Several months ago I took on a project that involved setting
a customer’s diamond, an old miner, into a ring completely designed from
scratch. My customer, Lynne F. works as
a marine biologist in Florida and wanted a motif that involved sea horses. And I wanted to see if I could make this
happen. Obviously, there’s nothing out
there design wise I could borrow from, and these sea horses would have to be
absolutely miniscule. Who would make sea
horses for me, and how?
After Lynne insured the diamond and sent it to me (no way I
would have taken this on without the owner insuring her stone!), I made a bunch
of sketches. With help from Brandy, my
assistant, CAD designer and friend, we decided there’s only one place the sea
horses could go – they would have to form the seat, or gallery, or part of the
prongs. Directly under the diamond, in
other words. Lynne also wanted the culet
visible, and she wanted the girdle to be above the seat, so we needed a prong
setting for sure. We sketched out some
options and then took the design to another jeweler friend to get suggestions. The ring would be high, this was unavoidable
because even tiny sea horses need room.
Lynne was ok with that.
.jpg) |
| Sketch of Seahorse Ring by Brandy |
Generally, there are three ways you can make a piece of
jewelry. You can make it entirely in
metal, soldering all the pieces; you can make it in wax and then cast; and you
can make it in CAD and then print and cast.
CAD didn’t lend itself to this project because of the organic look of
the sea horses – CAD works on a mathematical basis so geometric designs are
easier to accomplish. The challenge in
metal was how to make four sea identical sea horses that would hold up the
stone. The soldering job was going to
take forever, and you can’t carve in metal.
That left wax carving. However a
wax design would not allow for enough detail, which meant we would have to have
that engraved in the metal as a last step.
So I set out to collect references for a wax carver and
found Max, an Argentinian who owns a little jewelry shop in the East
village. We met, discussed a price, I
showed him the drawings, and off went the diamond with Max to disappear for a
few weeks. Max needed the diamond because
he was going to make the ring fit this stone exactly. Obviously, these kinds of transactions
involve a lot of trust! Some back and
forth later – shaving down the shank some more, adding prongs, we had the basic
piece you see in the photos below. Max was
ingenious, he actually shaped the sea horses out of two pieces of round wax
“wire” and then sliced off four pieces.
This way each sea horse had the exact same dimensions.
 |
| Max Discussing the Ring with Us |
 |
| Seahorse Slices |
 |
| Wax Carving Tools |
My first casting of the ring was in silver which my jeweler Vasken polished with great care (the castings often leave extra metal around these
tiny shapes), and I shipped it to Lynne for her approval. I added a similar shaped gem so she could try
it out. Wax shrinks so we also had to
resize the ring a bit more. Then we made
the platinum casting.
 |
| Silver Casting of Sea Horse Ring |
The idea then was to add diamonds on the shank. The center stone was a J color and the
platinum is fairly white, so I initially thought to go with a lower color. But then I settled on G/H, and as clean as
possible so it would really sparkle. I
got the best cuts, too – Swiss cut, not India cut. They cost 30% more but it was worth it.
Enter Ethan, the setter.
I got the recommendation to use him from Brandy because we wanted
someone who specializes in micro pave.
Ethan works full time for a company that sets almost exclusively for
Tiffany and Tiffany uses tons of micro pave.
So I got Ethan to work on my ring over a weekend, and he didn’t
disappoint. The result was near perfection. All stones facing the right way, tables
totally straight, diamonds tightly packed, the beads perfect little round
balls, and no. 7 millgrain on the sides to give the ring an old fashioned look.
 |
| Close Up of Ethan's Setting Work |
Engraving was last.
Again, I asked around and several roads merged with Alex, the Russian
engraver. You can see his work here:
alexhandengraving.com. Alex came here
from Russia a few decades ago, where he used to help restore old churches – in
particular, some of the reliefs that decorate them. He said working in Russia met the old cliché:
they pretend to work and the government pretends to pay.
Alex took his assignment very seriously. He wanted pictures of the sea horse, and
together we went over every detail: waves on the inside of the shank, adding
millgrain on the inside, extending the pave down the sides of the shank past
the diamonds, eyes for the sea horses.
Alex also proudly showed me other examples of his work. All his work is done under a microscope, and
the detail is incredible. I felt in
great hands. So again, I left the ring,
fully set, in someone else’s hands. I
asked if I should pre-pay the fee, and he laughed: “But I have your ring, he
said.” True.
Two more weeks went by, and I got a call from Alex. “The masterpiece was ready,” he said. I asked for emailed photos but he said that
would not capture the work. So I went
into NY the next day. I was stunned by
the result. I had to study the work with
a loupe to fully appreciate the detail.
How can a human hand perform such a tiny miracle?
 |
| Alex's Engraved Ring |
 |
| Detail Photo |
