Mini midnight star ring

With the first stars coming out in the evening and the deep blue sky, my heart feels full with wonder. The old fashioned star set natural diamond is surrounded by natural sapphires with silver beads holding them in all snug is here to remind you of that feeling during the day.
To get this haze of sapphires, I have to first lay the diamond in the centre of the blank pendant and draw where the starry points will go. Then lay out the sapphires and choosing just the right size sapphires to get a random yet organised layout. Once I have this all fitting together in a well balanced design, I transfer the design to my gem tray and one by one, drill and burr the holes for the sapphires to go. Once they are all seated, it's time to start moving the metal onto the gems to hold them in. This has to be done very carefully, so as to not go too far and then lose the metal that is to hold the gems in place. I then engrave a tidy line around the edge and have blackened the silver to enhance the darkness and make what happens next really stand out.
So now I have a star shape in the centre to put the diamond in. I engrave the star points first, then set the diamond with four little beads and do some more engraving to tidy everything up.
This intricate pendant measures 15mm across and is 4mm deep but hollowed out a bit at the back to keep it light.
The 45cm chain is solid sterling silver