Sapphire and diamond circle pendants

Following on from my last post I thought I’d show you how the circle pendants come to be. Truly it is a collaborative process, with client input vital to the finished design.

It’s not unusual for me to have a number of projects on the go at a given moment and so some pieces and people are linked in my mind though they may have never met. This is true of Sue and Gillian and their two recycled yellow gold circle pendants.

Below you can see a variety of possible configurations from which Sue chose her elegant diamond circle pendant. You may even notice that I had more diamonds than made it to the final design, but Sue was also having a bunch of stacking rings made, so I preset the lot in yellow gold tube and had a play to see what might go where. The winner was this simple five stone graduating style with a little asymmetry thrown in for good measure.

Recycled yellow gold and diamond circle pendant

Meanwhile in the blue corner Gillian had three sapphires given to her by her mum which she wanted to include within the circular form. The three stone combinations weren’t quite doing it for her so we added some empty gold tube to the mix to create a more dynamic piece. As you can see the finished arrangement plays with different size empty spaces offset by that beautiful sapphire blue.

Recycled yellow gold and blue sapphire circle pendant

I couldn’t resist including a picture of the reverse of this pendant which I find almost as pleasing as the front.

If you've a project you'd like to discuss why not give me a bell on 0877956321 or email me at evadorney@gmail.com

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Circle pendants

Over the last number of years my little circle pendant has proved popular time and time again. It seems I always have one of these little guys on the go. Whether made from new material or grandma’s wedding ring the simple circular form is hard to beat. It lends itself to a single stone or multiple stones depending on what you have in mind and can be as simple or as spangly as you like. It also can range in size from a €1 coin to a Digestive biscuit, well maybe a Jaffa cake - not too many rappers knocking round the Arbour.

I thought it would be nice to create a gallery dedicated to this versatile little pendant so below are a number of circle pendants that I’ve made in the past and will keep adding to in future - one on the go even now.

If you have your own project you’d like to discuss whether that’s using old gold or stones you have yourself or creating something new from brand new materials and stones feel free to get in touch by phone on 0877956321 or email evadorney@gmail.com

Bespoke and remodelled gold and diamond jewellery

It has been such a hectic month with collections reaching fever pitch in the last few days! I'm off  to Croatia for a little holiday this morning, but fear not, my good buddy Carol will be manning the store while I'm gone and I've created a little collage of the gorgeous jobs I've been working on just to whet your appetite for when I return!

Engagement rings, pendant, torc, bangle and cufflinks made from new and recycled materials

Handmade wedding and engagement rings from recycled metal

The original rings

Congrats to Suzanne and Andrew who are 25 years married today!

Now technically they already had wedding bands (pictured here), but 25 years later they felt like a change. Andrew never really wore his original wedding ring and was looking to have something a little more substantial and unusual made, meantime Suzanne had her heart set on a contemporary diamond solitaire.

Recycled yellow gold wedding and engagement rings

Asymmetrical wedding ring, diamond solitaire and matching wedding band

They had quite a lot of metal so initially I melted it all down and through a happy accident the pour split into two ingots. The larger became Andrew's band while Suzanne's engagement ring was made from the smaller.

The design of his ring is simple and contemporary with flat sides rising asymmetrically rather than to the midpoint. To achieve this the large ingot was first made into a heavy flat gold band before some careful marking out and some even more careful filing transformed it into the ring you see here.

I sourced a lovely baguette diamond for Suzanne which was bar set across the top of this modern engagement ring and all the gold dust filings from Andrew's ring were remelted into a further ingot to create her wedding band.

Just a spot of hand engraving and these three recycled gold rings were ready for collection!

If you have a remodelling job you'd like to discuss please feel free to drop a line to evadorney@gmail.com or to give me a bell on 0877956321

Sapphire cluster engagement ring

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In February 2012 when Eoghan called me to say that he was going to propose to my best friend my emotions were all over the place. Delight at the good news, fear at the responsibility of making the ring and more than a little nerves about keeping this secret -  I'm not usually yacking away on the phone to my customer's intended! Our exploratory wander through the jewellers in town revealed one thing - that neither of us had a clue of the kind of ring Neidra would want. We looked at modern, at antique, at classic and at contemporary but soon realised we'd have to call on Neidra herself if we were ever to get it right.

Eoghan proposed later that year and having tried on a multitude of styles they came back to me to make this vintage inspired, but really rather modern sapphire engagement ring.

Making a platinum, diamond and blue sapphire engagement ring

Quite simply it never rains, but it pours and at the time I was making Neidra's ring I was also making Louise's so these two girls are forever linked in my mind. As an aside they have both had their first babies in the last couple of months so more congratulations are in order.

