Way back in February of this year, I bought a very pretty coral ring while at the Miami Antique Show.
It caught my eye as I was quickly walking by and I had to stop.
No other customers were at the booth, so I was able to immediately ask to see the ring without waiting.
I asked the price and then I bought it! Fastest transaction ever! Once I got back home with the ring, something about it was bothering me.
I almost contemplated selling it, but then realized what had bothered me was the coral gemstone set in the center.
I’ve never been a huge fan of gemstones in the red/orange color family and although the red coral looks incredible against yellow gold, it just didn’t look right on me.
The geometric design of the piece is so unique–ovals aren’t done too often in jewelry, and this ring features several sizes of ovals as the main design.
With that realization out of the way, the next step was figuring out what gemstone to replace the unwanted, but lovely, coral.
A good and long glance into my ring collection was necessary.
Favorite gem colors are obviously greens and blues, so I wanted to stick with this.
Black onyx was a thought, but it seemed like it would look too 1980s with that as the replacement.
Lapis was another thought, but I feel like I have a lot of lapis rings already.
I noticed I only have one malachite ring which I wear quite often even though there’s nothing too special about it.
I think it is because I love the stone so much! I then remembered that we had a tough time finding very many malachite rings while hunting in Miami–so that was it! Going for malachite! I knew exactly who to ask–Clay of Zava Mastercuts.
He specially cut a lapis for another ring I transformed and knew he could do another flawless job.
I caught him right before he jetted off to Tucson so my timing was perfect.
He never even showed me any pictures, I trusted his judgement with the whole project.
He cut into a slab of malachite, finding and arranging the black banding pattern in the most ideal way.
I had only sent him the piece of coral that came out of the original ring, not the entire ring itself.
When I got back the piece of malachite he cut, it fit even better than the coral did! The ring is currently at my jeweler’s bench being sized and set–so the above photos are actually of the stone balancing in the setting on both occasions.
I cannot wait to get the ring back and wear it paired with my other malachite ring! So excited! And thank you Clay for doing another fabulous job! To learn more about Zava Mastercuts, check out their website.
Way back in February of this year, I bought a very pretty coral ring while at the Miami Antique Show.
It caught my eye as I was quickly walking by and I had to stop.
No other customers were at the booth, so I was able to immediately ask to see the ring without waiting.
I asked the price and then I bought it! Fastest transaction ever! Once I got back home with the ring, something about it was bothering me.
I almost contemplated selling it, but then realized what had bothered me was the coral gemstone set in the center.
I’ve never been a huge fan of gemstones in the red/orange color family and although the red coral looks incredible against yellow gold, it just didn’t look right on me.
The geometric design of the piece is so unique–ovals aren’t done too often in jewelry, and this ring features several sizes of ovals as the main design.
With that realization out of the way, the next step was figuring out what gemstone to replace the unwanted, but lovely, coral.
A good and long glance into my ring collection was necessary.
Favorite gem colors are obviously greens and blues, so I wanted to stick with this.
Black onyx was a thought, but it seemed like it would look too 1980s with that as the replacement.
Lapis was another thought, but I feel like I have a lot of lapis rings already.
I noticed I only have one malachite ring which I wear quite often even though there’s nothing too special about it.
I think it is because I love the stone so much! I then remembered that we had a tough time finding very many malachite rings while hunting in Miami–so that was it! Going for malachite! I knew exactly who to ask–Clay of Zava Mastercuts.
He specially cut a lapis for another ring I transformed and knew he could do another flawless job.
I caught him right before he jetted off to Tucson so my timing was perfect.
He never even showed me any pictures, I trusted his judgement with the whole project.
He cut into a slab of malachite, finding and arranging the black banding pattern in the most ideal way.
I had only sent him the piece of coral that came out of the original ring, not the entire ring itself.
When I got back the piece of malachite he cut, it fit even better than the coral did! The ring is currently at my jeweler’s bench being sized and set–so the above photos are actually of the stone balancing in the setting on both occasions.
I cannot wait to get the ring back and wear it paired with my other malachite ring! So excited! And thank you Clay for doing another fabulous job! To learn more about Zava Mastercuts, check out their website.
