Scarab ring in gold

The scarab is an Egyptian mythological animal that carried with it a very strong symbolism at the time of the pharaohs.

Archaeologists have found tons of scarab-shaped amulets and thousands of representations of this insect throughout the kingdom of the pharaohs.

In fact, its symbolic imprint was so strong that even today Egyptian scarab-shaped jewels continue to fascinate and attract attention.

For this project we had the opportunity to create a large scarab-shaped ring in 18k yellow gold with customization elements.

View of 18k yellow gold scarab engraved ring made through our custom creation service

The symbolism of the scarab in ancient Egypt

Although he is only one of many animal deities found in the bestiary of ancient Egypt, his association with the sun god Khepri makes him an important animal and symbol, both in Egyptian religious worship and in the daily lives of Egyptians at the time.

This is why the scarab was found carved on tombs, depicted in the form of amulets to accompany the dead, or mounted as jewelry to be worn by the living.

Symbolizing rebirth, compared to the setting sun dying and being reborn in the morning, «the scarab was the symbol of being and becoming»

Archaeologists have spent years studying and interpreting the symbolism of the scarab beetle and a good summary of these studies is presented by Yves Cambefort in his article: The scarab in ancient Egypt.

This photo shows the famous sculpture of a scarab from the archaeological site of Karnak which is the largest representation of an Egyptian scarab known to date. Nearly a meter long and 50 centimeters wide, it is carved from a massive block of granite weighing several tons.

Gold scarab ring design for men

As for our ring design, our task was to reproduce the classic beetle ring design with customization of the ring amounts.

One of the ring posts should represent a standing woman wearing a toga and the other post should represent a seated woman breastfeeding a child.

Reference images we used to design the scarab ring

3D drawing

As with all of our complex jewelry projects, we turned to digital modeling for this ring project. This process allows us to easily validate the design with our client and is very flexible when it comes to making changes to the design.

After 3 drafts, we were able to finalize the ring design with the client as presented below. These images allow the engraved details of the scarab and the two women symbolized on the sides of the ring to be clearly reflected.

One of the other advantages of digital modeling is the rendering that can be done, which allows us to choose the metal we prefer and take virtual photos of the beetle ring to give a great overview of what the ring will ultimately look like with the chosen metal.

Virtual views of the yellow gold scarab ring

Once all doubts about the appearance and details of the engravings have been resolved, we can move on to the actual production phase.

Manufacture en o

Our ring is produced using the lost wax casting method.

We start with the production of a resin master using a 3D printer from the 3D sculpture created in the previous phase. To obtain the resin model of our ring approximately 600 layers of 50 micron printing are required.

You can see the latter below, showing all the details of the digital sculpture.

Resin model of the scarab ring that we will use to make the gold ring

This model is used to create a sprue pit that is embedded in refractory plaster. This plaster mold is then burned to destroy the resin which sublimes in the heat of the oven, leaving an empty space in our mold.

This space is then filled with molten liquid gold, which is molded onto the walls of the plaster mold.

This lost wax casting technique is thousands of years old and echoes the remains of ancient scarabs found by archaeologists dating back more than 3,500 years.

The ring made of raw foundry gold must then be polished to give it its brilliant appearance.

In this photo we can see the large size of the ring since it is a men’s ring measuring 68.5

Views of the finished and shiny gold ring, with a final weight of 13.5 grams

Gold scarab ring worn on the finger

Examples of scarab jewelry from ancient Egypt

In ancient Egypt, the scarab figure was found either engraved on the metals of rings, or carved into stone to be worn as jewelry in the form of a bracelet, necklace, pendant, or pectoral, as these examples show.

The stones used could be lapis lazuli, Libyan glass or even soapstone.

On the left, the superb gold and lapis lazuli scarab bracelet found in Tutankhamun’s tomb and on the right a gold scarab ring with a rotating bezel.

Ancient gold scarab ring with swivel bezel and right hand, a carved scarab bracelet found in the tomb of Pharaoh Shoshenq II

On the left a pectoral with a winged scarab carved in Libyan glass in the center and on the right a scarab bracelet in lapis lazuli stone

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