Manadorned Full Crystal Pave

Yes, I’m always looking for something new to add to the collection - and given that I’ve learned how to make my own adornments from interesting materials like aluminum, it was only a matter of time before I stumbled on a new great idea. I don’t know what took so long for this design, but it finally dawned on me one day that I’ve always been a fan of mixed material adornments (such as wood/metal, aluminum/rubber, etc) and it really wouldn’t be all that hard to design a mixed material ring of my own! I have a few adornments with gems on them, but I thought it would be super interesting to revisit the ill-fated crystal pave experiment from a long while back. Surely I could make my own ring that was dashing and comfortable!

Guess what? It worked great. This design borrows from several of my other designs featuring a nicely radiused “comfort fit” inner profile. With so much time experimenting to get the curves just right, it is incredibly comfortable to wear. To really make the gems “pop” as the featured design element, I decided to make the ring out of unassuming polished aluminum and to minimize the amount of metal visible. This was a slight balancing act to achieve because creating too crisp an edge would lead to a sharp-feeling outer edge. On the flip side, a nicely radiused outer edge would lead to too much metal, deafening the bling of the crystal pave. I settled on a 2.25mm radius to find just the right balance.

There were a few mistakes made during the design process that caught up to me. I jumped over to Aliexpress to figure out a way to fill the inset with crystals - and there are hundreds of cheap crystal pave bracelets that can be had for a pittance. I ordered several sizes after gathering measurements and then hopped into FreeCAD to design the metal ring itself. Because I use RapidDirect for my machining needs (located in China), I just went ahead and placed the order for my first design with a 15mm wide inset at 3mm deep. This would have been perfect… if the dimensions of the super-cheap bracelets were exactly accurate. Of course they weren’t! Nobody would take the time to measure a cheap Chinese made bracelet to sub-milimeter precision… 15mm is “close enough”. Well, it was close, yes - but unfortunately, it left about .75mm of a gap to deal with when placed inside the inset cutout. Truth be told, the .75mm gap wasn’t particularly noticeable, but I knew it just didn’t fit well and the burden of knowledge meant that I noticed the gap every time I looked at it. The second small issue is that the diameter of the bracelet was significantly smaller than the diameter of the cut. That’s fine because the bracelet stretches (it is elastic), but I wanted a tight pave on the visible parts of the adornment.

I updated my design for a 14.25mm inset width, fired off the order, and got to thinking/experimenting with how I could make it so the rows that were stretched stayed on the bottom of the ring where it couldn’t be seen. After a bit of futzing around, I settled on building up some metal epoxy (J.B. weld) between rows that were fully stretched out. Since the first ring had a bit large of an inside width, I used it as a template and put the bracelet around it with some blocking to stretch the remainder of the bracelet out so every row was completely extended. This allowed me to take my time adding J. B. weld to the six rows that I wanted to be fully extended until they were locked in place nicely. Some care was needed to minimize the amount of J. B. weld that got between the bracelet and the template ring. Thankfully only a little managed to get in there otherwise the bracelet would have been impossible to remove from the template ring! Once everything was fully cured, a little bit of careful prying popped the adhesion between the ring and the bracelet and I was left with the bracelet as it shipped except for six rows spread apart and perfectly arced to match the inner radius of the ring. Nice. To tidy it up a little (even though the under side of the ring isn’t visible thanks to being hidden behind testicles while worn), I used a silver paint pen to jazz up the J.B. Weld. When the new ring arrived, the bracelet fell perfectly into place with nearly no lateral movement inside the cutout. Victory! To minimize the chance of pinching under the scrotum, I used some U.V. curing clear epoxy to completely fill the gaps between the extended rows.

I have to say, the result came out better than I expected. I’m not an especially glitzy person, but damn is this adornment striking to behold! The way the light sparkles off of the glittery gems evokes a red carpet award night impression. The perfectly radiused inner profile coupled with the minimally radiused outer profile provides fantastic comfort. The .775 inch width and .28 inch height promises a cozy wear for anything between a minute to a day. Being made of aluminum, the adornment doesn’t have enough weight to be noticeable, but the ample width helps it stay top of mind. There are still a few areas the design can be improved, but I am going to await delivery of some additional bracelets so I can try a few ideas out. Being paved with an elastic bracelet is clever in that it allows me to easily assemble/disassemble the inset, but this does invite the possibility of pinches if the bracelet shifts too much. It will also require some fair scrubbing (or a dishwasher/steamer session) to clean the adornment without allowing bacteria to take up permanent residence in the hundreds of gaps. I am thinking that both issues can be solved by simply coating the whole pave with crystal epoxy to lock the gems in place and minimize nooks and crannies.

In any event, this adornment has more than made up for the failed experiment of repurposing a plain crystal pave bangle. Having the experience of designing several comfortable rings, this one was destined to follow suit. The design itself, even though made of cheap gems, is a quite a stunner. The polished aluminum subtly adds to the elegance without taking away from the sparkle. It’s cliche to say, but the picture simply doesn’t do it justice. This one has made its way into my list of favorites even though it took a few attempts to get the formula just right!