Filed under Projects

A custom engagement ring

This is one of my best projects, since I came away from it with a wife. They can't all be this good.

When I was thinking about proposing to my wife, I really wanted to make something special. She is such an inspiration to me and a uniquely wonderful person, and I felt I could do more than picking a ring out of a catalog. I had recently made friends with Rick Berner of Berner Scientific, who is an amazing machinist who combines precision machining and artistic sensibilities. We got to talking about some crazy cool machinist style ring designs. After many (many!) revisions of a design, where I was trying to capture a two-rings in one idea yet still maintain some ability to machine it, I came up with this design here:

The final ring design

Unfortunately, it was still too difficult to machine (out of titanium, no less) and the clock was ticking. So, I gave the design to a local jeweler to hand make out of white gold. He did an amazing job with it, capturing the two-ring style and the sweep profiles.

The ring, close up Another closeup

My dad helped out with the ring box. This is hand made, using wood from a grapefruit tree that grew in our backyard for many years. The stones are Idaho opals and garnets, purchased from Stewart's Gem Shop, a gem shop that my wife used to visit as a child. And, the stones are arranged in the shape of the Pleiades, her favorite constellation. How could she say no?

The ring and the box

The ring on the finger

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