Hammered 14k Yellow Gold Nugget Design Ring with 1/2cttw Illusion Set Double Diamonds

Two round brilliant diamonds sit one above the other at the centre of this ring, each held in an illusion setting — a fluted white collar with grooves cut radiating outward, so the bright area carries on past the edge of the stone instead of stopping at it. Both are set into a field of hammered gold, dimpled all over, and that field is held inside a raised polished border that wanders rather than running straight. The shoulders are heavy nugget texture, pierced right through in places so you look into the surface instead of across it. Half a carat total weight in 11.90 grams of 14k yellow gold.

Three different surfaces are doing three different jobs here, which is more thought than a ring like this usually gets. The hammered centre is matte and busy, so it reads as shadow and gives the stones something dark to sit against. The wavy border is the only high polish on the face, so it draws a bright line around the whole arrangement and tells your eye where to stop. The pierced nugget shoulders are neither — they break up the outline so eleven and a half grams of gold does not read as a solid lump. Take any one of the three away and the ring goes flat. That is also why the illusion collars belong: on a face this textured, two bare stones would have disappeared into it. Which surface would you have noticed last?