In Over My Head?

Now that Abode is stocked up I have lifted my "no distractions" rule for the next several days to work on some personal jewelry projects and other various projects.

For Christmas my mother in law gave me the white gold from Mike's grandmas original wedding set. I want to do something really special with it considering how sentimental it is. One morning in Cancun I woke up with the idea to re-do my wedding set with it.

As much as I love my wedding set (pictured above) there are some practical (and not so practical) reasons I want to re-design it. The most practical reason for re-designing is that the center stone is tension set which is not a secure setting. I am surprised it has not fallen out in the 8+ years I've been wearing it. The jeweler said that the prongs are wearing very thin on the tops (even I can see that with my naked eye) and the stone is "about to fall out". Yikes! Needless to say I won't be wearing the engagement band much any more if that's the case. Some of the not so practical reasons for re-designing are that the setting is yellow gold. Like I mentioned, I chose the ring over 8 years ago, long before I started making jewelry myself. My taste has done a 180 since then. I don't care so much for yellow gold anymore and even though the setting is pretty, it's also pretty common. I want something that is unique and designed by me. Many people who know I make jewelry ask if I designed/made my ring...I want to be able to say "yes, I did".


I made several sketches and got really excited to start looking into it. Since then I have brought two rounds of sketches/ideas to a local jeweler to get some estimates and ask some questions. He has been really helpful, but it seems like no matter what I do it's going to cost a "pretty penny" to have someone else make it for me ($1300-$1500 to have it made, $275-$400 to make it myself, extra gold included). So, I resolved to do it myself. I have experience making wax molds and casting. But I don't have any casting equipment, nor do I know how to flush set princess cut stones (which I hear can be challenging). But I am confident in my skills and know I can do it, with some help and practice. I emailed my high school art teacher to see if he still has casting equipment up at the school...I hope he does and can help me with that. I figure I can always practice with silver and CZs first. And maybe even figure out how to make a mold of the band so I only have to carve it once. We'll see. I'm not in a rush to finish it but am anxious to at least start carving the molds.