A carved engagement ring commission from abroad

Over the past few weeks we've been working on this tourmaline and yellow gold engagement ring for a couple in Egypt. Claire and Doug contacted us after seeing our Carve rings online and asked us to design a carved engagement ring based on these. They decided on a trillion cut blue-green tourmaline and wanted a sculptural, unfussy design which would emphasise the triangular shape of the stone.

The design process was managed through sketches and photographs back and forward in a series of emails. You can see the ring take form in these images, which show each stage of the process from initial concept to sketches, models and finally the finished engagement ring.

The starting point was this ring from our carve collection:



We sent images of previous carved ring commissions to show variations on the form of the carved engagement ring and how a wedding band could fit alongside it.







The next step was to sketch out variations on the design. The series of sketches below show the tourmaline engagement ring and a carved, fitted wedding band to match.



Claire liked the second sketch and so we began working on a carved wax model which was carved by hand to fit the dimensions of the stone:



The wax was then cast in yellow gold and the ring finished and polished, before being set with the tourmaline. The gold has been satin finished to accentuate the smooth, flowing curves of the ring.