I wish I had a “before” picture of this ring. This ring has some sentimental value but was well worn. It had a number of issues and was worked on many times before. It was in need of a new shank and the marquise needed a little updating. I carved a wax for the new shank, cast it and used it in the repair of this ring. That far was better then making a large ingot and rolling it out in the rolling mill then cutting away a bunch of metal to make the nice taper.

There are not a lot of options for marquise halo style heads out there. I suppose it is because of the too many variations of length to width proportions that marquise have. I spent about an hour and a half carving and tweaking the wax using my bench microscope under 4 power. It was time well spent— the stone setting went very smoothly. Bead set side diamonds of a halo can have an antique look to it so I gave it a simple profile to help it go with the more modern invisible set princess cut diamonds of the mounting.

I did not like the way the basket head that I ordered looked in the halo. It raised the marquise up too high. So I fabricated my own head so the diamond sat just above the halo. The original peg head was a little out of proportion for the wide ring. The nice stone got lost. The new halo gives the center stone some real presence.

A lot of different types of repair technics were used to give this ring a new life. And the fact that the work done to it is hard to pick out makes it even more satisfying. The ring is now well proportioned and updated. The shank has the heft it originally had. I think it all came together well.