Bimetal gents band

Recycled gold and platinum ring - brushed finish

Continuing on the theme of using old gold in a new ring this next post is a handsome band I made at Christmas for my friend's son's twenty first - lucky chap!

It consists of a wide gold band that was made up of his mum and dad's wedding rings and a smidge of gold from his grandad's identity bracelet and a further finer band made in platinum.  Both bands were assayed independently before being soldered together and the result is a very smart, matte finished, two-tone ring in 9ct yellow gold and platinum that marries old and new.

If you've a project you'd like to discuss why not give me a bell on 0877956321 or email me at evadorney@gmail.com

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Remelting the old gold and turning up the new platinum band

Two-tone platinum and yellow gold ring

Hidden inner wedding ring

It's been an age since I blogged, but as I was updating images on the site I spotted this little ring which I think is worth talking about because it solves a problem faced by a lot of people - that of having a yellow gold piece of sentimental value, but wearing only white metal.

In this instance a yellow gold ring had been handed down through the family and my customer wanted to come up with a wedding ring design that incorporated this family ring, but still matched her platinum engagement ring. We talked through a few options, but opted to create a fine platinum band within which the yellow gold band sits. For all intents and purposes the wedding ring looks like a perfect match for the platinum of the engagement ring, but within it is hiding a secret yellow gold ring, original assay marks and all.

If you've a project you'd like to discuss why not give me a bell on 0877956321 or email me at evadorney@gmail.com

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Twisted yellow gold rings

The first time I met the girls, three out of four sisters called to the studio and it's safe to say the the pitch went up a level as this happy family discussed designs and the future of their parents lovely heavy 18ct yellow gold wedding bands. The design they settled on was a simple twist ring that each girl could have and wear.

Twisted 18ct yellow gold rings

The real difficulty with this project was to determine the width of metal that would yield enough length to create the twisted strands, so a little trial and error in silver ensued. That done I simply melted the two rings into one and drew the gold bar down through the draw bench until I had a great length of 1.2mm thick wire. I then straightened the wire by annealing it fully and stretching it out before cutting it in two and beginning to twist. From here the twisted wire was cut into four lengths and each length turned up to make these 4 matching twisted gold rings, one for each daughter.

If you have a project you'd like to discuss please drop me a line here or give me a tickle on 0877956321.

Bespoke and remodelled gold and diamond jewellery

It has been such a hectic month with collections reaching fever pitch in the last few days! I'm off  to Croatia for a little holiday this morning, but fear not, my good buddy Carol will be manning the store while I'm gone and I've created a little collage of the gorgeous jobs I've been working on just to whet your appetite for when I return!

Engagement rings, pendant, torc, bangle and cufflinks made from new and recycled materials

Handmade wedding and engagement rings from recycled metal

The original rings

Congrats to Suzanne and Andrew who are 25 years married today!

Now technically they already had wedding bands (pictured here), but 25 years later they felt like a change. Andrew never really wore his original wedding ring and was looking to have something a little more substantial and unusual made, meantime Suzanne had her heart set on a contemporary diamond solitaire.

Recycled yellow gold wedding and engagement rings

Asymmetrical wedding ring, diamond solitaire and matching wedding band

They had quite a lot of metal so initially I melted it all down and through a happy accident the pour split into two ingots. The larger became Andrew's band while Suzanne's engagement ring was made from the smaller.

The design of his ring is simple and contemporary with flat sides rising asymmetrically rather than to the midpoint. To achieve this the large ingot was first made into a heavy flat gold band before some careful marking out and some even more careful filing transformed it into the ring you see here.

I sourced a lovely baguette diamond for Suzanne which was bar set across the top of this modern engagement ring and all the gold dust filings from Andrew's ring were remelted into a further ingot to create her wedding band.

Just a spot of hand engraving and these three recycled gold rings were ready for collection!

If you have a remodelling job you'd like to discuss please feel free to drop a line to evadorney@gmail.com or to give me a bell on 0877956321

Sapphire cluster engagement ring

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In February 2012 when Eoghan called me to say that he was going to propose to my best friend my emotions were all over the place. Delight at the good news, fear at the responsibility of making the ring and more than a little nerves about keeping this secret -  I'm not usually yacking away on the phone to my customer's intended! Our exploratory wander through the jewellers in town revealed one thing - that neither of us had a clue of the kind of ring Neidra would want. We looked at modern, at antique, at classic and at contemporary but soon realised we'd have to call on Neidra herself if we were ever to get it right.

Eoghan proposed later that year and having tried on a multitude of styles they came back to me to make this vintage inspired, but really rather modern sapphire engagement ring.

Making a platinum, diamond and blue sapphire engagement ring

Quite simply it never rains, but it pours and at the time I was making Neidra's ring I was also making Louise's so these two girls are forever linked in my mind. As an aside they have both had their first babies in the last couple of months so more congratulations are in order.

