When viewing this masterpiece, your first thought might be Fabergé. However, this was created directly from Alex’s creative mind and skilled hands. There were no sketches, designs, or schematics involved. Alex was looking for a new challenging project and was inspired by a church that he once was a part of restoring years ago.

Attention to detail was Alex’s focus throughout the project; from the magnificently ornate doors with large stunning windows, to the fantastic courtyard and the grand stairway. The more you look at this remarkable design, the more all of these meticulous details will jump out at you. As Alex was building this church, he imagined a way that he was going to display his masterpiece. This is where the idea of the egg came into play. He knew to capture all of the details, his egg would have to rotate 360 degrees around. Alex’s talent for handmade filigree was just the perfect finishing touch wrapping around the bottom of the display lapis.

Not afraid of a challenge, Alex decided to build this egg with a cross at the top. This cross would unlock and lock the egg, allowing the church, key, and the egg to all turn independently. This was easily the most difficult part of the process. Alex engineered the spinning piece to be able to freely pivot 360 degrees and made a hand fabricated key to allow the creation to be disassembled with ease. Being that the church portion is so heavy, Alex decided to use Lapis Lazuli as his eye-catching beautiful base. It provided enough weight to support the nine ounces of 14k yellow and white gold used to create this breathtaking project. The Lapis is set into a bezel and the support wires are counter directional to the above support wires of the egg itself. Adding the filigree bezeled base was an extra touch that Alex thought would top off this magnificent creation.

Now for some statistics:

  1. A total of 538 hours of labor went into creating this absolutely breathtaking piece. This is equivalent to 3 1/2 months of 40-50 hours a week.
  2. It includes 2.96ct total weight of diamonds in four different cuts; round, baguettes, and a half-moon cut. There is also a little diamond rondel in the wall lamp.
  3. There are 0.95ct total weight of diamond cut blue sapphires, 0.60ct total weight of diamond cut rubies, and 0.60ct total weight of tsavorite garnets.
  4. The base is a drilled piece of Lapis Lazuli that is 738 carats.