Recent rings

It has been a while since my last post. I had the best laid plans... but life and rings... many, many rings got in the way! We are in the thick of wedding band season with lots of happy couples saying "I do". We have been trying our best to take photos when possible, but the days seem to fly by, I can't believe the year is half over. I wanted to share a few projects from the last couple months. This one is an anniversary ring. It was a re-imagining of three different rings all taken apart and built into one spectacular ring!

This one is sleek and modern but the channel set princess cut diamonds give it a hint of deco flare.

This one is 1940's movie star all the way! I love the contrast of the fancy intense pink sapphire and the cool icy pave diamonds.

This custom engagement ring re-design, with it's pave set split shank and pave halo under gallery is one of my recent favorites. The ring is what is known as a "5 tabler"... at a restaurant you can see it from 5 tables away!

Mmmmm chocolate

Todays stop on my tour of the Distillery is Soma Chocolates. Soma is an artisanal chocolate maker, handcrafting their chocolates in small batches. This allows them to maintain a very high level of quality and the freedom to make some quirky and creative combinations, chocolate covered cornuts anyone! (they are delicious!)

I am pretty sure I have tried almost everything in the shop and can tell you that there are virtually no wrong turns. On my personal favourite list are the Amaretti cookies, the almond clusters, and the brown butter truffle!

But the jewel in the crown, their Mona Lisa, has to be the Mayan hot chocolate, also known as the "drink of the gods" But to compare this to "hot chocolate" is an insult. This is a elixir of molten chocolate, with a hint of spice and undertones of ginger, vanilla, and orange. It's complex and simple at the same time. It's not uncommon to see people unabashedly licking the inside of the cup... giving serious thought to getting another. I try to limit my exposure, it can be hazardous to the waistline working 100 ft from such pure, uncut awesomeness!

Move over diamond, make room for sapphire

Over the last few months, since the engagement of William and Kate was announced, I've been seeing increased interest in sapphire engagement rings (just see my last two blog posts).

While sapphire has always been a popular engagement ring choice, and one of my personal favourites (I proposed to my wife with a sapphire engagement ring), diamond has been the more traditional stone used over the last few decades. However, jewellers saw an increase in sapphire interest when Charles and Diana got engaged in '81, and we're seeing that spike in interest again now that Kate Middleton is wearing the sapphire ring.  
Sapphires are an excellent choice for engagement rings for many reasons, they refract light very well making them sparkly, and they have a Mohs hardness of 9 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohs_scale_of_mineral_hardness), making them very tough and resistant to breaking, chipping and scratching.

Sapphires also come in many different colours, hues and saturations, with the most spectacular being blue, pink and yellow. While natural coloured diamonds are also found, they are roughly 100 times the price of a similar sized sapphire. And when compared to white diamonds sapphires cost about 75% less. This allows a customer to save a bit of money or get a bigger stone... often they decide to do a bit of both!

And if you still like the idea of having diamonds as part of your engagement ring, not to worry, sapphires look amazing when paired with white diamond accents. Just check out some of the pictures of sapphire rings that I have made over the last couple of months. Gorgeous... if I do say so myself.

Sapphire and diamond engagement ring

It's taken a bit of doing but I have finally finished the sapphire ring. I have to confess that I got caught up in making it and didn't document the process for you. I finished it and pulled a Homer Simpson... D'oh! One of my favourite things about my job is that I can lose entire afternoons working on a piece. I will finish lunch, get back to work and then look up and it's 5:00... I promise to do a better job for you next time and remember to take pictures! I have a couple of really great stones that I just got from the dealer so stay tuned for some cool projects coming up. I also want to continue my tour of the Distillery with my next stop being Soma. Mmmm Chocolate...

sapphire cocktail ring

I love covert projects. I am very good at playing dumb so we are batting a thousand in the not giving away surprises department! This is a ring commissioned by my great customer Mark for his amazing wife Christa. It's a 3.5 ct reddish-pinkish-orange sapphire. It's one of the most unusual shades I have ever seen. We made it into this bold cocktail ring in 18k yellow gold. Spectacular, thanks Mark!