Opal and Ruby Stacking Rings
A daughter’s twenty first birthday was the prompt for this commission. Nicolette has been a long-standing customer of mine for several years so, knowing my style, felt confident to give me free rein to remodel one of her rings into a set of three for her elder daughter’s 21st birthday.
Remodelling jewellery retains sentimental value
The original Victorian style gold ring was the first piece of jewellery that Nicolette’s husband had given to her when they were first together and although she had worn it a lot when she was younger, it had now lost one of the opals and wasn’t able to be worn.
Still holding sentimental value to Nicolette, she wanted to pass on something of such value to her daughter to mark her special birthday. With beautiful fiery opals and tiny cut rubies, I was asked to re-use some of the stones and gold to make a set of silver rings and, as Harriet is a young woman with modern taste and styling, we decided on rings that could be worn stacked together or individually.
Nicolette and I chatted about the different elements of my jewellery that she knew they both liked, and we agreed on a wider band ring with two narrower complementing rings.
Undulating texture enhances the gold setting
Surface textures, the contrast of the gold against the silver and the richness of the rubies and flashes of colour in the opal were to stand out in this design.
As opals are quite soft and can scratch easily, I decided to set the opal in a gold bezel setting. With a smooth rubbed over surround and no claws there is nothing to catch on clothes and the bezel edge can also offer some protection to the surface of the stone. Positioned on the edge of the wider band ring, the opal sits overlapping the top of the other rings but equally it looks very striking worn on its own.
To enhance the contrast of the gold against the silver, I added a texture around the setting which continues around the ring band in a gentle undulating pattern before gradually fading out towards the back. As Nicolette had requested a steely matt finish on the ring, I also finished it with an oxidised patination to pick out the pitted texture.
Using gold really makes the colour of the ruby pop!
The second of the three rings is the ruby. With a smooth matt finished silver shank, it has five gold balls which were made by melting down gold from the original ring. After flattening them all out, the tiny ruby has been flush set into the central one. I love how the colour of the ruby really pops against the rich mellow tones of the gold. Setting more of the rubies was an option that I considered here but the impact was lost and, however they were arranged, they looked a bit too predictable. Of course, I checked with Nicolette and she agreed – although by only using one, it meant that there would then be others left to use in another commission for her younger daughter and perhaps for herself too!
The third ring is simpler in design allowing it to be worn in different combinations with the other two. The hammered surface catches the light but, as it has also been given a matt finish, it is a subtle sheen rather than a shine. Carefully placed silver balls (granulation) hold it in place against the Opal ring which ‘locks’ it in place to stop it spinning around.
Nicolette was delighted with the transformation, describing the new ring trio as ‘amazing’. Harriet received her rings back in February and absolutely loves them.