David Ashton

LONDON

The Process - How We Make a Ring

David Ashton bespoke jewellery making

Truly bespoke jewellery making in London.

There are countless benefits to handmade rings—especially when crafted with the exceptional materials David uses. Discover more here, here, and here.

Commission Jewellery

A lot goes into making one single piece of jewellery

Watch the video or see the step-by-step process below.

Welcome to David Ashton Bespoke Jewellery, where exceptional craftsmanship meets individual luxury. Discover the meticulous process behind a handmade diamond-set platinum ring, crafted by David Ashton using decades of refined expertise and bespoke tools. Whether working in platinum, 18ct gold, or sourcing rare gemstones, David’s dedication ensures every custom design is entirely unique. Explore a world of precision and beauty, and find a piece of handmade fine jewellery that is exclusively yours.

Before
After: Large round natural brown diamond rub-over set in Platinum ring
  • 1

Crafting Perfection

First, we take the time to meet with you—either in person or virtually—to understand exactly what you’re looking for. Together, we’ll explore examples of David’s work, discuss your ideas, and if needed, create a few sketches to help visualise your piece. Once the design is approved, the making begins.

  • 2

The Art of Wire Drawing

Here, you can see our traditional draw plates in action, securely anchored to ensure absolute precision. To begin, a length of annealed wire is meticulously filed by hand to create a gentle taper. This tapered end is inserted into a precisely sized die—just a fraction smaller than the wire’s current diameter. Using specialised draw tongs, David firmly grips and pulls the metal through the plate. A touch of natural beeswax acts as the traditional lubricant, allowing the wire to pass smoothly, reducing friction, and ensuring a flawless, consistent finish for the final piece.

  • 3

The Rolling Mills: Shaping Precision

Here, we introduce the rolling mills, where the structural journey of our precious metals begins. Rolling is an essential metal-forming process where gold or platinum is carefully passed through calibrated rollers to reduce thickness and achieve a perfectly uniform profile. In bespoke jewellery making, this flawless consistency is vital. It guarantees absolute precision when shaping intricate components, enhances the structural integrity of the metal, and creates the immaculate surface required for master stone-setting and seamless ring creation.

  • 4

Before and after milling & drawing.

Every bespoke ring at David Ashton is built on uncompromising foundations. What started as a substantial 6mm square platinum rod has been carefully drawn and milled down to a precise 3.3 x 1.9 mm D-shape profile wire. This formed shank has now received its official British hallmark—a guarantee of precious metal quality and authenticity—making it ready for thenext stage.

  • 5

Sculpting the Perfect Band

A straight length of Platinum begins its transition into a signature David Ashton design. Relying on decades of experience, David uses half-round pliers and hand strength to carefully sculpt the wire into a perfect geometric curve. This purely manual technique bypasses mass-production machinery. This intimate, hand-forming process ensures the metal is never stressed, laying the groundwork for a bespoke ring that offers both exceptional comfort and structural longevity.
  • 6

High-Temperature Platinum Welding

Closing the circle of the band is a moment of pure alchemy. Utilizing an oxyacetylene torch, David fuses the platinum ends together at an incredible 1,768°C (3,224°F). Because platinum demands such extreme temperatures, this stage requires the steady hand of a master goldsmith. The result is a seamless, incredibly strong bond—the hallmark of a truly handmade luxury ring built to last generations.

  • 7

True Calibration: Perfect Sizing and Symmetry

To ensure the ring achieves a perfectly circular form and precise sizing, David utilizes a traditional steel mandrel and a specialized hide mallet. By choosing hide over metal, he can gently coax the platinum into its final, exact dimensions without ever marring or marking its pristine surface. This delicate balance of force and finesse ensures the ring’s structural integrity remains flawless

  • 8

Precision Lathe Work

Precision meets artistry at the lathe. This piece showcases the initial shaping of a custom platinum bulb setting, designed to seamlessly marry rub-over and grain-set diamonds. Bypassing the shortcuts of mass production, David hand-turns each component to achieve flawless geometric accuracy. It is this dedication to manual mastery that defines David Ashton Bespoke Jewellery, guaranteeing an entirely unique creation.

  • 9

Engineering the Perfect Fit

No detail is too small when securing a precious gemstone. David hand-sculpts the platinum setting on the lathe, checking its concentricity until it is perfectly round—a step that guarantees the diamond fits snugly into its seat without a fraction of a millimeter of play. He expertly turns the piece around to access its reverse side. Here, the dual magic of finishing and engineering takes place: David applies fine abrasives to polish the platinum surface to a brilliant sheen, while simultaneously machining a solid, precise post. This post is the hidden backbone of the design, engineered to seamlessly fuse the diamond setting to the handmade shank.

