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CUSTOM JEWELRY |
All of John's jewelry is made from the highest quality karat gold, platinum, and silver. He has been commissioned to make hundreds of unique pieces of jewelry. He hand fabricates some pieces and also selects commercial mountings to uniquely showcase his colored stones.
My client presented the drawing of his idea for a diamond and Larimar engagement ring (photo 1)
I translated his idea into a CAD (computer aided design) drawing to pin down exact sizing (photo 2)
I cut the 8x6 mm oval Larimar cabochon to be used as the center stone (photo 3)
A wax model was grown from the CAD file then cast in 14K white gold.
The Larimar and Diamonds ring with stones set and ring finished ready for my client to present to his future bride.
My client wanted her Russian Red Gold band remade into a pendant. Notice the distinctly red color of the ring on shown next to a yellow gold ring. After cutting the band and straightening it, I heated and annealed the metal and bent it in the shape of a ribbon and added a hidden bail on the back side. Next a faceted an Iolite stone and added a peg setting to make the finished red gold pendant. Something interesting happened when heating the metal. Heating with the torched raised fine gold to the surface which gave the metal the appearance that it was pure yellow gold. I lightly sanded and buffed the raised surface to remove the thin layer of fine gold and reveal the red gold while letting the yellow in the recessed stamping marks to give the overall appearance of a two tone red and yellow gold piece.
I pulled the stones from the two rings.
Then made these earring dangles, shown below, in 14K white gold from my client from Arizona's sketch.
Nice Christmas Present
Diamond & Blue Sapphire earring dangles - January 2009 -
Kentucky Agate Handmade Gold Ring
Handmade ring with 10K yellow gold reticulated and hammer textured wide band,
14K yellow gold bezel on brass metal base set with the prized red and black banded Kentucky Agate,
made for a local Kentucky budding artist - December 2008 -
I used a 6 mm South Sea white pearl that I removed from a pair of cuff links to make this 14KY ring using a commercial mounting. Hand made the thee colors of white metal ring for a lady who shops garage sales and wanted a ring with platinum, white gold, and sterling silver so she always has a reference to help identify what metal is in the garage sale items. The ruby and diamond ring is my first hand-made band made by casting gold, rolling the ingot with a rolling mill to make the square stock, forming the ring, drilling seats to match the diamond and ruby faceted stones, "picking" the metal to form tiny "prongs" to hold the stones and finally using a mill grain tool along the top edges.
The sequence of photographs below show what I made for a clients from Somerset, Kentucky.
Photo 1 - two rings each with 1 carat princess diamonds and one 3-stone 1 carat ring. I first consulted with the clients about what they wanted and we designed the style shown below.
Photo 2 - Next I pulled the two princess stones out of the two solitaire rings. And, cut the whole top out of the three stone ring so we could reuse those three stones in their original mounting.
Photo 3 - I used half round 14K yellow gold to make the ring band. And, I used two 950 Palladium 4-prong Tiffany style peg mountings to remount the two princess diamonds.
How did it turn out ?
They loved it !
Photos 4 to 6 - Lots of BLING I must say, with the thee round stones on a diagonal, the princess diamonds aligned to the three rounds.
Although a lot is going on in the new ring, I think the layout along with the square and round shapes are very striking
This ring is surely One-Of-A-Kind - July 2009 -
These rough gemstones shown above were mined in North Carolina.
My clients from Lexington brought them to me so have them cut and made into jewelry.
First I cut several cabochons from the black stone, a low grade emerald,
and faceted the pretty little yellow Citrine.
Then I handmade these sterling silver & 14K yellow gold pendants shown above and below.
A client handed me this very large pink star sapphire and gold ring with a seven cluster illusion head (diamonds already removed).
I resized the ring, removed the original head, re-cut star sapphire, hand made a yellow gold bezel and soldered it into the ring.
Neat look, I think, made for a local Kentucky client - March 2008 -
This oriental inspired 14 karat yellow gold and Sterling Silver is my original design.
Handmade slide pendant set with a boulder opal and blue zircon gemstone - December 2007 -
A few stones that I cut and made into hand-made original-designed jewelry pendants
left to right: 1) boulder opal in 14K yellow gold & sterling silver, made for my sister in Oklahoma
2) stones set in sterling & gold filled green tourmaline, Citrine, and a lab blue quartz cut by my daughter that I made into this pendant for her.
3) boulder opal set in sterling silver, sold to a fellow local Rockhound.
DIAMOND ANNIVERSARY RING
RECIPE
INGREDIENTS
one large round white diamond
ten small round champagne diamonds
14K two tone 17-stone cluster earring mounting
14K white gold 6-prong stone mounting
Argentium sterling silver round 10 gauge wire
MIXING DIRECTIONS
remove post and 7-stone center from earring mounting
cut wire to length to form ring band
combine all ingredients
set all diamonds
clean and polish
place on wife's finger
enjoy a happy anniversary
clockwise from top right: (1, 2 & 5) boulder opal set with 14KY gold bezel and sterling silver
(3 & 6) wedding rings set with white & green diamonds in 14KY gold (4) gold quartz stone set in 14KY gold hand-made band
The sequenced photos shown above are steps to making a 14K yellow gold pendant.
The gold is 1.2 mm square stock which I made by casting scrap gold into an ingot, then formed into square wire with my rolling mill.
The photos show several prototypes that I first made in sterling silver in order to get the right shape and size. The green in the photo 4 is just the color of the crock pot pan - the pickle solution is really clear. 
Surface texture was made using a ball peen hammer. The final matte finish was applied by using a magnetic tumbler with little stainless steel pins.
HANDMADE GOLD JEWELRY
I hand make gold jewelry and I also use commercial mountings and finding components for custom jewelry. Most of my jewelry is custom made specifically for clients on commission. Occasionally, I make a few jewelry pieces to sell like this 14-karat solid gold Celtic Style Bracelet.
I made this 14K yellow gold bracelet by first casting scrap gold into an ingot, then rolled the ingot down to 1.8 mm square wire,
drew the wire down to 1.3 mm round wire, then cut short pieces of the gold wire to make each of the links.
COMMISSIONED JEWELRY PIECES
I hand make some jewelry and I also use commercial mountings and component parts to make or customize many of my pieces. Most of my clients commission me to make custom jewelry. 
I’M LOCATED IN
LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY
HORSE CAPITAL OF THE WORLD
MAILING ADDRESS
Gems By John LLC
Suite 150-195
4101 Tates Creek Centre Dr
Lexington, KY 40517
PHONE NUMBER
(859) 539-2407
E-MAIL
JohnWright@GemsByJohn.com
