A New Engagement Ring For An Heirloom Diamond

Sarah and her fiancé-to-be came in with Sarah's heirloom diamond ring. They wanted to take out the center diamond and make a new setting, while preserving the original mounting for a later use. Sarah's diamond is an Old European cut and a clean, modern style engagement ring would look most suitable on Sarah's hand. A ring with geometric shape, even an Art-Deco inspired style with an octagon halo would look fantastic. Sarah liked the idea of an octagon halo. In order to make the diamond look great in an octagon shape, I suggested to set it in a floating style so that there would be a small space between the center and the halo only in the diagonal corners. I also suggested to set baguettes in the octagon halo. The contrast of the calm quiet baguette cuts against the busy old European cut, would bring out the beauty of the center stone. On the band, I would set one straight baguette and then have a second baguette custom cut into a point on one end only. The two baguettes set on each side of the band would create a beautiful flow from the center halo section onto the band and end softly in a pointy shape. Here's an image of Sarah's heirloom ring on my suggested design: I first did some measurements to see what size width halo would complement the center diamond. That would determine the size of the baguettes I needed to get. Then, I calculated the width of the band so it would be proportional to the center halo section. According to my measurements of the band, I picked out two appropriate size straight cut baguettes and I had two other straight baguettes with the same width, custom cut to a pencil shape. I also ordered straight baguettes for the halo section. From the parcel of the loose baguettes, I picked out the ones that had exactly the same width in millimeters. The lengths we're going to be custom cut to fit in the octagon halo. Now that I had all of the stones, I made the platinum ring. Here's an image of the ring with the loose diamonds. The spaces that I created for the diamonds, I measured to hundredths of a millimeter in order to achieve a beautiful balance between diamonds and metal. Here's an image of Sarah's ring with all of the loose diamonds. You'll see the custom cut baguettes with pointy ending near her old European cut diamond: I sent Sarah's ring and all of her diamonds to a team of diamond cutter and setter who specialize in custom cutting each stone and then setting them one by one in any specified section of the ring. It definitely is an old art, one that not many craftsmen have the skill to do. It's also one of the most difficult and time consuming settings. The precision that goes into this kind of work, including the preparation of the mounting, cutting and setting of the diamonds is part engineering, part art. Here are images of Sarah's ring: I told Sarah when I was sending her ring to the setter so she would have only an idea of when it would be ready and the rest was going to be a big surprise. So when the ring was completed, I told her incredibly loving fiancé. He picked up the the ring and then on a beautifully pre-planned occasion, he proposed to Sarah right by the ocean! Sarah and her fiancé are one of the most adorable couples I've had the pleasure to work with and as for the faith of the original ring, here it is: Sarah and her fiancé asked me to find an appropriate sapphire, have it set and re-furbish the original ring so that they can surprise Sarah's mother. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to make your beautiful engagement ring. It was a big pleasure working with you! Cynthia