Historically men have not been big jewelry wearers however, a family crest or signet ring is something some men have an affinity for. A well designed custom signet ring can be a classy and timeless design. Not only can the ring look amazing, it'll serve as a wonderful reminder of your family's heritage. There are different angles that you can take which will require making decisions about design elements. Custom making your ring allows you to decide how the crest will be embossed and what you'll put on the sides of the ring.



The first thing you need to do is find the image of your family crest. The best place to look for your crest it to go online and find a website that provides artwork. There are tons of sites out there that can provide this service and I recommend that you ask to get a high resolution jpeg. Look for a site that can provide a resolution of 200 dpi and higher. Once you receive the image decide how you would like the crest placed on the ring. You can extrude the crest up and away from the ring to create a 3 dimensional image. After creating the extrusion you can have a recessed area to receive the crest. This recessed area will keep the crest centered on the ring and it will also accentuate the shape of the crest.

Some of the rings that I've designed in the past were two-tone gold. The ring itself can be 14k yellow gold while the crest is 14k white gold. Again, the contrasting metal colors will accentuate the family crest and make it stand out more. The other process for creating the crest is to recess the design or carve the image into the ring. The will create what is called relief work and make it look like it was hand-engraved. Having the crest carved in the ring will give it an authentic feel much like signet rings from many years ago.

The next thing for you to decide is what shape the signet ring will be. There are several shapes available and the most popular are square, oval, cushion, octagon, and round. The shape that you choose should be based on the shape of your family crest. You'll want to choose a ring shape that best matches the outside perimeter of the image. For example, if your crest is somewhat oval then you'll want to choose an oval signet ring. The main purpose for this is to prevent dead or unused space surrounding your crest. The other thing that you should consider putting in your setting is a comfort fit, especially if you're not used to wearing jewelry. This will make your ring easier to wear while providing a soft feel on the inside of it.

There are 3 methods to making a signet ring and they include hand-engraving, wax carving, and 3D CAD design. Hand engraving is how signet rings were made many years ago. This involves taking the ring and using a process called chasing to create the pattern in the gold or platinum. The jeweler uses a small tool called a graver and proceeds to carve the pattern much like a sculptor. Benefits to the process include definition, detail and luster. When precious metal is hand-carved it also becomes bright cut or diamond cut in its appearance, this is what creates the luster. Wax carving is when a jeweler/model maker takes a cube of wax and whittles the material away until the ring and the carving are remaining. Once the wax is completed a mold is made of the wax and then the precious metals are injected into the mold. Benefits to wax carving are mostly cost savings as this is the most time saving of all processes. Drawbacks are the lost of detail and crispness of the end product. Hand carvings done directly in the wax are the least detailed. 3d-cad is when a craftsman uses computer aided design software to create a model which is then sent to a CNC mill or prototyping machine to create prototype for casting. The benefit of 3D-CAD is the fine detail of the work and also design the capability. CAD software allows the user to create anything the mind can dream up.

There's more than one way to get the job done when designing your custom jewelry. You should decide which is best for you based on the intricacy of your family crest and how you want the final product to look.