I do a lot of custom work in my jewelry business. A customer comes to me with an idea and I make it a reality. Sometimes I create a piece from scratch, like I did with these dog cufflinks.
Click to read more about these cufflinks.
Other times, customers come to me with old jewelry that they don’t wear anymore and I turn an old piece into a ring or a necklace that is worn every day.
When the custom piece is a new engagement ring, I prefer that the woman becomes involved with the design. If she’s not personally meeting with me because the man is trying to maintain some element of surprise, I want him to come in with pictures she has torn out and/or specifics she has written down. My attitude is: let’s be adults. You two have presumably discussed your lives together. You should be able to discuss your ring options. Seriously, ladies, you wouldn’t have a man surprise you with a wedding gown that you only wear once, so why should he make a decision on an item you’re going to wear every day for the rest of your lives together? The fairy-tale moment of the surprise proposal is going to be ruined anyway if he opens the box to reveal something you hate.
I see it all the time. When a guy comes in knowing absolutely nothing about his intended’s wishes, he is guaranteed to go wrong in one of two ways. First, he might simply be completely oblivious to issues of taste. Remember when Aidan bought Carrie the ugly engagement ring during the Sex and the City series?
Aidan’s first choice. Courtesy Entertainment Weekly.
Luckily, she found it before he proposed and, with Samantha’s help, Aidan returned it and got something more suited to Carrie’s style.
The more common mistake results from the male fondness for statistics, ratings, and grades. Diamonds are graded according to the “four Cs”: color, clarity, cut and carat weight. Your average straight dude has no idea what a woman thinks is beautiful, so he reads up on the four Cs and decides to get his darling the most perfect diamond he can afford. This usually means a D color grade (that’s the top grade, assigned to colorless diamonds) , VVS1 clarity (very, very slightly included) and excellent cut. However, if you spend your money on those qualities, you have less to spend on carat weight. The fiancée winds up with a teeny weeny diamond that will only impress her friends if she takes it out of the setting, puts it on a piece of white paper and hands them a magnifying loupe. The characteristic most noticeable to the naked eye is size. You’ve got to leave some room in the budget for that by compromising on the other qualities.
Guys who don’t get good advice from someone like me (I described the amount of research I do for an engagement ring here) and instead rely on the idea of “perfect grades” to pick a stone wind up like some friends of mine. Years ago, before they knew me, Mr. X, as I shall call him, proposed to Ms. X with a flawless diamond from Tiffany. The stone was 60 points — just over half a carat. Unfortunately, Ms. X was 6 feet tall and given to wearing bold accessories. The tiny but perfect stone was almost invisible on her and she never wore it after they were married.
Ms. X’s original ring.
Ten years down the road, Ms. X met me and was cooing over one of my Gravity engagement ring designs. I told her to give me her flawless, 60-point diamond and I would create the ring of her dreams. I got the best gem-setter I knew to set tiny diamonds very tightly all around the original Tiffany stone. I put the combination into my Gravity setting to create a chunky, bold ring that appears — on first, second and third glance — to have a 3.5 carat stone in it.
The Wendy Brandes redesign.
Ms. X wears it all the time. Mr. X is thrilled and declared the ring to be “rock and roll!”, which is his highest accolade. Since then, engagement-ring redesign has become a specialty of mine. Sometimes women never got the right ring to begin with. Sometimes they’ve outgrown a look they used to like. Sometimes they’ve gotten divorced and need to turn an old ring into a wearable pendant. The reason doesn’t matter; I’m happy to use the original stones to create a whole new look.
Gorgeous blogger Deja Pseu (aka Susan) of Une Femme d’un Certain Age is one of my redesign clients. She was ready for a more modern, edgier look, so last August, at dinner, she handed me her ring and said she wished for something in the style of my Siobhan perma-stacked stacking ring.
My Siobhan ring. Click for more information.
Susan’s ring had one center stone of just under a carat and six side stones.
There was no way her stones were going to fit in the skinny Siobhan bands, so I came up with a variation on the design with a thicker center band.
We agreed I would use a mix of yellow and white gold. Then I took the stones out of the original ring to measure them for a wax model, and discovered that two of the side stones were badly chipped. (I’ve said before that diamonds aren’t indestructible. If they were, we wouldn’t be able to cut them into pretty shapes.) Damaged stones are likely to slip out of a setting and therefore need to be replaced. But in this case, we were faced with some unexpected issues to work through. The diamonds in Susan’s rings were old. They predated the color-grading system, but if I had to guess, I’d say they were an M on the scale of D (colorless) to Z (very yellow/brown but not enough to be classified as a yellow diamond). No one buys M diamonds now. I wasn’t crazy about the idea of getting dark diamonds to match the other old ones when Susan was investing so much in her ring design. But if I got her whiter diamonds, they wouldn’t match the others and, indeed, would make the old ones look dingy in comparison. While Susan considered her options, I kept working on the wax model of her ring.
