To cover or not to cover

On common jewelry, you can often see rings that have some cavity in the inside. Such cavities are for the sole purpose of saving gold, thus reducing the cost of the ring. Such techniques are usually apparent in commercial mass production jewelry. When it comes to fine jewelry, saving gold will compromise on the quality of the item and won't affect the price vs. the value of the piece. It is much more valuable to make the item look sturdy and nice than just save a few dollars on costs. It is like producing an Aston Martin Vanquish and installing synthetic upholstery instead of real leather. A picture worth a thousand words so let me further explain with illustrations:

This cavity is unnecessary and applied for the purpose of saving gold. The savings here is not much (less than 1 gram) but the damage caused to the look worth much more than the savings.

Same goes to this ring. The saving here might be a gram or a bit more, but it is also a larger ring. This cavity makes the ring look cheap and could be uncomfortable to wear.

So what should be done in order to have an item that looks beautiful, does not have excess weight and is comfortable to wear? Cover the open areas with a solid gallery or a patterned one. The below photos will illustrate my point:

The design of this ring required that it has two levels thus resulting in a necessary cavity. A patterned gallery covered the inside hollow. You can still see through the heart patterns, but it gives the ring a better look than without the gallery.

This eternity band's stones holes go through for maximum color output and so that dirt would not stuck under the stones. A nice patterned gallery was made to cover the inside empty area. It covers the drillings in the back to the maximum and gives a nice look to the ring. Imagine this ring without a gallery at all, you would see holes all over the ring, and the ring will be unnecessarily heavier because the covered empty area would be not empty but solid.

The same goes with this ring. The inside of the bottom of the shank is solid. The top where you see the gallery has to be empty because the holes drill through. If no gallery is present, then the empty area would be solid and unnecessary add weight and thus cost to the ring. The gallery is done as separately and lasered to the piece upon filing.

Another angle of a ring with a patterned gallery.

The bracelet has a pattern gallery that matches the design of the front. It is advisable that the patterns be as close as possible to the design and when possible, to have the same pattern as the front of the piece.

The above illustrations show how patterned galleries can cover the hollowed section of the inside of rings. As I also mentioned, such galleries can be solid depending on the design. Rings using such galleries will look like they are solid inside. Take a look at the below images for examples:

This Cartier ring could have a solid shank without a full gallery to cover any cavity. But could also be hollow to a certain extent from the inside and then covered with a solid gallery. My say is that it is a solid ring; Cartier won't save on gold. At any rate, you will never see a hollowed shank from the inside from Cartier.

Another example of a solid gallery. The black like you see inside near the stamp is not a soldering line but reflection from the metal.

Although this ring appears to be solid from the inside, it is not. It is hollow to a certain extent and then covered by a solid gallery. Attention to details is crucial here because if the gallery is not soldered properly, the illusion of a solid ring will be lost.

Sometimes you might have designs that cannot have a gallery and at the same time you need to make sure that the back finishing is of a high end. The below photos illustrated a finishing pattern called à jour (French word) that leaves the stones pavilion facets open to the light. This honeycomb shaped finishing gives a very nice high finish to the item. It becomes not only a camouflage technique but a necessary part of the design that gives the item a high-end look. Take a look at the below images for a better understanding:

A gallery on this brooch would kill the design and add unnecessary weight of the piece. Honeycomb openings fulfill the purpose and also reduce the weight for wearability purposes.

À jour openings are not easy to make. Not only skilled craftsmen are needed to make perfect honeycombs openings but each hole must be thread polished for maximum quality. A time labor intensive and expensive but necessary technique.

So to cover not no to cover? When you can, you should cover and when you cannot, you need to be creative and apply various techniques that will preserve your high-end look and finish of a jewelry piece. After all, fine jewelry is art and art deserve attention and style.