Sunstone ring for Mom

Some jewellery projects are a bit more personal than others. This one definitely was.

Last year, we went to a rock and mineral show. My mom found a beautiful emerald-cut sunstone, about 7 carats. The stall holder, Gems of East Africa, gave us some advice: it would look best set in gold with a light, open setting to show off the blazing copper tones and the red sunspot inside.

And that was it. That was the challenge.

My sister and dad pitched in for some gold (it’s so expensive!). We split the cost and decided it would be her birthday present. It didn’t quite work out that way. Making an emerald-cut collet setting turned out to be a lot harder than I expected. This was really going to push me way, way out of my comfort zone.

That’s where my brilliant jewellery teacher, Hannah, stepped in and coached me through it.

At first, I tried to build a basket in silver and copper as a starter prototype. I started by shaping wire by hand. I made two rectangles, one curved to sit on the finger and one to hold the stone in with prongs. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get the stone to sit nicely, and honestly, it looked a bit… crap.

(Photo 1: My first attempt at a prototype)

Eventually, I gave in and invested in a collet block. Pricey, but I knew I’d use it over and over again.

I remade the prototype, this time with flat collets stacked on top of each other, separated with wire, and then soldered a basket onto the collets. The idea was to cut out the excess wire in the middle so the stone would sit properly.

(Photo 2: Collets stacked and separated with wire)

(Photo 3: The basket coming together to make the prongs)

Switching to gold made things even trickier. Gold is expensive, so there was no room for mistakes or wasted material. I had to solder each prong on separately, which was honestly the hardest bit. If you get one wrong, you risk knocking the others off. I used Wolf clay to hold them all in place while soldering, which helped a lot.

After a few goes, I finally got it right. Then it was just a case of attaching the band and setting the stone.

(Photo 4: Coming together in gold)

When I gave it to my mom, she was over the moon.

(Photo 5, 6: Finished article)

This project taught me a lot, not just about technique, but about patience. And it was worth every minute to see how much she loved it.

(Photo 7: Mom)

If you’d like to see more of my work or have something special made, you can check out the shop or get in touch.