Vintage, Elegant and absolutely Gorgeous

Clients always have this very common question... what should I do with jewellery I no longer wear? A few common answer might come up...sell it...give it away...but the most logical thing to do is to create a new piece that you will make you enjoy your old pieces all over again.

A met with this very nice older client to discuss just this question, so naturally I would suggest for her to work with me and create a new piece. She had very old pieces from different times in her life, some broken pieces and some that she just no longer enjoy wearing. She did have a lot of gold to melt down but I suggested for her to keep the nicest pieces, I restored them for her to enjoy again. We still had a lot of gold to work with and two very nice gems to set into this new piece, a genuine ruby and an old mine cut diamond(I am not disclosing sizes, since we didn't appraise it ourselves, we did sent it to our gemologist just to identify the type of gems they are).

My client saw this pendant worn by another lady, by her descriptions, it's a nugget piece. I highly discouraged her to simply melt down 10+grams of gold just to make a nugget pendant. A nugget pendant is not that bad if its something just to use up some odds and ends of gold. A nugget piece would be a very bad idea if we have such substantial amount of gold and really amazing gems to work with. I suggested a concept to her just to see how she would like my idea. I did a very quick sketch just to show her my concept and she loved my initial design and we went to have it created. A circle pendant with a nugget piece incorporated into one side, set with her old mine cut diamond. We then set her oval ruby on the center of the piece in a cut out pattern. We finished the piece with a really elegant bale that has a slight hint of vintage elegance. This is truly a nice piece to show what your deserted pieces of gold can look like after some slight creativity.

Needle & High Polish finish Saddle band

This ring was created for one of the couples that visited our booth in the Wonderful Wedding Show back in January. The client's ring doesn't exactly have a matching wedding band for it. We did some initial consult during the show but I did encouraged them to visit me at the store to finalize all the details. It wasn't that long after when they came and visited me to proceed with the design process.

I personally loved the "needle finish"(a very fine matte finish that resembles a fine texturing that mimics needle points) that one of my goldsmiths applied to my wife's wedding ring. I thought of using the same finishing on her wedding ring to make the diamond more prominent. The client's engagement ring was set with a trillion cut diamond, we decided to contrast it with 3 round brilliant cut diamonds. The sizes of the round diamonds was graduated(.04ct, .03ct and .02ct) to compliment the tapering of the ring's sides. This style of ring is commonly known as a "saddle band", it's basically a ring that starts at one side of an existing ring and then meets up to the other side. It is very cool to work with rings with very different shapes to it and add a saddle band to it. This way the pattern can be complimented by the new ring.

A Family Wedding Ring

Here's a somewhat unique way of combining 2 pieces of very symbolic jewellery, a wedding ring and a family ring. Ordering a family rings can often be very stale, choosing from close to 100 styles in our showcase here at McGrath Diamonds. Wedding bands can also be exactly the same experience, since a lot of styles are already available and why not just get something right out of the showcase? Right? Well for some of my clients they put more into buying these pieces of jewellery because of the fact that they do want something that not everyone would have.

One of my very good clients recently came to me to have an engagement/wedding ring made, incorporating her family's birthstones. She wanted something very simple yet unique. This ring may not seem like one of my most complex designs but this ring will be really special. It symbolizes her marriage and her family at the same time.

This ring is set with a Canadian diamond center stone with 4 2.5mm colored gems on the shoulders, 2 aquamarines, 1 blue sapphire and 1 citrine. This ring is very simple yet all the subtle cues that it is a Dodgie Dator design, well made and absolutely gorgeous.

McGrath Diamonds at booth 1012, Wonderful Wedding Show 2011

Come visit me at the Mcgrath Diamonds booth at the Wonderful Wedding Show starting tomorrow January 22, just until January 23.

Some of my favorite wedding photographs from my portfolio

Just like to share a few of my favorite wedding photographs from my portfolio, please visit www.blog.dodgiedator.com for more or www.dodgiedator.com to view my wedding portfolio.

www.dodgiedator.com

A Tribute to a Pet - created 2009

I've created a lot of really different pieces and there's always something to top it off eventually.

