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sam and dave: the wedding ring

I spent the weekend in Boston with my sister and her brand new kitten, Joey. I love Joey. The cuteness. The damn cuteness. Dell will now have to deal with me begging for a kitty of my own. Sorry Dell. So let's do the Monday thing, Samantha needs your advice:
samanddaverings
Here's Samantha:
Recently Dave saw something that peaked his interest, a jigsaw ring. He tried it on, “it’s so cool and mathematical” he animatedly exclaimed. Yesterday morning we made an appointment with Little King, a shop I mentioned in an earlier post. The people who work there are sort of ex-rock’n’rollers who make custom pieces of jewelry in the East Village. Anyway, I started drawing up designs for Dave’s jigsaw ring in my sketchbook to bring them (the ring in the picture is from Gillett’s Jewelers online). I came up with something and we brought it in to get a price quote. They’re making it for him as we speak. We decided to go with 18k rose gold; Dave loves the coppery look of it, and white palladium, which is slightly more steely looking than white gold. So he’s all set.
Now what about me? Here’s my dilemma, I work with my hands, I paint, I do clay and papier-mâché with the kids all day, I cook, I swim, etc. I need a ring that’s sturdy and durable. I am not comfortable with the idea of taking it on and off all the time. I want to wear it constantly but don’t want a plain gold band that I’ll grow bored with. I was thinking that I could modify some of these designs from Doyle and Doyle. The engraved one might be good with green or pink tsavorites right? Anybody have any other suggestions for me? I’m looking for yellow gold, at least 3mm and something interesting yet durable…any ideas?

10 comments:

Anonymous on 10:06 PM

Have you looked at the clay pot on 7th ave in brooklyn? they've got a really great selection of unique and handmade rings. here's a link http://www.clay-pot.com/wc09_heinrich.jsp

i hope that helps. good luck!

Downtown Brooklyn Dogs on 12:14 PM

If you work with clay, papier mache, etc all day, I would not recommend either of the rings above, unless you want to clean the grooves of the ring out with a toothbrush every day. You can get something with texture, but without engraving or channel set diamonds. I was actually thinking of a ring I saw, coincidentally, at Clay Pot, that is a beautiful criss-crossed double band of gold. Hard to describe, but get thee there!

Downtown Brooklyn Dogs on 12:16 PM

When I said "you can get something..." I meant, it is possible to find something with texture without the other stuff. You can obviously get whatever you want. Okay, I'll shut up now!

Anonymous on 1:23 PM

Hello Sam,

A couple of designers I know sound like what you are looking for...

Joe Burns (closer to what you have shown)
http://www.galleryflux.com/html/artists_byrnes.html

And C. Roule (An amazing designer who's rings are more about the form than 'that big rock' infortunately his website is still under construction but I highly suggest you contact him and maybe ask for some photos.

http://www.roule.com/

samantha hahn on 2:00 PM

Thank you so much...wow. You are all so helpful. I really love the clay pot stuff and will try to get over there this coming weekend. I really like Maurer Matsu designs (the gold band that looks sort of organic would suit me I think). Barbara Heinrich too. A friend also recommended Cardier love collection (what do you think?). The love ring is the one that's plain 18k gold with little screws. I am going to have to go with a simple design. You are all so right about not going with stones or engraving. I'm psyched about Clay Pot and will let you know how it goes. Grazie mille!

samantha hahn on 2:00 PM
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown on 4:04 PM

What about hammered gold? This ring from GreenKarat is eco-friendly, to boot:
http://www.greenkarat.com/detail.asp?product_id=AFR001

jordan on 10:39 PM

I work in a studio all day and travel a lot. My engagement ring is pave' and fancier and I have a really simple wedding band that matches my husband's. I wear the wedding band when I travel and work and I wear the engagement ring the rest of the time.

Anonymous on 12:01 PM

A couple of things about tsavorites:
They are a type of garnet.
Tsavorite refers to the green color only.
Pink garnets (rhodolite garnets)are a raspberry pink color not a bright pink.
Garnets have a hardness of 7 (on a scale of 1-softest to 10-hardest). Since they are not as hard as other stones (ie. diamonds-10 or sapphires-9 and rubies-9). They will chip, scratch and eventually wear down with normal wear. (Another note: Dust has a hardness of 7.5 so dust can even scratch a garnet.)

I would not recommend a stones that are channel set (gunk tends to collect under the stones). If you really want stones and don't want a traditional dia ring I would recommend sapphires. Sapphires come in every color in the rainbow (the Montana sapphire (bluish-green) and the pink are my favorites). The best way to have stones set for the type of things you do would be gypsy set or bezel set. Neither of these have prongs or open spaces to collect gunk.

samantha hahn on 1:46 PM

thank you so much for all of that information. I will be certain to take that into account. I am starting from scratch aesthetically anyway so I'm on the look out for ideas but sapphires are beautiful, I will make certain that IF I do go with stones, it'll be sapphire. Your advice is a gem!

Mackenzie's Sketchbook