This past August, the design for the three-stone platinum ring seen on page 1, along with the diamonds to the right of it, were given to me for immediate delivery.”¨ I didn’t even need to do an estimate, which was unusual. The centre stone was a 3.96-carat oval, while the side trilliants were .70 carats each. These were very high-quality and expensive stones—they demanded attention. That said, I was more interested in the single word written at the top of the job card—’RUSH.’
For most bench jewellers, the word ‘rush’ means ‘now,’ ‘fast,’ or ‘get it done.’ If I used CAD/CAM for this piece, it would take a total of two hours’ labour (spread over two days) to design and grow; sending the piece for platinum casting would take eight days’ turnaround time. Finishing the mounting and setting the stones would likely take about five hours. From start to finish, I estimated seven hours spread out over 10 days.
Ten days is not a long time to wait while having an expensive ring made, but I do have another option. I can fabricate this same ring in two days, although labour time would take 16 hours. At $100 per hour (retail), that’s a substantial increase in the cost of making the ring. In the end, I presented the pros and cons of both options to my employer, who decided to strike while the iron was hot. I was given the green light to fabricate the ring and the store would absorb the additional labour cost. The oddities never end.
Finally fabricating
During the 1990s, the three-stone ring was the height of jewellery fashion. De Beers had done a fabulous job of promoting the design concept of a ‘trilogy’ ring representing the past, present, and future of a relationship. In that decade, I fabricated approximately 150 three-stone rings. This particular style of ring was so popular that Jewelers of America (JA) included it as one of the designs a candidate must fabricate to be certified a master bench jeweller. It had been so long since I fabricated one of these that my heart literally leapt with joy upon getting this job. Hurrah! I was going to fabricate again.
About the time I began fabricating three-stone rings, our store purchased several from a high-end manufacturer. Each of the pieces was unique and beautifully made. I spent hours studying how they were constructed and tried to imagine the processes the jeweller used to create them. At that point in my career, I was more concerned about getting the technical aspects correct than the esthetics. It was not until after I had constructed about a dozen rings of my own that I began to relax and concentrate on styling.
I always begin ring projects by building the crown for the centre stone and working out toward the shank. Following the design, I constructed a standard”¨four-prong crown with upper and lower gallery supports, also known as rails, as recent terminology would have it. The centre diamond measures 12.74 mm x 8.76 mm. I prefer starting with the upper gallery support. This is made by forming a stick of flat platinum wire (i.e. 1.5 mm x 1 mm) into an oval shape that is approximately 10 per cent smaller than the diamond’s diameter.
Always be aware of where you position the solder seam in the supports so they are not visible. With care, the seam will end up under one of the four prongs.
Once formed, the wire supports are soldered together using ‘1700’ platinum solder. After soldering, both upper and lower supports are placed in the bezel forms and lightly hammered in place. The forms come with tapering steel mandrels that help push the platinum into the exact oval shape required for this design.
I prefer making the lower gallery support slightly taller than the upper (i.e. 2 mm x 1 mm). Personally, I feel that weighting the bottom gives the ring a visual lightness as the metal approaches the centre stone.
