Design Your Own Engagement Ring

You're engaged or about to be !! How exciting is that? Of course, its one of life's defining moments, and the next step is an engagement ring. But what if you want something more than that which the high street has to offer? Something special which is representative of special shared moments or tastes, or perhaps you simply don't like the rings that you've seen on the high street and you want something different to everyone else that will never be replicated. Well. The answer is easy. Design your own engagement ring!

Of course this sounds easy, but there are a few things to consider. Firstly, an engagement ring will be worn for a girl's whole life (hopefully!) so any engagement ring design you decide on should be classic enough and wearable enough to see you through fad and fashion and changing tastes and trends. A good jewellery designer can help you to think through ideas and concepts which are meaningful to you both, to arrive at ideas which can be translated into a visual design. This might be based on a favourite flower, a colour, details from architecture or design or a birthstone amongst other inspirations. Details can be taken from fabric or paintings, nature, birds or almost anything to form the basis of your ring.

To help yourself, and your jeweller, try making a "mood board". This is a scrap book with pictures, words and designs that you like and perhaps might want to incorperate into your engagement ring design. Simply stick pictures or photographs onto it and make little notes indicating which aspect of something appeals to you - for instance you may love the colour of daffodils, or the way that waves hit the shore, or you may share a love of astronomy. These ideas could be translated into the use of a yellow sapphire, diamond or citrine in your ring to remind you of daffodils, or a curved mount curling around a central stone to represent a wave, or perhaps even a ring fashioned with a comet or shooting star as part of the design. You may love the designs of the Art Deco period, or Art Nouveau. It does not matter where your inspiration comes from - almost anything can be used to build the foundations of designing your own engagement ring.

Finally, decide on a budget which suits you – be realistic, and understand that some flexibility with budget is always a useful thing as your dream ring may be more money than perhaps you thought.

Well, when you have completed your mood board and prepared your budget; you can now move to the next step. Of course, you will need to speak with your jeweller and ask about costs and the viability of your design – be prepared to accept some changes if necessary, whether for financial or practical reasons. Also the jeweller may need to simplify your design or motif to make it fit your chosen scale, and some stones may not be suitable for everyday wear. There is normally a wearable alternative to softer stones, in most colours, so talk to your jeweler and ask his or her advice.

What's next?

Now, you need to know how your designer engagement ring will really look once it is made

Most jewelers will be able to prepare accurate hand drawings for you, or more likely these days, drawings from CAD (computer aided design). Of the two, CAD drawings are preferable as you can see your engagement ring design from various angles, and in colour, with metals and stones that you have chosen as part of the picture making it easy for you to see how the finished ring will look. Once you love what you see then a wax model will be made and the final ring will be cast in metal for you – stones will be set and the ring polished, and normally within 6 to 8 weeks or less the dream engagement ring that you designed will be sitting on your finger!! One company who do this is Atelier, take a look at their bespoke engagement rings.

Now all you have to do is sit back and wait for all the admiring glances from friends and questions as to where you got such a unique, unusual engagement ring and who designed it.