Selecting your perfect wedding ring is an exciting and important decision – after all, you want it to be something that reflects your personal style as well as your commitment as a married couple! Whether you gravitate toward jewelry that's vintage-inspired, modern, classic or glam, custom designing your own unique ring is a fantastic way to ensure you get exactly what you want. And contrary to what you might think, if you work with the right artists, custom design doesn't have to be complicated or overly expensive.
To show us exactly how that's possible, the experts at Seattle's Joseph Jewelry are letting us go behind-the-scenes of their design process and showing us all the fascinating steps along the way. If you live in the Seattle area, you can work with the Joseph Jewelry team in person, but if you don't, you can just as easily design your dream wedding ring on their simple, user-friendly website. Check it out!
From the team at Joseph Jewelry:
Step 1 - Design Ideas: Whether you choose to design your piece online or in-person, you’ll first consult with a team of highly skilled artisans who are completely devoted to understanding your needs and preferences. To decide exactly what you want, you’ll see a variety of ring styles and precious metal qualities, and you’ll have the opportunity to decide what you like down to the tiniest detail, from shades and colors to artistic techniques and finishes. Once we get to know your unique style, our jewelers will then create sketches or computer-generated images to show you how your design might look.
Step 2 - Your Free Quote: Once your choice of design, gemstones and metal quality is determined we will be able to provide you with an estimate for the finished product. This is an easy and simple process, and if necessary, we are typically able to work within your budget by manipulating the grade of material.
Step 3 - 3D Modeling: Next, one of our talented artisans will begin creating a 3D model of your design. During this step, you are easily able to make any changes or modifications you like – the only change that will affect your original price estimate is if you decide to add extra materials or gemstones. Rendered images of your 3D model can be emailed directly to you, posted to your online design account, or can be viewed in person by visiting the store. The computer-rendered images allow us to show you realistic views of your design as it will look when finished in the exact metal and gemstones you have chosen. This is an exciting step of the design process, where you will get to see a very real interpretation of your future wedding ring!
Step 4 - Wax Molds: Once you approve the 3D model, we will then use stereo lithography technology to "print" a full-size wax version of your design. This technology allows us to create the most intricate and complex details possible in the jewelry industry, within an accuracy of two hundredths of a millimeter. This means you can literally expect perfection from our workmanship!
The prototype is full-scale and will show you the exact detail and dimensions of your project. If you would like to see the wax prototype, you are welcome to stop by for viewing or we can mail it to you anywhere in the world. If, after viewing the prototype, you approve the final design, we are then ready to start the final design stage – production!
Step 5 - Production: Our highly skilled jewelers each possess at least 15 years of experience and are masters at what they do. In this final custom design stage, they begin to actually create your ring. We use stock metal fabrication or metal casting - whichever will yield the finer quality to complement the complexity of your unique design.
If your design involves Stock Metal Fabrication… We start by tracing your design on the stock metal of your choice. Then, we cut out the traced section and begin to shape or forge it according to your design. In some cases multiple pieces must be cut and shaped then soldered together. Other detail-oriented techniques like filigree, repoussé, inlay and more may be required in order to form your perfect finished product.
If your design is better suited for Metal Casting… We use a state-of-the-art computerized casting machine that negatively vacuums all oxygen out of the casting chamber and replaces it with released argon gas to purify the environment for casting. This closed environment eliminates all porosity that would otherwise occur naturally due to oxidization. Porosity (tiny air bubbles in the metal) is a sign of an inferior casting and is normally seen on the surface of high-polished metal and will always occur during open-air casting. This is why our argon-gas vacuum chamber is so important.
This casting machine also allows us to pre-program the perfect temperature for any given metal to prevent the overheating of the metal we are casting. Because different metals become malleable at different temperatures it is important to be precise when heating. Too much heat could damage the metal, while too little could produce an incomplete result. Our computerized casting machine eliminates all of the guesswork that would otherwise occur when a jeweler is casting, creating a perfect casting of the chosen metal every time.
After we have cast your design our master jewelers will finish and polish your piece. Many styles of finishing can be applied to a piece of jewelry. The most common is a high-polish finish, but the options are endless (matte finish with various grades of texture, vintage hand-engraving, and so on).
Your diamonds and gemstones are set by our most experienced jewelers, resulting in a beautiful piece of heirloom-quality jewelry that you’ll enjoy for generations.
And voila! Your personal and one-of-a-kind ring is complete. Thank you for the behind the scenes look Joseph Jewelry team!
Readers, you can learn more about custom designing your own dream wedding ring on the Joseph Jewelry website!
This post is sponsored by Joseph Jewelry, and chosen for Junebug for it's value to our readers - who doesn't love to learn about jewelry and see behind-the-scenes?