Down to the making - The first task was to order enough material for both rings and then lay out the setting on the large flat piece of platinum. I used the round wire to turn up the bezels for both rings and pierced our a gap within which the belly of the stones would fit. Next I made the swaged shanks on which the settings would sit. The rough ring was cleaned back to a nice tapering, but flat surface and then a groove cut to accommodate the belly of each stone. At this point every thing was given a good polish and then soldered together. Then came the small matter of setting the sapphire and the diamond before sending both rings to be pavé set with tiny diamonds.

If you'd like to discuss a custom project please feel free to drop me a line, meantime you can see more handmade engagement rings here.

Palladium emerald cut diamond solitaire

This has to have been one of my favourite projects, not least because Aileen chose to model her engagement ring on my own! She'd spotted my ring a few years back on the old website and when Derek proposed I got a little email to see whether we could meet. She tried mine and was smitten from the first, but to be 100% sure I sent them off for a little potter round town to try some other styles. It's a risky business, but you only get to choose your engagement ring once and in my opinion it's important to get it right. Happily they came back more certain than ever that this was the ring and so I sourced this lovely spready emerald cut diamond for them.

Handmaking a palladium solitaire engagement ring

This ring is remarkably simple being made from just the one bar of metal, but as is often the way, simple designs are terribly unforgiving of inaccuracy. The palladium bar was initially rolled slimmer at the ends leaving a good centimeter untouched in the middle where the diamond was to fit. With the ring turned up, the crude join was cut through and soldered before hammering the ring round. It was then run through the mill again spreading the metal and creating the required depth for the setting. Next the sides were filed flat and the tapering profile established. Metal was removed to create a seat for the diamond and the mount polished before finally setting the stone.

And there you have it, a palladium emerald cut diamond solitaire engagement ring with room for a wedding ring to sit flush against it.

Three and a half years later I still get a thrill when I look down at my finger and see my little emerald cut twinkling back up at me - I hope Aileen does too!

Punch set diamond bangle remodel

I've been making an awful lot of recycled gold bangles of late and I thought I'd share this one which has been embellished with 5 round brilliant cut diamonds punch set at intervals across the top.

Punch set diamond bangle remodel

Rosie had the usual assortment of broken chains, odd earrings and unworn rings which amounted to some 25g of gold and which as you can see turned in to a lovely heavy weight, flat gold bangle. From the crucible the molten metal was poured into the ingot mould to make a rather gnarly looking ingot. It was then run through the rolling mills to make it into a smooth, workable bar of metal. This bar was repeatedly passed through the mills between annealings (softening the gold by heating and quenching) until it was 200mm long, 4.3mm wide and 2.7mm deep. The wire was then turned up into an oval and the soldered closed. Once the fire stain was cleaned back, any scratches removed and the bangle prepolished I marked out 5 equidistant points along the top of the bangle opposite the seam and set each with a 0.03ct diamond.

And there you have it, one gold bangle with diamonds!

Old cut diamond stacking ring remodel

When I had completed Eleanor's old cut diamond earrings our next project together was to design a series of stacking gold rings with the remainder of her diamonds.

Gold and diamond stacking rings

Diamond stackers

Eleanor's gold ring provided enough material for one of the new bands and I bought new 18ct for the other two bands and tubing for the settings. Diamonds are brilliant little things not least for their hardness, but they can also be heated without shattering like most gemstones would. This means that I was able to set each stone before soldering those settings into the bands. An added bonus to presetting the diamonds is that I could play with the arrangement of the stones as I went - creating a suitably random effect.

I love this style of stacking ring and every time it's worn the arrangement looks just a little bit different. Stackers give great flexiblity, with lots of scope to add new elements, even a couple of plain silver bands, down the line.

Handmade platinum diamond solitaire engagement ring

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love making rings - especially engagement and wedding rings - something about the personal connection and the promise of forever gets me every time -  which is why I'm always chuffed to be involved with couples at such a happy time in their lives.

Handmaking a platinum solitaire diamond engagement ring

Joanne had been a follower of my "how it's made" posts over on facebook so when she and Dave decided to get engaged she had a fair idea of where to come. At the time I rarely made up collages of pieces that were made from scratch as opposed to recycled, but Dave put in a word and I kept this little photo diary of Joanne's engagement ring.

It started with a piece of square platinum bar which was forged using the rolling mill into a graduated shank. As you can see it's a bit bockety, but that roughness was easily removed. Next I made a round bezel setting and cut a groove in the shank to accommodate the belly of the diamond, before giving everything a good pre-polish. The bezel was positioned on top of the shank and soldered in place before the diamond was set (the two little silver bars pictured were purely to support the setting while pushing the metal over the stone).

Bezel set platinum solitaire engagement ring

One last buff on the polishing motor was followed by a covert call to Dave...

Before you know it this little engagement ring was winging its way to Germany in Dave's breast pocket, where he proposed to an unsuspecting Joanne at the Christmas markets...

...she said YES!

