Remember the cushion cut diamond engagement ring I made several months ago? Here is the band to match!

For those who don’t remember, these rings took years to actually come to fruition. The rings are for our very good friends from college. I finally made the engagement ring part a few months ago so he could propose and then I started working with her on the band part.

I had a design already done that used 9 diamonds that were the same size as the smaller diamonds on the engagement ring. She really liked the design but wanted the diamonds a little bigger. Here is the render of the finished design:

I made the ring in platinum to match the engagement ring. I can’t wait to attend their wedding in March and see the rings together!

More opals! I never thought I’d do so many opal designs ever! I love that people are showing some love for such an amazing and diverse stone!

This customer saw the original Opal Engagement Ring that I made for a different client and contacted me to see if I could design something for him to give to his girlfriend when he proposed.

I worked with the girlfriend to get a feel for what she liked before I started designing. She didn’t have anything specific in mind but had some ideas of different things she’d seen so I took her ideas and created three different designs for them to look at.

She really loved the top design but also liked the classic look of the second one. I did some more variations on both for her to consider.

Eventually we settled on this design:

Then there was just the matter of materials. We decided to use platinum for the metal so it would never have to be plated, an AAA quality opal (the best I can get), and SI quality, GH color pear shaped diamonds.

The finished piece turned out beautifully and the end of the whole process was kept secret from her so he could still surprise her with a proposal!

I love taking stones out of different jewelry, especially heirloom jewelry, and using them in new jewelry.

I actually grew up with this customer so I knew her really well. Doing work for friends and being able to be such an important part of the important moments of their lives, is amazing. It also puts the pressure on me to be the best I can be!

This customer started her engagement ring search with very little direction. She knew she wanted something with an antique-like design but she didn’t know what stone or stones she wanted and she didn’t have a clear idea of how much she could spend. Here are some designs we started with:

Then, her mom gave her a family ring that had a ruby oval in the center and several small diamonds on the sides. It helped narrow the design a ton! Here are the ideas I sent her based on her actual stones:

She loved the one with the diamonds going around the ruby so we decided to go with that design in 14K white gold.

The stones had to be pulled out of the original ring and cleaned before being put into the new setting. They cleaned up so nicely and we decided not to rhodium the white gold so the ring had a little warmer color than what most people think of for white metals. I mailed the ring to her boyfriend so it would be a surprise and when he proposed, she saw the ring for the first time and loved it!

Every once in awhile I get a request that requires less computer work, and more catalog flipping. I know it sounds strange, but some designs just work better if you buy pre-made parts, and assemble them. This is one of those pieces.

This client contacted me because she wanted a gift to give a friend that had the friend’s children’s birthstones (two emeralds.) She thought she wanted a pendant but wasn’t sure. The big thing was that she didn’t have a ton of money to spend.

When I get requests under a certain dollar amount, I often go to my catalogs. I have several sources where I can buy pre-made parts that I can put together to create a new design. This works especially well with pendants because you can get moving parts this way and you would never guess that the parts are pre-made.

I sent the customer several ideas based on different price ranges and different shapes.

She decided that she liked the circle design with two pieces. We decided to use natural emeralds, real diamonds, and sterling silver.

The jeweler put everything together and suggested that the bottom circle piece have a sandblast finish. They thought that the sandblast finish would wear better since it was likely that the top circle would scratch the bottom circle.

I think the sandblast finish added depth to the piece and the diamonds were just enough sparkle next to the deep green of the emeralds. What a great gift to be able to give a friend!

Wow, how fast can 3 months fly by! Life got in the way of keeping my blog up to date but I am still here and still making jewelry!

My son is now almost 9 months old! I truly never believed it when people said it would fly by. I thought with the sleepness nights and the extreme change to how I do everything because I now have another person to consider, that there was no way it would go by quickly in any way. I was wrong. My son is crawling all over the place already, chattering to himself, and about 2-3 weeks away from walking.

We have made it through baby’s first Thanksgiving and baby’s first Christmas. It is almost time to start thinking about his first birthday already! I can’t wait!

I am going to try very hard to get back into the blog game by updating once each week so stay tuned! I have lots of pieces to share that are beautiful and I can’t wait to hear what people think.

I am still making custom jewelry for any customer that comes my way so if you have anything you would like to have made, please contact me!