Emerald ring commission

[Nick martin]

Just completed this ring today after starting it several weeks ago. Its taken so long due to my day job getting in the way, working night shifts last week and so on. How inconvenient eh!

Its made in Argentium and is set with a cabochon emerald. The bezel is built like a tank ( but not heavy ) and was cast using cuttlefish, and I described the technique of how I do it a few weeks ago on the forum. Pierced at the back to allow some light through, and the bezel is blended into the shank instead of sitting on the top. The shank itself had the grooves put in using the lathe.

Critique and heckling as welcome as always :)

Cheers,

Nick

http://i1327.photobucket.com/albums/u663/Louiseandnixon/Jewellery/EmeraldRing2_zpsfv8tx5zr.jpg (http://s1327.photobucket.com/user/Louiseandnixon/media/Jewellery/EmeraldRing2_zpsfv8tx5zr.jpg.html)

http://i1327.photobucket.com/albums/u663/Louiseandnixon/Jewellery/EmeraldRing1_zpsxht5cw71.jpg (http://s1327.photobucket.com/user/Louiseandnixon/media/Jewellery/EmeraldRing1_zpsxht5cw71.jpg.html)

[Gemsetterchris]

Looks nice Nick. Quite often you'll find emeralds & other colours look abit better in yellow settings but...

[joella]

Lovely Nick, really groovy!
Sue

[Dennis]

A lot of work went into that and you should feel well rewarded.

My comment like Chris, is not with the piece, but with the presentation.

You are the expert, and you have given it the blurred background beloved of macro photographers. That even has a special name which I have forgotten.

I for one would prefer greater depth of focus, to appraise the shank and internal surfaces and so I suspect wound a potential client. Regards Dennis.

[Nick martin]

Fair comment Dennis. And a good point too. Thankyou and maybe I'll take more photos with greater dof next time to compare.

Cheers,

Nick

[Nick martin]

Cheers Chris.. all down to price point and cost, hence silver and not gold.

Never set an Emerald before either so I was careful due to it being a soft stone.

Nick

[Faith]

That's lovely Nick :) I like the watery photo too, ingenious.

How do you push over your tank bezel, by hand or do you have a hammer action handpiece?

Faith

[josef1]

looks great, nice job on the setting

[enigma]

Nice job Nick, thanks for sharing, it always livens up the forum to have pretty pictures to look at :D

[Nick martin]

You're right Faith, I use a hammer handpiece. Same as was used to set the large Trillion sapphire in my other post a while ago.

Nick.

[Nick martin]

Cheers Sarah.

I'm working on a series of commissions that all have large stones set in them, and this is just one of several. All bezels are cast as I'm trying to approach the stone setting differently and making the settings a lot stronger than you would using the traditional bezel strip method.

Cheers,

Nick

[Faith]

Thanks Nick, yes the trillion was gorgeous too :)

[LydiaNiz]

Nice and clean Nick (and making me consider the need for a foredom and hammer handpiece again)!
Bokkeh Dennis?

[Nick martin]

Id be lost without my Foredom motor and hammer handpiece... do it!

Nick

[Dennis]

[QUOTE=LydiaNiz;92851 Bokkeh Dennis?[/QUOTE]

Don't mind If I do, Lydia.

[metalsmith]

Lovely work. I did wonder at the water-sprayed image, whether it wasn't concealing some detail you didn't want to show, but clear by the second, that wasn't the case.

Yes 'Bokeh' - one k or two: dunno! To destroy Bokeh, of course, the new trend is image stacking...

It might be nicer 'in yellow' but I appreciate the difficulties (more than just technical) of doing just that.

[ShinyLauren]

I love the chunky setting Nick!

[Nick martin]

Cheers Lauren!

Nick