Today I want to share a very sweet stud earring. It  show's off David's smaller cushion shaped rubies nicely, and adds a unique flair to the prongs in which they are set. In fact we do 3 versions, one with marquise  diamonds, carre  diamonds, and round diamonds as you see here. We plan on making one with pear shaped diamonds too. 

My last post was February 10 and I have been very negligent about writing a new Blog/Passion. It hasn't been for lack of ideas  but because of the pressing deadline of the tax man. Next year we will be more organized so that all our spare time is not devoted to that.

The earring backs add novelty  because we can add a custom  logo,  a rubber washer holds the earring back against the earring which is a nice feature because they will not scratch the quality marks on the earring post . We agree with David that the  quality mark 18k could be smaller on the back itself.

CAD is a real gift because it allows a truly simple geometric design to be truly perfect. It does not replace the design aspect because it is a tool like any other. And believe me we can do a pretty nice job of hand making a precise model but expect it to take 10 times longer than CAD. What is nice about CAD is the precision and the time saving, but there is no replacement for the hand finishing. If you plan on replicating the identical design,  a mold is the way to go. A mold is made from a hand finished model.

Besides all these interesting features to the earring design I thought it would be of interest to the mechanical geeks to see the jig we created to hold it for setting the diamonds. We consider ourselves primarily problem solvers. The earring needed a jig because it has a bead blasted texture you want to protect and you also don't want to distort the shape while setting the diamonds. The ruby is set last with a clever squeezing technique. Email us if you want to know more about that.

Still fascinated by the tool path on the PC and how it controls the CNC during the cutting of the  Corian jig. Of course you take the pattern from CAD to create the tool path for the jig, that way the earring fits nicely into it.

It is interesting that rhino runs better on the PC. 

In the photo below Gregore is demonstrating how he uses the jig to hold the stud to set the diamonds. These are the square shaped diamonds cut in the style called carre. We use the same jig for the other diamond variations because the earring is designed for a ruby of a set size.

For us the joy is in the details. We get lost in the minutiae and find comfort in the present moment. Thanks for listening! Rubies in yellow gold rocks!