quintessential

This design is quintessential for my process of cusotm designing.

Kate came in nearly sure that no one could do as she wished. She and her beloved had each found a beautiful, richly colored rock on the same magical excursion in nature. The rock she had found, a pretty shade of green, was a smooth and interesting shape, but about as large as Kate felt she could "pull off" in a ring. But ideally, her groom's red rock sould be incorporated, as well. What to do?

My design idea was to leave the green rock basically intact, except to cut a circular disk out of it, which would be inlaid with an identical disk of the red rock. The colors looked great together, and the symbolism was the clincher. A simple, 14K two-tone mounting completed the concept. But will it work?

Some rock materials are used in jewelry with some regularity: lapis lazuli, malachite, rhodochrosite. Generally, rocks that are of fine enough quality to qualify as gem rocks have fairly consistent and predictable behavior. Which means that decisions such as shaping, cutting, filing, finishing, and inlaying can be readily made.

But these rocks were not gem rocks. They were just rocks. Just really beautifuly ones. But, as non-gem rocks, while I could certainly have attempted to educate myself on them, I still wouldn't be able to learn anything about cutting or doing inlay work with them--no data. But I felt their existence told me everything I needed to know. The green rock was clearly water-tumbled, and so had survived a lot, through the millenia. It would be stable. I just had to take a chance cutting the red one.

Could not have gone more smoothly.

halo? is anybody out there?

It might be hard to realize how unusual this ring was in 2004, given all the halos out and about right now. In addition, this contains an antique cushion-shape and half moons, both of which are enjoying a resurgence.

my first yogo

Despite a blip of a mention during my graduate gemology colored stone course, I have to admit my knowledge of Yogo sapphires prior to moving to Bozeman was pitiful. It did not, however, take long for me to get with the program.

Like all colored gemstones, Yogo sapphires have a range of color that is considered most ideal (in terms of value, since beauty is in the eye of the beholder). Once I became thoroughly versed in that, I decided that I would leave all the washed out (yet romantically sold as "cornflower" Yogos to others, and just focus on the nice ones.

This is a photo of the very first Yogo design I did, in 2004. So, while I was behind the times in terms of including the Yogo compared to my Montana jeweler peers, I was ahead of my time in a couple ways. One, this ring has a halo. And while we are swimming in them now, that was not the case at the time. Secondly, the halo is "floating" around the center--there is a gap between the central, bezel-set Yogo and the halo itself. Enjoy!