S shaped Lapis inlay
This is an example of a complex inlay.
The inlay channel is very narrow, slightly over 1mm. The channel arches high over the ring and also has an "S" curve as you can see. This inlay must be done in more than one piece.
Although some cutters may use several sections, we always like to keep the number of pieces to the absolute minimum. In this case we used 3 pieces. It could be done with 2 pieces but then you would have a "joint" in the top center where it is most visible and we don't want that. Therefore, we use one nice piece across the top and have a joint half way down each side. We join the pieces as closely as possible so that the glue line is barely visible.
