Solitaire

Simple alterations of a small parameter can change the look and feel of a ring substantially. Here we have a variation on the elegantly minimal solitaire that we posted previously.
Changing the shape of the centre stone naturally suggested a "push" through the side wall and gave a lovely new detail to the side of the ring.

Solitaire

One of our most popular designs and a principle of minimalism that we find ourselves constantly returning to in one form or another.

This design really looks modern and contemporary, but also could have been a product of a Bauhaus philosophy from the 1930's or 40's. The strength of the solid lines framing the stone are as simple as they can be, yet bold and definite, and still quite elegant and classical looking. This is one design that really benefits from attention to the visual balance and to the proportion of the size of the diamond and the weight of the line/plate. It can delicately accentuate a small perfect stone, or boldly border a monster.
In future posts we'll show some of the many variations on this principal design, and it's interesting how changing something small can have a huge effect on the finished ring, and how the wearers taste influences their ring at the design stage.

Diamond ring

We thought this would be a nice example of our diamond rings to start with for this blog. We made this recently for Elaine and wanted to find something that would be a nice balance between traditional elements and a contemporary flavour. In the end we arrived at the idea of having the style of the channel setting holding the small diamonds on the shoulders of the ring to continue unbroken into becoming the four claws that set the centre diamond.

We like that there is a smooth visual line right the way through the diamonds, unbroken by metal as would be the norm in a more traditional setting.

We were also conscious that we wanted to leave plenty of scope for the eventual wedding bands to sit flush alongside the ring so we decided not to have the setting drop from the frame around the centre stone. This led to ideas on opening up some of the space underneath, and we are always interested in detail where you get an opportunity to see something more of a gemstone from a different angle. It is always nice to frame the point of a gemstone and highlight the space around the culet (or point) of the diamond.

It was important to us that the whole form look uncomplicated. Once we concentrated on the setting on the side flowing into the top of the ring, then we wanted the ring to appear as one piece as opposed to two separate elements. So the angle and curve around the top is a continuation of the angles from the shoulder, almost as if you took an egg and carved away all of the negative space around the ring from one block. It looks great on Elaine's hand and is still relatively understated and elegant.
We are really looking forward to seeing the wedding bands and what direction they may go in to complete the set.