Hand creating a custom ring, start to finish.

[sphenequeen]

That is an incredible amount of thought, design, skill, and craftsmanship. There is such an immense amount of work that goes into a custom made piece of jewelry - thanks for sharing!

 

[tyty333]

Amazing! Thanks for sharing!

 

[NewEnglandLady]

This was truly interesting to watch unfold. Thank you so much for posting these pics! The finished product is stunning!

 

[Gayletmom]

Wow! I had no idea how the custom crafting process was done and it is fascinating to see! Thanks for taking the time to educate us.

 

[coati]

Cheers for posting this aj!
It's important to see how much labor goes into a hand crafted piece. The finish on your piece is wonderful, and the details are delightful. That old cut pavilion undergallery is so fun-shows how each element has a story. Love seeing the artistry through each stage of the crafting process. Enjoy your new chunkster!

 

[Aoife]

It was amazing to see each step in the process, and how beautiful and refined the finished product is. I love seeing all the little details, and the thought evident in each of them.

 

[packrat]

Love it! So interesting to see the process and then the finished piece-which is amazing!!

 

[heliotrope]

in our fast paced - mass market world - where we only see finished goods - it is easy to gloss over the skill required to create a hand forged piece such as this one

wow AJ - thank you for sharing this amazing process and a big thank you to RDG for taking the time to document the steps

I am sure I will come back again and again to oggle this thread!! I am fascinated with how rings are put together!!

the perfect finish of your ring blows my mind!!

 

[agatha.nl]

wow

 

[Sparklelu]

Thankyou AJ for sharing that,it was so neat to see raw nondiscript materials turn into something so beautiful. The finished product is stunning!

 

[Andelain]

Wow, what great pics of the process. The ring turned out gorgeous too.

It's really interesting to see your ring come to life like that. I can really relate, because I've kept the sketches, pre-CAD's and CAD's from the creation of my pendant and like to look back at them and see how it went from being a vision in my head to reality like your ring did.

 

[TakingthePlunge]

That ring looks awesome. I did a search on the jeweler and they have some great pieces on their site. Not sure if I can link it but a google search for the name on the ribbon pulled them up pretty quick on google.

 

[AnneinGA]

Thank you SO MUCH for sharing the process. It was really neat to see it all the way through, and your ring is gorgeous!

 

[BoulderGal]

Very cool to see the process from drawings to finished product. I'm glad you and your jeweler "documented" the whole thing.

Your ring is gorgeous, btw.

 

[sunseeker101]

What an education! Seeing it painstakingly come to life has made me fall in with your ring. Just gorgeous!

 

[kelpie]

Wow he is talented! I love seeing hand fabricated pieces.

 

[Largosmom]

Way cool, I really enjoyed seeing the steps involved in putting together a lovely ring and an example of fine craftsmanship! Congratulations.

 

[Art Nouveau]

arjunajane: Thanks for posting the 'from start to finish pictures' of your custom ring. It is very interesting to see the process of how a custom piece is hand fabricated. Your finished ring is gorgeous. RDG does fabulous work. Too bad they are in another continent. Otherwise I would use them for custom work. I am not sure how much custom duties will have to be paid when the finished piece comes back to the US.

AN

 

[wolftress]

This is fascinating. I had no idea so much work went into hand-making a ring. Thank you so much for posting these pictures, AJ. The end result is absolutely incredible.

How many days did it take to finish the ring?

This post makes me appreciate my two custom pieces so much more now.

 

[arjunajane]

Wow, thank you very much to everyone who has posted such positive and appreciative remarks!
It really warms my heart to see how many other folks appreciate the dedication, creativity, skill and attention to detail that goes into
work such as this.
I am sure that Mike and RDG too appreciate all your kind comments on their work. In my book, they are just excellent people and deserve all the praise they can get

As mentioned previous, we so often get to see the experience of a custom CAD piece through some of our favoured PS vendors, but I didn't recall ever seeing a thread dedicated to the hand made process, so I'm happy that others think it is a worthwhile addition to the forums.

Although I am just going to respond to a select few, I really do appreciate all of your comments - so cheers everyone who has responded; very glad you enjoyed sharing it with me, and it was my pleasure in posting this

That was fascinating to see in steps. Wow is all I can say. Custom goldsmiths are really talented people (who must have very steady hands and a lot of patience with the process). Thanks AJ!

That is an incredible amount of thought, design, skill, and craftsmanship. There is such an immense amount of work that goes into a custom made piece of jewelry - thanks for sharing!

Absolutely agree, sphenequeen and GG, and you're welcome! The scale and details they work to is really quite impressive. All the macro photos are rather deceptive, until you see the real deal - even though it is a larger/chunkier ring, I still marvel at how some of the finishing work was done..
I think it really does show when one has a passion for this kind of work.

Cheers for posting this aj!
It's important to see how much labor goes into a hand crafted piece. The finish on your piece is wonderful, and the details are delightful. That old cut pavilion undergallery is so fun-shows how each element has a story. Love seeing the artistry through each stage of the crafting process. Enjoy your new chunkster!

