Bellboy

found this really nice site this morning,
some lovely attention to simple shape and very clean detail.
I love the form of the chair, & the clean lines and corner detail on the blocks.

The elegance of the shape underneath this table particularly caught my eye, the flow of the two lines is beautifully done, but it jars a bit against the weight and material of the top, like two different tables that have been mashed together. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I'd love to see this with a transparent top or  wooden framed aperture so you could see through to the shape underneath and explore from more angles.

But that's just us being picky.

: )

Gorgeous work.

more pink sapphires

There is something I really like about pink sapphires,

Embrace 4

Another set from the Embrace series.
This one was built around the starting point of a very large and beautiful Topaz. It is a very stunning cut; a flat top with a broad girdle and concave facets underneath. It was a very deep stone so was going to sit quite high in a ring. We really wanted to respect the minimalism and cleanliness of the stone and didn't want to detract from the gems impact/impression. At the same time we wanted to play with the idea of the extra ring providing a wrap-around or colour accent to change the emphasis when worn together.

The main ring is in white gold to compliment the clear Topaz, and is very geometric and crisply defined.
The second ring is in yellow gold with a channel of Pink Sapphires to add a contrast of warmth and softness.
The height of the Topaz actually ended up being a good thing as it allowed the yellow and pink line to climb and wrap around the setting without over powering the main focus or detracting from the centre of the composition. It really works in the flesh as it is being worn, so from different angles you get different glimpses of colour peeking out past the shards of white light.

And it is always nice to play with the idea of a ring from one side of the finger crossing over to the other side. An artist friend of ours has used a principle of off-setting printed colours in his work so you get a slipped line of colour along the outline of a shape. I am always reminded of that effect when I see these rings put together.

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.

How little is just enough ?

As the antithesis of the previous post, how much can a design or shape be reduced so as to perform it's function, and still be refined, or elegant, or have integrity as a design?
We asked ourselves how much could a diamond ring be reduced to a pure form? How many steps in designing and making a ring were adding degrees of complication that could be removed?

So working from a plate of metal, why would/(should) we need to build any additional structure when it is possible to set the diamond directly into the plate?
This sets the diamond sitting at a 90degree angle, facing out (or in if you want to look at it yourself). Interestingly, it actually works quite well, the diamond is really no less visible than in a classic position.
We considered bending the plate so that the stone would appear upright or in its "correct" position, but this was nicer and cleaner I think. The other direction is a ring that is still there to be made.
Another thought was to shape the outline of the plate to be an egg shape and to flow from the base of the finger to the top of a centered diamond, like an orbital outline. Again that is another ring for the future, here we decided in the end to play with the purity of the plate and the assymetric offset of the stone to sit neatly in the corner.
In the end the only concession that we made to the structure was to place a round bar at the rear of the aperture for the diamond, this guards the culet (point of the diamond at the base) from getting damaged, and also happens to nicely frame the culet and draws attention to the negative space around it. Where it is possible and appropriate to do this, it makes a beautiful detail.
I think it is always a sign that someone cared about the making of a piece of jewellery when they frame another aspect of the gem.

On the reverse of the plate we decided to matte finish to highlight the polished edges and bright front.

This gives it a subtle orientation and helps guide the viewer as to how to read the piece, and which is the intended back and front. The back at the base also was the natural place to hallmark as a visible detail.

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.