Wow .. this was a fun project! As with most heirloom redesign, there is a lot of emotion that comes with process of creating a new piece of jewelry. Memories of loves ones that have passed or the end of special relationships. Most of the time my clients already have an idea of what they want to create with jewelry they already have. This client wanted to create a protective evil ring.
The Evil Eye is an ancient symbol of good luck and protection. It dates back more than 5000 years. This powerful symbolism was designed to protect loved ones from the dangers of malevolent intentions and spiritual wickedness.
The before picture ..
The before picture shows a ring with a circle of diamonds, pearls, emeralds and rubies from her mother and a large baggie or garnets (that will be another story post - stay tuned).
First, I brainstormed ideas using the emeralds, rubies, diamonds and pearl. We decided on the warm color of 14KY and went with the rubies instead of the emeralds as the rubies are much harder than the emeralds. We both decided that the warm tone of the gold mix perfectly with the pearl, rubies and diamonds. A royal combination!
preliminary layout
Now the fun begins! The ring was cut into two equal pieces and bent to the shape I needed. All the diamonds stayed tightly set. I used the gold from the old rings to make the eye shaped plate for the other pieces to be attached to so saving this client quite a bit of expense. I try to use and recycle as much gold as I can when fabricating a new piece so the older pieces are still represented in the new piece of jewelry. There were a few glitches to the soldering process of the diamond bands where I felt the "evil" was taking over the final product but all came together and the delivery of the ring was a special experience in itself!