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My Tiny "Crown" Jewels Project

voce

Ideal_Rock
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May 13, 2018
Messages
5,161
Part 1

So the story begins with--
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a suite of five beautiful tsavorite garnets from Kenya. I came across them when I stumbled upon Cecile Raley Designs on Etsy and browsed all their eye candy. I thought it was expensive. I was a student not yet working, so I favorited them. A lot of the things I favorited from this Etsy shop became unavailable after a few months. These tsavorites remained, and for a long time I didn't pull the trigger because I didn't know how I would set the stones. The obvious thing to do would be to set them straight up and down or in an eternity design, but I didn't think that's what I wanted for them.

Well, after some time spent on PS, I started sketching some geometric designs. At some point, I started sketching stuff involving baguettes. One after another, just a couple minutes at a time, here and there.
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Nothing was drawn to scale or sketched in color, but my imagination ran wild with combining Yvonne's colorful gems. IMG_20190813_202733394.jpg
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Eventually, her New Year's sale came around, and I decided to buy the tsavorite suite on sale. Then my sketches became more focused on combining the baguettes with other loose gems that I bought from Yvonne.
IMG_20190813_202758734.jpg
I eventually came to decide on how I want the tsavorite baguettes to be arranged (forming two "eights" like Chinese characters). I showed Yvonne the above sketch, and she said it was a cute idea, but there was too much metal showing. Of course, I started thinking of studding a tiny crown with more gems.
IMG_20190813_202816102.jpg
But then, I realized that too many gems would be a pain to set, and I kind of pared the number of gems in the design down a bit. The kite diamonds I bought from Yvonne's February Tucson sale were nice, but I couldn't think of how not to leave gaps between stones. At this point, I found myself left with 2 lavender oval sapphires left over from other projects and decided to use them instead of the kite diamond pair:
IMG_20190813_202902423.jpg
At this point, I made a little png with a free software that gave me precision in gem placement, but which I used pretty poorly, as I selected really painful colors for the eyes to represent the different gemstones that I wanted to use. Trust me, the gems looked much better in person than my layout image or the camera captured at night.
Crown Layout.png
IMG_20190421_230859391.jpg
 

voce

Ideal_Rock
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May 13, 2018
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5,161
Part 2
I'll just share CADs and the vendor pictures. It turned out that setting baguettes at an angle in a crown that curves around the finger is just not a good idea for durability and would not look pretty, so we decided to make it flat on top so we can be true to the 2D layout that we picked.
Jing He Crown Layout Options.jpg Jing He Crown Ring 3d Image v1.jpg jing crown layout fix.jpg
We decided to go for cutouts to reduce the weight of the ring.
DSC_0418.JPG DSC_0424.JPG DSC_0429.JPG DSC_0431.JPG DSC_0432.JPG DSC_0434.JPG
Yvonne's camera didn't pick up the red from the Burmese ruby that well, so I wanted to take some pictures of my own, even if they're not as glamorous, to show a truer color than my phone camera could capture when I posted pictures of this ring in other threads.
 
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voce

Ideal_Rock
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May 13, 2018
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5,161
Part 3
I got the ring in hand Friday last week after work, and the first pictures I took were with my phone and at dusk, too, since although it's summer in California and the sun sets late, I had to drive two hours to visit people in another town.
IMG_20190809_191750968.jpg IMG_20190809_191702337.jpg
Monday, I got around to taking pictures with my digital camera that captures reds better. And finally, today, I uploaded the pictures.
IMG_0433.JPG IMG_0434.JPG IMG_0435.JPG IMG_0437.JPG IMG_0438.JPG IMG_0439.JPG
There's no picture where every gem looks its best, but hopefully this shows you enough variety. For what it's worth, to my eyes the gems looked the best in the last picture, but the camera didn't pick up the light as well as my eyes do, and the last one arguably looks the worst as a digital picture.

I've often heard PS'ers say that there's no such thing as too many pictures. Well, I've taken you at your word!
 

lovedogs

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It's SO PRETTY THERE ARE NO WORDS!!!!! Super unique and lovely on you.
 

