Blog Post
The Rise of the Coloured Stone Engagement Ring
This month, we’re lucky enough to have a guest blog from Sophie Forbes from B Jewellery. Sophie is an accomplished jewellery designer from Brisbane, Australia designing beautiful sparkly creations with gems and diamonds and is here to talk about the trend to use coloured stones for engagement rings, a change from the more traditional diamond.
It is common knowledge in history that when a man was ready to propose the most traditional engagement ring choice involved diamonds and gold. From classical solitaire styles to more intricate Art Deco designs the beautiful and highly valuable diamond has been the go-to rock.
However it is more and more common for couples to become a little more creative and individual with their symbol of love. With an abundance of readily available information regarding unique, custom designs and various gemstones to suit different budgets and personalities, we are certainly seeing a rise in coloured gemstone engagement rings. Both men and women these days are in the market for something special and unique to them and that doesn’t necessarily mean going down the traditional diamond ring path.
Alternative engagement and wedding ring options include an extensive list of coloured semi-precious gemstones which are often less expensive than diamonds of the same size. These gemstones include Sapphire, Ruby, Emerald and even less expensive options such as Tourmaline, Aquamarine, Morganite and Quartz, just to name a few, are all incredibly beautiful and valid options for modern engagement rings. Diamonds may remain the traditional choice however couples are no longer confined to the one option.
With the increasing demand for unique custom designs with different gemstone combinations; sophisticated 3D modelling software plays an instrumental role in the industry. Computer aided design is a significant tool used to design and model jewellery as it can produce high quality, photo realistic rendered images showcasing chosen gemstones for customers to visualise their final product. This useful tool can be incredibly effective in convincing couples on their individual designs.
There is something quite exciting about the future of jewellery design and how many other ways we can grow as an industry and keep producing more and more unique designs using the most magnificent stones and materials.
By Sophie Forbes, Jewellery Designer, B Jewellery . www.bjewellery.com.au
5 Minutes with Sophie Forbes
What is your favourite piece of jewellery and why?
My favourite piece of jewellery is definitely my engagement ring. As a jewellery designer I have worked on and seen some incredible pieces over the years but always had the same design in the back of my mind until the time came where my partner and I decided we were ready. I really loved designing my own ring with my partner it was a wonderful experience and I love it more and more every day.
If you could add your dream piece of jewellery to your colleciton, what would it be?
If I had all the money in the world to spend on jewellery my dream piece would be one of the incredible Tiffany masterpieces by the tremendously talented Jean Schlumberger. He really knew how to design a statement piece of jewellery with no expense spared. Whether it is an incredible ring with an enormous vibrant gemstone and a lot of intricate detail or one of his famous gem set brooches worn by Elizabeth Taylor. Schlumberger’s pieces were incredibly unique and fabulous!
