I carved the wax model of this engagement ring to match the existing wedding band that was her mother’s. Using her stones, this new ring carries all the sentimental value and it looks like these two rings were made at the same time. 
remount
All posts tagged remount
This custom remount pretty much kept the same classic design as the original (not pictured) but the goal was to do a more lighter, feminine version in white gold. The micro prong set diamonds helped lightening up the feel of the ring from the original bulky 3 channel design. We also opened up the shoulders of the ring to make it more airy. We did a cool square shank and cast it in super white 14k gold alloy that does not need rhodium plating.
It was a big stone in the ring before I was asked to work on this engagement ring. Now I was asked to keep the halo and figure out a way to add a new, mammoth, stone. Since the new stone was as wide as the halo, I was not going to buy a pre made head.
The first thing I did was to carefully remove the original head. It was laser welded on so I could not just heat it up and “un” solder it. I removed the small diamonds, incrusting the head, and cut it off in pieces. Then I used round burs to carefully grind the rest away.
With the halo saved, I removed 4 diamonds in 4 even, strategic spots and drilled out a space with a 1.3mm round bur. I laser tacked 1.3mm white gold wire in place and tweaked it until I was happy with their placement and angles. Then I proceeded to solder them in place.
Said a prayer and set the new stone. I must say, the ring looks like it was originally made this way. It almost looks more natural now, then the beginning design.
I like this remount idea.
This was originally an engagement ring with a Tiffany peg head mounting for the major diamond. It was retired to a right hand ring and she wanted to change it up and add diamonds to the ring. The three stones that she had and wanted to use where of slightly different sizes. Since the one was set in an halo pendant already, she thought it would be cool to use that for the center. The other two diamonds would flank it in standard low base heads. The fact that they are different sizes became less noticeable with the pendant separating them. I love the way it turned out using all the bling that she already had. A totally different ring from the original design. (Sorry, no “before” picture. Just the “after”)
This ring was blogged about a few weeks ago. We made this remount ring for a customer duplicating the three separate rings that were soldered together. The center ring was a beautiful invisible set princess and baguette ring that was having the typical issues with continual stone loss. We kept the basic design of the set, but channel set the stones instead of invisible setting. The prong set round diamond bands were integrated in the new ring. The original ring had very little metal around the invisible set stones as compared to the new ring, so after it was done, the customer felt that it seemed just too bulky, from what she was used to, with all the channels of metal. This should have been addressed in the wax model viewing part of the project. It can be hard for some people to envision the design even with the actual wax, 3D model in their hands. I think that some people have a hard time because they are seeing a nonmetallic (non-reflective) piece of hard colored wax. Our goal is to always do what we can do to please our customer. That is why they come to us. There are many jewelers to chose from. What good is being highly skilled and caring about craftsmanship and value if customers walk away dissatisfied because of a misunderstanding?
The first sinking feeling was that there was no way to make these major changes that did not include remaking the entire ring. I came up with a plan to try a big modification first. I cut the ring into 3 pieces. I filed and sanded out the strip of metal between the round diamonds and the channel set stones.
The customer asked that the outer bands should be more at the same level as the center section, so I welded the center section a bit lower. I am proud to say that all the modifications were done as welding, either with the torch or the laser. There is no solder used on this ring.
The ring turned out great. The before looked great too. But now she has the ring that she wanted and we got to do it for her. Took a little more work to get there, but it was worth it.
This is a remounting of the customer’s diamonds from an invisible set princess cut and baguette ring and two round brilliant cut diamond bands. (I do not have a before picture). Invisible set rings look cool but can not take much abuse or much wear and tare. She was constantly having loose stones. She lost stones enough times to finally redo the ring. We channel and prong set the diamonds for a more secure setting method.
I was asked to move a large pear shaped diamond from an engagement ring to a new rose gold oval halo mounting that had an oval garnet. I removed the garnet and removed the prongs.
Since there was just a big void where the belly of the stone used to be, I had to make a new bridge to accept the base of the peg head. I laser tacked the bridge in place and soldered it in with “hard” solder. Hard solder has a higher melting temperature then the “easy” solder which I was going to be using in the next soldering step. With small brushes, I polished the bridge. The prongs of her existing mounting were in great shape so I kept her stone in the crown and transferred it over the new ring. I knew I could solder the head in place with “easy” solder without fear of unsoldering the bridge from its place.
The customer wanted us to remake his favorite yellow and white gold ring in all white gold. To save him some money, I suggested that we cut off the top plate of the existing ring and use it in the new ring since the setting was performed well and it was still in good shape. I carved a wax around the diamond encrusted plate. We cast it in super white 14K gold and soldered the plate on top. Turned out great.
Denice always regretted setting a peridot in her ring when the original trillion blue zircon, got damaged.
I told her, that in the event we could not find a new blue zircon trillion cut stone in budget, we could rework the ring to accommodate a different shape stone.
We found a nice round stone that she was happy with.
I got to work, first, cutting off the old trillion gallery.
It left a huge hole and seat that needed to be filled. I did a controlled melt of white gold to fill the hole. I slowly brought the ring to the melting point and added beads of gold. Then pulled back the flame. I kept adding small beads of white gold until it was filled in. No solder was used.
I grind, sanded and shaped the area smooth.
I lasered on a fabricated “donut” of gold for the new seat/gallery.
I tack lasered on a big prong and then soldered it in place.
I cut a seat and set the stone.
Cleaned up and polished. The ring does not look like it went through a major remodel.
This is a popular design that we have been doing in remounting a marquise.
The clean lines and modern design freshens up a diamond shape that was very popular in the 80’s/90’s. The fashion pendulum always swings and the marquise may see a revival.
I drew up a variation of the design by angling out the sides and bead setting her diamonds from her original mounting. We did not end up using the baguettes in this piece.
Channel setting the marquise on it’s short side is unconventional. I would not suggest setting it this way in a ring. A pendant or earrings don’t take the abuse that a ring undergoes. In a ring, the exposed points of the marquise would catch on things and would constantly teeter-totter itself loose.
Atlas Jewelers Bench Talk 