she made a request for a quote on thumbtack.com, an online bulletin board where you can find local professionals for just about any task. this is just the kind of work that i love so was amazed to learn that i was the only jeweler who answered her request for an estimate.
she had a solitaire pearl pendant , a gift from her parents from her teenage years. (remember when we all had those solitaire pearl pendants?) the pearl is an Akoya pearl, Japanese for saltwater, and measures 7 mm round.
she also had a lovely pair of yellow gold French-cut diamond stud earrings that were too small for her to wear. French-cut stones are usually sapphire, ruby or emeralds so it is unusual to find diamonds cut in this fashion. the stone is usually rectangular with a diamond-shaped table which is the flat facet on the top of all stones.
after getting a sense of her style through several lovely conversations, i was able to pull together jewelry pieces around the shop into a ring design that she LOVES!
- Location: Manchester, CT
diamond integration via fabrication
i knew one of the challenges was cost and keeping it reasonable. i was fortunate that her style is classically simple, but i needed to figure out how to incorporate the diamonds to accent the pearl. the cathedral shoulders with the wire under gallery was a perfect choice. the airiness lets the diamonds capture the most amount of light and allows the style of the setting to fit right into the shoulder. not needing to re-invent the wheel, i actually found a mounting that could be customized via fabrication in a most affordable way. the diamonds were able to be left in their settings from the earrings; i removed the posts and incorporated the settings into the shoulders of the ring.
- ring is 14k white gold, two diamonds and a solitary pearl
also note that in this piece the traditional color of metals is reversed. on this ring the setting is yellow gold for the diamonds which are usually set in white. for the pearl we used white gold for instead of yellow.