Burmesedaze

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You are so creative!! What a unique ring!
 

foxinsox

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That is so cool! the colours are gorgeous
 

Hivona

Brilliant_Rock
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I had that suite of tsavs saved for awhile as well. I love green & step cuts but always spent my money somewhere else. I am so happy to see that you got them and did something really amazing with them! Such a beautiful and unique ring! Very impressive workmanship. Thanks for sharing the design process!
 

leslie1956

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How fun to see how your thought process evolved in the development of your crown ring! I'm glad that the tsavorite suite was used for such a cool and unique project.
 

meely

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I love this ring! It’s rich and opulent and quirky. It goes perfectly with your other rings too! Those tsavs were obviously meant for you!
 

GliderPoss

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What a royal piece! :clap: Love the cheery combination of gemstones. :love:
 

dk168

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Very cute and original, thanks for sharing!

DK :love::love::love:
 

Snowdrop13

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Wow, that’s one cool ring!
 

Austina

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Wowsers!
 

JustinL

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Feb 26, 2018
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Very beautiful and creative!
 

Weeivy73

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Very cool! Love the colour combo.
 

Bron357

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Jan 22, 2014
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Wow, I love this ring. All the different colours and gemstones.
I’m just a bit jealous of creative people who can envision and bring to fruition such exquisite pieces.
Wear Queenie in good health
 

Daisys and Diamonds

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Apr 30, 2019
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OMG its gorgouse
and its also fun
you are indeed very creative
well done
 

Yelena

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Wow. Thanks for sharing the process. I loved reading about it and seeing your unique and beautiful finished ring.
 

missy

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Gorgeous :kiss2: A piece fit for both princess and queen. And king for that matter. Opulent and delicious. :love:
 

Slickk

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Wow! I’m impressed. So creative and unique love it!
 

ZestfullyBling

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Your creativity is out of this world!!! That design is a one of a kind piece! Love the color combos! Turned out beautifully!!! :love:
 

T L

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Sep 20, 2008
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That’s definitely one of the most unique ring designs to grace this forum!! It’s a lovely way to use all of the colored stones in one ring. Now you have to do a colorful court jester hat pendant as a companion piece!!!
 

icy_jade

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Such a fun piece to wear! :mrgreen2:
 

Module

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Apr 26, 2019
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So creative and pretty! Do you mind telling us what software you use? I sometimes have ideas too, but I don't have any sketching basis so a software to visualize the ideas is great.
 

voce

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May 13, 2018
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It's SO PRETTY THERE ARE NO WORDS!!!!! Super unique and lovely on you.
Thank you so much, lovedogs. That's the best compliment! I do try for uniqueness. :mrgreen2:
What an absolutely delightful creation! Thanks for sharing the process :D
Yay, I'm glad other people are interested in the process. I enjoy sharing these things.
You are so creative!! What a unique ring!
Haha, this praise is making me blush. My parents have never thought of me as artistic or creative. I should've started this hobby earlier!
That is so cool! the colours are gorgeous
Thank you, though I think that Cecile Raley Designs deserves equal credit for sourcing the gems and making my idea into a reality.
 

voce

Ideal_Rock
Joined
May 13, 2018
Messages
5,161
I had that suite of tsavs saved for awhile as well. I love green & step cuts but always spent my money somewhere else. I am so happy to see that you got them and did something really amazing with them! Such a beautiful and unique ring! Very impressive workmanship. Thanks for sharing the design process!
Haha, I'm glad I took the risk to do something unusual with them, as I probably wouldn't have been satisfied setting these gorgeous green baguettes in a standard way. I tried to use all the gems I had that looked good next to the tsavs; at some point I was considering chrysoberyl, but they didn't look vibrant enough next to the tsavs.

How fun to see how your thought process evolved in the development of your crown ring! I'm glad that the tsavorite suite was used for such a cool and unique project.
Thanks Leslie, I'm happy to share my thought process and am glad you liked the outcome!

I love this ring! It’s rich and opulent and quirky. It goes perfectly with your other rings too! Those tsavs were obviously meant for you!
Awww, thank you!!! I think opulent and quirky describes my taste in settings for colored gems.

What a royal piece! :clap: Love the cheery combination of gemstones. :love:
Yay, I'm glad other people like this piece. With this one and the Easter paraiba ring, I worried other people might think my taste is garish because of too much color. =P
 

voce

Ideal_Rock
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May 13, 2018
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5,161

hypermom

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Feb 19, 2013
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I always love a happy ending! I love your ring crown and the input you had into the process. Thank you for sharing!
 

2Neezers

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I love your ring :kiss2: It is a beautiful one of a kind creation! Your sketches are amazing too. You are very talented!
 
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