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The pink sapphire engagement ring here was one of first engagement rings Richard made, and benefitted from him not knowing what wasn’t possible. Diamonds twinkle through the sapphire and from atop the claws. The soft pale yellow of the 9ct white gold complemented the pink sapphire beautifully. The client wanted a rough hewn texture and has come back for a whole collection of jewellery that continues the theme. Sapphires and rubies are the same material, corundum, and available in many different colours. Corundum is the second hardest natural substance after diamond, which makes it very suitable for engagement rings. Along with the pink sapphire engagement ring you can see examples of various coloured sapphire engagement rings as well as ruby engagement rings. Next page
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Richard got geeky about the art deco engagement ring here, which is a set with a large moissanite. The ring is inspired by a vintage ring so he got to go to town on the details. Moissanite which is gem grade silicone carbide. It’s an identical crystal structure to diamond, but every other atom is silicone instead of carbon, making it the second hardest stone after diamond, harder than sapphire. It is only man made as far as we know, but who knows what’s encrusted onto exoplanets. Lab grown diamonds are still surprisingly expensive and this is a useful price, especially for this 8mm stone. The colour isn’t quite as good as a decent diamond, but it’s a little bit twinklier and a good choice for the ethical consumer. It really comes down to what you can find the romance in. Next page
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We have been asked to make mens engagement rings a few times now, for a range of reasons. Sometimes for gay couples and other times the man just wants a special twinkly ring too (that’s why Richard got one, anyway). The styling for a man’s engagement ring has to be quite different to a woman’s and that represents a wonderful challenge. Back to the beginning
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We think of flowers as frivolous beauty, but there’s so much wonderful engineering needed to create something so gravity defying. Getting to the core of that engineering is what makes the flower distinctive. It always feels so much more structural than decorative when I’m making them. Richard is very ‘form follows function’ in his heart but he love flowers so much, and using them in a flower engagement ring especially. Roses can be lots of things, from the simple five petal wild rose to the voluptuous hybrid tea. Orchids are very three dimensional flowers which offer opportunities and challenges, and have a spray of five petals, a ‘mouth’ and a ‘beard’. Holding a stone in the mouth is a no brainer. In the pink sapphire flower engagement ring shown Richard used the beard from two orchids to hold the central stone. The colours of the sunflower ring were a real victory. The band is the brown of 18ct white gold and then the bright 18ct yellow gold petals, halo of diamonds and rich red ruby. There was a time when Richard thought of himself as a fauvist painter and the range of colours in precious metal is his new pallet. The client proposed in our workshop so we really feel part of this one. The matching wedding ring is a little train of bees. Next page
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This platinum leaf engagement ring has a wonderful natural, curling design to hold the vintage diamond in place. The emeralds and diamonds are set into acorn cups and the band is notionally an oak twig, although practicality stopped me going fully to town there as all the buds would have turned it into barbed wire. I've made a couple of fern engagement rings, one with a sapphire and the other with a blue diamond. Another leaf engagement ring here has small emerald set into the design, which makes for a slightly different feel. Next page
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The green of emeralds look great in either the rich yellow of 22ct gold or the bright paleness of unplated 9ct white gold. These are pretty good quality stones as emeralds often have quite a lot going on in them and can be quite pale. Richard sculpted it in wax for casting and the claws tight up against each other was a real challenge, but he really liked the smoothness of the underside of the settings. Next page
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Very varied styles here from a classic emerald cut diamond engagement ring to rings that are more ‘out there’. Richard had particular fun with the rocky one. He wanted the diamonds to look like they’d boiled out of the metal in some ancient volcano. One of the yellow gold rings here is an Ohm sign made into three round diamonds, again balancing subtlety and sentiment. It had to mainly look like three lovely diamonds. Princess cut and emerald cut diamonds offer a crisper feel. We've also been branching out recently with trying different cuts like marquis cut diamonds and cushion cut diamonds, with some really wonderful results. Next page
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In Richard's efforts to avoid angles, these twisty engagement rings have come up quite a bit. Making the claws flow from the band suggests the band should have a curve to it. Finding the right degree of subtlety for the client is key here. All of these are platinum with white diamonds and either blue diamonds, sapphires or tanzanite. Texturing the band can enhance this a touch more. One of these actually represents the eye of a lion, and the texture of its mane. Richard focussed on the exact shape of the eye here as he couldn’t put the entire head on her hand, which would have been fun. Next page
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The platinum mountain-inspired engagement ring features a central 0.96ct diamond with four custom cut baguette diamonds on the sides. The sculpting on the flanks was from a very specific design from the client, which took a bit of development to make feasible. Reducing designs to this scale is tricky, as everything has to be sturdy, but stay dainty. Richard likes the idea of trying to completely remove any angles from the metalwork of a ring. If it’s deliberate then fine, but he thinks angles need reasons. The surf rings really run with that. Two tidal waves crash together with gems set into lots of curls in the water. The pair of rings both have a flowing river/surf design incorporated.
Fractals are infinitely complex, whereas obviously there is a limit to the amount of detail that can be included, but the twinkle of the diamonds does some of the work. There are so many curves layered on top of each other here and Richard had to go through lots of sketches to get the flow right. There’s a central half carat white diamond flanked by two smaller blue diamonds, a great choice for someone with blue eyes.
The star engagement ring design was done for one of our very good friends, and we think it’s completely awesome. She has requested that it isn’t replicated set with the same gorgeous hot pink synthetic sapphire, but it is available to buy with other coloured stones on our Etsy page. We also designed a simple red gold wedding band to fit around the ring. Next page -
Aren’t hands awesome? They’re one of the defining things about us as humans and have so much magnificently fine tuned engineering in them. Hands are famed as hard to draw, but once you’ve figured out the arcs of the knuckles they’re fairly straightforward. The wrists are the hardest part. Claddagh rings traditionally include a crown and a heart, but these rings are transforming it into more modern claddagh engagement rings, which needs to be taller and narrower to fit next to a wedding ring. The row of diamonds is a nod to the crown and the tattoos are personal to each client of each of the claddagh engagement rings, mixing Indian and Celtic symbols in one of them. From above, the platinum and diamond ring had to look as simple and classic as possible, but from the sides the central stone is held between the wings of a pair of larks ascending. This perfectly tackles the need for a balance of subtlety, sentimentality, elegance and, perhaps most importantly, fun for me. The woman this was designed for (in secret) plays the violin and her favourite piece is ‘The Lark Ascending’, plus in her parents’ garden there are larks that actually ‘ascend’, which is supposedly quite rare. The red gold and platinum ring, set with a black diamond, is a type of yin yang ring. The platinum side represents the tail of a metal horse, and the red gold side is the stripes of a fire tiger. These symbolise the man and the woman in the relationship. Next page
