Brief
Create a sterling silver ring, size F1/2 with a 4mm cubic zirconia to be worn every day. The ring needs to be on the delicate side rather than bold and chunky and will need to include a claw setting for the CZ. No decoration on the silver shank is needed and the shank itself is to be a round, wire style profile.
Process
I started the setting in silver clay to get a feel for what it would look like but the ring would need to be robust enough to withstand daily wear so would need to be cast. By casting the ring shank, it will be denser than clay which is important where there are claws in the setting. Their job is to securely hold the stone so a finer grained, denser silver will mean it’s a bit tougher in the knocks of daily life.
The setting prototype came out beautifully but had some cut-ins which would make delft casting it very tricky. Instead I ended up opting to cast an oversized shank and setting in one, and then filing it down to the correct size.
It was a lot of filing!
The ring is really starting to take shape and will be home to a 4mm CZ. The setting is quite a bit shallower than the concept setting, to better show off the stone and help it catch more lite.
The ring is now at the hallmarkers down in London and will be coming back early next week.
Still to do
A bit more work is still needed and will include dropping in the CZ stone and easing the claws over it. Any tweaks needed on the claws themselves will be done as part of the setting.
A final check on the size and a good polish will be done and the ring will then be packaged up, ready for collection.