Eventually, Susan made a bold decision to replace ALL the stones, even the original center one. Off I went to shop for a new center stone for Susan. I usually work with colors D through I on the color scale, but Susan’s original stone was so dark that I thought we could be thrifty and still see a huge improvement with a K. Imagine my surprise when I put the K in the setting and discovered that, although it was much whiter than the original stone, it lacked the sparkle needed to set it off from the matte white gold band that it adorned. More consultations with Susan resulted, after which I selected an H stone (and side stones to match) that was both white AND sparkly.
At last, the ring that turned out to be trickier than expected was finished. Note the matte finish, interesting textures and different designs for each band.
Susan’s new ring by Wendy Brandes.
Just like with the original Siobhan ring, the bands making up Susan’s ring are connected in only one spot, giving them range of movement and a true “stacking ring” feel — without the risk of losing any of the little bands. Don’t forget to scroll back up to compare the color of the new stones with the ones in the original setting.
The rings in action.
I delivered the ring to Susan this April. Here’s a shot of it on her hand. Nice manicure!
Click for a close-up.
Don’t feel sad for Susan’s original center stone. I have big plans for it, involving a yellow-gold setting constructed in a way to reflect a maximum amount of yellow into the stone, making it look like a covetable “fancy-colored” yellow diamond rather than a too-dark white diamond. Meanwhile, if you have any jewelry that needs freshening up, holla at me at wbjewelry at hotmail dot com and I’ll let you know what I can do.
Wow! It’s incredible to see this entire process. Great ring! It’s simply brilliant… really I’m at a loss for words. Love it.
That is one beautiful ring. I am so jealous. I need some serious jewels! BTW what is that nail polish?
You’ll have to ask Susan! Click through to her blog. I’m sure she’ll be glad to share.
omyLORD. i think every woman died a bit when they saw the AWFUL ring aidan bought carrie. it was just horrid! very very VERY glad you steer your customers in the right direction!
Susan’s ring is GORGEOUS, Wendy! My engagement ring has similar elements so I think that’s why love your design so much – the stacked look, the mix of yellow and white, chunky, a little vintage yet modiern, a little rock and roll.
We designed my ring together but I let my husband select the diamond without me. That made him feel super manly, I think. : )
i’m actually crying right now because you have no idea how badly i wish i could turn back time. mister and i wanted to re-set his mom’s diamond ring and we took it to our jeweler (who has a recognizable name). well, they ended up LOSING the 2 carat, D color, flawless diamond and the little diamonds, as well. even the lady commented how she couldn’t believe how perfect the diamond was. well, it was so “perfect”, they lost it, mister misplaced the paperwork (i wanted to kill him for that) and they didn’t have a copy, either (conveniently). basically, it’s been a drawn out lawsuit that it still going on. and i’m now crying cuz if i just held onto it for a few months, i could have sent it to you. it’s more upsetting cuz it was mister’s mom’s ring and it’s gone.
but i digress…you did a gorgeous job with susan’s ring. i absolutely LOVE IT and the design is so unique. And the mixed metals really add more depth to the design. all in all, it’s perfect.
So sorry to hear this happened! If they lost multiple stones, sounds like someone threw a repair envelope out (or stole it). I hope you get reimbursed soon! When you do, I’ll make you something beautiful.
They started off by claiming an ex employee “probably” stole it. Made no offer to fix the problem or come to an agreement. Then she started accusing us of taking the stones back and claiming we’re trying to pull a fast one. Needless to say it got really ugly. If we do get something out of it, I’m calling you!
Hi there-its great to see how your designs transcend from start to finish, this ring is just truly amazing, such a unique and special design-she sure is lucky!!
This is really interesting, I love these little behind the scenes stories. The Ms X ring mark II is truly rock and roll – my new motto is, no WendyB ring, no engagement.
OMG!!! truly amazed by this post!!! your gem setter is genius and I am so loving all of the different textures, this is just pure sheer genius!!! and Wendy you are phenomenal!!! I love this post soooo muccchhhhh!!! and I applaud you for only using D colour, you are a girl who knows her blings, salute!!! xoxo
Wow, these are beautiful. You have an amazing eye! Truly!
Thanks again, Wendy, for being so great to work with, coming up with such a brilliant and original design, and finding those gorgeous stones! I LOVE my new ring, and get so many compliments on it! And wow, the “glamour shots” are gorgeous!!
Fantastic post, Wendy. I love the insight into your design approach and process. And I love your philosophy on engagement rings…so many women want a bigger stone, and sometimes a little bigger is better than flawless and uninteresting. Though having shed one engagement ring and a husband already, I have to say I’m more of a band kind of woman. On that subject, hubby and I will be looking for a band for him (he’s lost two), and I want custom bands that match or share common traits. When the time is right, I’m coming to you!
♥ V
http://www.gritandglamour.com
I was expecting a great result.. but I couldn’t have imagined that great after scrolling down! That is like stadiums lights so brilliant and diliberate!
oops – stadium! I submit too fast! : )
This is beautiful work, as always. I love your integration of Susan’s stones with the Siobhan design.
