The stones were removed from the rings. As you can see, there are two main stones from each of the engagement rings and a wide variety of accent stones.
Our custom designer created sketches showing possible designs that incorporated some or all of the stones into one fabulous ring. The client envisioned something modern -- less traditional. Fortunately she was open to an asymmetrical design, which allowed the designer to include both of the main stones. The client chose the bypass ring -- the first ring at top of the page of sketches.
Once the client chose the ring design, the custom designer prepared iterations on CAD with stone placement options. One ring in the CAD renderings is wider and able to accommodate a greater amount of stones. The other rendering is a more slender style. The designer only chose stones that best suited the design; the ring would have been far too massive to use every stone from the original two rings.
Here are the four main views of the CAD rendering that the designer used. Each custom ring design revolves around finger size and stones. (So, for example, if a client wants to duplicate a design she has seen somewhere else, the finished ring may not look exactly the same. The proportions will be different because of the actual stones used and the finger size.)
After the client approved the CAD version, her ring was printed in resin with a 3d printer and then cast using the traditional lost wax method. In the lost wax method the resin model is encased in plaster and then placed in a special oven to burn out the resin -- leaving an exact negative of the ring.
Once the plaster mold is made, the metal of choice (in this case, palladium) is cast into the negative space. The plaster is broken away and cleaned off, revealing a rough version of the custom designed ring.
This is the ring just after casting. The sprues, passageways for the metal to flow through the mold into the ring, have already been removed.
The custom designer has begun to set the diamonds in the ring.
The stones have been set and now the ring is ready for finishing.
The custom ring is just about ready for its final polishing.
The edges of the ring are being polished. That tool is a polishing mandrel.
Almost finished!
And, here, finally is the finished ring on its way to the polishing machine. This gorgeous bypass ring was cast in palladium and 25 of the client's diamonds were used. The metal from the two original rings and the remaining stones were sold to the store (us! Grimball Jewelers!) and used as a credit toward the creation of an amazing, one-of-a-kind, custom ring.
