Engagement Ring 101

Our Engagement Ring Philosophy

Ash is sticking to the most classic settings but made in his organic, slightly wobbly style. He wants you to be able to see that they're made by hand, not with lasers and machines and some super high-tech tools we don't even know exist yet.

That being said, the number one most important thing for us is that these rings are as ethical as is possible for a newly made ring. So, all the metal will be either 100% recycled platinum or our ethical New Zealand alluvial gold. The diamonds are all recycled heirloom stones or lab-created diamonds. These rings are guaranteed for life and beyond, we want them to be family treasures that are passed from generation to generation.

Our Three Styles

Bezel Set:

Four Claw:

Six Claw:

There are some slight variations in photos out in the world:

If you compare this 6 claw to the platinum one above, you can see that the band doesn't taper as it approaches the setting. Either way is fine. I

This photo is from one of the first rings we made. Ash makes them now where the diamonds sit much lower in the setting as in the second two photos. This was a custom order where the customer wanted it quite high.

Diamonds and the 4 C's

We only use either recycled heirloom diamonds or lab-grown diamonds from Hoover and Strong We can also use selected stones from Columbia Gemhouse . The minimum size diamond we use is 3mm for a bezel set and .5ct for a claw setting.

This chart shows an approximation of how carat weight relates to mm (bear in mind that carat is a weight, not a dimension, so this isn't exact)

The Four C's:

These are the grading characteristics that are used to judge the rarity and quality of diamonds. There is an independent grading company in the USA called the GIA that grades and certifies all the diamonds we use. They are the most well-regarded grading company (there are others, but from everything I read, GIA is the most accurate and strict with their grading).  You can read all about the 4 C's here http://4cs.gia.edu/en-us/4cs-diamond-quality/

In general, we always use an excellent cut diamond and then we can adjust the other 3 depending on what you feel is most important. If you think of your budget as a pizza with 4 slices that represent the 4 C's, if you adjust one slice so that it's bigger, all the other pieces get smaller. For instance, if you mostly care about getting as big a stone as possible, we can go slightly lower on the scales for the other grading characteristics.