Dave is a very good client and friend of mine and he has been my client even before I started designing. He always makes sure that his wife has something very special each and every occassion. I keep on teasing him that my custom piece would always be way more special than anything we have on our showcases. One of the very reason why we haven't done anything custom is that he is a very busy man, travelling all over the world and only has in most cases days to decide on a gift for Wendy.

Early in 2009 he came in to just say hello and we chatted about a lot of different things, his travels and my upcoming vacation to the Philippines in late 2009. He later on expressed interest on having something custom made, and asked how long do I need to create something. He needed it for their wedding anniversary in September, so we did have a lot of time to prepare. He mentioned that it would be something to do with their dog, a terrier. Dave came in after 4 months for his initial consultation and he had a outline of a terrier for me to base my design on. He also had a few different things he liked incorporated into the design, a black opal and different shapes and sizes of diamonds. It became a layout project on how to make sure that all these different gems get incorporated into the design seamlessly. We decided to make a combination pendant and brooch piece to give Wendy the variety with her different outfits. The size of the piece has to be just right for a brooch and not too big as a pendant.

The finish product features all the gems in various sections of the piece. I used the black opal as an accent for the ear, using the various sizes of pear shape as accents for the nose and the bow on the collar. Round brilliant cuts as the eyes and the rest as the collar. We added a few more round diamonds to make the collar filled with diamonds. This piece is certainly one of the most unique pieces I've created in my years in this artform. I am so happy I get to make it for such a special client.

Symbolic Duo

This set of rings represent the heritage/lineage of my clients. It's their wedding bands and they had the symbols all specified and it was just up to me to make it up. This project is not a very technically challenging but the fact that it will symbolize the lives of my clients I have to pay outmost care on representing the symbols in the finish piece. Most of my pieces starts from a hand drawn artwork and this was not any different but I sent it to my casting house to have a computer redering done up prior to preparing the wax. I just want it to be perfect and a computer model is a lot more precise than any of my hand drawn artwork. With precise lines and symbols that needs to be 100% exact, I had to take that extra step to assure the success of the project.

The symbols include a tortoise, feathers, a bear paw and a wheel. I started a pencil drawing and enlarging each symbol to make sure that my artistic representation of each of the symbols are exact. The computer model just put all these drawings into a more 3 dimensional image.

The set was casted in 10kt white gold and they looked AMAZING...

Rising to a Challenge - created 2009

One of the most challenging projects I faced in my journey as a designer is to create a piece for another multi-award winning jewellery designer. In September 2009, the husband of another local designer came in our shop for a design consultation. He already have the gems with him and just wanted me to draw up a ring design for an upcoming anniversary. It was quite a challenge since the husband might be totally off with the taste of his wife and knowing who she is it even makes me think twice about decisions we are making. If someone would design a ring for me, I would be very critical about the design components and the fit and finish of the piece. All of my pieces are always top notch, since I want each of my pieces to be competition grade. I can't afford to slack off in any of my pieces since it represents me to my future potential clients.

I presented him with only one design concept based on some of the inputs he made and the suggestions of my co-workers here at McGrath Diamonds since they know the wife pretty well. this design is very simple yet showcasing technical components that might be subtle but very eye catching. the shoulders of the ring showcases 2 round brilliant cut diamonds and are tension set. This gives it a very contemporary look but keeping a very simplistic profile, the main gem is pink in color(not confirmed because the client never had it appraised with us) approx 4x6mm in size. We have the main gem set diagonally on its' half bezel head, this way the ring would have a "twisted" look showing off all the design elements we incorporated to the design.

I went for a month long vacation in late October 2009 just a few weeks after we had the ring produced. I had no updates how it all went while I was away, but as soon as I got back I heard some really cool news how much Kristy loved her ring.

Great challenges do truly yield the greatest achievements, and for me Kristy loving my design is one really rewarding achievement. With all the awards under her name, it's such a compliment that my designs is certainly up to par with the best out there.

Black Tahitian Pearl Ring "Peacock Embraced" - created 2008

I am featuring some of my really important pieces from my early years in designing here on my blog. These are really relevant pieces to my career as a jewellery designer, these would be some of the most important pieces in my 7 years in this artform.

