CUSTOM DESIGN DIARY: Kailyn Engagement Ring

I’m so excited to share the makings of Kailyn & Max’s magical marquise engagement ring in this episode of our Custom Design Diary!

I met with Max remotely back in August to chat about his beautiful partner, Kailyn. I discovered that Kailyn was a fine artist, a lover of plants, and had a ‘taste for the absurd’. He described her as kind, caring, funny, and resilient. He knew he wanted to incorporate the twisting ‘S’ curves of Kailyn’s heirloom bracelet and the color green.

Collage of images for a custom engagement ring design — Max’s inspiration images for Kailyn

After our chat, I wasn’t exactly sure how this design would evolve but I was very excited. Fast forward a month or so and Max reached out again informing me that he accidentally spilled the beans to Kailyn about our secret project! It turned out to be a happy accident though :) We had another virtual consultation and this time Kailyn joined in on the fun.

Our first step was to find a center stone. Kailyn desired a diamond center stone that was more elongated and had softer curves. I sourced for several shape options including movals, pears, and marquises. But I knew this diamond couldn’t be too traditional; it needed to have soul, character. So I centered my search on more vintage inspired diamonds. We landed on this beautiful 0.60ct marquise brilliant diamond from Poli Trading Co.

Once I had the diamond, it all came together. I sketched out the rough ideas floating around in my brain and once I had a solid concept, I hashed it out in my 3D modeling program.

CAD design of one of a kind marquise diamond engagement ring — 3D Technical Design of Kailyn’s Engagement Ring

I then emailed them renders along with a video of a stone layout I was envisioning. I wanted to use a variety of green tones to play up her love of plants. The accent gems included an emerald, tourmaline, and peridot.

They loved the initial design, and after just a few design edits, we landed on its final version which is what you see below. Kailyn even remarked that the accent gems ‘felt like a magical little constellation’. After reading that, I knew too — oh yeah this was it!

Once we nailed down the design, the ring traveled through a myriad of steps including 3D printing, lost wax casting, filing, sanding, stone setting, and polishing…until it looked like this!