I think I have made the rounds to most of the immediately accessible friends and family, so time to make the ring reveal. Here's the original post if you need a refresher on gimmel rings.
So we worked with Mark at Designer Jewels to make a custom gimmel ring. It is completely fun to visit them. Their office is chock full of framed jewelry patents and Zamy Steynovitz paintings. I knew Mark was "the one" after I had taken my nutso gimmel ring idea to a handful of jewelers and received nothing but blank stares. When I mentioned the gimmel to Mark, he said, "I know just what you mean--wait here." He then proceeded to grab a book from the office and flip through until he found an example of a Renaissance gimmel. Mark comes from a long family of jewelers. But they are also tech savvy. The designed the ring in CAD for us.
Here is their first go:
Love that pink marble virtual table--very classy. Eddy and I suggested some revisions and this is what we got:
At this point, we approved the CAD designs and Mark cast the ring in wax for us. This was awesome because we got to see the ring with our stone in it exactly as it would eventually be in platinum. I proceeded to immediately break the wax mold. (Bad Nicci!!)
So they used the wax cast to create the ring and polished it up and mounted the stone and all that good stuff. And here's the final product--a contemporary gimmel ring!
Yes, the inside engravings have sustained some wear since we got the ring in October. That's how you can tell it's mine--I'm tough on jewelry. And, yes, it says, "team sunshine fuzzy bunny" on the inside of my ring. The opposite side is engraved with our first date, "november 19, 2005."
Be on the look out for Bling--Part 3 in which we visit Mark again to make our own wedding bands!
So we worked with Mark at Designer Jewels to make a custom gimmel ring. It is completely fun to visit them. Their office is chock full of framed jewelry patents and Zamy Steynovitz paintings. I knew Mark was "the one" after I had taken my nutso gimmel ring idea to a handful of jewelers and received nothing but blank stares. When I mentioned the gimmel to Mark, he said, "I know just what you mean--wait here." He then proceeded to grab a book from the office and flip through until he found an example of a Renaissance gimmel. Mark comes from a long family of jewelers. But they are also tech savvy. The designed the ring in CAD for us.
Here is their first go:
Love that pink marble virtual table--very classy. Eddy and I suggested some revisions and this is what we got:
At this point, we approved the CAD designs and Mark cast the ring in wax for us. This was awesome because we got to see the ring with our stone in it exactly as it would eventually be in platinum. I proceeded to immediately break the wax mold. (Bad Nicci!!)
So they used the wax cast to create the ring and polished it up and mounted the stone and all that good stuff. And here's the final product--a contemporary gimmel ring!
Yes, the inside engravings have sustained some wear since we got the ring in October. That's how you can tell it's mine--I'm tough on jewelry. And, yes, it says, "team sunshine fuzzy bunny" on the inside of my ring. The opposite side is engraved with our first date, "november 19, 2005."
Be on the look out for Bling--Part 3 in which we visit Mark again to make our own wedding bands!
