The Touch Of Love: One-n-Only Fingerprint Rings

1st Picture: Metal Clay CaptureTechnique

2nd Picture: Hand Engraved Technique

3rd Picture: Digital Machine Engrave Technique

"Why would you ever put a fingerprint on your wedding rings?!" my cousin brother asked with doubtful eyes twinkling..... How should I make him understand about this very important issue - a unique wood grain resemble human texture means? (especially to fellow ladies?) 

In terms of sentimental value - a unique and meaningful piece of jewellery is always a huge preference. A genetic generated barcode from our loves one that is possible own by ME exclusively....  unexplainable sensuality feel... not to mention the beauty of each unique fingerprint pattern and the touch of  texture on your wedding ring.

We have been researching this particular technique for months. The crucial part is to capture each individual fingerprint as natural as possible. Meaning the actual dimension and the actual texture must is our 1 st consideration. Then the second important point is the ring quality in term of finishing (i.e. fingerprint texture will be enhance more by mirror finishing - and to get a mirror effect the metal itself has to be strong enough) and the ring surface structure must be smooth  after the fingerprint engraving. (we do not want dented surface that produce from metal clay technique)

There are a few ways to produce it e.g. place your fingerprint mark by physically stamp on a metal clay, hand engrave or machine digital engrave. Below are comparison based on the outcome of fingerprint capture and the metal finishing quality.

1st Picture: 

Metal Clay Technique is quite simple to produce which capture exact fingerprint. Due to the limitation of material hardness, this technique can't produce good mirror finishing. I will say not even moderate quality polish/mirror finishing. This is why you will never have the "expensive" jewellery look but a street jewellery effect.

2nd Picture: 

Hand Engraved Technique create the fingerprint texture on ring by using specific craving tools.  This is a time consuming and highly skill needed job but the outcome is quite organic that does show only 50 to 70% similarity of the actual fingerprint. Due to the carving is done by bare hand which the crafter must good eyesight and stable hand skill. The skills to control the craving depth of each tiny lines of fingerprint is so details that years of experience is necessary to created something near perfect.

3rd Picture:

So we settle down with this perfect technique - Digital Machining Technique. The different size of bandwidth custom made ring is handmade that produce a solid base for fine fingerprint engraving. (if produce by casting there will be porosity issue) Harder metal meaning better mirror polishing. Better finishing meaning sharp contrast between detailed fingerprint texture with the metal surface. That will make the ring looks elegant and dramatic. And results of computerized craving, you will get exact your fingerprints that seems gently touching on your rings - how unique is that!

Fingerprint or thumbprint jewellery design is quite common in the US and European markets. And their price is relatively high after material cost deduction.  The minimum price starts from RM 1690/pair (USD 520) onwards just for a sterling silver or 925 silver ring. 

As from us, we want to offer more and better to our customer. With the price of RM 1200/pair comes with anti-tarnishing material i.e. Palladium Silver. (Learn more about this metal here) You will also have the choice of different color materials like 18K Rose, Yellow and White Gold.

Owned this One-and-Only Fingerprint HERE

Some other design of fingerprint rings from our Facebook Page: Custom Made Jewellery

From A to Z in less then 19 hours - Custom Made Record Breaking Time

Puzzled Heart Shape LORT rings design

the secret love message

Material: Platinum Silver
Stone: Micro Pave Setting Cubic Zirconia

Material: Platinum Silver
Stone: Micro Pave Setting Cubic Zirconia

Got the call from soft spoken lady on Tuesday (1st Oct 2013) afternoon. She was so excited to found us (after searching around local jewellery retailer but non willing to accept this task) to custom made her 13th Anniversary rings which suppose to be deliver on Thursday (3rd Oct 2013) night. They have a morning flight to catch on the next day. Meaning to deliver a custom made rings in less then 2 days. To be more precise, the total time we have after minus out dairy routine like sleeping time (definitely steal the time from this part), meals time, cleaning time and not to mention we have another bulk project that suppose to be deliver on the 7th Oct 2013.

This suppose to be a surprise to her husband, but it ends up meeting this adorable couple (I seldom seldom use this description on people in 40s). They came to confirm order on Tuesday night. They want something very one-n-only with puzzle heart shape mixture of LOTR concept. The very unique font tells a secret love message. I joke a bit -  because of the rings they will have to learn a new language.  After everything is finalized, then Me started work from 11 pm to 3 am. After that my CNC machine continue working for another 9 hours until the 12 pm. At the same time, we worked very hard on the other also "very urgent" project.

But the good thing to share is this is our very primitive dream - to deliver a custom made jewellery like a vending machine. Just click and pop...waalaa you got your custom made rings wedding rings in just a few second. No more worries on last minutes gifts. To think positive, we have at least started a very first step of a long journey...

During the delivery night, the cutie couple just love their "babies" who were born in two days. We are truly glad we manage to contribute in perfecting their plan of 13th Anniversary.  The husband just making joke saying that he was expecting Me and Chin to have toothpick or salophen tape to support our eyelids. 

Ok.. I know he likes Mr Bean :)

Triplets Reunion - the moment snatcher can't steal the Spirit!

