If you knew me, you would know that I’m both an awful liar and hopeless at keeping secrets.
So I kind of have to credit myself for being able to keep this on the down low, considering Fabienne and I had designed my ring before I left to go overseas. A little under a year ago now.
But the time is finally here, when I can share my beautiful custom ring I designed with YCL Jewels and the story behind its creation.
THE BACKGROUND.
Tom proposed to me when we were 21, with an incredible 1920’s antique ring. A marquise shape with 21 pave diamonds (how perfect right?)
However given that jewellery designed and made at this time, was NOT designed to be worn, all the time. And the fact that I was fairly careless, my ring suffered a few trials over the years.
I lost the main diamond, and FOUND it. I’m not sure how it happened, but we’d been looking at wedding venues all day and I noticed that it was missing when we were sitting having coffee at Harvest Café in Newrybar. I burst into tears as I couldn’t remember for the life of me when I’d last looked at it, in order to try and pinpoint where it may have been lost.
But as my dad was paying the bill and we were getting ready to leave, I noticed what looked like a speck of paint on the wooden decking. I bent down and picked it up, and it was my diamond. No clue how I got so lucky that it didn’t fall out whilst wandering through grassy fields, or that it even landed on the wooden decking without slipping through the cracks.
After this, I was of course… somewhat more careful…. But I’m not going to say I never wore it surfing… or to my fitness classes. I know. I’m the worst and should not be in possession of precious jewellery.
But I adore my ring and when the time came for our wedding [read more about that here], I really didn’t want to build anything onto it as my wedding band. I loved it just as it was and didn’t want to alter the original design. Plus, in the years leading up to our wedding I became more aware and passionate about ethical and sustainable jewellery, so I didn’t want just ANY ring. But it was one of those things that fell by the way side and I didn’t organise anything to be made in time.
So here we are, two years after our wedding and I have the most beautiful creation that even rivals my original engagement ring.
THE DESIGN PROCESS.
I’ve known Fabienne and have loved and lived in YCL Jewels for a number of years now. And I just KNEW that I could trust her to create something that felt like me and most importantly, was consciously created.
When we met, it was all about taking inspiration and elements from my engagement ring and creating a ring set that I could wear day to day.
We designed one style, and then when she launched her ceremonial collection I tried on the range and we did a complete redesign. Because jewellery is more than a look right… it makes you FEEL something. And that is what trying on her ceremonial pieces did.
It was important that the ring felt connected to the original ring Tom chose for me. So we decided to keep the marquise shape and incorporate some of the pave elements into the wedding band.
I also wanted to rings to have a vintage, almost mismatched feel. That they would stack together, but not perfectly. I loved the idea of it feeling like I was bringing together different vintage rings that I’d collected.
We did a sample set, just to make sure that were 100% perfect. And I was in love from the instant I put them on.
It was such a special experience designing something together with my husband and Fab. And I’m so appreciative of the care and thoughtfulness that Fab dedicated to ensure this ring reflected my style and heart.
THE DETAILS.
My custom rings are 14K solid yellow gold. And don’t let that sparkle fool you. It’s convincing, but the stones are not diamonds. Instead my rings feature moissanite stones, which is a man-made stone.
Moissanite is note mined out of the Earth, and hence causes no disruption to the eco-system or wildlife. Moissanite scores 9.25 on the Mohs scale, which means it is one of the hardest substances available and hence PERFECT for rings that are worn daily.
From start to finish, my rings were designed, created and crafted responsibly. So my heart and mind can rest easy knowing that no beings or environment were harmed in order for me to have these beautiful pieces.
I chose to avoid diamonds, as between the mining and environmental aspects, as well the treatment of workers and humanitarian issues, it’s just really difficult to find ethically sourced diamonds.
And the fact that diamonds themselves have a monopoly on engagement rings is just a really great marketing strategy. They are not as precious or rare as the jewellery industry has lead us to believe at all. In fact there are probably more diamonds in the ocean than on land. As when they were trying to make diamonds appear rare (and hence keep the value up), they started just dumping them in the ocean.
So whilst I love my original engagement ring, and am grateful that it is at least antique [and didn’t contribute to ongoing diamond mining]. I’m now ALL ABOUT different stones, and how that opens doors for us all to express our individual personalities and styles more.
Oh and as a treat, Fab organised with my husband to have something engraved inside my ring as an extra surprise. My husband chose the quote from our wedding photo album.
“We were together. I forget the rest”
YCL have their limited edition ceremonial collection available now, with a new collection of simple solid rings launching in April.