The Impossible Staircase Gold Cross Ring

Fine sapphire ring set in 18k.

The 15ct Sri Lanka natural blue star sapphire is highly transparent and has a unique cobalt blue hue.

The archetypal ring bears its cross in tacit silence and shine; the steps paved in white, the golden cross arises as part of up-down steps.

A stone en cabochon, a star at that, goes to make a meaningful whole in the organization of this personal ring.

Behind steps is the cobblestone, levelled and smooth compared to the up and down of appearances.

The ring is harder to build than it conceptualised, as the stone is cut with depth, a depth that we had to sculpt against a curvature.

Nothing is flat in this ring, right up to its ring band.

The stone is set at an incline, as the steps also revolve from low to high, observable only when one views the ring at its profile.

The eyes will climb the steps and know this, though its two-dimensional depiction creates the perception of a continuous climb or descent despite the impossibility of this in three-dimensional Euclidean geometry. 

The ring is inspired by the optical illusion of a staircase that appears to ascend or descend continuously, forming a never-ending loop: the Penrose stairs.

Though we wonder if the impossible staircase is straight out of our unconscious.

Burnished gold work rarely looks fine, but in this ring we are drawn to it: the seeming incandescence of its surfaces takes hold in all lighting conditions, a case of shine but not shiny.

The star is prominent but not hard. This is because the stone is so transparent, hence the star appears to glide just beneath its surface.

The sentiment is like a star in ice, a vivid blue orb encased by its radial fire, a personal ethos.

The ring spans 25mm around.