Inside the Jaipur atelier, where the Vine Ruby Cuff is pierced by hand with a saw blade finer than a hair.
The Vine Ruby Cuff begins as a flat sheet of gold and a pencil drawing.
Piercing
A goldsmith drills a pinhole into every space between the leaves, threads a saw blade through and cuts the outline by eye. There are more than two hundred openings in a single cuff. This stage alone takes three days.
Forming and chasing
The pierced sheet is curved around a steel mandrel, then each leaf is given its veins with a hammer and a blunt chisel, working from the front.
Setting
The cabochon rubies are set last, in closed bezels pushed over the stone a fraction at a time.
Why only twelve
One goldsmith makes each cuff from start to finish. He can make twelve a year, so that is how many there are.
