Part One

The Stone — A 10CT Old Mine Cut Lab Diamond

The centrepiece of this ring is a 10 carat Old Mine Cut lab diamond — and if you look closely, you will notice immediately that it is not like other stones. The facets are chunkier. The table is smaller. The culet — the point at the very bottom — is open and visible when you look straight into the stone. These are not imperfections. They are the defining characteristics of a cut that was born before precision machinery existed.

The Old Mine Cut (OEC) was hand-crafted in an era when diamond cutting was done entirely by eye and by feel. Each stone was unique — slightly asymmetrical, deeply personal, shaped by the cutter's judgement rather than a machine's calculation. That handmade quality gives OEC stones a warmth and character that modern brilliant cuts, with all their optical engineering, cannot replicate.

In a stone of 10 carats, those characteristics become impossible to ignore. The open facets are broad. The play of light is dramatic. This is a stone that announces itself quietly — not by blinding you with sparkle, but by drawing you in and holding your attention.

Part Two

The Engineering — Supporting a Stone This Size

When you are working with a diamond of this scale, the design has to work harder than it looks. A 10 carat stone carries significant physical weight. It has a large diameter. And its height — the distance from the table at the top to the culet at the bottom — is considerable. Getting all of this to sit correctly on the hand, without the ring looking heavy or bulky, requires deliberate engineering decisions at every level.

The Band Width — 3mm

We specified a 3mm wide band for the Arvine. For context, most fine jewellery rings use a band between 1.5mm and 2.5mm — delicate, refined, intentionally understated. At 3mm, the Arvine's band is broader. This was not an aesthetic preference. It was a structural requirement.

A stone of 10 carats exerts significant downward force on the band beneath it. A narrow band would struggle to support that weight evenly, creating stress points that could compromise the ring over years of daily wear. The 3mm width distributes that load across a greater contact area, protecting both the band and the setting from premature wear or deformation.

The Setting Height

The Arvine sits in a low bezel setting — meaning the stone is held as close to the band as structurally possible, minimising the gap between the base of the stone and the finger. But even a low setting, at 10 carats, carries the stone at a height that is noticeably elevated compared to a smaller stone in the same style.

This is unavoidable and, we would argue, beautiful. The height is earned by the scale of the stone. It is not excess — it is proportion. And it gives the ring a commanding presence that a flatter stone simply would not achieve.

Part Three

The Setting — A Seamless Bezel for Maximum Security

Our client's primary concern was security. A stone of this significance needed to be held in a way that gave her complete confidence — whether she was wearing it alone on a quiet day, or stacked alongside a wedding band at an occasion. She needed to know it was safe.

We chose a full bezel setting — a seamless rim of gold that wraps entirely around the circumference of the stone, holding it from every angle. This is the most secure setting in fine jewellery design. Unlike a prong setting, where small claws grip the stone at four or six individual points, a bezel cradles the entire girdle of the diamond continuously.

The bezel also has an aesthetic consequence that suits the Arvine's character perfectly. Where prong settings expose the stone from the sides — emphasising its elevation and letting light in laterally — a bezel wraps the stone in a continuous band of gold that grounds it. The stone appears to emerge from the band rather than sit above it. The result is sculptural, architectural, and intentional.

For stacking — which the client intended to do with her wedding band — the bezel is also the most compatible setting. There are no prongs to catch, no elevated claws that prevent bands from sitting flush alongside. The bezel sits clean and flat at the sides, allowing rings to nestle naturally next to it.

Part Four

The Modifications — Making It Hers

This is what customisation at Vai Ra truly means. Our client did not simply buy a ring. She shaped one. Starting from the original Arvine design, she worked through every decision with us — and at every stage, nothing moved forward without her complete approval.

Part Five

Why We Share This

At Vai Ra, we document our custom work not to showcase what we can do — but to show you what the process actually looks like. Because customisation is not a premium service reserved for a certain kind of buyer. It is available to anyone who comes to us with a vision, however formed or unformed.

The client who commissioned this Arvine came in knowing only that she loved the original ring and wanted something different. She did not come with engineering specifications. She came with a feeling. Our job was to translate that feeling into decisions — band width, setting height, bezel profile — and then execute each one without compromise.

Every custom piece at Vai Ra begins this way. With a conversation. With listening. And with the understanding that what someone wants in jewellery is almost never about the specifications — it is about how it will feel to wear it, and what it will mean to them when they do.

If you have seen a Vai Ra piece and imagined it differently — a different stone, a different setting, a different metal, a different scale entirely — that conversation is exactly where we begin.