Vintage drop diamond earring remodel

Diamond bar brooch

Eleanor loves jewellery as much as I do and when she asked me to design a set of vintage inspired earrings I was nervous. Vintage isn't my natural style, but I figure I'm game for a challenge. The diamonds were harvested from a beautiful old brooch and had it been anyone else I would have hesitated to break up such a lovely piece, but Eleanor assured me that should she need one she had an even finer specimen!

Doodles

To start with I removed the diamonds from the brooch and began to play with their layout. I did some drawings and laid the diamonds on my preferred designs. Eleanor picked her favourite and I transferred this layout onto a piece the metal. In the spirit of that time the diamonds were set in silver with 18ct yellow gold hooks, jump rings and interestingly, back panels.

Drop earrings in the making

The largest diamonds were bezel set and soldered on to the silver plate before piercing out the scalloped pattern and soldering on gold jump rings. A further bezel set diamond was attached above the main panel for extra swoosh factor. The rest of the diamonds were then set and finished with milligrain (that tiny beaded effect), before adding the gold safety backed hoops.

Vintage style old cut diamond drop earrings

A quick polish and they're done.

Bezel set old cut diamond studs

Well loved vintage five stone ring

Sadly the centre stone from Barbara's antique five stone diamond ring fell out never to be seen again and the ring long languished in a drawer waiting on its time to shine once more.

Looking at the other pieces in her collection it seemed that diamond earrings were one of the few things missing, so we settled on making up low tapering bezels in 9ct white gold. 9ct is perfect in earrings because they don't see too much wear and tear and when rhodium plated the colour is exactly the same as 18ct, but not so the price!

Old cuts free from their mount

When popped out of the mount you can see the shape of the old cuts is totally different from the modern round brilliant cut diamond. They are usually deeper and more cushion shaped. This shape is a little trickier to set than round, but I think you'll agree the finished earrings were worth the extra trouble.

Diamond studs

And here they are...

Love how the cushion shape of the old cut still carries through to the bezel.

Remodelling an 18ct yellow and white gold illusion set diamond engagement ring - Part Two

Now that Geraldine had her new diamond cluster it was time for mum Patricia to put on her thinking cap. Most importantly she knew that she didn't want a high ring, rather something easy, with a little sparkle, that could be worn all the time...oh and that was going to complement her nice wide yellow gold wedding band.

Here's what became of the old gold mount.

Recycled fine pave set yellow gold eternity ring.

Firstly I removed the white gold head from the yellow gold shank (they don't melt well together) and melted it into the lovely little nugget pictured. That was passed through the mill to make it long and skinny, turned up into a fine gold band and set with 40 half pointers (or 0.005ct round brilliant cut diamonds).

Hey presto - a fine pave set eternity ring with diamonds over two thirds of the way around.

Remodelling an 18ct yellow and white gold illusion set diamond engagement ring - Part One

This is the first of two entries involving an 18ct yellow and white gold illusion set diamond engagement ring. The diamond was given to Geraldine by her mum and she called me to see what might be done. We took a look at all of her current jewellery including her own wedding and engagement rings and devised a plan....

Platinum halo engagement and wedding ring set - Diamond pendant

I made up a new platinum mount to take the round brilliant cut diamond - a pave set halo design with clearance underneath for a wedding band to sit flush. Next I cut the diamond out of her engagement ring with the setting intact and with a little additional platinum used the shank to make a new plain band to sit next to the cluster. I added a bale to the engagement diamond setting and transformed it into an everyday diamond pendant and in the meantime the existing diamond set wedding ring made it's way to the left hand as an eternity ring.

This project worked out a treat with everything in use and all the metal used up except for the old gold mount... more of which to follow.

Making a platinum 5 stone diamond ring

On the top left you can see an 18ct gold and diamond bracelet which was the jumping off point for this design. By the time I thought to take a photo I'd already cut out the diamonds, but you get the picture!

Below is the master model made in silver. It could have been made directly in platinum, but this sample alowed my customer to make some final tweaks to the design and saved on costly platinum waste.

Next up is the platinum casting, back from the assay, all cleaned up and ready to set.

Lastly we have the finished platinum 5 stone ring. The diamonds are effectively bezel set with a  milligrain detail.

Platinum 5 stone diamond ring collage

Punch setting a recycled yellow gold ring

If you wince when you think about the old charms, odd earrings and broken chains languishing in your drawers think again... Why not melt the lot?

Tapering yellow gold ring made from recycled metal with a smattering of punch set diamonds

Nothing gives me greater pleasure than taking those unloved bits and bobs of gold and transforming them into a new and wearable piece of jewellery.

Lorraine had a number of rings and chains that she no longer wore so we set about designing a piece that would use up her metal and suit her lifestyle. We came up with this heavy weight tapering gold ring which I made by melting her old gold and then setting it with diamonds to lend a little sparkle to proceedings. Lastly Lorraine opted for a heavy matt finish which adds to the contemporary feel of the ring.