Jewelry Designers

Discussion in 'Other Interest Groups' started by 514069_deleted, Aug 4, 2014.

  1. Daphne
    Daphne Well-Known Member
    A new ring with another stone (5 mm zirconia):
    IMG_0948.jpg
    Luckily the setting only took half a minute. I also found out that stainless steel is not usable for stone setting, after ordering 2 rings and 1 bracelet.
     
    Last edited: Mar 20, 2016
  2. UniverseBecoming
    UniverseBecoming Well-Known Member
    Nice work Daphne! :D

    I assume steel prongs don't bed very well or break before bending? Is that why it's not good?
     
  3. Daphne
    Daphne Well-Known Member
    Thanks! And yes that's it, they break.
     
    Last edited: Mar 25, 2016
  4. That's good to know ....I've been thinking of making some steel settings with stones... Now I won't ... Still can do things with steel that I like though.. My favorite is sterling...

    moonstone pendent.JPG
     
  5. Nice work, stillwaters! Did you glue that in, or is it a bezel?
     
  6. tietreats
    tietreats Active Member
    I'm designing a ring that I want to put in a gem/pearl.. Where do you go to buy gems for your jewelry?
    Thanks.
     
  7. Rio Grande
     
  8. Daphne
    Daphne Well-Known Member
    I buy it at the German shop http://www.eurogem.biz/en/shop/. I live in the Netherlands and the shipping cost of most American based shops are way too high for me. Thus far they're pretty okay. Website layout looks like it's at least 10 years old, but I got my order mostly after 1 week with 5 euro shipping cost. Payment can be done with paypal, which is also great for if you don't have a creditcard (debit card is the standard here). One time I received the stones in the wrong color, but they send me the right one, without me having to return the wrong colored ones. Not that I would ever use orange zirkonia stones. Ugly color.
     
  9. allanbydesign
    allanbydesign Member
    Hello everyone,

    First and foremost I'd like to thank you all for the insightful posts in this thread! After seeing some of the designs of men's tie clips that you all posted, I feel motivated to share some of the designs that I've been working on over the past few months to see what people think.

    First up is my Honeycomb Tie Clip, inspired by some Burberry tie-bar designs I saw online. 3D printed in rose gold.
    [​IMG]
    upload_2016-8-26_8-8-50.png

    Next up is my Egyptian Tie Clip. I really wanted to test the level of detail I could get through Shapeways and they didn't disappoint--it's easily one of my favorites! 3D printed in brass, and polished to a bright, gold-like sheen.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    Finally I want to share my current masterpiece: the Skeleton Helix Tie Clip. For this piece I tried to incorporate a lot of negative space and more complex geometries to really push the limits of my design skills. 3D printed in Polished Brass.
    [​IMG]
    upload_2016-8-26_8-10-5.png

    This is my first ever Shapeways forum post and I'd love to know what you all think! I'm mostly a self-taught designer with no formal training on making jewelry. It's always hard to gauge how my work compares to that of the more experienced professionals. I have more to share if people wish to see more! :D
     
  10. UniverseBecoming
    UniverseBecoming Well-Known Member
    Hey! Nice work! I like your Egyptian tie clip the most myself also. I wonder what it says? HAHA! :D I looked at your shop and I'd say your works are right up there with the best in the industry. Tiffany & Co. doesn't have anything on you!

    Welcome to the Shapeways forum. :)
     
  11. seriaforma
    seriaforma Well-Known Member
    I love the egyptian one as well! It would also make a great ring!

    I've ordered from gemresources.com (in the US). The prices are pretty good, they have monthly specials and closeouts, and offer both natural and lab created options. If you are looking for half drilled, I've come across this place www.stachurawholesalegemstones.com but have not yet ordered from there. I plan on it, though, since I want to order some half-drilled beads for this ring (which I made quite a while ago but got distracted by other projects).
    diamond and pearl sm.JPG
     
    104516_deleted likes this.
  12. dfoley75
    dfoley75 Well-Known Member
    Fire Mountain is also quite good
     
  13. UniverseBecoming
    UniverseBecoming Well-Known Member
    Seriaforma I looked a both of those sites and I was impressed. Thanks for posting those! I'll definitely try them out next time I'm looking for stones.

