A friend of mine commissioned a custom ring for his lady. After talking a little bit, I sent him a photo of this one from The Met, and asked if something similar (with his stone preferences, and in silver) would work, and he said yes! So I got to work. We had discussed using a 6mm stone for the center, and two 4mm stones for the sides, so I made those bezels, and then used 24 gauge silver wire to make the twisted wire detail. Four granules done, and I was ready to lay out all the pieces on a back plate. But wait! This setting ended up too large for a ring like the photo. I should have paid more attention to the original dimensions. 6mm is roughly equal to 1/4". Which is the overall width of the original bezel. Erego, the original center stone must have been closer to 4mm, with the side stones at 3 or 3.5mm.
Progress pics:
Since I already had the stones in hand, I sent my friend a progress photo and explained the issue. I gave him a few options, and he chose to just turn the setting so that the lengthwise axis will run parallel to the finger, rather than perpendicular to it. Perfect! That's further from a replica of the original piece, but it's still in keeping with the design aesthetic of medieval jewelry.
I ended up needing to remake the setting because there was a gap between the first and second bezels that bothered me. The final setting still isn't perfect, but my friend okayed it.
After soldering all the new pieces onto the back plate, and finishing it, I chose to use the same split shank attachment seen in the original Frankish ring I remade. Given the extra size of the setting, the additional surface area was desirable.
Setting the 4mm stones proved a bit of a challenge, especially because their bezels were on the tall side. I could have put a small ring of silver wire underneath each stone, to raise it up a bit, but I chose to just muscle through. Overall, all three of us are very pleased with the outcome! This is definitely a style I want to play with some more.
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