This is my first Tahitian Pearl ring for 2008 , I love working with pearls and I think you will see more pearl pieces this year.

This stunning ring features a 10.7mm "Peacock" Tahitian Pearl with a nice mix of overtones, it's set on a swirl of 14K white gold embracing it and a 14K yellow gold tubular shank. This is a 2 piece casting and hand finished, the white gold piece has 12 0.02ct RBC diamonds, each hand set in channels. The yellow gold tubular shank has the pearl on one tip and the other end is accented with a 0.05ct RBC diamond set in a bezel integrated to the shank.

This one is for sure one of my favorite pieces as this is one of the nicest mix of overtones I've seen on all of my "peacock" Tahitian Pearls used in my designs, and the simplicity of this design adds to the enchanting look.

This ring is proudly owned by one of my best clients, Janet. Janet only wears the best of the best specially for her jewellery, and Janet and I already worked on a few custom pieces together in my years in this artform.

Simple Sophistication - created 2008

I am featuring some of my really important pieces from my early years in designing here on my blog. These are really relevant pieces to my career as a jewellery designer, these would be some of the most important pieces in my 7 years in this artform.

This a stunning ring made for the mother of one of my best client. She wanted something different that would combine a few of her current pieces into one truly unique piece. This is truly one of those really special pieces not only because of the technical merits of the piece but the fact that my designs became a family affair. A referal goes a long way and having a whole family refering me to their friends and family is worth so much to me.

This ring a 1 piece casting in yellow gold and has swirl patterns on top, had white gold tube accenting and set with a .33ct round brilliant cut diamond tension set in the swirl pattern. This ring is built for everyday wear and has a substantial heft to it, extremely wearable and very comfortable. Nothing has been compromised on creating this ring, stunning design, exquisite finish and a build quality that would be cherished for a few generations to come.

2005 MJA 3rd Place Technical Merits - Archives

I am featuring some of my really important pieces from my early years in designing here on my blog. These are really relevant pieces to my career as a jewellery designer, these would be some of the most important pieces in my 7 years in this artform.

I just like to disclose that this photograph was taken before my interest in photography. I admit that it would not represent it as an highly artistic photograph.

This is 2005's award winning entry to the MJA design competition, it received the 3rd place finish in technical merit.

It starts out with a two separate ring castings, one in yellow gold and the other in white gold, then set with a .28ct round brilliant cut diamond in a half bezel from the swirl integrated from the shank, the other side is then set with a 3mm round spessartite garnet set in between the 2 joint rings and then supported with a single claw. It's a nice substantial design that echos quality and the finish is second to none. It's such a sight to behold.

This ring is now owned by one of my best clients, it really didn't last long on our showcase after the competition. Carol travels all over the world to look for really interesting pieces and I've seen some of the pieces she owns. I am very proud to have one of my pieces worn right beside the best in the world.

2004 MJA's People's Choice Award Winner - Archives

I am featuring some of my really important pieces from my early years in designing here on my blog. These are really relevant pieces to my career as a jewellery designer, these would be some of the most important pieces in my 7 years in this artform.

I just like to disclose that this photograph was taken before my interest in photography. I admit that it would not represent it as an highly artistic photograph.

This was my 2004 MJA design competition entry, and it's a People's Choice award winner. It would always be a special piece for me since it's my first competition entry and it's my humble start into this trade.

It features a paisley mabe white with pink and blue overtone pearl, with a (approximate) .10ct round brilliant cut diamond set in a white gold swirl that is an accent from the yellow gold hand made frame, and on the bottom right corner of the piece features 2 0.015ct color treated blue round brilliant cut diamonds on white gold. This gorgeous pendant was sold even before the competition took place.

