It's not quite the weekend, but I thought I'd tell the story of how The Ring came to be. Apologies to those that have already seen much of it in the "What would you do with..." thread.
It all started with the impulse (?!?) purchase of a 0.70ct light green back in early July. Initially, I thought I'd set it in a three-stone arrangement with two D-colour Asschers...
...but that didn't appeal. What DID appeal was the idea of a boule ring, a bit like this Deco one:
with some "original" features added, like a bezel setting for the centre stone. Mid-July I sketched this, asking David for a rough estimate of the time and cost - with a November deadline:
We soon realised that my drawing skills needed to be complemented by something - ahem - slightly clearer, such as a similar ring. Fortunately, in the den there was already one with just the right shape:
The next step was to find the baguettes for the side stones, which David managed to do between a wedding and a couple of other minor events in early August
That layout however had the problem of not really coming up with the neat steps that we had envisaged, and also we felt it was going to run too wide over the shape of the boule. So, out went the two middle baguettes, and we took a smaller one at the end to give a more visible step. We thought this was going to work, and the first wax was produced... at the beginning of October, little Leo's birth and a few sleepless nights plus many other diamonds having come in between.
Note how the wax is actually in two pieces - one with the bezels, which would be removed for the platinum casting, then re-inserted for the gold casting once the platinum cast has been removed from the investment and given a first machining and polish. This can be done because the casting temperature for platinum alloys is in the region of 1800 C, while most yellow gold alloys will be cast around 950 C, so the liquid gold will not melt the underlying platinum but instead form a very strong bond to it when it solidifies. By the way - spare a thought for the investment: it's the stuff that holds the molten metal in shape, and it has to stand liquid metal entering at 1800 C with a 20 to 40 G acceleration (which is about the same as a car travelling at 30mph hitting a concrete wall). And this stuff - at least some of it - was originally invented to hold dental castings... now those of us with cavities should chew with greater respect.
...but this still wasn't good enough for pernickety Old Man Coyote, who went stomping and crying "
Ya ya henna! I want more noticeable steps!" back to the house of medicine man David, who said: "No problem, we'll re-do it!" and then added in a small voice:
"It's wrong anyway. You did want only the centre stone in the gold bezel, didn't you?"The wily Coyote, realising he had a temporary advantage, pressed it asking: "Could we perhaps do something a little unusual for the pave? I mean, something like this?"
This is a rendering of a JLC watch with a particular type of channel setting. This is unique as far as I know, since instead of being held by two metal sides, the diamonds are actually holding each other up by pressing girdle against girdle, and the mix of stone sizes makes the whole lot fit tightly in wave-shaped wide channels machined into the metal.
Of course, that's only practical on a flat surface, but nevertheless Coyote being crazy and David only slightly less crazy, they went to the setters asking if it was possible. Much to their (well, at least my) surprise the answer came back as: "Yes! That would be really interesting to do - of course it will need to be bead set, but we think it can be done". It was mid-October, and we still did not have a final choice on the centre stones. Or did we?
We did! David had the brilliant (hem!) idea of using two small carre' diamonds instead of small baguettes, and only one "large" (0.18 ctw) baguette pair exploiting the bezel width to get the visual "step down" from the light green radiant.
The final wax was produced by late October - of course still in two pieces
The platinum was cast in early November. This is what it looked like in the rough, just marked for drilling
And this is after they showed it a piece of Swiss cheese to use as a role model...
Just in case anyone is wondering, there's 128 holes, all drilled individually and reamed with a special tool so that the sides are at an angle of approximately 100 degrees, to accommodate and support the pavillions of the pave' stones. And given that the stones are all different sizes, someone has had the fun of picking them and setting them into some sort of 3-D model first to make sure there aren't too many gaps. I now have strong reason to believe that curses - even heartfelt ones - are ineffectual, or else I don't understand why I'm still alive.
This was happening around mid-November, and the deadline of our anniversary was getting close. The factory stepped up the pace, and we didn't have the time to take pictures of the other steps. These were in order (I suppose - but David please correct me!):
1. Casting the gold bezel
2. Machining and polishing the metal work
3. Setting the bezel set stones
4. Raising the beads and checking for fit on the pave'
5. Setting the pave
6. Cleaning and final polishing
7. Thanking God it's over. Phew!
And the final result is...
...erm, no, actually not. But just as the design was getting into shape, I found this ring on eBay. It goes to show that it's really difficult to invent something original. This is what the "true" ring looks like
more photos, including hand shots, to come tomorrow - hoping it has stopped snowing and there is enough light to take them!
colored diamonds
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