Sapphire and diamonds

This month we are sharing how we made a ring that started with an original sapphire and diamond three stone that Nicholas made many years ago (below):

Our customer was ready for a change and also had some diamonds left over when she had a pendant made (click here to see the pendant), so Nicholas designed something new using all of the stones.

Once the design was finalised, Matthew carefully unset all of the stones from the old rings, measured and weighed them, and started by making the 18 carat white gold bezel settings that would hold the sapphire and the two larger diamonds. And soldered the three of them together:

Once the settings were soldered, Matthew started working on the wide yellow gold part of the ring. It’s very difficult to hand make a very wide ring that is also as thick and heavy as we like to make them at PIKE.  In these instances, Matthew orders a blank that is manufactured to very specific measurements and made by a specialised machine.

With this ring, Matthew ordered the yellow gold blank and then started working on Nicholas’ design by filing and shaping it – recessed edges and a raised rectangular channel through the centre:

The next step was to solder the bezels to the centre of the yellow gold ring:

Once the settings were soldered on to the band, Matthew started to file away the yellow gold ring into the shape of the design – first with a heavy file:

Then, once the shape was done, Matthew drilled out the rectangular channel areas for the diamonds leading down from the main stones:

After the holes were drilled for the diamonds, Matthew used fine emery paper to prepare the ring before all of the stones were set to soften all of the sharp edges:

A final hand polish before the stones were set:

Ready to set:

Once the stones were all set, Matthew polished and rhodium plated the ring:

Matthew used nail polish to mask all of the yellow gold areas so that the rhodium plating only attached to the white gold:

And this is the beautiful finished result:

If you have any gemstones or jewellery that you haven’t worn for a while, Nicholas and Matthew would love to show you what they can do. Give us a call on 8338 3109 or email us at hello@pike.com.au, and see what’s possible. We’d love to see you.