Material: 18k rose and yellow gold, platinum
Stone: 3.25 mm(0.145 carats) diamonds

paired wedding rings

Material: Palladium Silver
Stone: Cubic Zirconia

"Hi Jane!
I just wanted to write to thank both you and Chin again. Wedding rings are probably the worst things to lose and what you did is just amazing. It really feels as if I never lost them. In fact, I kind of feel like a new bride again coz all my friends are admiring my rings! Even my kids were impressed. (My eldest son imagined me having caught the bad guys in my great-grandma's style and thus got my rings back, hahaha!)
My husband's first comment on seeing his ring was, "Wow, that's big!". Anyway, he is very pleased both with his and my rings. He didn't notice any engravings (his eyesight is getting bad in "old age") and I had to point it out too. Aiya, he is just not romantic in that way! But he thinks all the rings are perhaps better than the originals, not counting the sentimental value of the old ones, of course. 
Even our aunt (the one I told you) commented on my rings and the workmanship and thought these were better -- the bigger size of the diamonds was not lost on her! (Trust old aunts to notice! Well, she did buy quite a bit of jewellery in her time.)"

...This is a touching testimonial from an old customer. 

4 weeks before, she was the victims of snatchers. Lost 2 (a triplet ring designs which comes in platinum, 18K rose and yellow gold) from 3 of her wedding rings. She valued the rings so much that had cried for the whole day (that was how she described (T,T)) just tried to accept the fact that those precious were gone.

The HIS wedding ring got the same destiny - was stolen in a year before!
The loving but not so romantic husband (still this is her description :)), came visit to make another pair of rings for her. Just to minimized her pain.
She is blessed to have a loving-&-patient-but-not-so-romantic husband. Not to mention, she was not hurt during the incident.

A person who surrenders when he is WRONG, is HONEST. A person who SURRENDERS when not SURE, is WISE. A person who surrenders even if he is RIGHT, is a HUSBAND.
- Azgraybebly Josland 

P.s. Beware of some security guards who works as part-time spy to their fellow snatcher friend. : (

Three Tones Braided Wedding Rings

Confirmed rings design before going to production

awesome pair

HIS ring

HER ring

“Love was a feeling completely bound up with color, like thousands of rainbows superimposed one on top of the other.” 

― Paulo Coelho

This assignment was recommend by a diamond supplier from Singapore (still have no idea who the person is :P) The bride - a very soft spoken young lady, went around Malaysia and Singapore to look for a capable goldsmith to take up this task. A three tones 18K gold rings (i.e. yellow, rose and white gold) with 76 pieces of 1.25 mm diamonds to be deliver in 3 weeks time. Nobody dare to take up the challenge due to lots of testing has to be done especially the three tones braided part and so many uncertainty in the production flow. 

Ok.....the design is something we always wanted to try on, plus we can imagine how beautiful the rings are going to be. These tempting facts make us just can't resist the challenges. 

My part is art work presentation, I took 2 days and nights to think and try on the weaving effect so it looks like hand braid. At the beginning, the HER ring is plain. Then she decided to add diamonds onto it to enhance it elegant.  And she is right, the micro pave diamond setting really create an awesome effect!

After art work confirmation, Chin start do some testing on the braid using silver cords. He did a few attempts before reaching a consistent and tide braid. Then worked on actual material - yellow, rose and white gold. The time is getting short! We were in tense when the cords broke during the braiding process - I meant a few times! (Due to too thin) Chin have to re-mill the gold cords then repeat the whole process again.  OMG!  

But still we manage to make it. Finally, the beautiful three colour gold cord were tide together in harmony. :D

The third challenge is the diamond selecting process. To match their budget, we try to look for the par rate diamonds. But they are too small (1 mm size - like dandruff??), too cloudy and yellowish in colour. Then we decide to choose the 1.25 mm diamonds with quality we can accept.  We make some adjustment on the diamond quantity but the cost is still within their budget.

Chin take almost 2 days just to set the diamonds. I told the ring owner, Chin make the rings with sweats and tears, plus his eyes were so stress and sore that he can feel they tend to fall off.  She just laughed :) The happy ending is the rings owner like them. She said they look even more beautiful compare to the picture - INDEED!

18K Rose Gold Semi-precious Stone Tiara

 This was year 2003 project when I was the apprentice in a gold manufacturer - the main supplier for India style jewelry of Little India. Chin was doing some research then and also took whatever opportunity to test his gold-smithing skills.

I was give total 87 pieces of Amethyst, Citrine and Aquamarine as a based jewels and the rest of the stones were 250 pieces of Signity Cubic Zircon. I was sooo excited about this project and design with all my heart.(As I can remember, the way I positioned the stones was like taking care of a baby - gently on the plasticine and repeating checking to make sure the beauty of them were maximized ) The CZ were 350 to 400 pieces. Sign! I wanted CZ to be fulled in every space but due to their budget, the design had to be tolerate and the amount of CZ was cut into half at least. (This is the big disaster of a designer - design has to be alter not because of the beauty but the cost :S)

Total 18K Rose gold weight: 350 gram

2003 Tiara market value: RM 100K