Engagement ring: Handmade vs Cast

[LetLoveRule]

Have you confirmed to yourself that the yellow tint visible from the side does not bother you?
With such an open profile, I'd be concerned if you hadn't assessed that yet, especially comparing to the white metal that the ring is made out of.

Do you mean because of the colour of my diamond?

 

[molecule]

Do you mean because of the colour of my diamond?

Yes

 

[LetLoveRule]

Yes

The colour doesn't bother me, it's not really yellow from the sides or anything.

 

[sledge]

Sorry for my delayed response @LetLoveRule. I did see your call out in either this thread or your other one about your setting design. Work has been consuming most my time, thoughts and energy as I'm working under pressure to make some deadlines on about $100 million of potential work. Anyhow, enough about that.

Some points were made here about how cast can appear bulkier and if areas can't be polished it may appear less refined. My fiancee's ring didn't have some of the detail yours has but I took pics of the various processes and wanted to share from my other post where I documented the process. You can see how it transformed and what a difference the polishing/finishing makes overall.

• Green = plastic mold (mailed to me for review - made design changes you may see in the subsequent photos)
• Purple = wax mold made to create the molds for casting (never mailed, stayed at DK's facility and Amy just emailed pics)
• Goldish/white = actual ring after it was cast and before any polishing
• Final product = diamonds set, polished, etc (I might note it looked soooooo refined compared to the initial green plastic mold they mailed, which was a relief)

Okay....the wax/plastic model showed up today. Snapped some quick pics to share but haven't started analyzing yet. Initial impression is that it's still off.

Also, got some updated pics of the wax model. The head wasn't built yet, but gotta say, this looks amazing compared to the plastic version I got last week.

These are shots after the ring was cast in the WG/palladium mix. Still rough as you can tell because it hasn't undergone any finishing & detailing yet. Also the reason it has a slight yellow tint to it (I asked as I felt my chest tighten, lol).

Look what just showed up in my inbox....

 

[sledge]

As far as your ring design goes, I think the thing that still bugs me is you have curvy lines with the filigree on both sides and even the prongs have a curvy soft flow to them. Then that princess cut is like BAM! I'm here with all my perfect sharp & hard lines.

Can you somehow make it where the prongs extend down to form part of the princess cut? And then for the other sides of the princess extend up to start the filigree? It would change things a little but look more connected, curvy and have better flow IMO.

Another small detail I kind of like is the blue lines I show extending up to form the sides of the princess cut almost looks like a heart. Could you utilize a rose gold to make that filigree stand out so the heart is more obvious?

Small details overall, but maybe that is what is missing?

 

[LetLoveRule]

Sorry for my delayed response @LetLoveRule. I did see your call out in either this thread or your other one about your setting design. Work has been consuming most my time, thoughts and energy as I'm working under pressure to make some deadlines on about $100 million of potential work. Anyhow, enough about that.

All good what do you do for work?

 

[Donnass117]

My original ring was cast and chunky, then I had it remade into a very thin, handmade mounting, and although it looks very delicate, it is actually quite strong. If it's in your budget, definitely go with hand made!

 

[LetLoveRule]

My original ring was cast and chunky, then I had it remade into a very thin, handmade mounting, and although it looks very delicate, it is actually quite strong. If it's in your budget, definitely go with hand made!

Thank you! This thread has given a lot of insight and I've decided to go with handmade