Published on by Olivier Maupas-Sehikyan · Rings
There are appointments that you sense, the moment the door opens, are going to matter. That day, a client walked into my workshop in Saint-Sébastien-sur-Loire, near Nantes, carrying a small box containing gold she no longer wore, and with a brightness in her eyes that I shall not forget. I did not yet know what we would create together. I only knew that the story would be a beautiful one.
A client, her gold and a birthday to celebrate
She told me quite simply that she wanted to mark her birthday with a piece of jewellery that truly reflected her. Not a shop-window model, not something you might see on ten other wrists or fingers. A piece that would hold the trace of all she had lived and felt, and that could stay with her for many years.
She had taken care to bring her own gold. I have always been moved by that gesture. A metal that had already lived, that perhaps belonged to another chapter of her life, was about to become something new. In a bespoke yellow gold diamond ring in Nantes, that starting material already carries a memory. My role was to give it a new form without erasing what it represented.
We talked for a long time about her tastes, about the way she wears her jewellery, about the colour of gold she loved. We settled on yellow gold, warm and luminous, with diamonds taking the leading role.
Imagining a ring with a 0.50-carat diamond and a pavé setting
When an idea is clear, the drawing comes quickly. Almost at once, I could see this ring: a 0.50-carat round diamond at the centre, set like a point of light, proud without being overwhelming. Around it, and along the shank of the ring, a pavé of diamonds would carry the brilliance of the main stone further.
Pavé is work that demands patience. A surface is covered with tiny stones set tightly against one another and held by minute beads of metal, so that the eye barely sees the gold at all, only a shimmering sheet of light. On a yellow gold mount the effect is quite special: the metal warms each diamond, and the stones, in return, give the yellow a living depth.
I sketched several proposals for her, playing with proportions, with the height of the stone, and with the way the pavé would fade gently towards the underside of the ring. We chose together. A ring is worn every day: it must be beautiful from the front, but also comfortable, balanced and pleasant to feel on the finger.
The wax model, before the gold is touched
Before melting a single gram of the metal she had entrusted to me, I always go through a stage that I love deeply: the wax model. It allows me to anticipate the final result, to correct a curve, to adjust a thickness and to guarantee precise execution. It is also a moment of truth, because at last you hold in your hand what had only existed on paper.
I sculpted this wax with my finest tools. Little by little, every detail took shape beneath my fingers: the seat of the central diamond, the settings for the pavé, the line of the band. Even without metal or stones, the preliminary model already hinted at what the ring would become. There is something moving about this soft material that heralds an object made to last.
My client came back to see it. She held it, turned it, tried it on her finger. Once the model was approved, we knew we were on the right path. The true goldsmith's work could begin.
Casting the gold, setting and polishing at the workshop
Giving the gold she brought a second life
The wax served as the pattern for casting. I melted the gold she had brought me in order to give it a new life and a new form. This moment always has something solemn about it: an old metal vanishes in the heat and re-emerges as a ring that did not exist the day before. Once the rough piece was cast, it had to be worked on, filed, adjusted and prepared to receive the stones.
Setting the diamond and the pavé
Then comes the stage that calls for the greatest calm. I first set the central diamond, making sure it was held firmly and caught the light at its best angle. Then I moved on to the pavé, stone after stone. Each diamond has its own seat, and each bead of metal is raised with an almost surgical precision. Press too hard and you damage the piece; be too timid and the stone will not hold. One works to the rhythm of one's own breathing.
Polishing then restored all the clarity of the yellow gold. The surfaces were smoothed, the edges softened and the recesses of the pavé cleaned, until the ring shone with an even lustre, without the slightest roughness beneath the finger. It is often at this point that I step back, look at it under the lamp on my bench, and tell myself: it is ready.
The day of the handover: when emotion takes over
When I presented the finished ring to my client, there was a brief silence. Then her eyes lit up with a glow of wonder that I need not describe any further: it said everything. She slipped the ring onto her finger, looked at it in the light and turned it slowly.
In this piece, there was no longer just gold and diamonds. There was a fragment of her story, of her dreams and hopes, transformed into an object she could wear every day. Her gold of yesterday had become the symbol of a birthday she wanted to experience differently.
For me, as a jeweller, there is no finer reward. Seeing genuine emotion arise from work made of wax, fire, patience and attention reminds me why I chose this craft.
What if your gold told a new story?
If you have a piece of jewellery lying in a drawer that you no longer wear, or if you dream of a diamond pavé ring that truly reflects you, come and talk to me at the workshop in Saint-Sébastien-sur-Loire, near Nantes. We shall take the time to look at what you have, to listen to what you wish for, and to see together what we can create. A coffee, a few sketches, and the story can begin.
