David Klass Contest Band Part 1

A while back I entered a contest for a band design being held by David Klass. There were two different categories, one that the David would pick, and one that was a “People’s Choice”. I didn’t win either category.

However, my design gathered so many votes that David offered to give me free CADs of my design.

The guidelines were:

1. Less than 5mm wide.
2. Stones: diamonds, sapphires (blue, pink or yellow), emeralds, rubies.
3. Up to 1ctw diamonds, 2.5ctw rubies, sapphires or emeralds.
4. Stone shape: rounds, baguettes, princess.
5. Common engraving or milgrain can be used.
6. Baguettes to be under 2x4mm and rounds and princesses were a maximum of 2mm

I’ve mentioned before that I used to be a pastry chef. I always loved piping, although learning how to do it well was tedious to say the least. After a week of agonizing over what design to use, I went back to my roots, and drew my inspiration from my favorite piping pattern, the Reverse Shell. (The mistake on the left column in this example drives me batty every time I look at it! Obviously not my picture OR my piping work!)

Obviously it’d be near impossible to clearly imitate the look of the frosting with metal and diamonds since you can’t make metal into a consistency able to be piped, so I played with the general concept a bit and came up with this:

I waited so long to put the design together that I had to scramble in the last hours of the final day to finish it in time, typically I would try to do a rendering that was a bit more detailed. Luckily, the jeweler, David Klass (who needs to put up a website! You can find him on Facebook) was able to capture what I had in my head exactly, without being inside my head. His CAD rendering:

When I first came up with the idea, I really wanted something that could be versatile for a lot of different people. So I wanted to stay well within the 5mm width range to allow for stacking, but also wanted enough presence that it could be a stand alone ring. My rendering had the final width being 3mm, but David’s CAD allowed for 3.5mm, which ends up being perfect. I figured that this design could be organic feeling, could be reminiscent of ocean waves or could just be used to add some texture and interest to a set. I wanted it to have a bright clean polish, but easily go with brushed instead for a matte look. And I wanted it to be adaptable to any color range. I think this band accomplishes many of those goals – the stones could easily be any color, and the metal could be white, yellow or rose to go with a person’s personal style, their other rings or just their whims.

I get the first band to be made from these CADs, and I’ve been deliberating for months on stone and metal color, as well as finish, the two biggest choices being between white gold and diamonds or yellow gold and yellow sapphires, but with a white/emerald, and a rose/pink sapphire option, it has made it a difficult choice indeed. As soon as it is completed (I need to make a decision!), there will be a follow up post!