Diamond Earrings

The Making of … Diamond Earrings

Neil Lane's jewelry graces the forms of the famous and fabulous. Here's a look at the creation of one of his designs in platinum and diamond earrings

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By Julie Gordon found at images.businessweek.com jan '07

The Man Behind the Rock

A knockout piece of jewelry starts with a creative idea. 
Diamond Neil Lane Jeweler has had plenty of them since his career as a "designer to the stars" started about 20 years ago. Lane himself designs 99% of the pieces sold in his California shop. (His work is also sold in other stores around the world.) He is known for his elegant, moveable pieces of jewelry, including the heart-shaped pair of diamond earrings, which he has created several times, featured in this slide show.

From the Source

 Lane uses diamonds from locations including South Africa, other parts of Africa, Brazil, Australia, and Canada. He also uses antique stones, often very valuable and likely hailing from Africa or South America.

In the Rough

Unless a diamond is merely being reset, it arrives at its destination in rough form, where it must be cut into the desired shape. Each of the one-carat diamonds used in the earrings takes between four and eight hours to cut.

Cutting Diamonds Shiny and New

The cutting stage is followed by polishing, which allows the true brilliance of a stone to shine through.

Checking Diamonds Out

After polishing, the diamond is examined for inclusions — internal flaws — with a loupe, a magnifying device used by jewelers.

Platinium wire Heavy Metal

It takes a lot of work to create the platinum-wire tubing used in Lane's earrings. First, the platinum is melted and hand-shaped into a ball. The ball is then flattened and milled several times in a contraption that looks like an old-fashioned clothes dryer. Wire tubing is created from the grinding and flattening actions.

Handmade jewels 
Done by Hand

The platinum tubing is hand-fashioned into the heart shape. Lane's jewels are all handmade. "I do everything individually and based on the stone, so I don't have a standard one-carat earring," he says. Hence, each of Lane's pieces — including each earring in a pair — is different.

Unique Stones

Lane points out that two earrings and the stones in them don't need to be identical, because they are on either side of the face.

Diamond Setting in Place

After the platinum is shaped, the metal is drilled with holes that allow for the diamonds to be set. As with all other aspects of Lane's work, the setting will be done by hand.

Finished Diamond earrings Pair

This finished pair of earrings, which are about a carat each in total weight, retails for between $15,000 and $20,000. Three artisans (not including Lane) were involved in the creation over a period of four weeks: a platinum smith who fashioned the metal to create the shape of the jewelry, a polisher, and a diamond setter.