voce
Ideal_Rock
- Joined
- May 13, 2018
- Messages
- 5,182
My favorite flower is the plum blossom. Unlike the cherry blossom, the petals don't come to pointy tips, and the plum blossom flowers in winter even in the snow, so is an emblem of spring and hope.
Here is my first concave cut gem. A Mahenge spinel, cut by Richard Homer. I decided this one needed a special setting, and planned since 2019 for a plum blossom ring. The problem was, it's too difficult to find matches in terms of the color intensity and tone in other Mahenge spinels.
Here is the concave cut spinel with a rare pair of Vietnamese spinels that resembled Mahenge material. Unfortunately, one of these is included to the point my jeweler said we shouldn't use it.

I have since 2019 come into possession of (okay, actually impulse purchased) fine Burmese spinels in melee sizes of ~2.8mm, which actually match pretty well color-wise. Shown here is a 3.4mm spinel from Desertrose and the 2.8mm spinels from Cecile Raley Designs.

Here is the layout I designed for a ring. Eventually on the shoulders we had to simplify and take off the yellow diamond.
Instead of a ring and pendant as I originally planned, I'm going to opt for ring and bangle. Here's the inspirations for the bangle, and my sloppy sketch. It's supposed to be a toi et moi bangle with two gem flowers, plus some jeweled buds.

From AliExpress (above) and Etsy (below by Hapagirls); the Etsy bangle is clearly cherry blossom, but I particularly liked the flower placement and overlap (style 1). Of course I wanted quality CS gems instead of metal for the flowers.

My sketch below for what I want to make.

The gems intended for bracelet: pink spinels and vivid yellow diamond.

The ring is cast, and the bracelet is next for a wax model.


Journey is to be continued...
Here is my first concave cut gem. A Mahenge spinel, cut by Richard Homer. I decided this one needed a special setting, and planned since 2019 for a plum blossom ring. The problem was, it's too difficult to find matches in terms of the color intensity and tone in other Mahenge spinels.
Here is the concave cut spinel with a rare pair of Vietnamese spinels that resembled Mahenge material. Unfortunately, one of these is included to the point my jeweler said we shouldn't use it.

I have since 2019 come into possession of (okay, actually impulse purchased) fine Burmese spinels in melee sizes of ~2.8mm, which actually match pretty well color-wise. Shown here is a 3.4mm spinel from Desertrose and the 2.8mm spinels from Cecile Raley Designs.

Here is the layout I designed for a ring. Eventually on the shoulders we had to simplify and take off the yellow diamond.

Instead of a ring and pendant as I originally planned, I'm going to opt for ring and bangle. Here's the inspirations for the bangle, and my sloppy sketch. It's supposed to be a toi et moi bangle with two gem flowers, plus some jeweled buds.

From AliExpress (above) and Etsy (below by Hapagirls); the Etsy bangle is clearly cherry blossom, but I particularly liked the flower placement and overlap (style 1). Of course I wanted quality CS gems instead of metal for the flowers.

My sketch below for what I want to make.

The gems intended for bracelet: pink spinels and vivid yellow diamond.

The ring is cast, and the bracelet is next for a wax model.


Journey is to be continued...
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