The often overlooked task of planning
22nd October 2025 - Customer Location: Cairns
You can design anything from the top view. Making a ring work from the other angles, especially when the ring is to be worn next to another, is the real test. This customer wanted a 1.5 carat radiant cut diamond set across the finger as a solitaire.
The catch was that she also wanted a wedding ring with quite large diamonds. Unless the engagement ring is set up to take a ring with those size diamonds they may not sit together. We needed to plan the two rings together.
Larger size = increased gem depth
The larger you go with diamonds the deeper they get. The deeper they get the higher off the finger the ring needs to be to set them into.
With a wedding ring this can result in a height that may not sit next to the engagement ring. In the above graphic you can clearly see that the claws of the wedding ring are hitting the base of the engagement ring setting.
What to do?
In this case we needed to raise the diamond in the engagement ring and also increase the height of the metal under the setting.
Doing this would allow the wedding ring to pass under the setting and for them to sit nicely together. When you make changes like this you need to ensure that the customer is happy with that increase in ring height off the finger.
To do that I use drafts that I also use to determine the perfect ring size for this shape ring. Here you have to remember that two rings worn together equals one wide ring and the wider a ring gets the larger it generally needs to fit the same finger.
Article: Different width = different finger size
The finished rings.
All went well with these rings and the customer loves them. They were made in 18ct yellow gold. The engagement ring features a 1.51 carat radiant cut diamond of E colour and VVs2 clarity.
The wedding ring features diamonds of matching grades to the engagement ring. The 3 radiant cut diamonds are .30 carats each and the 4 round brilliant cut diamonds .10 carats each.
In the case of this customer she approved all the changes we needed to get the two rings to sit together nicely. Now let’s look at another customer who was unprepared to accept changes in order to achieve her new ring goals.
What if the customer cannot accept changes that need to be made?
This long time customer come to me wanting to create a large diamond eternity ring to sit next to her engagement ring that I made 10 years ago.
At the time we made the engagement ring we planned for the wedding ring but not for a ring with diamonds this big/wide/deep.
I never got past laying out the diamonds from the top view with this design. What she wanted to do was just not possible if she left her engagement ring as it is. Remember you can design anything from the top view in theory.
You can see that with the diamonds as low as possible, and even without any setting yet, we are already hitting the base of the engagement ring setting. Changes would need to be made to the engagement ring and this was something she was not prepared to do.
I stopped here because if I made that ring it would not sit with the engagement ring properly and the wear of them rubbing unevenly would lead to the need for repairs sooner than it should. Sometimes it is better to say no to a job. Have a great week.