    Dfoley75, yes! Fire Mountain is an amazing site! Thanks!
     
  14. I have a ring that I would like to have redone in 3-D, but I wonder if 3D will overcome the issues I had with the ring made the old fashioned way. The ring is made with many old stones of different sizes and types that belonged to my father and grandparents. The prongs always break and I loose the stones.
     
  15. UniverseBecoming
    UniverseBecoming Well-Known Member
    You'd have to show us a picture of it before we could answer satisfactorily. I'll bet there would be ways that more strength could be designed into the prongs but until we see it there would be no way to say for certain. Some of us are using the same software used to design the worlds most highly technological engineering marvels so 3D is not the issue. What would be the issue is could it be designed to be stronger while still maintaining its original design characteristics. :)
     
  16. lawrencekramer2014
    lawrencekramer2014 Well-Known Member
    two sources out of thailand that have worked for me: gemselect.com (natural mined stones only) and gemsngems.com (lab created stones only).
     
  17. Here is a picture of my ring. Thank y’all for your sharing your experience.
     

    Attached Files:

    lawrencekramer2014 likes this.
  18. UniverseBecoming
    UniverseBecoming Well-Known Member
    Nice design! I'll assume this is done in 18k. If you haven't already you should have the two main diamonds GIA certified so as to keep people honest. If they are of exceptional quality they would be very valuable and if uncertified they could easily be switched out for cheaper diamonds and mostly no one would know the difference. I recommending this because you'll most likely be giving the ring to people to work on it.

    There are four things that come to mind. You can find a bench jeweler that will remove all the stones and then give the prongs more girth by adding 18k plumb solder to each prong and giving them more girth. Although, with this method, you could still run into problems with metal fatigue. Metal fatigue is when a metal is bent numerous times and as a consequence develops microscopic cracks that tend to make the metal more brittle and subject to breaking.
    Completely have it remade by a highly skilled bench jeweler. By the way, a bench jeweler is a jeweler that typically works within the constraints of traditional jewelry making and doesn't really use much in the way of modern tools. There are people talented enough to make a copy so precise that you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the original and the optimized copy. The problem is finding that person and also the cost. If you could find someone it would take at least a month of work and would probably cost something like $6000 to $8000 in labor.
    Which brings up 3D. Yes, this can be made in 3D two different ways. One way is to find a highly skilled artist that can simply look at your ring and then sculpt an exact duplicate of it and also sculpt in thicker prongs using 3D sculpting software like Zbrush. Or, you can have it 3D scanned. In 3D scanning, a computer looks at the ring and makes millions of minute measurements of it and then constructs a 3D model of it based on those measurements. Then an artist would take the scan data and use 3D sculpting software to add girth to the prongs.
    Once either of these two methods was completed then you can have it 3D printed and cast and then the stones would be transferred to the newly cast ring.
    I can do all of the above but I am swamped with work right now. I had an equipment failure and now I am months behind on two of my custom orders that I have clients patiently waiting on. At this point, I have no idea when I'll be able to take on new work. It could be months from now. What you can do though is go around to the various jewelry forums and post your image and tell jewelers what you'd like to have done and get some quotes. This forum has highly talented people who could do all the 3D stuff and Shapeways can print it but I'm not sure there are many here who can do the setting work. However, you could always take the 3D printed casting to a local jeweler to do the settings.
    In any case, tell us what you ended up doing because myself, and I'm sure others, in this forum, would love to know. :)
     
  19. James,
    I would like to have you do the work . You seem to be a very knowledgeable and reliable gentleman. I am in no hurry. I have been keeping the ring in a safe for four or five years because I’m afraid to wear it. Can you tell me how much she would charge?
     
  20. UniverseBecoming
    UniverseBecoming Well-Known Member
    Thanks for the compliment and thanks for having confidence in me. :) Send me an email at info@universebecoming.com and we can talk it over. There are several things that would need to be worked out.