Designing the Peony Ring
The Peony Ring is based on the Peony Charm, a design originally created as a custom project for my best friend. For the ring, I wanted to create a design that would complement the charm without being exactly alike.
Sometime in early spring, a flower shop had in stock a gorgeous Coral Sunset variety (early for the season, the florist told me). I fell completely in love and took photographs daily as my flower bloomed, paled, and eventually wilted.
Peony flowers are so beautiful with their many textures and layers, but difficult to translate into jewellery — an abundance of detail tends to look confusing at small scales. To help me translate the effect into something intricate but still recognisable, I turned to traditional textiles and embroidery. The image below is from a book I have called Patterns and Poetry, depicting silk-embroidered peonies on a Noh costume.
Sculpting the Peony Ring
To create the Peony Ring, I used a mould to replicate the flower from the Peony Charm. The replica is made of blue wax here:
Drawing inspiration from the silk embroidery motifs, I carved a new leafy ring band in green wax. The arrangement of the leaves help frame the peony across the width of the ring face, and also provide lots of texture for sparkle! The blue wax replica and green wax band are attached together on a size 4.5 ring band here.
Casting and finishing
And here is the finished work: cast in solid gold and patiently polished to a mirror finish:
Learn about lost wax jewellery
For more on my studio and jewellery making process:
- Making the Koi Fish Ring
- Working with moulds for lost wax jewellery
- Polishing a gold ring (short video)
Thanks for reading!