Down to the making - The first task was to order enough material for both rings and then lay out the setting on the large flat piece of platinum. I used the round wire to turn up the bezels for both rings and pierced our a gap within which the belly of the stones would fit. Next I made the swaged shanks on which the settings would sit. The rough ring was cleaned back to a nice tapering, but flat surface and then a groove cut to accommodate the belly of each stone. At this point every thing was given a good polish and then soldered together. Then came the small matter of setting the sapphire and the diamond before sending both rings to be pavé set with tiny diamonds.

If you'd like to discuss a custom project please feel free to drop me a line, meantime you can see more handmade engagement rings here.

Recycled yellow gold wedding ring

This ring was made from pieces of gold belonging to the women in Gerry's life. His future wife, his mum and mother-in-law all added a little bit of material to the cause and from it his wedding ring was made.

Recycled yellow gold wedding ring

The old gold was melted in a crucible and the resulting nugget rolled out into a strip. That strip was then turned up into a ring and the rounded ends cut off to create a perfect join. (Everyone gets these little nubs back with their finished piece to sit in the drawer until inspiration strikes). A little solder and a quick hammer to make it round then into the pickle to remove that black patina. If you're familiar with my blogs you'll know that the next step is to emery the surfaces of the ring to remove any scratches and then to create a comfort fit on the inside of the ring before giving it a final polish. Gerry wanted a matt finish which gives a nice contrast to the highly polished inside and edges. The finished ring has a slightly rosier tone which is thanks to that little bit of rose gold chain making the ring all the more individual.

You can see more remodelling projects here or if you have a remodelling project of you own that you'd like to discuss please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Twisted sapphire and aquamarine ring

Diamond encrusted gold ring

This is the second ring that I've made for Mary, though we have yet to meet in person. Last time it was a lovely remodelled gold tapering band punch set with diamonds that incorporated her old engagement ring amongst other things. It worked out well and Mary was left with another lump of metal to plan a future project.

Inspiration and drawings

The piece on the left became the diamond encrusted ring while the piece on the right rested in the drawer for another year before being duly reimagined. The design was loosely based on a twisted ring her children had given her which incorporated their birthstones. We moved away from the heart and princess shapes toward the idea of a pear shape and a round and when I was stone shopping in Germany I kept an eye out for a sapphire and an aquamarine which would reflect the gentle colouring of the original ring, 

When we think of sapphire it's Kate Middleton's deep blue engagement ring that comes to mind, but sapphires come in all sorts of shades from gentle greens through cerise pinks through yellows or in this case purple. They are the next hardest stone to diamond and the only real alternative for every day wear. Their breadth of colour and sparkle makes them one of my favourite stones.

Recycled gold sapphire and aquamarine ring

Twisted sapphire and aquamarine ring

The first step in making this twisted ring was to make the settings. I rolled down the remaining bar into a long flat wire and turned it up in the round and pear shaped settings. I then melted that material again to create the bar for the shank. Again to the rolling mill to form a tapering length of wire which was turned up in to the ring. It was then a question of gently manipulating the curve of the metal to suit the curves of the settings before soldering all the pieces in place. With that done all the surfaces needed an emery and the inside of the settings were polished to make them as bright and reflective as possible before setting the stones.

And there you have it, a twisted sapphire and aquamarine ring made from recycled gold.

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Contemporary gold dress ring remodel

Gold for recycling

What do you get the woman who has everything? This was the dilemma facing Gina and her sisters with their mum's 60th birthday fast approaching. It turns out mum Doreen had a number of old pieces including a 9ct yellow gold ingot which she no longer used and when she visited with me she told me how much she had always wanted an emerald ring. I didn't have any emeralds to hand, but no matter. She set her sights on this gorgeous green tourmaline cabochon and together we designed a simple if sizable contemporary dress ring.

Bezel set green tourmaline dress ring

The old gold was melted into an ingot and then recycled into a 3.5mm shank and heavy oval bezel setting. Both pieces were soldered together and the tourmaline set into this striking piece with the yellow gold accentuating the green tourmaline beautifully. One new ring for the birthday girl and enough gold left over for another little project in the future.

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Old cut diamond stacking ring remodel

When I had completed Eleanor's old cut diamond earrings our next project together was to design a series of stacking gold rings with the remainder of her diamonds.

Gold and diamond stacking rings

Diamond stackers

Eleanor's gold ring provided enough material for one of the new bands and I bought new 18ct for the other two bands and tubing for the settings. Diamonds are brilliant little things not least for their hardness, but they can also be heated without shattering like most gemstones would. This means that I was able to set each stone before soldering those settings into the bands. An added bonus to presetting the diamonds is that I could play with the arrangement of the stones as I went - creating a suitably random effect.

I love this style of stacking ring and every time it's worn the arrangement looks just a little bit different. Stackers give great flexiblity, with lots of scope to add new elements, even a couple of plain silver bands, down the line.

18ct yelllow gold pinkie ring

Wax modelling is fast and accessible. It feels more sculptural in nature than forging and forming metal by hand. This commission involved designing and making an 18ct yellow gold saddle shaped pinkie ring that cleanly blended into a comfortably narrow shank at the back. It would have been possible to make a ring like this using anti-clastic raising (a technique where metal is hammered on different shaped stakes to bend and form it into beautifully defined curves), but I opted to carve it from wax. If however you'd like to see some beautiful anti-clastic work I'd recommend checking out fellow Irish goldsmith Jessica Poole.

