Published on by Olivier Maupas-Sehikyan · Rings
Some commissions make the hand slow down before the pencil has even touched the paper. This client's was one of them: a single ring to carry her four children, each in their own way. Let me tell you how this bespoke pink sapphire ring came to life, in my workshop in Saint-Sébastien-sur-Loire, near Nantes.
A box, a mother and four children
She walked into the workshop with a small box in her hands. Inside, nothing new: a rose gold chain inherited from her own mother, a few small diamonds gathered over the years, a pink sapphire given to her on her wedding day, and a white gold ring she no longer wore. She set it all down on the bench, gently, the way one lays down memories.
Her idea was clear. She has four children, and she wanted to keep them close every day, in the hollow of her hand. Not simple engraved initials, but a true composition, in which each child would have their own stone, their own motif, their own fragment of gold. A family ring that would tell of their personalities rather than their names.
We talked about them at length. The eldest, gentle and feminine, would be the cushion-cut pink sapphire, the one from her parents' wedding. The next two, discreet and luminous twins, would become two round diamonds of slightly different sizes, just like their characters. As for the youngest, creative and poetic, I could already see him in the form of a sculpted white gold rose.
I opened my sketchbook. After several drawings, we settled on a cluster composition: the four elements gathered on a single ring body, like a close-knit sibling group. It is a contemporary reading of the garden ring, or tutti frutti ring, in which very different gemstones are carefully brought into harmony. The design was approved, and the project could begin.
Pink sapphire, diamonds and a sculpted rose: the meaning of each stone
Before touching the metal, I took the time to explain to my client what each material would carry.
The pink sapphire for the eldest
The pink sapphire belongs to the corundum family, like the ruby and the blue sapphire. Its delicate hue comes from the presence of chromium in its crystal structure. With a hardness of 9 on the Mohs scale, just behind diamond, it withstands daily wear very well, which mattered a great deal for a ring that was almost never to leave the hand. In Asian culture, its colour recalls the lotus flower, an emblem of purity and elevation. Ancient texts also credit it with virtues of love, compassion and harmony in relationships. For an eldest daughter, it is hard to imagine anything better.
The diamonds for the twins
Diamond is the hardest mineral known on Earth, formed more than 150 kilometres below the surface. For the twins, I chose two round brilliants: close enough to evoke their bond, different enough to respect each one's identity.
The sculpted rose for the youngest
The sculpted white gold rose is the most distinctive element of the ring. In jewellery, the rose has spoken for centuries of love, beauty and individuality. Carved by hand and then lightly oxidised to emphasise its contours, it creates a sharp contrast with the rest of the composition. Three small diamonds set at its heart sparkle like drops of light in the hollow of the petals.
The pairing of the two golds is no accident. The 18-carat rose gold of the ring body brings warmth, a mother's tenderness. The 18-carat white gold of the rose underlines the modernity and character of the youngest.
From lost-wax casting to setting: making the ring in the workshop
Everything was done on site, by hand, in my workshop. I began by melting the rose gold and the white gold recovered from the old jewellery separately. Each metal was brought to around 1,064 °C, its melting point, then refined and cast into an ingot. There is something solemn about this transformation of family jewellery: you know that the gold flowing before you once belonged to someone.
The body of the ring was then rolled into a sheet, and cut with a piercing saw into a clean, slightly asymmetric silhouette to follow the cluster. The shank was shaped on the mandrel and soldered.
The rose required the most patience. I sculpted a wax model, petal after petal, until I achieved the depth I was looking for. That wax was turned into 18-carat white gold through lost-wax casting. Once the flower had cooled and been freed from its mould, I filed it, then worked it again by hand to bring out every detail.
Next came the construction of the settings: a four-claw setting for the cushion-cut sapphire, a claw setting for each of the two round diamonds, and a direct integration for the rose. Assembly is the most delicate stage. Each element was soldered to the ring body with millimetre precision, in a carefully considered order so as not to weaken the stones already in place.
Then came the moment of setting. The pink sapphire was gently secured in its claws, then the two diamonds were mounted and adjusted with the onglette. The three small diamonds of the rose were grain-set at the heart of the petals. Finally, the piece was sanded and polished with a felt mop. I finished with a light oxidation of the white gold of the rose: it brings out the relief and gives the flower the depth of a sculpture.
The day she found her family on her finger
When my client first saw her ring, she was overwhelmed with emotion. She looked at the sapphire, the two diamonds, then the rose, and understood that she now carried her four children on her hand. I added nothing. At moments like these, a jeweller learns to stay quiet and let the jewel speak.
If you, too, have old jewellery sleeping in a drawer, or you dream of a bespoke ring in Nantes that pays tribute to those you love, come and talk to me at the workshop in Saint-Sébastien-sur-Loire. We will take the time to look at what you have, to listen to your story, and to imagine together what comes next.
