It was winter and the snow fell thick and silent around the store. We were up to our ears in custom work, but never too busy to turn away one more.

A woman came to us with a pile of scrap gold and a sapphire. She wanted a ring made for her daughter, a nurse here in Cadillac. Because of the physical demands of nursing, a high setting or multiple prongs can be very obstructive and even dangerous to patients. Our challenge was to build it securely, while making sure that there was nothing to catch, snag, scratch, or tear. The ring also had to be built heavy to withstand daily wear and tear.

We melted down her gold, added fresh, and set the ...

What does one do, exactly, when one has multiple stones to put into a design? When you have sapphires, diamonds, and an errant garnet? What about when you have several stones larger than the rest?

Well, if you’re obsessive compulsive about math, your brain sorts the stones out into a pattern. If the number of stones happens to be easily divisible by four, you have a square just begging to be carved!

The garnet that belonged to the customer wound up being too abraded to use, so we found a lovely cropped-corner square to fit in the center, and this entire necklace just came together with ease and grace.

Pardon us if we̵ ...