Custom Made Story - Heart Belly Bar

We had a customer from Barcelona that wanted a beautiful heart shaped belly bar. They has a clear idea of what they wanted and the design.

Before we started on this piece we requested some photos of the customer's navel from many different angles. This was to ensure a good comfortable fit. We wanted to know where the piercing was in conjunction with the naval so we could achieve a great look and a perfect fit.

A selection of suitable heart shaped Rubies were located at one of BMG's London gemstone suppliers. The Ruby was a 1.6ct clean bright stone, with the fire and the vibrancy we were looking for. It was half way between red and hot pink, perfect for the job.

Then our in-house goldsmith and setter could now go to work. The first part, known as the collet, is to hold the Ruby. Although these can be purchased in standard sizes, we prefer to make them ourselves for the optimum fit.

As you can see the handmade platinum collet is a perfect fit for the stone and centre piece for the work.

Now we were able to get to work making the base plate to set the diamonds in. The base was cut from a 2mm thick piece of Platinum sheet and domed it up - the curve of the metal will help the Diamonds to sparkle with movement.

Once the base plate was finished it was then soldered to the collet, and attached the bar and threaded ball. This was done with the help of the photos sent by our customer, and enabled us to get the angle right for the piercing.

It is now beginning to take shape, the piece is sunk into shellack so it can be worked on more easily and the setting can begin. Then we carefully plan the positions and begin to set the diamonds working from the bottom of the heart upwards.

The last stone goes in which is of course the centre stone, then it is polished and the work is complete. We fitted the final finished piece ourselves, which meant we had opportunity to meet our delighted customers in person.

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