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Remodelling 22ct Gold Into Two Complementing Handmade Wedding Rings

by Aimee | Jul 27, 2015 | All

The task for this commission of handmade wedding rings was to create two designs using the 22ct yellow gold in each ring and 9ct white gold in the ladies ring given to them by their families. Both rings had to make use of the 22ct gold in a minimalist way with the white metal being the most prominent feature of each wedding ring. The ladies ring had to fit neatly next to the engagement ring and the gents ring preferred a darker and textured white metal so platinum was decided.

The CAD design for the gents ring, with a textured platinum band inlayed with 22ct yellow gold on the inside.

The three original rings ready to be melted down and remodelled into their new designs.

The CAD design for the ladies wedding ring. Two D section rings fitting together whilst sweeping around the engagement ring creating a perfect fit.

Each ring being melted down in a crucible using a large flame on a blow torch.

Once each ring has been melted down it is rolled into the required shape; D section for the ladies ring and flat for the gents ring.

Once each band had been rolled to required length and width they were then turned into a ring and soldered. The 22ct gold was made to size with the platinum band tightly fitting over the top. The 22ct ring then hammered to take the shape of the court platinum ring and holding together with tension.
Each ring was then ready to be hallmarked and finished with a polished and/or matt finish.

Hope you enjoyed my wedding rings in the making, please feel free to leave a comment here or on one of my social network accounts above, I’d love to hear from you. Alternatively if you would like your own pice of jewellery designed, take a look at my jewellery commission page.

Bespoke Handmade Diamond Stacking Rings

by Aimee | Jul 27, 2015 | All, Jewellery In The Making

My task was to create a ring or group of rings using gold and silver engagement and weddings rings and their diamonds. After our initial discussion, we went along the route of creating a suite of wavy rings which could be stacked together using claw settings to allow as much light as possible to the diamonds.

1 Initial ring sketches design process

2 existing rings ready to be melted down

3 removing the diamonds

4 making claw settings for a ring

5 Making stacking rings and claw settings

6 remodelled gold stacking ring ready for diamonds to be set

3 silver and gold diamond stacking rings

silver and gold set of 3 stacking rings

Once the gold and silver was melted down, it was then rolled out into square wire which could be turned into rings and pressed into a wavy shape. The next process was to create the settings.

The remaining wire was drawn down further into round wire thin enough to create the claws of the settings. I used a jig shown in the photo above to do this.

Once all the rings and claw settings were made I could then solder it all together, hallmark the rings, polish and finally set the diamonds.

I chose not to rhodium plate the white gold as this left a lovely off white variation which complimented the yellow gold and silver with a soft gradient of white to yellow.

I hope you liked my explanation how I made these rings by hand. Please feel free to comment below or follow the social network links below and comment or share there.

If you would like to have your own one off bespoke piece of jewellery please contact me and take a look at my gallery of previous work

Creating A Silver Ring, Carving A Wax By Hand

by Aimee | Jun 27, 2015 | All, Jewellery In The Making

My commission to handmake a corset inspired ring lended itself perfectly to a wax carving which could then be cast in Silver.

The piece started as a block of wax with a hole through it which I opened out to the required finger size using a wax ring sizer. This has a blunt blade along the stick capable of scraping wax out from the inside.
From then on the basic shape was carved using files, burrs and dentist tools- carefully refining the shape as I continued.

Once I was happy with my final result I chose to have a cold mold made as reassurance incase the casting process failed thus destroying my wax model. The wax was then used to be cast in silver.

The silver ring then went through a polishing process using emery paper of different grades and the final polish on the polishing motor to give its shine.

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silver corset ring 2 small

So you can see the final result and the work that went into it, I really enjoyed making this ring.

Feel free to add any comments below or click through to Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest using the links below, add some comments and follow me there.

Handmade Rabbit Pendant

by Aimee | May 9, 2015 | All, Jewellery In The Making, Uncategorised

Recently I was asked to make a rabbit pendant of a much loved pet which had sadly passed away.I was given this photo so I got to work to design a few alternative ideas.

My design ideas for the pendant included a more realistic interpretation of the photograph given as well as more stylized ideas including dark coloured stones such as black diamonds or dark blue/black sapphires to represent the black colour of the rabbit. I was reluctant to use a standard bail for the pendant to hang from the chain. Rather boring I thought! The photo to me lent itself for a hole to go through the ear and I love the result. It allows more movement when worn and I like the way the chain hangs between both ears.
Below is the process of my wax carving using many needle files, a few burrs and a lot of dental tools…. as well as a lot of patience, this is a slow process.

wax carving rabbit pendant stage 1

wax carving rabbit pendant stage 2

wax carving rabbit pendant stage 3

wax carving rabbit pendant stage 4

wax carving rabbit pendant stage 5

wax carving rabbit pendant stage 6

wax carving rabbit pendant stage 7

wax carving rabbit pendant stage 8

wax carving rabbit pendant stage 9

silver rabbit pendant casting stage 10

sterling silver rabbit pendant

As you can see this has been a very personal piece made for my client, no one else will have this one off pendant. If you would like something similar please send me an email with a couple of photos and we can start designing your own piece of jewellery from there. Alternatively come and follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or Instagram.

Happy New Year, thank you for all your support

by Aimee | Dec 31, 2014 | All

I would like to thank everyone who has helped me to to have a fantastic year. I have had the privilege of making some of my favourite pieces to date.

Happy New Year everyone, here’s to 2015

Making a 14ct white gold, diamond and topaz engagement ring

by Aimee | Nov 28, 2014 | All

Have you struggled to find an engagement ring you are 100% happy with?

A customer of mine had a white gold and diamond engagement ring, it was a nice design but just not what she had always wanted. Then, when out shopping she found just the stone to go in her engagement ring!
We then went on the task to design a ring to include the existing diamond and the new topaz stone. It was then handmade into this simple one off piece of jewellery.
Visit my library of previous bespoke pieces of jewellery for more ideas Handmade jewellery commissions.

The original ring is on the left and the ring with the new topaz stone is on the right.The new ring has to sit in between the existing wedding and eternity rings.
A straight band was the main part of the brief.

After some initial sketches a more realistic CAD image was created.
You can see how the stones are set high in a rub over setting to sit above the existing rings.

The stones were removed from the original rings and the gold melted into a molton blob.

The metal is then slowly rolled through a rolling mill into this rectangular shape for the ring’s band and the 3 settings.

The settings were then soldered onto the band and sent off the assay office to be hallmarked.

Once the ring was hallmarked the ring was given a pre-polish and then the stones were set into the ring.Then a final polish and below is the final result showing the engagement ring sat next to the wedding and eternity rings!

Below is a slide show of the process if you would like to follow my channel on YouTube.