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Michelle Waters
9th December 2009 11:59

Bespoke star sapphire ring and pendant set

 

When I started in the summer over in our Hertfordshire studio, Alice had just begun this very beautiful commission. By the end of this commission I had just come over to work in our Cambridge studio, where the customer, also called Michelle, had arranged to collect. So I was fortunate enough to hear about the commission from the start and be the lucky person to see it collected. It is always so nice to see how happy the customers are to see the finished article.

Michelle was a previous customer and had got in touch as she had some star sapphires that she wanted to commission a ring with. After an appointment with Alice, Michelle decided to use her star sapphires and some extra diamonds in a matching pendant and ring set.

The confirmed designs were for a pendant with the two smaller star sapphires set in 9ct rose gold with a 1.5mm brilliant cut diamond star set into a 9ct rose gold disc for the bail, with the whole thing hanging on a 16” baby snake chain. The ring was then made out of 9ct white gold with the largest of the star sapphires set in 9ct rose gold, which is then complimented by the star set cognac diamonds on the shoulders.

Star sapphire
star Sapphire

The star sapphires that Michelle had were very sentimental to her, as they were a gift and came from a jeweller in Australia. Australian star sapphires come in several colours but are known for being more fragile than then blue star sapphires found in Sri Lanka. Michelle's star sapphires did pose a few challenges along the way. Towards the end of the process the pendant and ring had been sent to our polishers and the back of the stones appeared to be cracked and crumbling, this led us to believe that the stones could not actually be star sapphires and were perhaps a synthetic stone. The jewellery still looked truly beautiful from the front so Alice needed to talk to Michelle about what she wanted to do. Michelle told Alice about the sentimental value of the stones and how she just wanted to be able to wear the pieces of jewellery and enjoy how beautiful her stones were. So Alice looked into the possibilities of sealing the backs. Michelle had read about star sapphires and wondered if they had been heat treated to bring the star out; this is something that is fairly common but can leave the stone more fragile and prone to cracking. This however wasn't the case as whilst Alice was looking into possible ways to seal the backs she had spoken to our gemstone dealers and they said they would like to see the stones. Once they had looked at them they noticed that it wasn't actually the stones cracking but the dop; a substance used when cutting stones, that hadn't been removed from the back of the stones. This confirmed that the stones were in fact real star sapphires, which was very good news. Michelle was please to find out why this had happened and very glad to find out that they were real star sapphires.

To make the gemstones more secure the backs were cemented to prevent the dop falling off and risking leaving the star sapphires loose and likely to fall out. Of course by leaving the dop on the back of the stones they could be sold at a heavier weight than the stone itself would normally warrant, fetching a higher price. Even the original jeweller in Australia hadn't noticed that this is what had happened when he first bought the stones as it looks so similar to the natural rock matrix that the stone forms in!

The pieces of jewellery were brought over to our Cambridge studio, looking beautiful and ready for Michelle to collect them. I was delighted to be their when she came in; she was so pleased when she was able to take them home. This ring and pendant set really are truly beautiful, since the first time I saw a star sapphire I always thought they were lovely but these have to be the most beautiful ones I have ever seen. This really was a very interesting commission and one I'm sure we have all learnt from.

Michelle

Michelle Waters
 

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  • Harriet Kelsall Jewellery Design, North Barn, Fairclough Hall Farm, Halls Green, Weston, Hertfordshire, SG4 7DP, England
    Phone: +44 (0)1462 790565 Fax: +44 (0)1462 790140 enquiries@hkjewellery.co.uk
  • Harriet Kelsall Jewellery Design, 6/7 Green Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB2 3JU, England.
    Phone: +44 (0)1223 461333 Fax: +44 (0)1223 365269 cambridge@hkjewellery.co.uk

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