How to Design a Split Shank Halo Ring in RhinoArtisan

A split shank halo is the ring a client describes when they want the center stone to look larger, the finger to look longer, and the metal to open before it meets the head. It is a classic bridal request. It is also easy to get wrong in CAD: the split lands too late, the halo fights the shank, or the seats only exist on one side.

This walkthrough builds that ring in RhinoArtisan, on Rhino, from the center stone out. Fifteen minutes if you follow the video. Longer if you use it as a recipe for the next ten rings.

What you leave with: a symmetric split-shank halo, side stones that actually belong to the split, seats and prongs that can be manufactured, and a render you can send to the client.

Place the center stone

Start with the diamond, not the band. Size and cut decide the halo diameter, the head, and how wide the shank can be when it arrives.

Set a round brilliant on the origin, at the height you want on the finger. If the stone is still a guess, pick a real carat and stick to it. Changing the center later forces you to rebuild the halo and the split.

Build the halo

The halo is a second ring of light around the center. In RhinoArtisan you build it as jewelry, not as a circle of random gems: stone size, count, and the metal rim that holds them.

Keep the halo tight enough that it reads as one head, not a separate wreath. Leave clearance for the prongs you will add at the end. If the halo is already touching the future shank, the split has nowhere to go.

Draw the shank, then split it

Build a normal shank first. Get the finger size, the profile, and the way it meets the head as if this were a solitaire. A clean shank is easier to split than a decorative one.

Then split it. The split is the point of the design: two arms that open as they approach the halo, so the head sits in a V of metal instead of on a single bar.

Do this while you can still edit the curve. If you split after you have already piled on pavé, you will fight the stones instead of the silhouette. In the video the split happens around the four-minute mark for a reason. The shape has to be right before the sides get dressed.

Side stones along the split

Once both arms exist, the side stones have a job: they follow the split, they do not hide it. Too large and the V disappears. Too small and the shank looks unfinished next to the halo.

Place them so the last stone before the head leaves a little metal. That gap is where the eye reads “split,” and it is where the setter needs room.

Mirror the other half

Jewelry CAD is unforgiving about left and right. Build one side until the stones, the metal, and the meeting with the halo are honest. Then mirror.

If something is wrong after the mirror, fix the source side and mirror again. Do not “even it up” by pushing gems on the copy. That is how you get a ring that only looks symmetric in the viewport.

Seats and prongs

This is the manufacturing half. Seats have to match the stones you placed. Prongs have to hold the center and clear the halo.

Check the seats from the side and from below. A pretty top view can still hide a stone sitting on air. The last minutes of the video are this pass: make the model something a caster and a setter can use, not only something that renders.

Render

Put a metal, a lighting setup, and a camera on it. The render is not the design. It is how you show the split and the halo to someone who will never open Rhino.

If the split disappears in the beauty shot, the split is too timid. Go back to the curve before you polish the materials.

What to do next

Open the tutorial on YouTube and build the same ring once with your own center stone. Then change the finger size and do it again. The second time is when the recipe sticks.

If you want to run this on your own Rhino, start a 15-day trial or go to rhinoartisan.com.