Knox Jewelers Journal

Engagement Ring Photos and the Importance of Real Photography

As we approach 6000 “real” photos of engagement rings and wedding bands, we’re reminded of all the work we’ve done in getting our designs on this very website.  It’s important to understand that our quality and workmanship have to be top-notch when photographing at the macro level.  Our jewelers and craftsmen must execute with the same passion as our designers.  It takes years of experience across these many dedicated individuals to deliver a quality piece,  something that a virtual image will never convey.

Sometimes we wish our photos could be produced by the touch of a button.  It would be much easier to generate 6000 perfect computer renderings and not worry about capturing the countless hours of detail and passion put into our pieces.  One slight problem, our customers don’t wear virtual rings.

Photograph taken of Caledonia Design - Unique Engagement Rings

The key to our business is heirloom quality unique engagement rings.  The designing is only half of the battle.  The craftsmanship yields the end product and is where we really shine as you can see in every one of our engagement ring photos.  Our designs are handmade and given meticulously attention to in every detail.   How would anyone be able to see our quality if our collection was all computer generated? The diamonds still have to be precisely set, the metal still has to be polished smooth, and the engraving still has to be cut by hand.

Our customers come to us because they want to cherish the beauty and art put into everyone of our designs.  They don’t want the same design that has been made ten thousand times by an overworked, underpaid worker overseas.  They want unique, they want one-of-a-kind, and they want heirloom quality.

Virtual jewelry only shows 50 percent of any given design.  It’s a mere concept of how a design should look.  The design still has to executed into a beautiful piece of art and that feat takes years of experience. Quality and craftsmanship come with no easy button.

Tags: craftsmanship, engagement ring photos, quality, render, virtual | Categories: Unique Custom Design Engagement Rings

Custom making a wide Eternity Band.

The following is a look behind the scenes of how a custom ring is made.
I will start by showing just a couple pics of the finished ring and then explain how the ring is made and show some of the steps in the process.

Here are two pics of the finished ring:

Now I will show and explain in a very condensed manner the process of making a ring like this.

Here is the ’screenshot’ from our 3-D design software showing the design from several different angles. A design like this can take many hours of design and engineering time.

After using a CAM technology to make a physical prototype and mold of the two separate elements used to make this ring, the three parts of the design are cast in 18 karat white gold. Here are a few pics of the raw castings:

We cast the design in three sections, the two outside rails and the inside pattern.

The overall finished width will be 15mm. Finger size 5.25

After cleaning up the raw castings ( removing sprues, smoothing, etc) the three sections are joined.

First we tacked the three sections together in a few different spots with a laser to hold the sections together, then we hard soldered them together with a torch to assure a very durable ring.

Here are a couple pics after we finished setting the diamonds in the two outside rails.

Here are a couple quick pics with the rest of the diamonds set.

There is No Short Cut to Quality

The work necessary to obtain an immaculate look on a design with this level of detail is a very time consuming task and as we are fond of saying at Knox Jewelers, “there is no shortcut to quality”.

A master level artisan must carefully bright cut and engrave all of the beautiful detail into the areas around the diamonds and finally apply the milgrain which gives the design a beautiful and finished look.

The diamond setting, engraving and milgraining labor (not counting design work, prototyping, casting) for a ring with this level of detail will have approx 32 man hours of labor when finished.

We think of projects like this as a miniature work of art with our name on it.

Click Here to See the product page of the Finished Ring and Hi-Def Video

Please Visit our website KnoxJewelers.biz

Tags: custom ring, design, Eternity band, milgrain, quality, Rings, wide band | Categories: Custom In Progress