You’ve already seen countless ring designs, trying to find the ideal ring, but you haven’t found the one that satisfies all your requirements. What else can you do? There is actually a way to get your dream ring – by designing it yourself.
The jeweler may create a computer model of your ring.
How Custom Ring Design Works
These days, many jewelers offer custom-designed rings, and in order to have one made for you, the first thing you need to do is provide the jeweler with an idea of your ideal ring.
Based on your descriptions, drawings or photos, the staff at the store offering custom design will create a wax model of your future ring.
The jeweler might also create a computer model.
After you’ve seen the model, you can ask for changes in the design.
After all changes are made, the real ring will be created, using metals and gemstones as per your request.
What’s So Good About Designing Your Own Ring?
The best thing about custom design is the opportunity to get the exact piece of jewelry you want.
You can tailor your ring to fit perfectly, pick the exact size gemstones so that the ring is well-balanced on your finger, and get the right combination of colors to complement your other jewelry or clothing.
You can also request multiple alterations of the preliminary design before the actual ring is cast.
The Not So Good Part
Custom design comes at a price, in the literal sense – having a ring designed is more expensive than buying one of the standard designs carried by the jeweler.
It sounds great that you can make as many changes as you want to the model.
However, many jewelers will charge you an additional fee for every major design alteration after a model has been created based on your initial description.
Another downside is that if you don’t like how your real ring turns out after it’s been cast, you can’t return it – usually, custom design orders are nonrefundable.
Therefore, you will need to spend a good amount of time coming up with a good design to make sure the real ring comes out as you wish.
How to Find the Best Custom Design Jeweler
Above all, make sure the jeweler you choose has a lot of experience making custom designed rings.
Designing and creating a piece of jewelry is a complex process, and since you can’t go back and change the design once your ring is cast, you want everything to go as smoothly as possible.
Also, it is preferable if the people to whom you will be explaining your design requirements are the ones who will be creating the actual ring.
It is much easier to avoid any misunderstanding if you are communicating with the staff directly involved in the creation process.
If you will be paying so much money to have an individual design, make sure that the result will be as close as possible to what you want.
Describing Your Dream Ring
In order to make sure that you and your jeweler are on the same page, utilize all options available to convey the image of the ring you have in mind.
Draw a picture of your dream ring. Bring photos of rings that resemble what you have in your imagination. Show actual designs in the jewelry store that look like the image you have in your head.
Anything that helps the jeweler understand your ideas will be useful.
Before You Give the Final Go-Ahead
Make sure that the wax model and/or the computer image of your future ring is exactly what you want.
You should be comfortable with all features of the ring, including the width of the shank, height of the stone mounting, thickness of the ring, etc.
Once the ring is cast, it is very hard to make any alterations. For example, depending on the particular design, resizing or making the actual ring thinner may be impossible.
Spend enough time before you approve the final design in order to ensure that your money is also well spent.
Where to Buy a Ring?
For diamond, emerald, ruby, or sapphire rings, we recommend James Allen (read review) because you can take a 360-degree look at any stone before having it set in a ring.
Blue Nile is another reputable diamond retailer we recommend.
Also take a look at the vast selection of rings at Amazon and at GemsNY.
