Etsymetal Blog Carnival: What In The World Are You Doing?"

Well, not much going on here other than trying to get all my engagement ring orders out in time. Luckily June slowed down a bit to a more manageable work load and all the rings ordered in crazy April and May got done.  I don't have any summer vacation planned, but feel like I would really need it. A trip to Hawaii sounds lovely. Maybe later this year.

This weekend I finally took some time off to play with some new ideas.  I have ton's of beautiful colorful large gemstones that I don't use often anymore as I mostly do engagement rings these days. 

I have lots of rose cut tourmalines sitting around and really want to do something with these.

Small selection of rose cut Tourmalines in yummy bright colors

They would look amazing set in groupings of a few different colored stones. Maybe could also be stacking rings (which I rarely make). I could imaging these to be great set in gold bezels on a textured wide silver bracelet. I haven't done bracelets in a long time since silver stared to get so much pricier. I did play all weekend with ideas but haven't had a breakthrough yet of what I really want to with these.  

But it lead to to a few other ideas. I am planning to retire my Mermaid ring collection. It's one of my oldest ring designs and I am a bit tired of making these rings. The Aquarius ring with the Aquamarine cabochon and the Garnet version still sell well on Artful Home. But I think it's time to move on. I do have to find some new designs for all the cabochons I still have. I did play around with some ideas and sketched them out in Rhino3D and then milled some master models on my new CNC machine.  I think they can still get a bit wider and maybe get combined with some gold bezels for some deep colored stones, different textures of the ring top, gold accents and maybe some small flush set faceted stones.

Milled Wax Model with 14x10mm Aquamarine cabochon.

I got these large Tourmalines a while ago and thing they would definitely look great set in a 18k gold bezel on a textured and oxidized ring.

I also tried to come up with something for some Tanzanites I have. First try (which needs improvement) with a oval Tanzanite set in a bezel and small flush set sapphires or Tanzanites set around. Sketched again in Rhino3D first to try out a few versions and then milled a wax model.

Quick Computer rendering of ring with faceted Tanzanites.

Milled wax model with oval light blue Tanzanite and some small faceted Tanzanites that could complement it

 I think one of the next weekends I will try to figure something out for some of those crazy big actinolite quartes I have. I have some huge sculptural designs developing in my head and really want to see how they would come out in a 1:1 scale model. They will be more sculptures than actual normal rings but still kind of wearable for the special occasion.

 

I really enjoy being able to sketch out a few ideas by either computer modeling or just carving some wax models. It's definitely a cheaper way to try out a few options without having to invest in the precious metal. I never really sketch on paper and usually don't really have a clear idea in mind. It all develops once I start manipulating either the digital model or the wax carvings. It's still pretty time intensive but since I don't have a deadline for these, it's a nice and somewhat relaxing way to spend a weekend.

This post is part of the Etsymetal Blog Carnival. To see what other Etsy Metal members have written, click on the links below to visit their blogs.
1. Laney - http://silentgoddess.blogspot.com
2. Evelyn - http://markasky.blogspot.com/
3. victoria takahashi - http://vtakahashi.blogspot.com/
4. Miranda - http://gracebourne.blogspot.ca/
5. Beth Cyr - http://bcyrjewelry.blogspot.com
6. Rebecca Bogan - http://AdobeSol.wordpress.com
7. Anne Walker - http://www.creativeinclinations.blogspot.com
8. Erin Austin - http://metalmusing.blogspot.com/
9. Danielle Miller - http://daniellemillerjewelry.blogspot.com/