Say It With Stones: How to Incorporate Meaning With Diamonds and Colored Stones
Jewelry is personal. The mere fact that is was selected and given to you makes is special and meaningful. But the clever jewelry-buyer can up the ante, so to speak, and incorporate fuller meaning by carefully using diamonds and colored gemstones to add layers of meaning and significance. If you’re the creative type, you probably have some glittering ideas floating around in your mind already, but if you’re not, never fear: Rebecca is here.
The first thing to deal with is the occasion of the jewelry-gifting. Is this an anniversary? Birthday? Push present? It might seem like the occasion isn’t the most relevant, but it can actually provide the perfect backdrop for the perfect gift. With that in mind, I’m going to break this down for you by category. But no matter the category, this warning will ring true: do not wait until the eleventh hour. Since this type of jewelry is so personal and specific to your spouse, there is a good chance it will require custom work. This means you’ll want to allow ample time for the work to be completed.
Let’s start with anniversary, because my ten-year wedding anniversary is coming up in just nine months. Since I’m a custom jewelry kind of gal, my husband has already been tutored on what I want. And the jewelry designer we adore (André Duscio at Andre’s Fine Jewelers in Brighton, MI) has already been advised that this is happening. Now, conventional anniversary gift guides list the ten-year anniversary as an opportunity to give tin or aluminum. I’m not sure how well those supremely soft metals are going to hold my diamonds. Fortunately, the modern interpretation of the anniversary gift guide lists the tenth anniversary as the first of many to give jewelry gifts, and the guide starts off the jewelry gifts with a bang: ten years is diamond jewelry.
One of the simplest ways you can commemorate ten years is to buy a ring with ten diamonds. If this elegant and simple avenue sounds ideal, I recommend the Pyrenees Wedding Ring. The Pyrenees features ten 0.10ct round white diamonds, for a total weight of one carat. The diamonds are channel set, so there are no prongs or metal in between the diamonds, and you can get this stunner in white or yellow 14k gold.
Waiting until ten years might not be right for you. If you want to surprise your love with a diamond anniversary band prior to ten years, I’d wager you won’t be hearing any complaints. Check out our selection of diamond anniversary bands. There are bands that have three, five, seven, nine, even 22 diamonds (or more!) in them. Whatever year you’re trying to capture, Timeless has the perfect fit.
If you’re a couple who has children, the kidlets can be a great source of inspiration when it comes to creating a noteworthy piece of jewelry. Although going to the mothers’ jewelry route (which often uses the individual birthstones of the children) is an option, I want to open your eyes to some other elucidations. The thing to remember about the birthstone route is that sometimes the combinations of stones aren’t the most attractive. This is the case with my kids. I have three sons; one was born in September and the other two in October (no, they’re not twins). This would yield one sapphire and two pink tourmalines. Beautiful stones, by themselves, without a doubt. But I’m not crazy about them in concert with each other.
To remedy this color clash, but still have my kids prominently featured, I could go with three blue stones, since all three of my kids are boys. I could choose sapphire, blue topaz, or aquamarine. I could even stretch it and go with the deep periwinkle gem tanzanite. If you have girls, you have similar options (pink tourmaline, pink sapphire, pink diamond, alexandrite or amethyst if you want to pull a little purple in).
Another option is to consider your and your spouse’s birthstones. This is another one that is tricky, but it could work for some couples. Consider your color wheel from elementary school. What happens when we combine colors? My in-laws are a great example of how this can work. Their birthstones are citrine (a dark golden yellow) and garnet (a dark blood red with a hint of brown). Combining those colors would yield a very pretty and vibrant orange. Technically called spessartite garnets, these are commonly referred to as mandarin garnets. They are orange to red-orange in color. They could use spessartite garnets to represent their kids, as the literal blending of themselves into the next generation of their family.
If you’re really lucky, as I am, you might have a specialty gemstone that fits the bill. My birthday is in February and my husband’s is in November, giving us birthstones of amethyst and citrine, respectively. Now, there is a stone called ametrine. Ametrine is also called bolivianite, as it is mined (for commercial purposes) only in Bolivia. As you might imagine, it is a blending of amethyst and citrine. This is possible by differing iron oxidation rates and varying temperatures during the time when the quartz crystal was forming. Ametrine is stunning. It looks like a sunset. Its traditional colors are purple and an orangeish gold. In the mid-1990s, however, laboratories in Russia perfected an irradiation process that can take quartz crystal and alter their colors. From this process, we can get yellow/green or yellow/blue ametrine. It is important to know that these color blends were not created by Mother Nature, but rather by chemists in laboratories.
Birthdays are always fun occasions during which you can surprise your beloved with some gems. Birthstone jewelry is an obvious choice, but again, follow me outside the box. A birthday is a commemoration of life. Throughout our years, along the way, we inevitably lose people. But we can keep their memory alive. And you can wear it on your finger, or around your neck, or perched delicately on your ears. If a loved one has passed on, use the opportunity to celebrate their life. If a parent passes on, take a cherished piece of jewelry and transform it into something that your spouse will treasure forever. A custom jeweler will be able to best assist you in creating the perfect item.
There are so many other ways you can incorporate personal meaning into jewelry by using diamonds and other colored stones. The only thing limiting you is your imagination…and in my case, terribly fated kids’ birthstone combinations.
Speaking in Color,
Rebecca
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