Our client really liked wearing his wedding ring. When psoriatic arthritis forced it off, we made a better than ever solution for him..
Piece: Platinum wedding ring with channel set sapphires
Activity: To work a solution for client that could make his wedding ring wearable again
Materials: Platinum, Diamonds
We often have new arthritis clients come to us when their spouse or family member finds us online. This was the case here, client's lovely wife had hit upon the idea as a Christmas present for her husband after his psoriatic arthritis meant his wedding ring was no longer wearable. Which meant double points for her too!
Every arthritis case is different.
Whenever we start working on a ring project, we have to establish what the challenge is. And in this instance, it was less of a knuckle issue, and more of the actual phalange itself (the ring section of the finger) that was prone to inflammation. Oh, and also that we were in lockdown meaning that all the usual things I'd do in relation to measuring and viewing the hand wasn't really possible. So it was potentially the longest project I've managed!
The good news early on was we did establish that a hinged ring was not actually the best answer. Client didn't need something round, he needed a shape better suited to his finger. It was at this point he also decided he wanted to keep some of the sapphires from his first wedding ring, and then have more fun with his wedding ring design. So we got mood boarding.
This helped a lot and we were able to start moving through more focused design directions.
More sketches and it went to goldsmith. We decided to keep ring no wider than 4mm because if your fingers do change shape a lot, a narrower band is more comfortable. But client has a very large hand! We'd already made a couple of silver samples to ensure we'd got fit right, and made client live in them for a couple of weeks. To keep down on metal wastage and manage costs, goldsmith carved a silver ring to be made into a casting model.
Finally, cast ring came back, and we could get everything made up. Ring had a few more diamonds than the original (the original didn't have diamonds actually!) and there were the sapphires to set. So here is how it turned out..
Client is really happy, and can wear ring regardless of how finger is behaving!
If you can't wear your wedding jewellery because of arthritis, sports injury or other reasons, we offer a number of options to address this. Learn more about solutions for those with larger knuckles.
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