I will be at the 2011 Wonderful Wedding Show, January 22-23

Hello everyone, I would just to announce that I will be at the Winnipeg Convention Center for the 2011 Winnipeg Wonderful Wedding Show starting this Saturday January 22. I will be there as a designer for McGrath Diamonds, unfortunately I can't represent my photography studio there as I can only be part of one exhibitor. I would like to invite you to check out my photography website Dodgie Dator Photography, to view my wedding, portraits and event portfolio. I am booking 2011 and 2012 dates and I book only 3 months prior so if your still in the market for a photographer, I would love to hear from you. I have a very open schedule for 2011, since I was away most of 2010 preparing for my own wedding and some overseas photography projects.

I am offering a special gift for anyone booking my services through this site, just specify that you've seen this promo offer on my designs site when you email me at dodgie@dodgiedator.com .

McGrath Diamonds would be at booth 1012, we will be showcasing a HUGE collection of wedding bands and other gift ideas for your special day. We are also offering buy one get the second one half off on regular priced wedding bands for the show up until mid-February 2011. There's also a draw for a free Manitoba Marriage Licence on our booth, so please come and say hello. We are also setting up appointments for custom designing during the show, we specialize in really cool one of a kind pieces to match your engagement ring. Depending on how hectic it gets we can even start a mini consultation for your custom piece.

Looking forward to see you there...

Cheska's Alexandrite Pendant

This is another one of the most memorable pieces I created, this dates back to late 2009. I created this piece to be featured in our showcase here at McGrath Diamonds, Al asked me to create a piece that would be really different for the store. I love working with pearls and most of my award winning pieces were featuring pearls. Al asked ever so nicely to try a different gem since almost every piece we submit for competition were pearls. I conceptualized different designs and I was deciding on various other colored gemstones, Ametrine and Alexandrite were my strongest preference. I decided to go with an Alexandrite since it is not often seen here in Winnipeg and the color change properties of the gem will add to its' charm.

I decided with 3 2.5mm round and a 3x5mm oval Alexandrites as my gems for this really simplistic design. I went with a very light piece to keep the cost down considering that Alexandrites are one or if not the most expensive gems to buy(yes they can be much more than a diamond). It's a very simple design to put the emphasis on the gems themselves. This two bar design in 14kt two-tone is one of my best examples of elegantly simple but stunning design.

This piece didn't stay long in our showcase since my wife expressed her admiration on how beautiful this piece is. It was near her birthday when the piece was finished so I decided to present it to my wife as her birthday gift. She was so surprised and I am very happy to see her enjoying it quite a bit a year after I gave it to her.

Cheska's Ring

This is my favorite piece I created in 2010, I am a bit bias because this is my wife's wedding ring. It has to be very special, truly one of a kind.

I bought her engagement ring because it was one of those really off guard moments, where I proposed in a local jewellery store in the Philippines. I just want to be all spontaneous that day to really surprised her... and it worked flawlessly. Her engagement ring is not that elaborate but very elegant, she was just trying it on and really fell in love with it. We went to 5 or 6 jewellery stores to try rings on and just she didn't even have a clue that we are buying a ring that day. We went to 3 malls in Davao City to just "to get ideas", she really thought that I would be creating her ring based on the style she wants but I had a different idea... I truly want to sweep her off her feet that day. She narrowed it down to 2 rings and fortunately both rings were in the same mall...we don't have to drive all over the place for her to decide. We called a few of her closest friends to meet us for dinner and she had no clue it would serve as her engagement celebration. They gave their opinions on the two rings and she finally decided on the one she absolutely loved, so right there and then I asked her to marry me, she was teary eyed when she said yes...so we bought the ring. She agreed to have that ring because she loves it but she did requested me to create something really different for her wedding ring. I've created really stunning pieces before for a lot of my clients, so its no easy request. I have to make it as unique as possible but considering her preferences in the styling, simple and elegant as she decribes it.

Her ring features a .41ct Canadian Round Brilliant Cut diamond, bezel set in a one of a kind Dodgie Dator design mount. This setting is casted from a wax model I personally prepared, it wasn't carved as most models are, I melted the wax and let it flow on a mandrel and made the curves more unpredictable. I later smoothen the contours and shaped it into a ring, it took a bit of filling up gaps from the flow of the melted wax. It was certainly different than sculpting it from a block of wax, it made the ring even more unique. I asked one of the very best goldsmiths in Winnipeg to cast and finish the ring, we discussed a few different surface finish to make the ring even more stunning. I wanted it to be a 2 cast piece 14kt gold, one piece in white and the other in yellow. To secure the diamond I decided to bezel set it, my goldsmith suggested to put on a "needle finish" on the surface. I wasn't that sure if it would look good since it was a new type of finish he can apply. The finish product is certainly very unique and absolutely gorgeous.

