My own work.

Could this be a world first – a wedding ring in 3D printed titanium?

Kari’s titanium wedding ring and gold engagement ring

I designed and made my elder daughter Kari’s wedding ring for her marriage to Rob this last June in a beautiful setting in the Scottish countryside. It was a perfect day. It didn’t even rain.
Rob proposed to Kari. She wanted a specific engagement ring, one I had designed and made in titanium, machined and hand carved to flow around an oval diamond in a gold setting. This is now hard for me to remake but in January this year i-materialise announced their new service – 3D printing titanium (see http://bit.ly/hHMMnL) and Kari and Rob agreed enthusiastically to have it made this way. Personally, this was perfect as I am a 3D print evangelist (since a Stuart Devlin Masterclass at the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths in London in 1990) and I could 3D model it in Cloud9. The design would be super fluid with titanium flowing around the diamond of an interlocking gold engagement ring.

With this general concept my daughter and I visited London’s Hatton Garden to look at diamonds before she and Rob chose one – a beautiful square corner cut one.

3D printed titanium with nylon prototypes

Jeweller friend, Teena Ramsey, and I then finalised the designs for both rings which were then 3D printed as prototypes nylon for Kari and Rod to see, check ring size, how they slotted together, and for Teena to work with.
With all checked and approved an .stl file of the wedding ring was sent to i.materialise and in 2 weeks I was working on the titanium! Once finished we fitted them together – it looks as though the diamond is floating within the flowing titanium bands.

Kari’s 3D printed titanium wedding ring and gold and diamond engagement ring

 Mum, having made my wedding ring has given us a unique and special gift and our rings are now all the more precious to us.’  Kari