Platinum wedding bands on the double

Platinum solitaire engagement ring

I recently got an email from George who was looking for an engagement ring for his fiancée and had spotted a diamond one on my website. Over the course of a month we emailed back and forth and eventually George decided that he would indeed choose this engagement ring based on our conversations and a single image displayed online - new images are on the to do list. Decision made I sized the ring and sent it off to Wexford with my best wishes. The next evening George took a bemused Kate out in the lashings of rain and proposed for a second time with ring in hand.

So far so straight forward.

The following day I received a call from George saying how happy both he and Kate were with the engagement ring and could they please get wedding bands for their wedding next week! Now either he was the coolest customer I’d ever encountered or there was more to this than met the eye.

Bespoke platinum wedding bands in the works

Well the story is that George proposed to Kate back in March before having to return to New Zealand at a moment’s notice. He then couldn’t return to Ireland for a further five and a half months! Yes, newly engaged and separated by continents. When he finally made it back to Ireland he and Kate were promptly called for a pre-marriage interview and having aced that were given a wedding date just a week away! Both amazing news and a little daunting I think you’ll agree.

So here they are. The platinum rings that were ordered on Wednesday, made on Thursday, assayed on Friday, finished on Monday, posted on Tuesday and delivered a week to the day later. Not my usual lead time, but who doesn’t like a challenge and a good yarn?

To George and Kate! Wishing you every happiness together.

His and hers platinum bands in wooden presentation box

Bimetal gents band

Recycled gold and platinum ring - brushed finish

Continuing on the theme of using old gold in a new ring this next post is a handsome band I made at Christmas for my friend's son's twenty first - lucky chap!

It consists of a wide gold band that was made up of his mum and dad's wedding rings and a smidge of gold from his grandad's identity bracelet and a further finer band made in platinum.  Both bands were assayed independently before being soldered together and the result is a very smart, matte finished, two-tone ring in 9ct yellow gold and platinum that marries old and new.

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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Remelting the old gold and turning up the new platinum band

Two-tone platinum and yellow gold ring

Hidden inner wedding ring

It's been an age since I blogged, but as I was updating images on the site I spotted this little ring which I think is worth talking about because it solves a problem faced by a lot of people - that of having a yellow gold piece of sentimental value, but wearing only white metal.

In this instance a yellow gold ring had been handed down through the family and my customer wanted to come up with a wedding ring design that incorporated this family ring, but still matched her platinum engagement ring. We talked through a few options, but opted to create a fine platinum band within which the yellow gold band sits. For all intents and purposes the wedding ring looks like a perfect match for the platinum of the engagement ring, but within it is hiding a secret yellow gold ring, original assay marks and all.

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

Meantime feel free to share OR press the little icon below to be showered with hearts!

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.

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!

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 platinum wedding bands

I love making wedding bands and happily I'm asked to make a lot of them. As part of the process I'll usually do up a collage of how the rings were made - one of which is pictured here.

Handmade platinum wedding band collage

The first step in making a pair of bands is to calculate how much metal is needed. The gauge of metal and length will vary depending on the overall width of ring required, but when two bands are being made from the one piece of metal the wider band determines the width of platinum bar needed.

Next up the bar is cut into two parts and then rolled through a mill until each piece is the desired width, depth and length.

These lengths of platinum are then turned up into rings and soldered or fused using an oxy propane torch. Platinum temperatures reach in excess of 1700C during this process.

Once soldered the rings are trued up on a mandril, before being sent to assay. They're then emeried to remove any marks or blemishes and polished to a high shine. Any surface finishes can be applied at this stage. Simples!

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