I was so excited to present it to Cheska and it was all worth the amazing journey in creating the ring, my amazing diamond supplier in finding the perfect diamond for my needs and to my superb goldsmith in casting and finishing my concept perfectly. When my wife finally had the chance to see it on our wedding day, she absolutely LOVED it and she was so happy to be wearing such a one of a kind piece.

designs.dodgiedator.com is online

As of January 21 2011, I will be featuring my designs exclusively on this blog. There's two ways to visit it, designs.dodgiedator.com or dgzstudios.blogspot.com. My dedicated designing website, dgzstudios.com would no longer be updated, and it's contents will be slowly transfered on this blog. I find it that I just don't have the time to keep posting new pages on my website for a couple of years already, specially now that my photography business is gaining grounds I simply don't have a lot of free time at all. A blog would be far more exciting to visit, since it will be updated constantly(promise I will try my very best), it will take you more into the process of the design rather than just a portfolio of images to look at. It's my 7th year in designing jewellery, it was back in 2004 when my good friend(now still a good friend but competitor, David Howell) encouraged me to venture on this artform. That very year I submitted my very first competition piece in to Manitoba Jewellers Association's design competition. I won People's Choice Award that year and that gave me the push to continue designing. I won a couple more awards in the following years and a lot of admirations from fellow artists and clients. I love what I do and I will share more and more cool stuff I get to create for clients and for our showcase here at McGrath Diamonds.

Please check out my photography website as well www.dodgiedator.com or my photography blog blog.dodgiedator.com. I am available for weddings, events, portraits, fashion and glamour, commercial and product photography. I also sell fine art prints of Winnipeg, Canadian and North American landscapes, International destinations(Southeast Asian locations) and just the odds and ends of my artistic vision.

Thanks for visiting and looking forward to hear from you.

Updates Coming Soon

I will be going through my 2010 projects pretty soon to post some really cool designs I've created last year. And as my 2011 projects gets on its' way I will be doing a more detailed post on each piece.

I would like to apologize for the delays of updating my designing blog, my 2010 was so hectic. I was away for a total of almost 2 1/2 months, back and forth to the Philippines to prepare for my own wedding on October 28 2010, to my gorgeous wife Frances "Cheska" Dator. My photography projects was quite hectic too with as many as 6 weddings both here in Canada and the Philippines, Philippines workshop schedules in February and in October and a lot of portrait sessions. Please visit my photography blog to see most of my projects for 2010 www.blog.dodgiedator.com .

I also revised the layout of this blog to include more in-depth topics regarding my custom pieces, please refer to the dgzstudios pages on the right hand side of this page.

Please stay tune to all the upcoming articles I will be posting... lots of really cool pieces to come your way.

Thanks

Dodgie

REVAMPING MY BLOG

It's been awhile since my last post here... not because of lack of projects but because my photography business have been quite busy too. I have a dedicated photography blog site www.blog.dodgiedator.com to view what's new in photography, reviews and different articles. I will try to catch up with my other piece that I haven't featured here yet.

Please stay tuned....I am redoing the lay-out and adding different elements to open up my life as a designer.

Thanks.

Dodgie

Second Last Decision Session

Here's a photoshoot I did for "2nd Last Decision", these guys do rock! They won the "2009 MusicLaban" and this shoot was a promotional for Artista Magazine in Winnipeg.

Thanks guys for such a fun time.

2ct Total Weight 3 across ring-Just Product shots-I didn't create this ring.

This is just one from our inventory here at McGrath Diamonds, since sometimes clients just prefers something that is already there. A very impressive ring with a total of 2 carats in diamonds, and that's 3 large diamonds.

I love products shots and this is a gorgeous ring to photograph... you just have to see it on to see how truly impressive this ring is.