Statement Ring with Pastel Gemstones

A little snippet of a project I’ve been working on. It’s a two tone statement ring, the collet in yellow gold and the shank is being cast in silver. It’s the chunkiest ring I have worked on so far. The client already has several rings that I made and wanted a bigger piece in pastel colours. These are blue topaz, tsavorite garnet and morganite. It’s interesting that you can think of a gemstone being a particular colour or shade, but in fact there is often a wider variety of shades (or colour saturation) to choose from. I was struggling to think of a green stone that would be the right kind of green to complement the other stones. Peridot was too yellow and I wanted to avoid emeralds (both because of their colour and the fact that they are less resilient to being bashed around) so I went to my gem dealer and asked them to show me some options. They have many boxes on their shelves full of hundreds of parcels of gemstones. It’s impossible to imagine all the sparkles held within. Then they start bringing them out and I often have a new love affair begin with another gem. A stone can be well known for its most preferred hue, but is often available in a variety of shades. Although these might be less highly regarded, they might be the right colour for a particular project, or indeed be the right colour that the customer is looking for. In my opinion jewellery should be made to suit a customer’s preference, rather than an idealised version that is considered to be more valuable. After all, bespoke jewellery is created to please the wearer, not to maximise commercial value.