Why Make a Custom Ring? Posted on 7 Feb 13:42 , 56 comments

There are so many jewelers out there, why design something different??   If you want to dispel any myths... commission a piece.

Update Your Wedding Rings, "No Catchy Prongs, Thank you!" Posted on 20 Feb 16:31 , 47 comments

Scott Keating jewelry design ideas transform old diamond favorites!

  Jen had been thinking for a while to remodel and update her original platinum and diamond wedding ring set.  She started asking her friends who would be a good jeweler to trust to translate her ideas for such an important and emotional jewelry project.  Maybe changes would be good but what might they be?  She didn’t fully know and needed help.  By word of mouth she called me and we began her project by looking at what she had to work with.

  Her original engagement ring with matching wedding band were badly worn and didn’t fit well anymore.  She also had a family heirloom from her dad, containing a larger center diamond of very nice quality.  This remodel is a great opportunity to make changes to her rings to become even more emotionally meaningful.  Plus, a bigger center diamond is a wonderful upgrade!  

  The original center diamond was set with prongs which I felt could be mounted in an updated, cleaner way.  Prongs are a traditional way to set diamonds, raising them up high on a ring to allow good visibility of the stone.  However, often times this makes wearability challenging.  Prongs catch on everything from sweaters to hair to skin and on and on.  Contemporary innovations have been designed for setting diamonds to allow visibility and increased wearability.  Jen is a very active, youthful person.  She wants to wear her rings all the time for outdoor sports, work and dress-up.  Designs like these are a specialty for me living in the Aspen area.  Every woman here needs what I call “tom girl” jewelry!  The active lifestyle of skiing, biking, hiking and whatever you can enjoy outside has a huge part to play in the design of beautiful jewelry.  Also, who wants to leave their jewels in the safe deposit box?  Women here want to sparkle ALL the time!  … and why not?  This is what Jen needed.  She was psyched.

  Many details, like changing setting prongs, will change the style of a piece of jewelry without loosing the character and connection to an original design.  She wanted to maintain this connection to her wedding memories.  It’s how we grow as people.  The original is beautiful and cleaning up the design brings jewels into the now.  I started drawing and making a Computer Aided Design (CAD) for Jen to see my design update ideas.

  You can see the CAD drawing here.  What is so helpful in this kind of technological drawing is that it can be rotated fully on the computer.  This is great as there are less surprises of what the ring will look like once made.  In the past, my client would approve a drawing and I would carve a wax by hand over 40 hours.  These waxes translated the drawing yet many times more hours of carving would be required to make any changes to it.  CAD has changed the way I work completely.  I now print a wax ring straight from the CAD drawing using my in house 3-D printer. I can now save time and money on every jewelry project.  Jen approved this wax before I cast it into platinum.

  Finishing the ring is where most of the time is required.  Each stone is set to ensure it won’t fall out, is smooth to the touch and shown off to its best.  A fine polish makes my pieces shine from every angle. 

Jen was delighted.  She was working her way through a crazy schedule the day she picked them up.  Glad the rings will be able to keep up now, sparkling all the way!

How Can I Size My Ring Finger At Home? Posted on 2 Nov 13:13 , 30 comments

Recently, our niece who is in love with an Irish farmer and lives outside Dublin, wanted me to make her fiancé's wedding band.  They had visited earlier in the year and I had sized his ring finger to be a 10. Why did I have second thoughts about my notes? Yet, I had a hunch. I couldn't show up at the wedding in Ireland with him unable to get his band on in front of all of his friends and family!  Disaster, right? 

Like so many of my customers living all over the world who go into a jewelry store to get their fingers sized for me to make a ring, the fiancé's size was way off!!! Why?  Fine jewelry stores, with the best reputations, size fingers using vastly different methods.  Here I was... a jewelry designer, no less, in the same spot!  I was tired of all the mistakes and re-dos with high stress.  The hunt was on to make ring sizing fool proof and easy for everyone concerned, no matter where they live.

I found this card ring sizer that I sent to Ireland.  My nephew-to-be punched out all of the plastic rings around size 10.  He turned out to be a size 14!!!  That's Irish potatoes for you. 

The methods of wrapping a piece of paper around your finger to size it, generally fails!  Sending me another ring is troublesome, if the band is different from the new ring to follow and on and on it goes.  This plastic card solves all of the problems as the client can decide for themselves how they like their rings to fit.

Give me a call, and I'll send you this card for a RIGHT fit every time.