  • 10

Achieving the Seamless Weld

The assembly of a David Ashton creation relies on time-honored goldsmithing techniques that prioritize strength above all else. Here, the custom setting is structurally integrated into the platinum band via torch welding. By bringing the connection points to a precise red heat with an oxyacetylene torch, David achieves a seamless fusion without altering the geometric symmetry of the ring. The result of this expert thermal control is a structurally perfect joint—virtually invisible to the naked eye and vastly superior to standard commercial soldering.
  • 11

The Instrument Maker's Eye

Securing diamonds into a custom band requires flawless geometry. Using traditional marking dividers, David hand-measures the spacing for each gemstone directly onto the platinum shank. A layer of dark layout ink is first applied to the metal, providing a high-contrast canvas that exposes the incredibly fine, precise lines required for the diamond layout. This level of micro-engineering stems directly from David’s unique heritage: his early career crafting scientific and medical instruments in Cambridge. Today, those same rigorous, hyper-precise standards are poured into fine jewelry, ensuring each diamond is seated with flawless alignment.

  • 12

Micro-Precision Engineering:

True luxury is defined by the invisible details that create visible perfection. This exceptional platinum ring boasts a total of 103 accent diamonds—79 brilliant-cut stones sweeping along the shank and 24 nestled into the custom bulb setting—framing the magnificent central diamond. For a layout this intricate, standard jewelry-making methods are simply not precise enough. Utilizing specialized layout tools, David calculates the spacing between every single gemstone to a strict tolerance of This uncompromising dedication to geometric symmetry ensures that each diamond catches the light in perfect unison, delivering a balanced, high-end finish that defines haute joaillerie.
  • 13

After marking out, the holes are drilled.

Entering the delicate phase of micro-drilling, exceptionally steady hands and absolute concentration are non-negotiable. Each individual seat must be bored to the exact micrometric diameter and precise angular depth required to accommodate its designated diamond. To achieve this hyper-precise anatomy within the platinum, David utilises specialized micro-burs and drills. To an outside observer, these instruments look remarkably familiar—they are nearly identical to the high-precision tools found in a dentist’s kit, engineered specifically for flawless accuracy and tactile control within the tiniest, most unforgiving spaces.
  • 14

The main diamond is a rub-over set.

To achieve a level of precision that transcends commercial standards, David Ashton goes a step beyond the traditional goldsmith—he crafts his own tools. Merging the worlds of haute joaillerie and micro-engineering, David utilizes hand-made implements designed specifically for the unique demands of working with stubborn platinum and rare gemstones. His elite pedigree as a scientific and medical instrument maker provides him with a profound technical advantage. By custom-making the very tools he uses to sculpt, pierce, and finish his designs, he ensures that every bespoke ring is born from a lineage of absolute geometric perfection and unmatched structural integrity.
  • 15

Micro-Calibration and Stone Setting

True haute joaillerie requires an uncompromising eye for consistency. David meticulously categorizes each brilliant-cut diamond down to a fraction of a millimeter aligning them side-by-side to ensure a perfectly fluid transition of light across the platinum surface. With the complex, smaller accent stones already seamlessly integrated into the bulb setting, focus shifts to the ring’s shank. Here, the central channel of diamonds is meticulously hand-set one by one—a delicate process where absolute geometric alignment is maintained to create a flawless, snag-free finish.
  • 16

Revealing the Mirror Finish

Achieving a snag-free, high-end pavé setting demands incredible tactile discipline. David delicately shapes the platinum surrounding each stone into uniform, rounded grains, anchoring the brilliant-cut diamonds flush with the metal profile. The final journey of the ring is one of pure patience: a multi-layered polishing regimen. Because platinum is incredibly dense and notoriously difficult to finish, David employs a specialized sequence of abrasive compounds, graduating from medium cutting grades to ultra-fine finishing bars. This extensive manual labor is the only way to eliminate surface tension and deliver the signature, breathtaking mirror-shine characteristic of bespoke fine jewelry.

Skip image slider
Large round natural brown diamond rub-over set in Platinum ring
  • 17

The Finished Masterpiece

After dozens of hours of intense focus, hand-tooling, and multi-stage polishing, the finished platinum ring is unveiled. The spectacular design centers around a rare, natural fancy-colored diamond, beautifully elevated by a contrasting frame of white accent diamonds. By pairing the density of hand-worked platinum with the precise mathematical alignment of 104 individual gemstones, the piece achieves a perfect balance of structural integrity and high-end aesthetics. It stands as the definitive expression of David Ashton Bespoke Jewellery: an entirely unique, handmade creation where raw precious materials are elevated into an extraordinary work of wearable art.

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