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Alice Rochester
27th January 2010 10:01

Volcano inspired bespoke engagement and wedding ring set

 

One of my favourite recent commissions is the fiendishly tricky pair of rings we made for Mark and Rachael.

Volcano inspired red diamond engagement ring

It was tricky for a number of reasons (just making a fitted wedding ring is rarely entirely straight forward for anyone less skilled than our fabulous goldsmiths, let alone making one in two colours!) but the main reason was because of the heat treated red diamonds we wanted to use. As Harriet has already mentioned in a previous blog, red diamonds are not the easiest of things to find because they are notoriously difficult to treat to the right colour, and these really lived up to their reputation!

We particularly wanted to use red diamonds because the design for the pair of rings was inspired by volcanos, and diamonds are formed and brought close to the earth's surface in volcanic pipes. And of course, because diamonds, whatever colour they are, sparkle like nothing else! The stones we eventually managed to find for Mark and Rachael are a truly gorgeous colour, and well worth the wait - they change depending on the light you see them in, varying from a deep, rich ruby red, through pink, to a sumptuous, fiery orange.

Mark and Rachael brought some lovely drawings in to their first appointment, which were initially inspired by other rings they'd seen on our website. We varied very little from their original design, changing the shapes only very slightly for structural reasons and to enable us to pave set the small white diamonds into the band of the engagement ring. In Mark's own words, their drawings were 'inspired by Kilauea, a shield volcano in the Hawaiian islands, built by successive flows of hot molten rock/lava. Kilauea has gently sloping sides resembling a warrior's shield over-turned. Kilauea is part St Manna Loa, the largest active volcano in the world, creating the largest mountain on earth.' The engagement ring illustrates the way that magma (red diamonds) is pushed through the surface of the earth in an eruption; the rich 18ct yellow gold at the top of the 9ct white gold inverted wishbone-shaped wedding ring represents the way geological layers move to form a volcano.

Sheild Volcano

The lovely Mark gave the rings to Rachael in Hawaii, near the volcano that inspired the rings.

Alice

Alice Rochester
 

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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

Our designs are legally protected by design right and copyright law and cannot be copied.