Make Your Own Engagement Ring Workshop Bristol | Peter's Platinum Three Stone Ring

There are clients who arrive at the studio having thought carefully about what they want, and then there are clients like Peter, who had clearly been thinking about this for a long time. He had been searching for a jeweller who would let him be genuinely hands-on in making his own engagement ring, not simply watching, not choosing from a tray of settings, but actually making it. When he found the Make Your Own Engagement Ring workshop, he booked without hesitation and travelled 120 miles to Bristol to do it.

That commitment alone told me something about the kind of ring this was going to be.

Peter knew exactly what he was after: a platinum three stone ring, claw set, practical and wearable. He was specific about the details that mattered to him, the settings shouldn't sit too high, and the band shouldn't taper. These are the kinds of decisions that speak to someone who has thought carefully about how a ring lives on a hand day to day, not just how it looks in a photograph. I always appreciate a client who has done that thinking, because it means we can focus the day on making, rather than deciding.

Learning the metal

We began with the band. I always start here when someone is new to silversmithing, because it gives your hands time to learn how the metal behaves before the stakes get higher. Peter took a square section of wire and worked it around a triblet, the tapered steel mandrel used for shaping rings, using a mallet to coax it into a circle. He then soldered the join closed for the first time.

There is something quite particular about that first soldering. You are managing heat, solder flow, and nerves all at once. Peter handled it well. By the time the band was done, he had found his rhythm at the bench, piercing saw in hand, mallet, triblet, and blow torch all becoming familiar tools rather than foreign objects.

Building the central setting

The centrepiece of the ring was the setting for the central diamond, and this is where the work becomes more demanding. Peter took a rectangular section of wire and worked it into a rainbow arc, the curved form that would become the tube or underbezel for the stone. This then needed to be shaped into a tapered tube of precisely the right diameter for the diamond to sit nicely on top, with the stone sitting at the height Peter had specified: close, practical, not proud of the hand.

Once the tube was shaped, four claws were soldered into position around it. Each one had to be placed accurately, spaced evenly, and soldered without disturbing what had already been fixed. It requires patience, and Peter had it.

I had pre-made the two side settings ahead of the day to keep us on track, and Peter soldered these to the central setting himself, bringing the three stone cluster together for the first time.

Bringing it all together

The band was then cut open and carefully shaped to receive the three settings, fitting around them so that the whole piece would sit as a single unified form rather than a collection of separate components stacked together. This is one of the moments in a commission like this where you can see the ring beginning to exist properly.

Everything was then brought together in a final series of solderings, nine in total across the whole ring. Each one builds on the last, and each one carries the risk of undoing something that went before. Peter's work held.

What followed was the refining stage: filing, checking the symmetry and detail of the claws, adjusting the shape until the ring had the weight and balance that platinum should have. Then the polishing wheel, watching the metal move from a working finish to the bright, clean surface that platinum is known for.

The finished ring

Peter left Bristol with a platinum three stone engagement ring that he had made himself, almost entirely, from raw wire to finished piece. The stones will be set by my stone setter to complete it. Wherever the proposal happens, he will be able to say he made it, because he did.

If you have been looking for a jeweller who will let you do exactly that, the Make Your Own Engagement Ring workshop is available to book at the link below. People travel from across the country to use the studio in Bristol, and I would be glad to have you at the bench.

[Book your workshop here]

Want to see the full process? The video below shows every stage of Peter's ring, from the first bend of wire to the final polish.