Hello lovey - and I must thank you again for 1. having great taste in jewels, and 2. being gracious enough for me to be inspired by said great taste. I am a very proud new member of the chunkster club
I'm glad you like the pavilion-styled gallery - I haven't let Mike forget that that part was my specky idea.(and its cool to have a detail of the ring that makes it even more personal)...but of course he made it look lovely
Thanks for posting friend

in our fast paced - mass market world - where we only see finished goods - it is easy to gloss over the skill required to create a hand forged piece such as this one

wow AJ - thank you for sharing this amazing process and a big thank you to RDG for taking the time to document the steps

I am sure I will come back again and again to oggle this thread!! I am fascinated with how rings are put together!!

the perfect finish of your ring blows my mind!!

Hey Heli - knowing your tastes, I thought this could be up your alley.
You're correct, it is quite rare that we are encouraged these days to really consider how something we own was actually created (in fact, I would say that usually - and even in the case of many luxury goods - we are probably discouraged from it).
So, especially coming from a place of personal interest in the process, I was very grateful Mike took the time to document this and be so upfront in allowing me to share it.

please feel free to ogle away

 

[arjunajane]

arjunajane: Thanks for posting the 'from start to finish pictures' of your custom ring. It is very interesting to see the process of how a custom piece is hand fabricated. Your finished ring is gorgeous. RDG does fabulous work. Too bad they are in another continent. Otherwise I would use them for custom work. I am not sure how much custom duties will have to be paid when the finished piece comes back to the US.

AN

Hello AN - you're very welcome, I'm glad you like RDG's work..I love your new cuprian ring (actually I tend to enjoy all of your pieces).
I think RDG's style is right up your alley..

Regarding the O/S thing - I haven't of course looked into things from the US side, however I order gems/diamonds and jewellery from the US all the time (and now NZ). Our countries (Aust & US, Aust & NZ) have free trade agreements (FTA), which reduces the custom duties by a bit.
There is a reasonable chance US & NZ could have an FTA (your local customs office could tell you) - although RDG also have many O/S clients and travel quite often to events in the US (last time I *think* was in LA.) and I know they go to JCK too.
Your $USD is a lot stronger in exchange than the NZD...so you may find the customs expenses are offset in that way..
just sayin' and all

This is fascinating. I had no idea so much work went into hand-making a ring. Thank you so much for posting these pictures, AJ. The end result is absolutely incredible.

How many days did it take to finish the ring?

This post makes me appreciate my two custom pieces so much more now.

Hi wolftress, how are you? Glad you enjoyed the photos, and thank you regarding the ring! Of course, just like a CAD jeweller every hand creation jeweller would work a little differently, so this is just an example of one vendor's standards

I've just looked up my emails, and I believe it was 3 weeks from when Mike started on the ring to when I got the completed pics - a very good lead time I thought, actually (for example, LM lead time is usually ~6 weeks).
I don't know how many out of those days Mike was working solely on my ring, although I do know that he tends to only concentrate on one piece at a time for the most part - they limit how many jobs they take on per year, so as to ensure standards of quality and service are not changed.

Mike said it took 40 to 45 hours to complete all the labour, not including design time. We came up with the design over about two weeks of chats.

Thank you for your comments

 

[Dandi]

This is all so fascinating aj, thankyou so much for sharing with us!! I love watching something like this slowly take shape and come to life, especially when the end result is as amazing as this!!

 

[dreamer_dachsie]

Thank you so much for posting these! Your ring is just gorgeous and I appreciate it even more now that I know how it was created. I too would love to own a fine piece of art like that one day.

 

[poshpepper]

Wow, what an amazing process, thank you for sharing the photos.
Your ring turned out beautiful!

 

[piratefan]

Wow...this was WAY cool to see the whole process like this!! Just wonderful!! Thanks for taking the time to post these

 

[Grlsbestfrnd]

This was one of the coolest posts I've ever seen! Your ring is gorgeous

 

[stci]

Incredible! Wow! The ring is a beauty and the designer creator genius! Thank for sharing!

 

[Lovinggems]

Great photos AJ, thanks for sharing your experience with everyone on PS. Glad there's a brillant and responsible jeweller closer to home.

 

[arjunajane]

Thanks very much everyone for your comments, I'm really glad you enjoyed the thread!

Thanks for taking the time to post this, it's fascinating.

Do you know what is done with the waste gold and platinum?

Aoife,
I asked Mike and he said that, yup, the left over or waste pieces all go back one or two times a year to their metals supplier, to be refined back into pure metals. But of course, they buy it as pure and sell it back as scrap, so that kind of thing is a cost consideration with this process.

Whereas, for example vendors who use CAD and wax would have very little to no cast-off metals during production, I imagine.

hth

 

[catwalk82]

Not only is the ring lust worthy , this post was so informative and interesting! Thank you so much for posting it!