The story

A good friend and co-worker wished to propose to another good friend and co-worker, and he asked for help in designing a ring. Always up for a challenge, I accepted. He wanted to model it from images of an antique ring online. I found front, top, and side views to work from, imported them on the three primary sketch planes, and went to work. This is the top view image.

Side view

One of the images used to inspire the ring design

Side view

Another image used to inspire the ring design.

CAD (1 of 3)

The CAD model incorporated a fair bit of surfacing and was sized to accommodate diamonds from another ring.

CAD (2 of 3)

Flat sections would allow the jeweler to carve recesses for the smaller stones as needed.

CAD (3 of 3)

The prong design allowed the jeweler to deform the metal ever so slightly to retain the main stone.

Rapid prototype

To start the lost wax casting process, a 3D printed model was produced for evaluation.

The cast ring

After a few model tweaks, the ring was cast.

Cast ring (cont'd)

The ring looked great and it was time for the jeweler to do their work.