A striking commitment ring

This beautiful ladies commitment ring is the perfect complement to the gents ring we featured last month (read about how we made the gents ring here).

Nicholas’ brief was to design two distinctive and modern, yet classic and beautiful commitment rings that would reflect the personal style of the discerning couple who would wear them; the rings were also to complement each other. Nicholas cleverly incorporated shared design elements in both rings: rectangular shaped gemstones in the two different options offered for the ladies ring to match the gold feature panels in the gents, and the small panels of bead-set diamond in both rings.

The ladies design with the orange and green gemstones was chosen: one of the most important decisions for the ladies ring was choosing the right tones of colour for the two striking gemstones – anyone who knows this vivacious lady knows that these are two of her favourite colours, and they often influence her striking make-up and fashion choices. It was important that the Citrine and the Peridot were strong and deep in colour, and also beautifully cut rectangular stones – they’re a pivotal element of the overall design.

Once the stones were chosen, Matthew started to hand carve a wax for the ring. A wax model is required for a ring design like this because of its width, thickness and density: raw gold is manufactured in 6mm square wire, and to hammer it out to make such a wide design means that it gets too thin for such a bold ring. So, green wax for the start of the ring!

After carving and shaping the wax into the right shape and dimensions, it was cast in white gold, and Matthew started on the finer details of the ring. Matthew used a soft mallet to gently adjust the ring to the correct finger size,

and then started on the filing, emery and polishing processes needed to remove imperfections, and to create a smooth and beautifully finished ring.

Once the ring was tried on by the customer and approved, the stones were all carefully set and the ring was ready for its hand polishing processes.

The final step was rhodium plating – the thin layer of rhodium applied to white gold to give it a bright, white finish

and here is the beautiful finished ring.

The two complementary rings are being worn by a wonderful couple as a symbol of their commitment to share their lives together. We thank them for the opportunity, and we are honoured to have been asked to design and make such special rings. We never take for granted the trust that our customers place in us when they commission us to make important jewellery –  it is always a privilege. The connection that we enjoy with our customers is one of the most important things at PIKE – it’s the reason we do everything.

If you have an idea for a piece of jewellery you would like designed and hand made, come and see us at the studio workshop  – we’d love to show you what’s possible.