Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Anniversary Ring Commission

I've been working on this little anniversary ring (size 5.5!) that was a joint design effort between a husband and myself; he provided the inspiration and I came up with this design. He wanted to combine his country of origin - Latvia - and hers - Greece - into a ring to be presented on their fifth anniversary. The husband wanted to include amber, a resource of Latvia and a blue stone to represent Greece's blue and white flag. I selected aquamarine to compliment the translucency of the amber and then decided smaller faceted stones would add some visual interest, but with similar settings so the design was cohesive. Several sketches were sent to the husband, most featuring a fluid wave shape inspired by Greece's most ample resource, the sea. I was delighted when he selected my favorite design! So off to the drawing board I went to create a rendering that would insure neither of us would be surprised with the end product. Finally, I was hard at work in the studio for the fun part, which presented no complications except for a couple slight adjustments due to the non-symmetrical nature of the ring. Overall, I think the inspiration and feel of the original design were achieved. I really enjoyed this project, especially being presented with a challenge that needed a solution that met certain criteria... like being back in school! The collaboration was great too. I love seeing the results of what comes from combining minds. I look forward to more projects like this.

4 comments:

Liz Steiner said...

Wow! Great job!

Juliet said...

I go SOOOO excited when I saw that you are back to work!!! It is beautiful and so well finished! I can't wait to see more, more more!

Valerie A. Heck Esmont said...

Congrats! The ring looks great Whitney! I hope you are doing well, i'd love to hear from you! 443.340.5365
Valerie Heck
www.americancraft.com

Amber Cargile said...

You do wonderful work! I can imagine what a special gift this was for the lucky gal!