Step by step by painstaking step

Ring wax comes in 6 inch long tubes and it's a matter of cutting off a section within which to "find" the ring.  I went for a U shaped tube to accommodate the height of the ring and removed a 20mm wide section.

Working in wax varies from metal in that a few stokes of the file will remove a large amount of wax, but a relatively small amount of metal, making it very quick to manipulate, but also dangerously easy to remove too much material. As a result it's not so much a matter of "finding" that ring, rather of careful laying out and marking! All those little lines help to maintain symmetry and prevent accidents.

Once marked out, excess wax is sawed away before filing the rough shape of the ring - a messy business as you can see. Then, when the outline shape is good, it is refined and weighed and refined again until it is as light as possible.

A wax model weighs one tenth of the finished silver ring and about one fifteenth of 18ct gold - with such an expensive raw material every 0.1g  counts!

When the model is finished and emeried to a nice polish it can be sent off for casting in what ever metal desired. In this case my first wax was too small so I had it cast in silver and had the larger one cast in 18ct. The models come back from the casters with this lovely low matt finish as you can see - too pretty to pass up a quick photo, but still in need of a good polish.

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Remodelling an 18ct yellow and white gold illusion set diamond engagement ring - Part Two

Now that Geraldine had her new diamond cluster it was time for mum Patricia to put on her thinking cap. Most importantly she knew that she didn't want a high ring, rather something easy, with a little sparkle, that could be worn all the time...oh and that was going to complement her nice wide yellow gold wedding band.

Here's what became of the old gold mount.

Recycled fine pave set yellow gold eternity ring.

Firstly I removed the white gold head from the yellow gold shank (they don't melt well together) and melted it into the lovely little nugget pictured. That was passed through the mill to make it long and skinny, turned up into a fine gold band and set with 40 half pointers (or 0.005ct round brilliant cut diamonds).

Hey presto - a fine pave set eternity ring with diamonds over two thirds of the way around.

Remodelling an 18ct yellow and white gold illusion set diamond engagement ring - Part One

This is the first of two entries involving an 18ct yellow and white gold illusion set diamond engagement ring. The diamond was given to Geraldine by her mum and she called me to see what might be done. We took a look at all of her current jewellery including her own wedding and engagement rings and devised a plan....

Platinum halo engagement and wedding ring set - Diamond pendant

I made up a new platinum mount to take the round brilliant cut diamond - a pave set halo design with clearance underneath for a wedding band to sit flush. Next I cut the diamond out of her engagement ring with the setting intact and with a little additional platinum used the shank to make a new plain band to sit next to the cluster. I added a bale to the engagement diamond setting and transformed it into an everyday diamond pendant and in the meantime the existing diamond set wedding ring made it's way to the left hand as an eternity ring.

This project worked out a treat with everything in use and all the metal used up except for the old gold mount... more of which to follow.

Making platinum wedding bands

I love making wedding bands and happily I'm asked to make a lot of them. As part of the process I'll usually do up a collage of how the rings were made - one of which is pictured here.

Handmade platinum wedding band collage

The first step in making a pair of bands is to calculate how much metal is needed. The gauge of metal and length will vary depending on the overall width of ring required, but when two bands are being made from the one piece of metal the wider band determines the width of platinum bar needed.

Next up the bar is cut into two parts and then rolled through a mill until each piece is the desired width, depth and length.

These lengths of platinum are then turned up into rings and soldered or fused using an oxy propane torch. Platinum temperatures reach in excess of 1700C during this process.

Once soldered the rings are trued up on a mandril, before being sent to assay. They're then emeried to remove any marks or blemishes and polished to a high shine. Any surface finishes can be applied at this stage. Simples!

Making a platinum 5 stone diamond ring

On the top left you can see an 18ct gold and diamond bracelet which was the jumping off point for this design. By the time I thought to take a photo I'd already cut out the diamonds, but you get the picture!

Below is the master model made in silver. It could have been made directly in platinum, but this sample alowed my customer to make some final tweaks to the design and saved on costly platinum waste.

Next up is the platinum casting, back from the assay, all cleaned up and ready to set.

Lastly we have the finished platinum 5 stone ring. The diamonds are effectively bezel set with a  milligrain detail.

Platinum 5 stone diamond ring collage

Punch setting a recycled yellow gold ring

If you wince when you think about the old charms, odd earrings and broken chains languishing in your drawers think again... Why not melt the lot?

Tapering yellow gold ring made from recycled metal with a smattering of punch set diamonds

Nothing gives me greater pleasure than taking those unloved bits and bobs of gold and transforming them into a new and wearable piece of jewellery.

Lorraine had a number of rings and chains that she no longer wore so we set about designing a piece that would use up her metal and suit her lifestyle. We came up with this heavy weight tapering gold ring which I made by melting her old gold and then setting it with diamonds to lend a little sparkle to proceedings. Lastly Lorraine opted for a heavy matt finish which adds to the contemporary feel of the ring.