A custom designed ring for an illustration artist

This is another ring I custom made for a good friend of mine, who is a very talented illustration artist. Her name is Jessica Boehman and she specializes in pencil and color pencil drawings for children books, animals and fantastic characters from myths.

The rutilated quartz was chosen as it ressembles the lines in a pencil drawing. Jess does a lot of drawings of nature so I have chosen a tree design around the stone. I made the ring model from droplets of wax. After the model was done and cast in sterling silver, I soldered the bezel on, hand-polished and oxidized the silver to create an antique look that matched the darkness of the stone. And set the quartz in myself.

This is a fun project! If you want to collaborate on a design, drop me a line!

The Making Of the Custom Made Wedding Ring Project

This is a project that I started with a customer since mid-2013. Between discussions, travel plans, pregnancy...etc it took much longer than we both thought it would be. But the process is collaborative and exciting, the result is amazing and I love (even the most painful moments) every second I spent working on them.

The original brief is to create a set of rings designed around the concept of being "together." We started with a yin-yang concept. Then I designed 2 very rough 2-D sketches to show what I have in mind and this one was picked.

(Excuse the ugly rendering...did it all on photoshop :P)

My concept is an elongated heart shape, with each ring carrying half a heart. Together, the two rings form one pattern. Yet when separated, each would still retain its own individuality.

After I got the approval to proceed, I started carving the original wax model for the male ring because it provided the most surface to work on, so we could really see the effect of the curves. It was a tedious process. Click on the snapshot below to read a little more about each step on my flickr album.

There were 3 different models created before we finally arrived at something both of us liked. And in between, I found out I was pregnant, and went through a couple months of inactivity from the all-day sickness. We joked about how the wedding rings were actually made by 2 of us - me and my baby. Talking about good omen!

The final set was cast in tarnish-resistant sterling silver and hand-polished to a mirror finish.

I love working on custom designed projects because each one is designed with a person in mind. They are "born" to be a part of someone's life. When I started creating jewelry, I always believe that jewelry is more than accessories to an outfit, but it should call upon the wearer's reminiscence of an unforgettable moment.

I hope I can continue to work more on these meaningful projects. If any of you are interested at creating your own set of jewelry with me, simply drop me a line and let's collaborate!

Did you read about it?

Thank you for a great interview of Harlequin&Lionhead by Flourish & Thrive Academy! Read more here.