Let’s be real, what woman would not enjoy a beautiful diamond ring? Maybe you’re into an elaborate diamond ring that a celebrity would proudly flaunt on the red carpet, or you might admire something simple and understated.
No matter what your style, there is a custom ring that will suit you to perfection. We have all seen the end result, but what really goes into creating and designing a custom piece of jewelry? The process is quite amazing.
Pre-fabricated jewelry designs are available from 100’s if not 1,000’s of designers around the world. We believe that in order to end up with a truly personal, and quality piece of custom jewelry, the process should be more involved and more personal. At first, a ring is just an idea that can stem from your imagination, from our experienced jewelry designers or from our favorite, a collaboration. Next, we take design ideas and convert them to a hand drawn sketch or a computer generated rendering that will give the design team more specifics on proportions, angles, and overall character of the ring.
Once we get our renderings and sketches dialed in we need to bring the idea to life by creating a wax model or mold of the ring. Our wax carving artist starts with a block of wax and carves away until a three dimensional wax version of your ring is all that’s left. Wax carving is a labor of love, it involves a lot of time, precision, and a tremendous amount of skill. An experienced jeweler might take several days to finish sculpting a ring.
For a wax carving there are many techniques and tools to the trade, heat pens, saws, and burrs are used to bring the wax to life until the designer is happy with the results. The wax is presented to the client to be sure the complete design translated and our client is thrilled with the design. When our clients come in to try on the wax they get to experience the design in 3D. At this point small adjustments can be made to perfect the design. Once the wax is approved it must then be cast into metal through a process called ‘lost wax casting.’ The wax is surrounded in a plaster called investment. There is a hole left in the investment to leave a passageway for the melted wax to escape the heat of the kiln. The investment is placed in the kiln for over eight hours allowing enough time for the wax to burn out. After the wax escapes a negative of the model remains inside the plaster. Precious metals (gold,silver, or platinum) are selected, heated, melted and poured into the cavity typically using centripetal force or spinning the plaster round and round. The metal and investment are then placed into a water bucket to cool.
After cooling, the plaster is broken off and the metal form of the ring is all that remains. At this point the metal is rough, mimicking the surface of the plaster. This rough texture is called casting grain and is removed by a master craftsman who will also sand, polish, and complete what is called a pre-finish.
Ready for the final stage, a bench jeweler will drill and cut in all of the diamonds including the center stone. Once all of the stones are set, the ring will get its final polishing and engraving.
When the piece is complete, it’s hard to believe that all of that cutting, burning, sawing, and drilling could create something so beautiful and intricate. All of the effort has its reward when we see the expression on our customers’ faces and hear how the ring turned out better even better than they had imagined. It is our goal to create heirloom jewelry for couples that will be cherished by a family for generations. Our superior craftsmanship, the finest raw materials, and exquisite designs will endure over time and are the heart of every custom ring design.