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Jodie Gearing
29th July 2009 16:37

Favourite Engagement Ring

 

Hello!

Just a quick note to introduce myself as one of the new faces around the Harriet Kelsall studios in both Halls Green and Cambridge! My name is Jodie, and I've been lucky enough to be taken on along with another new Junior Design Assistant called Michelle, straight after my degree in Silversmithing, Goldsmithing and Jewellery at UCA in Rochester.

I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight one of my favourite engagement rings in the ready to wear collection at Halls Green. I have developed a certain affection for it since first seeing it during work experience here. It is a beautiful engagement ring made using contrasting 18ct yellow and white gold with a really unusual split colour sapphire. It also has a 2mm brilliant cut green tourmaline and a 2mm brilliant cut chocolate cognac diamond both set flush into the surface of the band on either side of the central stone.

18ct yellow and white gold engagement ring with 0.57ct sapphire

I'm always drawn to natural colours and I think this ring is such a good example of earthy tones in a contemporary design. The contrasting colours of metal in the band reflect the opposite colour in the oval sapphire, which is further emphasised with a stone set into the surface of the metal of the opposite colour in the central stone. The diagonal opening in the shank highlights the stripe in the stone and creates a real design feature and talking point. This ring was designed around the interesting appearance of the sapphire, which is an excellent way to begin designing a ring. Finding a stone first and designing a piece to show off its attributes to the max can be really interesting.

This particular stone is very rare and has opened my eyes to the possibilities of sapphires and all the different types there are. During our training, Alice told Michelle and I all about sapphires which most people consider to be blue. In their purest form, they are actually clear and are a good alternative to white diamonds. They can be found in every colour other than red, which would be classed as a ruby. All this information and more can be found in Alice's really interesting blog about the many different types of sapphires.

For more information on this engagement ring, please come and see it in its full glory in the cabinets – you can even try it on! Or have a look at its page on our website: www.hkjewellery.co.uk/details/web/type/ring/id/1111

This interesting design has sparked inspiration for many other commissioned rings including this one:

18ct white gold watermellon tourmaline and sapphire engagement ring

This engagement ring uses a watermelon tourmaline which has pink at one side and green on the other in a similar way that the sapphire is split with two colours in the previous ring. Tourmalines, like sapphires, come in a variety of colours depending on their chemical makeup, for example iron rich tourmalines are bluish-black to deep brown, while those with lots of magnesium can be brown or yellow. Bi-coloured tourmalines reflect variations of fluid chemistry during crystallisation. This ring was inspired by the split colours of the sapphire in the ring above, and uses the same format in its design, with contrasting pale pink and green sapphires set into the band next to the central tourmaline.

Hopefully this gives you some interesting information about two types of bi-colour stones that we have used before and possibly inspired you to design your own!

Hope to see you at some time around the showrooms!

Jodie

Jodie Gearing
 

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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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