Eric found exactly the ring he wanted for his engagement ring - - well, almost exactly. He had his own diamonds which were much larger than the original ring. The designer would not customize the ring for him, so he started looking for someone else to do the job.
The first artisan he went to seems to have fabricated by hand, and got the general shape, but not the clean, crisp look. The problem with depending on the skills in one artisan's hands is that we can't all excel at everything.
The young man sent the ring to me. Unfortunately there was nothing we could do to fix the ring, so we had to scrap the gold and begin again.
By working in CAD rather than by hand, the customer was able to look at images which appeared to be 3D jewelry, and we were able to tweak the design until it was perfect for him.
This was a complicated design for many reasons. One was the unusual stone setting. Again, one of the great things about working with lots of different artisans is being able to match the job to the skill. My usual stone setters here in NY city were not comfortable with this setting. We were able to find someone to do it perfectly.
Another challenge was finding a caster who specialized to totally allergen free materials and techniques so that the young woman who had extremely allergy sensitive skin would be able to happily and comfortably wear this ring for her entire life.
