CUSTOM DESIGN JEWELRY PROCESS at OKG JEWELRY

It’s another day at our workshop, where we custom create high-end jewelry based on our exclusive designer/master setter Gary Azatyan’s vision. Every week he designs and creates spectacular pieces for our showroom in Little Neck, NY. 

This week he is working on a few different pieces, one being a very substantial Criss-cross diamond “Cigar” Ring. 

It all started with his vision of this solid rose gold ring encrusted with pave / bead set round brilliant cut diamonds.  

We began with basic sketches of the ring from different angles, just to set the proportions and general outlines. 

We love making one of a kind pieces our customers will enjoy a lifetime. 

At the moment the creation process is still on and he is still debating on whether to use white diamonds or chocolate diamonds, since it is a beautiful pink gold piece. Chocolate diamonds usually look the best with rose AKA pink gold. 

Next step was handing over the sketches to our cad design team so that they could create a 3D version of this beautiful diamond cigar ring with the actual measurements. 

Usually every design looks much more masculine and chunky in the cad version. Please keep in mind that this just a 3 Dimensional blueprint, therefore all the edges are squared off and it almost looks robotic. Once the actual piece is created the edges get rounded off by our master polishers and after the diamonds are carefully set, the whole piece is refinished to give it its beautiful shine. 
After going back and forth with our cad designers, we finally confirm the final design and the next step is casting. 


Here is the actual ring casted out of 14kt solid rose gold. This is what gold, regardless of color being yellow, white or rose, looks like when it is first casted. This is called a raw casting. It kinda looks like plastic but it is actually solid gold! It’s super matt and rough looking. It first has to go through detailed cleaning and tumbled. 

Tumbling is a technique used to smooth out and polish the rough surface of jewelry. There are different shape and size metal pieces used in a soap or ammonia based ultrasonic type liquid solution inside the tumbler. There is also a magnet at the bottom of the tumbler. Once the magnet starts turning al the metal pieces starts rotating in high speed in the tumbler and different shapes polish different crevices of the jewelry. This makes the metal much smoother looking. 

Next, Gary picks the right size and quality diamonds for the piece. 

As we mentioned earlier he is still debating between using white or chocolate diamonds. I have a feeling that he will make one of each version, first one being the chocolate! Before he sets the diamonds, the ring will be pre-polished, meaning it will be all shined up, so that the seats under the diamonds will reflect the shine beautifully. 

Here are the basic sketches together with the actual ring.

 

It is March 6, 2014 and Gary Azatyan’s gorgeous creation is complete! He made this particular version with champagne and chocolate color diamonds with black rhodium.

you can see the details of the beautiful craftsmanship and the black rhodium finish that makes it so elegant.