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Celebrity Engagement Rings: A Review

January 16, 2018 by WendyB

There have been a few high-profile engagements recently, and I’ve been keeping a professional eye out for the rings. Prince Harry gets a round of applause for one of the best celebrity engagement rings I’ve seen in a while. I like its well-balanced proportions and somewhat unexpected use of 18K yellow gold. Embed from Getty…

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Filed Under: Celebrities, diamonds, engagement rings, Jewelry Tagged With: celebrity engagement rings

Jewel of the Month, Part II: Abigail’s Engagement Ring

December 14, 2017 by WendyB

Every day, I get three or four emails in which someone claims to be a “big fan” of my blog and offers me $50 to publish a guest post (which often includes the dreaded “infographic”). Of course, anyone who truly is a big fan of this blog might have noticed that I haven’t had a…

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Filed Under: customer of the day, diamonds, engagement rings, featured jewel, gems, gorgeous clients, jewel of the month, Jewelry, my designs, platinum, wedding bands, weddings Tagged With: engagement ring inspiration

Wednesday’s Video: Jewel of the Month, Part I

December 13, 2017 by WendyB

The Jewel of the Month post for December comes to you in two parts this time. Our topic is the sapphire-halo engagement ring that I created for my dear friends Abigail and Max. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve already gotten a sneak peek. A post shared by Wendy Brandes Jewelry PR (@wendybrandesjewelry) on…

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Filed Under: About Wendy, diamonds, engagement rings, featured jewel, jewel of the month, Jewelry, Special Occasions, video, weddings Tagged With: engagement ring inspiration

Heart-Shaped Gems Can Be Lovable

December 4, 2017 by WendyB

Jewelry expert Jennifer Heebner has written about the increasing popularity of heart-shaped gems. As Jennifer points out, hearts in jewelry tend to be a love ’em or hate ’em kind of thing. I used to fall into the latter camp, because I had only seen poorly cut or poorly set stones that looked more like…

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Filed Under: birthstone, diamonds, gems, Jewelry Tagged With: heart jewelry

Wednesday’s Video: Engagement-Ring Advice

September 13, 2017 by WendyB

I’ve written about the problems of using nontraditional gems in engagement rings:  People are just too tough on everyday rings to mess around with pearls! That’s why I prefer to use only the hardest gems in engagement rings. Diamonds, for instance, rate a perfect 10 on the Mohs hardness scale, while rubies and sapphires (aka…

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Filed Under: About Wendy, diamonds, engagement rings, gems, Jewelry, video, wedding bands Tagged With: advice about diamonds

Jewel of the Month: Toi et Moi Ring for ANZA Gems

August 11, 2017 by WendyB

For a long time, the primary birthstone for the month of August was the beautiful green peridot. Accordingly, the ring that I’ve chosen for this August’s Jewel of the Month features a beautiful green … tourmaline. Ha! Fooled ya! Check out the new design in this video by A Thousand Facets. Absolutely stunning ring by…

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Filed Under: birthstone, diamonds, featured jewel, gems, History, inspiration, jewel of the month, Jewelry, my designs, queens, rings Tagged With: august birthstone, napoleon and josephine

21 Savage Is in the Game. Your Move, Rick Ross.

July 14, 2017 by WendyB

Back in 2011, I was thrilled to find out that rapper Rick Ross owned a ginormous, diamond-encrusted chain portraying his own bearded visage. (This was a belated discovery; Ross was wearing the chain as far back as 2008.) Embed from Getty Images There have been a lot of jaw-dropping chains in the rap world —…

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Filed Under: Celebrities, diamonds, Jewelry, music, necklaces Tagged With: rappers

Throwback Thursday: Judy’s Redesigned Engagement Ring

May 11, 2017 by WendyB

For the past few years, “halo” settings for engagement rings have been popular — a halo being a ring of smaller diamonds set around a center stone. I see a LOT of them. Too many to get excited about, unless a friend (or reader) of mine is wearing one. In that case, of course, I’m…

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Filed Under: diamonds, engagement rings, Jewelry, redesigns, rings, Throwback Thursday Tagged With: engagement ring redesigns, halo rings

Jewel of the Month: Eryn’s Engagement-Ring Redesign

April 10, 2017 by WendyB

April’s birthstone is the diamond, so it’s a good time to feature a custom engagement-ring redesign as the Jewel of the Month. This ring is particularly close to my heart because it’s now adorning the ring finger of my right-hand woman and branding chief, Eryn Patton. Before Eryn’s boyfriend Donnie popped the question, he and…

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Filed Under: diamonds, engagement rings, Eryn Patton, jewel of the month, Jewelry, redesigns, rings Tagged With: engagement rings, nontraditional engagement rings

Beware of Nontraditional Gems in Engagement Rings

February 15, 2017 by WendyB

I’m both a fan and a designer of nontraditional engagement rings. (In fact, my first big jewelry design — before I was even in the jewelry business — was my own unusual ring.) Therefore, if you don’t want a diamond in your ring, I will happily come up with suggestions for you. That said, there…

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Filed Under: diamonds, engagement rings, gems, Jewelry, my designs Tagged With: alternatives to diamonds, diamond rings, diamonds, engagement rings, redesigning jewelry

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MEET WENDY BRANDES

Award-winning designer of fine jewelry inspired by women's history and pop culture. A former journalist who writes about jewelry, fashion, medieval history, news, feminism, dogs, cats and whatever else is on her mind. Blogging since 2007.
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Original jewelry designs, photos and text are © Wendy Brandes 2007-2016. All rights reserved.

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