I just caught up with one of  our students, Lauren Neumann who was commissioned by a friend to make his engagement ring (don’t worry everyone, I’m posting this post-proposal). Lauren’s taken a few classes with us over the last year. She made this piece during open bench hours and it was so fun helping her & watching it come together. Take a look at how she created this beautiful and special piece….

After her model was finished – she brought it to a caster to get a mold made and and to be cast to 18k yellow gold.

Her settings were soldered on after the casting came back. She brought the ring to a professional stone setter, and he set all of the diamonds.

P.S. She said yes!

Liloveve: What was your inspiration behind this piece?

Lauren:  I knew she liked a mix of modern and antique looking type pieces so I researched those type of designs and visited on of her favorite websites and drew inspiration from that and then came up with 12 -15 designs for (my friend) to choose from.

LV: If you could travel anywhere, where would you go?  

LN: My next place of travel outside the USA would be Greece!  I adore Italy so I would love to visit there again.  Also Turkey, Tulum in Mexico, Monaco, Paris, all of France … So many places!  I love to travel.  I always thought Anthony Bourdain had the most amazing job!

LV: What’s the most fun aspect of jewelry design?  

LN:  Knowing that everything you design and create is your own.  I was a handbag designer for 3 years in the corporate world.  And honestly I was so disheartened learning how the majority of the design world works these days.  Its all knock-offs … or a version of someone else’s design.  Granted I would design something but I would use a silhouette from another bag and then email my specs of to our factory in China and they made it.  There was always a void in that whole process for me.  I never felt like it was truly my design.

LV: What classes have you taken at Liloveve?

LN: Silversmithing & Wax Carving I

LV: What was the most challenging part of this process? 

LN: The engineering aspect of it all.  Figuring out how to go about building the ring and piecing it together.  Luckily I had help from 3 very kind women (Caroline, Carolyn, and Emilie) who are seasoned veterans to help guide me throughout the process.

LV: What was the most fun part of this process?

LN:  After I got over the hump of making the 3 rings from scratch and getting them all perfect it became fun because I could see the light at the end of the tunnel so to speak.  I knew if I had accomplished that feat that the rest of the ring was going to come together and everything from the point on was stress free and fun!!