The Wedding Ring Workshop offers a unique service — a half day’s experience in a jewelry workshop where at the end of the day the couple will have made rings for each other with their own two hands. The business started in London in 1999 when the founder, an experienced jeweler, was asked by a friend to make rings for his wedding and replied, “Why don’t you make them yourself? I’ll show you how.”

Word quickly spread, and before long Barnes had so many American couples flying to London to enjoy the experience and bemoaning the lack of a similar service in the states the he decided to make the move to the U.S.

Now, by appointment, couples can go to a bright, cheerful and romantic workshop in Hillcrest opened by Lewis Barnes. Barnes, a successful English businessman, has lived in San Diego for almost 20 years and is planning his retirement from the trade show industry. Knowing that he would “go bonkers with no work to do,” he started Wedding Ring Workshop - USA to “do something that was both romantic and would keep him in touch with younger people.” Martin Kaster is the skilled craftsman who guides couples through the making of their rings and guarantees that their handiwork is as good as anything they could buy in a store. A native of Czechoslovakia, Martin qualified as a Master of Fine Arts in Metals and Jewelry at the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague, before he completed his training at the Wedding Ring Workshop in London.

Martin says that helping couples express their devotion to one another in this unique fashion gives him “more satisfaction than working on the Hope diamond would have done.” The couples too, leave with a sense of accomplishment that they proudly boast of to friends and family.