Three Lives

A couple in Boston wanted an anniversary gift built on the past, present, future idea. They said it plainly and then said they did not want it explained on the piece. No engraving, no little plaque. Just three pears on a bar, smallest to largest, so the eye moves across it without being told why.

We used three graduated pear moissanites in 18k white gold. The smallest is 4x3mm, the middle 5x3.5mm, the largest 6x4mm. Total metal weight is a hair over 2 grams, and that includes the bar, the bail, and the 16 inch fine chain. It is a light piece. That was the point, since she wanted something she could sleep in without thinking about it.

The first layout was wrong. I set the three stones at even 2mm gaps and the whole thing read like a bus stop. Even spacing flattens pears, because a pear is a directional stone and it needs the gap to grow with it. We rebuilt the bar with 1.6mm, 2mm, and 2.4mm gaps and the graduation suddenly had current to it. That cost one bench day and one scrapped bar.

Each pear sits in a bar setting rather than a basket. The stone drops into a slot cut through the bar stock and two end prongs, 0.8mm, come over the points at the top and bottom. Pears chip at the point more than anywhere else, so both prongs are filed to sit flush on the girdle rather than gripping down onto the tip. I checked each one at 10x for a light line under the prong. Two were fine. The largest had a gap you could see with the naked eye, so I pulled it, re-cut the slot by 0.1mm, and re-set it.

The bail is soldered rather than cast in, so the joint could be polished flat inside. Whole piece tumbled, hand finished with rouge, then strung on a 16 inch cable chain matched to the bar width so it does not slide sideways. 5 weeks. They asked for a box with no branding on it. We sent it in one.