Mark and Helen have been my clients for many years and I have had the pleasure of creating lots of beautiful pieces for them.
When Mark wanted to surprise Helen with an eternity band for their 20th wedding anniversary - he knew exactly what he wanted from the start.
A practical man, Mark turned to his trusty Microsoft Excel spreadsheet software to create an initial "sketch" of his eternity band design.
Twenty stones (one for each year of their marriage) alternating between diamonds and differently coloured garnets - Mark had given Helen a garnet necklace on their wedding day.
As you can see, Mark had even researched different types of coloured garnet to be incorporated into the ring.
We deal with quite a lot of Excel spreadsheets in the studio - everything from financial reports to gemstone pricing from our dealers. All of it delivered to us on Excel spreadsheets.
But I'd never received a spreadsheet that looked quite like this before - especially not from one of my clients!
Mark's request was simple - he had the design worked out - would I be able to make Helen's eternity band in time for their 20th wedding anniversary celebrations?
My answer: Yes, absolutely!
Having received Mark's Excel spreadsheet ring design and gemstone ideas, the first thing I wanted to do was to recreate Mark's original design in my CAD software - sorry Mark, I didn't use Excel !
Mark had done a fantastic job researching the different types of garnet that he wanted alternating with white diamonds in Helen's eternity band.
With these as my guide, I suggested baguette cut gems with a pattern using Diamonds, Mozambique Garnets, Brazilian Garnets, Tsavorite (Green Garnet) and Spessartine (Mandarin Garnet).
With the design agreed, it was time to get busy in the studio.
From Mark's spreadsheet design to a stunning 18K white gold band - Helen's very special 20th wedding anniversary commission begins to take shape!
A subtle design detail - using baguette cut diamonds and garnets meant creating a very special ring.
While the inside of the ring is round, look carefully and you'll see the outer band is a series of twenty straight edges to allow bezel setting of the baguette cut diamonds and garnets.
This twenty-sided circle is known as an icosagon. Useful information if you're designing Helen's eternity band (and a very good word if you're playing Scrabble).
A low tech solution to some high tech bezel setting.
Using BluTak to keep these gorgeous baguette diamonds and garnets in the right order to ensure they are set correctly in the 18K white gold eternity band.
Bezel setting of these gorgeous baguette diamonds and garnets is complete.
Mark's commission is now ready for the polishing wheel - meaning that Helen's beautiful eternity band is about to become very shiny indeed.
From Mark's original Excel spreadsheet to a beautiful diamond and garnet eternity band.
A very special 20th Wedding Anniversary gift that I was delighted to have been commissioned to create for a very special couple.
