Karen's Arabian Star Ring

My regular blog followers will remember my trip to the United Arab Emirates last year. I came home gushing over the fantastic artworks of geometric patterns which adorn the facades of buildings, bridges and street lamps there. At the time, I posted a "pattern inspiration" story with a montage of some of my favourite pattern pictures from Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

 

One of my lovely readers, Karen, was considering commissioning a ring from me when she spied a particular pattern amongst my montage. That pattern was a snap shot of a small section of a bridge, which I myself was particularly taken with.

 

The Inspiration- Souk Al Bahar Bridge (Central Dubai)

 

Full of Arabian inspiration, Karen used the octagon and star features from the latticework on the sides of the bridge to draw up the below computer generated image of a ring concept.  

 

I opened the email from Karen and was immediately excited about the idea. Soon we were meeting up to work out the finer details of the design. Karen selected a combination of white and rose gold with a mix of champagne and white diamonds. I can't go past a gorgeous Australian champage diamond. This arrangement is so similar to my own wedding ring, that I knew I would love the results.

Thanks Karen for sharing in my passion! I really do adore your design and it was my pleasure to turn your drawing into reality. Enjoy wearing it.

Love from The Jeweller. xx

The Lapis Lazuli Ring for Cath

Late last year Cath asked me to make her a ring for a significant birthday. She indicated that she liked some of my past creations with rectangular stones, and also that she liked blue coloured gems. Lucky for Cath, I had a gorgeous rectangular piece of lapis lazuli in my gem box which fit the brief nicely.

Choosing the gem is the best place to start. The features of the stone became the inspiration behind the metal design which holds the gem in place. On this occasion, tiny gold flecks amongst the deep blue colour of the lapis, led me to suggest a yellow gold setting would be fitting around the stone. To the concept we then added a sterling silver band, both to keep costs down, and to tie in with Cath's usual choice of silver jewellery.

Stone selected, metal chosen, onto the design!

Cath’s preference was for something in an old-fashioned style. She isn’t into anything too flowery or girly. Again, inspired by the stone, I settled on an art deco style to compliment the long, straight lines of the rectangular-shaped lapis. The lines of the ring are strong and clean, with little geometric detailing on the sides of the setting.
 

Over the weekend Cath collected her ring and looked thrilled as she glanced at it upon her hand.
It always gives me a little kick to see a finished piece on the new owner.
Thanks for the order Cath. Enjoy that ring!

Love from The Jeweller. xx

The Dream Ring for Jenni

Jenni and I met at the Old Bus Depot Markets as fellow stall holders back in 2008. As well as adding several Japonicity designs to Jenni's wardrobe over the years, I remodelled her engagement ring a few years ago. You might even remember Jenni from my story, "The Ring With Bite" last year. So when she decided that she wanted a big ring for her 40th birthday, I was lucky to be first in line for the job.

Jenni had always wanted a one carat diamond but had never been able to afford (or justify) the expense. Her husband's recent purchase of a very fancy motorcycle gave her the extra incentive she needed to spoil herself with the purchase of a dream diamond. Her darling husband offered to then pay for the making of the ring to hold said stone as her 40th birthday gift.

After months of looking at diamonds and different design aspects, Jenni drew up a rough sketch of the design she wanted me to make (shown below).

The next step was to find that perfect diamond. I ordered in a selection of stones from which Jenni chose a breathtaking 1.11 carat beauty.

With a couple of weeks up my sleeve before the special birthday, I set upon creating Jenni's ring. Around the stone is a solid and strong platinum setting. The band is hand carved in 18ct yellow gold. The result: Jenni's dream ring.

It was with great excitement that I handed Jenni's ring over to her husband the week before her birthday. She wasn't allowed to see the results until the actual day. Sure enough, at 8am on Jenni's birthday I received a text message with a single phrase, "It is just stunning, thank you so much!". A couple of days later, another text came through, "I have been staring at my ring for days now and am so happy, love it!!"

You are very welcome Jenni. Thank YOU for giving me the chance to work with that incredible stone and make your dream ring.

Love from The Jeweller. xx

The Gold and Diamond Blossom Earrings

Every now and then I do custom variations of the earrings in my Japonicity range. Last week was one such occasion when I received a request from Monica for a diamond-set pair of golden blossom studs as a gift for her mother.

These are the medium sized Spring Blossom Studs, but instead of being made from silver, they are solid 9ct yellow gold. As a gorgeous finishing touch, the usual ball of silver in the centre of each blossom is replaced by a sparkling 3 point, round, brilliant cut diamond.

Thanks Monica for asking me to make these. I hope your mother loves them. Such a lovely and thoughtful birthday gift!

