old is new

Here is a great example of working on a design. Our customer had several family jewelry items to be redesigned into an engagement ring. We wanted to use as many of the diamonds as we could. I went through 3 concepts until I go t it right. We actually ended up dropping some of the stones. I think the end product is truly spectacular.

This is a simple job that Jennifer and Ian started. So simple but so hard. Getting the spacing between the stones just right so you can see the bright wall around each stone. I did 5 layouts before I got the right balance. The pattern left one stone out so we set it in the bottom as a fetish stone. This is one that exceeded my expectations.

Here we had several heirloom diamonds. We added this amazing sapphire (purple changes to pink) and made a right hand ring for the customer. I worked on this design for hours on end trying to use all of the customers stones in a graceful way. It took three version of how to hold the smaller stones. Curves bezzels and prongs. We finally settled on the prongs that almost disapear. I think it came out great. Unfortunaly I wasent inn when she picked it up but I hear she loves it.

This customer is in the art and crafts world. I loved making her ring. She came in with a solid design. A beautifuly delicate ring with a matching band.

Helix

Inspiration comes from a lot of places.

This customer wanted to give her daughter a special ring with some family diamonds. Her daughter was studying biology so we came up with a double helix design. Creating this one was a bear but it came out beyond cool

Simple and realy cooool

This is another customer that came in with a solid idea, we just had to make the design work. Holding the diamond with just rails was scary but I was able to sneak in an under carrage that worked great.

Customers design

Often a customer comes in with a design. Often its a great concept but the enginering needs work. This was the case with this one. This one came out just right. I tweaked the customers design to make everything work. No prongs we were able to use the leaves to hold the stone. We scanned the customers drawing into the computer then used it as the background as we built the cad model over the image. Once we added the exact size stone and moved things around we came up with a great design.

Matching bands

Finding a matching band is one of the hardest things to find. Many E rings come with them but more dont. This customer wanted an exact match so we scanned her E ring and used that to build the wedding band.It came out perfect the shanks match and everything ligns up.

Reverse cradle

We are seeing more and more people wanting reverse cradle rings. This is where the wedding band fits into the e ring.

Very cool idea and very wearable.

Design is design

Took a road trip to American Chopper home, OCC in New York. Lots of Bikes on display lots of great design. I love the constant curves that flow from one to another. I believe that the arc of a curve is so important in design if its jewelry or motorcycles.
Back to designing. Today I m working on yet another reverse cradle ring. That's where the wedding band fits in to the engagment ring.

Catching up.
I mentioned a white ring with yellow millagrain here it is. One of my favorites this summer. Customers stone we polished out some of the scratches.
Also here is the finished x ring I spoke of earlier.

more

So here are the pics of the earrings that won the passion awards.
I also have an answer to my health problems. I have been diagnosed with pre diabetes.
Right now I'm working on a cool new idea with yellow milligram on a white ring.
Pics to follow.

The Bench conference.

Well I just returned from the 2010 Bench Jewelers conference in Atlanta where I was one of the instructors. I had a great time teaching polishing and Pave classes. The best news is that after taking a few years off from jewelry design competitions, my first time back was great. I won the overall Passion award for a pair of micro pave earrings. Ill have to post picks later. Overall the event is just what I needed to keep my excitement up about work. I came back and jumped on two new designs that came out great. One of them is a combination of old and new and I don't think it has ever been done before. The effect should be diamonds floating on the hand with no visible support.

Joel

So Friday I got the stones for the X ring. All the center stones worked perfect but the sides were smaller than I thought. That's a problem when you use customers stones. Oh well I could make them work but one thing you will learn about me if you read these blogs is that I LOVE precision.

So of to redesign and recast. I would rather start over then create a poor product.

On a personal note I have been rather ill. I'm having a blood test and hope that will give me some answers. I don't have health insurance..just cant afford it so I have to pay cash. Man this system sucks. Cant find a good GP doctor, and couldn't afford insurance if I did. Fortunately the business is growing and things there are looking up.

Curves

Well I still havent conqured the Skull thing but I did manage to take a very simple design and goto the next level with it. By blending the outside prongs with the sweep of the shank I was able to transform this ring into something really special. Less busy and more custom looking. The curve where the shank meets the outside stones is really cool. compare my design with a standard ring and you will notice how its more graceful, I spent all day yesterday on the computer doing cad.

X ring

One of the hardest rings to design is an x ring. I have done a dew and just finished one this weekend. Now we are casting and building this ring.
It would seem that an x ring would be easy but it is very deceptive. A straight x in the looking down view is so wide that its very uncomfortable, so I had to put a curve in the sides. It looks great from top bottom and sides and feels comfortable. Its not a perfect x either. Anyway here is the rendering. This is one of the best uses of CAD for the jewelry biz. If I had to build this from scratch it might be a killer. Seeing the project in a good render is the only way to do this.

Skulls and Daisey's

This is my first blog. I hope to share with all of you what it is like designing jewelry for a living. I have been a jeweler since 1972 and now operate my own design studio. I design mostly for retail customers in the Jersey Shore area. I use Matrix cad software in order to create most of my work then my apprentices and I create the jewelry.
Todays challenge is to create a ring for a friend with a center round stone and incorporating Skulls and ..........................................Daisey's ? yes Daisey's This is a real challenge. I have tried numerous layouts but I still don't have the right one. I may just have to sleep on this. The Skulls and flowers just don't flow into each other. I might tie them together with a rope pattern or something. Being creative every day is a lot harder than it may seem. Im also torn between the single and double head motiff.
Well thats it for now.
Joel