I also love how clever the Gravity re-design was . . . I had to look twice before I could distinguish the small stones in the setting. Genius!
WOAH! Girl you have mad skills!!!!!
Love both of the remodelled rings – totally gorgeous, it must be wonderful to visualise such beautiful pieces and then make them, you have a great eye!
Great post, it’s really fascinating! I’ve never been a huge diamond person, but after seeing that last redesign, I think you have me converted.
Beautiful ring(s). I love the textures and shine. And astonishing post on the process. Thank you. BTW, the polish might be Chanel’s Particuliere:).
It is wonderful! I love the design and now I’m thinking my wedding ring and engagement ring look quite dull – drat!
Oh goody. I got “princess” for my anti spam word. Last time Easy Girl and now princess. It’s like they know me. Anyhoo, the redesigned ring is gorgeous and looks like it was meant just for Susan’s finger it looks so good on her.
Now I’m a “broad.” I could play anti-spam words all day!
I’m sorry, I can’t stop. Now the anti-spammers want me in “SATC2”
I can’t help myself. They want me to do the “foxtrot” in the movie. Too bad it already came out.
And they want me bejeweled! (You don’t have to post all of these.) I hope they give me the winning lottery numbers next.
Okay, this is getting out of control. They want me bejeweled with “sparkles.”
Oh darn, this is all a “dreamseq[uence].”
I swear I was going to stop at the dreamseq but now I got “gigidog.” Clearly they pick words based on your blog.
Your work is truly inspiring (if I were a jewellery designer, and I’m not. And it still is.)! I wish I had something for you to re-design. Actually, I wish I had your Borgia Poison Ring. Not really an appropriate engagement ring, right? Would I care? Not in the least!
This is such a great post. It’s amazing the different ways you can set a classic stone to make it truly special and a knockout. Your friend’s redesign is just amazing. I’ve always loved your Siobhan stackable ring and to see it done for someone’s engagement ring is amazing. It’s true, you outgrow, become a different person for when you are given the engagement ring to the woman you are today.
That is quite a ring!Love the image of the ring “in action.”
I am in love with your redesign work! Especially that Tiffany ring and Susan’s ring as well! You’ve seriously given so much personality to both of those rings, I love it!
WendyB did such a fabulous job on Une Femme’s ring. Also, Miss J loves WendyB’s tutorials.
That is one funky yet classic, stunning yet intricate, and highly paris-worthy ring for Pseu. Wow!
(word veri: hotmess) NOT
Beautiful redesigns!
Holy crap! The redesigned rings are gorgeous!
How do you feel about working with Cubic Zirconias? I have three-stone engagement ring in a classic style that I wouldn’t mind gussying up.
I love these behind-the-scenes posts of yours, and your thoughts on engagement rings are spot on. One of these days I’d like to repurpose my engagement/wedding ring from my previous marriage and turn it into something I can actually wear. I’ll definitely be in touch!
You know, I didnt know what to expect when I saw on twitter you were working on this post. It is beyond amazing, the work is so exquisite! You are an amazing visionary and artist Wendy!
OMG I am in LOVE! Diamonds are a girls best friend?! No Wendy B is a girls best friend. Good God girl! :)smiles, gina
Wendy, I got such a thrill out of this post! I really enjoy seeing jewelers’ process in action… I worked for a wonderful Mad Ave. jeweler (basic stuff, as I’m not a true jeweler, just a novice) and always loved seeing the pieces go from drawing/gouache to model to finished item. And you came up with such clever designs!
I love the mix of metals on the last recreation, just beautiful. xo Mish
I love these stories. Engagement rings should be unique and not cookie-cutter. When I need to redesign my bling, I know who to call!
Love Susan’s new ring and love the Chanel Particuliere polish too.
I absolutely love your redesigns of those rings. They are beautiful!! Those cufflinks are so cute also.:)SarahD
Wow great post. Every man should get a copy of this. Every single one of them. I love your redesigns here. Beautiful. Xxxx
I totally remember the Sex and the City scene… How – almost – awful and embarrassing to sweet Aidan! But… some poor guys just have so much hard time with reading into the tastes of their sweethearts. Like one of my exes who got me a huge bottle of Coco perfume – when I was way too young for that scent! Of course he meant well, and of course I never told him the truth.
I’ve seen this ring in the flesh (in the metal) and these pictures do it no justice.
WendyB, your work ASTOUNDS me.
And I need to send you my former engagement ring with lotsa money so you can do something cool with it. =D
I think this is my favourite post of yours Wendy, I loved seeing the designs come together and the stories behind each one. Really, really fascinating and you are such a talent!
Beautiful job, Wendy! The rings are spectacular 🙂
What gorgeous redesigns! Wendy, if I ever end up getting engaged I’m going to ask that boy to go to you for my ring. 🙂
(Oh man, Nina’s story is terrible. What a frustrating ordeal.)
Can I just say your redesigns are ridiculously amazing and when I get married one day I would hope that my fiance is smart enough to go to someone with your talent to create my ring.
Great transformation!