Love from The Jeweller. xx

The Engagement of Derryn and Claudia

An old friend from my days at Charles Sturt University recently approached me to make an engagement ring for his sweetheart Claudia. I was stoked to hear from him, happy and in love. It thrills me when friends entrust me with such important jobs. And so the process of designing Claudia's engagement ring began!



Derryn with his girl Claudia (and Susie the dog).



We spent some time looking at rings together online. Most of them were solitaire diamonds, a few with small accent stones, but all in all, nothing too inspiring came up. Derryn insisted that whilst he didn't want anything too fussy, he did want something just a little bit different. So I suggested he take a look at different shaped stones. To my surprise, and delight, he came back to me with, "I like the pear".

I've been dreaming of this ring for quite some time. The perfect pear-shaped diamond surrounded by a halo of tiny round brilliant cut diamonds. This is Derryn and Claudia's ring.

The day that I handed the beautiful ring over to Derryn, he proposed. I got a text message from him that night with the words, "She said yes!". I haven't met Claudia yet, but Derryn tells me she loves her ring. And how could she not? After all, the man that loves her went to a lot of trouble to have this ring specially designed and handcrafted in secret so that he had that special piece with which to ask her to be his bride. What a surprise! Isn't that every girl's dream?

Love from The Jeweller. xx

The Makers' Space

Hello readers. I'm sorry for being so quiet this month. My silence has been due to me missing out on a week of precious studio time whilst I nursed a cold. Since getting well again, I have been so busy catching up on my jewellery making that something had to give and that something, unfortunately, was my writing. Anyway, enough excuses, onwards and upwards!

I currently have work on display (and for sale) in a mini exhibition at the Museum of the Riverina Wagga Wagga. The fantastic program that my work is part of is called 'Makers' Space'. This exhibition changes seasonally and provides local and regional designer/makers with a unique opportunity to showcase their wares.

The current exhibition opened on Friday 18th May and runs through to Sunday August 5th. I am lucky to be sharing the space with textile designers Jemima Saunders from 'My Liefie' and Julie Gibbons from 'Tractor Girl'. I dropped in to see the exhibition last week and was thrilled to see how beautifully curated it is. Julie's chrysanthemum pillows exactly match my Ikebana pendant with the same imperial Japanese motif, and the flowers and leaves in both our work tie in with Jemima's bush-dyed, leaf-adorned clothing. The room is hung with autumn leaves, the perfect accompaniment to the botanically themed designs on show.

Here are a few snaps of the current Makers' Space.

If you're in the Wagga Wagga area, make sure you make the time to pop into the Museum of the Riverina or my favourite little art gallery (also a stockist of mine), The Paper Pear on Gurwood Street. I hope the people of the Riverina enjoy my work and that of the other Makers' Space artists.

Love from The Jeweller. xx

The Wrap-Up of May 2012

At the risk of sounding repetitive... Wow, I cannot believe May is over already! And what a jam-packed month it was for me.

On the work front, I have so many fabulous commissions! My clients really are the greatest people. Diamonds are the flavour of the month and I have a record number of impressive engagement rings on the go at the moment. I also have a little exhibition running in the Museum of the Riverina's "Makers' Space" Wagga Wagga. My exhibition runs until Sunday 5th August and I promise to do a blog post to tell you all about it soon.

This month saw my little blog discovered by the editor of Australia's 'Jewellers Trade Magazine' and in the June issue, one of my stories will be published. May also brought with it an invite to 'Bowerbird Bazaar, Adelaide's Design Market' and I am very much looking forward to my July trip over to South Australia.
My personal life was full of joy and excitement this month too. I successfully pulled off a surprise 30th birthday party for hubby. A swag of his school and work mates made the trip to town for the party which included a weekend of paintballing, delicious food and more than a few drinks. It was great to catch up with some old friends and now I can tick paintballing off the bucket list too.

I am continuing to take a photo every day with the 'Instagram' app (for those who want to play along, find me under user name the_jeweller). Compiling the photographs at the end of each month is a source of great enjoyment for me. Here is my May in photographs.

And finally, after countless hours of work, my bathroom IS FINISHED! *little happy dance* I will do the grand reveal here on my blog in the coming week.

So what is on the agenda for June? Work, work and more work. Yes, I know that this goes against my whole 'balanced work and personal life' ethos. But in saying that, I have A LOT to do. There are plenty of commissions to get on with and I desperately need to build up Japonicity's stock levels. I also need to work on continuing to keep clean and orderly living and working environments. Last but not least I am determined to shift some more of that excess weight. Amongst all of that work, I am sure I will find plenty of joy and I look forward to sharing it all with you. Bring on June!

Love from The Jeweller. xx