I love all of my clients, but this couple was especially amazing. The bride to be contacted me first to start talking about designs. I ended up meeting with both her and her boy a couple of times since they also live in Omaha and they were so sweet!

She put together a collage of rings ideas she had found that she liked and we went from there. She knew she wanted an opal for her center stone and was willing to take the risk of having a soft center stone. She also liked the idea of sapphire but didn’t HAVE to have one. I took her ideas and put together several designs for them to look at.

After a lot of consideration, they both decided that the 4th design was “their ring.” Then the question was diamonds or sapphires for the side stones and what size center stone. I brought in opals in 5mm and 6mm along with diamonds and sapphires that could go on the sides and let them decide when they could actually see the color combinations in person. He didn’t want her to know exactly what she was going to get before the ring was actually finished so it was his choice, but it was pretty obvious when she saw the stones, which combination she preferred.

The final piece is done in platinum with a 5mm genuine opal in the center with pear shaped diamonds on the sides. The opal I found (and they chose) has amazing color play. Here are the stones and the casting before the piece was finished.

The piece came out amazing! I can’t wait to hopefully work with this couple again!

I love making jewelry, especially engagement rings, that are truly unique and fit perfectly for the person who will be wearing them.

A client contacted me several weeks ago for just such a job. His girlfriend wanted something floral looking and did not want a diamond for her center stone. He was debating between a sapphire and an emerald for the center but was still ok with diamond side stones, maybe. After hearing about emeralds being softer stones than sapphires and that an emerald could scratch or break, he decided to go with a sapphire for the center stone. He had seen this design of mine on a different website:

but he thought maybe larger stones that looked like leaves would be neat instead of the metal leaves. I sent him 2 different designs to look at.

He loved the second design and after some discussion, we decided to use tzavorites (green garnets) for the side stones.

I don’t always get excited when I see a casting because I did the design and know what to expect, but this piece was an exception. When I got the casting and stones I couldn’t wait to see the finished piece.

The finished piece turned out amazing. The blue of the sapphire and the green of the tsavorites fit together perfectly and the vine-y look of the metal was gorgeous.

I can’t wait to hear what she thinks of the ring and hopefully work on wedding bands!

In the last few months, I have had several clients come to me who do not want diamonds for their engagement rings. Not only do they not want diamonds, they don’t want other super popular stones for engagement rings either.

A long time ago, diamonds were not “THE” stone for engagement rings. Sapphires were. Then the big guys (DeBeers) got ahold of the diamond mines and they marketed the crap out of diamonds until every woman though she needed a diamond. I don’t think there is any reason someone should get a diamond if they don’t want a diamond. That being said, there are some limitations with other gemstones that should be taken into consideration.

Each stone type has a different hardness. The scale used to gauge hardness is called the Mohs Scale and it goes from 1-10. Diamonds are a 10 and are the hardest. This makes them great for jewelry worn every day for long periods of time because they don’t easily scratch, crack, chip, or break. All other gemstones are softer than diamonds. Sapphires are VERY hard and are a 9 on the Mohs Scale. They are also very durable like diamonds which make them a great option if you don’t want a diamond but want sometime that will last quite well. Rubies are also a 9 on the Mohs Scale (they are after all just red sapphires) which would make them another great choice for an engagement ring.

After you get past sapphires, you get into stones Chrysoberyl which is an 8.5 then Spinel and Topaz which are both 8 on the Mohs Scale. These would be pretty durable stones but probably the only one that sounds familiar to most people is Topaz.

Once you get into the hardnesses less than 8, stones are considered “soft.” When a stone is soft, it doesn’t mean that it will crumble in your fingers or anything. It just means that if you knock it on too many things, you could scratch the surface or even crack or chip it. Aquamarine, Beryl and Emerald are all 7.5 on the Mohs Scale. Emeralds are famous for being soft but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t used all the time and I even know several people with Emerald centers in their engagement rings. My aunt has an Emerald and while the stone is still intact, it is very scratched after wearing it every day for so long.

Going down the scale after that are:
Amethyst, Citrine, Garnet, Iolite, Quartz and Tourmaline at 7 on the scale.
Jade, Kunzite, Peridot, Tanzanite, Tzavorite Garnet and Zircon at 6.5 on the scale.
Moonstone and Sunstone at 6.
Opal at 5.5.
Pearl at 4.

I have never, and will never tell anyone to get a different stone than what they want because of the softness of the stone they want. I have made pearl engagement rings and am working on an opal one right now. People just need to be aware of how to care for and prevent damage to their stone.

The most important thing is to be careful when wearing your jewelry. Don’t do dishes or shower with your jewelry on. I basically don’t wear my jewelry unless I’m going out and trying to look nice. Take special care when cleaning your jewelry when you have soft stones. Some soft stones should never be put in an ultrasonic cleaner and even regular liquid jewelry cleaner can be too harsh on some things. There are jewelry cleaners specifically designed for pearls that should be safe on any stone. Most of all, try not to hit your jewelry on anything. I’ve never chipped a stone that way but I haven’t loosened stones by knocking my jewelry on things at work and at home.

Diamonds may be forever; jewelry is not. But, with special care and attention, any stone should be just fine though so buy what you like without worrying about what you are “supposed” to have for an engagement ring!

This project came to me after I stopped participating in another online jewelry website. The client had saved my designs and contacted me to see if he could still order a piece directly from me. I told him of course he could! And we got started looking at whether he wanted exactly what he had seen, or if he wanted to make some changes.

It turned out that he had 2 designs he was looking at plus a 3rd that he had found somewhere else but wasn’t sure if it was even possible to put any or all of them together.

Here are the three designs he was looking at:

He liked the thinner metal around the center stone in the top design, the diamonds down the shank in the second design, and wasn’t sure how to or if he should incorporate the third design.

After thinking about it a little bit, I came up with two designs for him.

After conferring with the women in his life, he decided to go with the second design with a blue topaz in the center, diamonds down the side, all in 18K white gold.

Even with the raw materials it was obvious that this piece was going to be stunning.

The final piece turned out amazing!

I hope he and his future bride love this ring as much as I do!

Because I will make anything for anyone, I get a lot of requests for non-conventional engagement rings. This particular client knew what design he wanted and he knew what colors of stones he wanted for a ring and I just had to make it for him.

He initially sent me this picture of a piece he must have either found on a different site or created on a different site.

He also told me he wanted Turquoise for the center stones and 4 diamonds on the side instead of 2 diamonds and 2 brown stones.

I sent him a render of my version of the ring he sent me.

The program I use to render my designs does not have Turquoise so I used Blue Topaz instead since the colors are close. He ended up liking the stones so much he asked to see what the piece would look like with faceted Blue Topaz. He was looking for a color not a stone so he wanted whatever would look the best in the ring.

He loved the look of the faceted stones and decided to go ahead with manufacturing using 14K white gold as the metal.

Even from the raw casting, I could tell this ring was going to be really neat.

When all was set and polished, the piece turned out amazing.

The client was super happy and said he would come back to me for wedding rings when the time comes! I can’t wait!