Four stone beauty

How did Nicholas and Matthew turn the four diamonds from these old rings and earrings into this beautiful ring? Follow their process here:

Matthew starts every piece by melting gold, and rolling it out:

The four bezel settings for the diamonds are all made individually. The process starts by bending the gold by hand, soldering each bezel closed, and then tapering them in the punch plate:

Each bezel then needs to be filed, and cleaned up with emery paper to make them smooth:

The last step of the bezels is to solder them all together, ready to put into the band:

Then it’s time to make the yellow gold shank/band:

Matthew then solders the shank together:

After soldering, Matthew hammers the shank on a ring mandril to make it round, then files it to remove sharp edges and imperfections:

Then part of the shank needs to be removed to allow for the bezel settings to be added in:

Before the two pieces are soldered together, they must be carefully hand polished:

And the soldering begins:

Machine polishing before the diamonds are set:

Once the diamonds are set, Matthew masks the yellow gold with nail polish to prevent the rhodium plating from covering the yellow gold band:

And here is the beautiful finished ring:

If you have any jewellery you’re not wearing and you don’t know what to do with it, we would love to help you. Come in to the studio workshop for a relaxed chat with Nicholas, call us on 8338 3109 to make a time, or email us at hello@pike.com.au, and see what’s possible.