new ring that featured a unique shade of gold that mixed in both yellow and white gold, something similar to what H. Stern does.
Camilas’s rings were beautifully made but a bit chunky for her taste, especially when the rings were worn together. When all three rings were worn together, they became very wide on her finger and impossible to wear, especially everyday.
Camila instead wanted to combine the two engagement and additional stackable rings into one ring with a center diamond in a prong setting and a diamond channel set for the shank.
THE REDESIGN CONCEPT
initial sketches and center diamond
Because Camila was very clear about what she wanted, we were able to quickly create a few loose sketches to share with her for her approval before we settled on the final design and were able to move on to the 3D Cad portion of the redesign.
Metal color was also something that was very important to Camila, who preferred a warm tone for her metal. Due to this, we explored some different metal options other than gold and ended up deciding on 18k white gold without rhodium plating in order to maintain a warm tone for the metal. Normally, when working with 14 or 18k white gold, you would add a rhodium plate at the end of the production process in order to make the metal as white as possible despite the natural yellow/warm tone in natural 14 or 18k white gold. This was why we decided that the best way to get the warm tone for Camila’s ring was to ignore the rhodium plating and instead keep the romantic feeling of a warmer metal color that Camila was fond of.
THE REDESIGN PROCESS:
Rhino modeling
Camila also wanted the center stone of the ring to sit low on her finger while also stacking well with the wedding band in the combined ring redesign. During our modeling process we had to make sure that the height of the center stone was not too low which would make it impossible to stack with the wedding band. On the other hand, we also had to make sure that the stone was not too high.
The stone height was a particularly difficult problem to figure out but we are always happy to put our heads together to solve a puzzle to make a customer happy with their redesign. Having the two original rings in hand was incredibly helpful in making sure we had the ideal height for the stone.
Casting
Once we had the stone height and metal color settled, we were able to cast the ring. We were pleased that the redesigned ring looked like it would be the perfect weight and with the right stone dimensions.
THE REDESIGN REVEAL:
New engagement ring stacked with her wedding band
New custom ring
We got the final ring and we loved its warm tone and were thrilled that the rings stacked perfectly together to make one perfect combined ring. Camila loved her new ring and was so glad that we were able to suit it exactly to her design requests.
Material: Ring 1: Cushion diamond in claw prong setting, diamonds in channel setting on shank in 18k white gold
Manufacturing Level: Medium
Design Level: Medium
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