In April I had the pleasure to visit the headquarters of  Charles & Colvard® in Morrisville, North Carolina and learned how moissanites are made. What a fun experience!

During the tour we 3 invited designers where given the opportunity to select one of their fabulous created gems to design a special ring. The other amazing designers, Kristin Coffin and Heidi Gibson have a very different design aesthetic than mine but we all selected the same gem to work with: a stunning 2ct/8mm moissanite with a natural gray color.  It should be interesting to see the different creations for this amazing gemstone each of us comes up with.

Once back in the studio I kept playing with the moissanite in different lights to see which metal would complement the beautiful cool gray color of the moissanite best. My favorites were either rose gold or palladium. For a while I was thinking of doing a mixed metal design with a rose gold bezel and a palladium shank. But in the end I kept it more simple and in my signature style of a minimalist palladium ring that allows the moissanite to be the star of the show. A semi bezel seemed most appropriate to allow for more light play in the gemstone and expose it a bit more.

I created a model of the ring on the computer in a CAD software, then 3d printed that and made a silicone mold to create a wax replica. The wax model of the ring was then sent to my palladium casting firm.

The 3d printed model in blue and the purple wax replica to be cast into palladium during the lost wax casting process.

Once the rough casting came back it went trough multiple stages of sanding and polishing until it was ready to set the moissanite. 

Here the rough palladium casting of the ring at the left top along with other rings I was working on at the same time.

The cleaned up palladium ring on my bench ready for stone setting.

And here the finished ring:

The palladium was given a satin brushed finish on the shank with a polished bezel rim.

I recently got a few gray moissanites in and will offer this design again while the supply last. But don't wait to long as there are only a few stones available in different sizes. Also check out the other designs I have using gray moissanites.