Raw goodness

I mentioned a while back that there were very few rings that Tim and I were able to agree upon. When we'd look at jewelry, it seemed that he despised anything traditional, and he wasn't a fan of diamonds for cultural and ethical reasons (the deBeers thing). I understand and respect that, but I'll admit I still had a hankering for something sparkly, even though I did want something different from a traditional solitaire. (The main reason I couldn't deal with a solitaire is that I am a complete and utter klutz, and I have visions of knocking the whole bauble off the band. Believe me, I could do it.)

That ring is real.

When we discovered Todd Reed's work (over a year before we chose my ring), we knew it was perfect. He works with both raw and polished diamonds, which we'd never seen before, and uses recycled gold and ethical/eco-friendly stones. Nothing even came close to having the same impact on both of us, and the nature of his work is such that even the cut diamonds have a more natural feel than they often do... I might even be able to get that little bit of bling I wanted! It seemed like we might be able to agree on something (imagine that...). So, true to form, I became obsessed with his website. Er... stalked it.

Some of my favorites from his full collection:

two bracelets

earrings, cufflinks

brooch, necklace

And my favorite rings (not necessarily for engagement rings or for myself - just purdy):

The three shown above are actually all men's rings, which I didn't know when I was seriously considering the last one! Oh well - I still love it.

I love mixed metals and really wanted to figure out how to incorporate white metal into my engagement ring, but I think his designs look best in yellow gold, and I also couldn't find a design I loved that would work with that idea. I was planning to get a plain white gold wedding band so the ring would look like the first men's ring above, but my plan changed when something happened - I'll fill you in on that soon, I promise. Strangely, though, after wearing lots of silver for my entire life, transitioning to yellow has been remarkably easy. I think it looks a lot better on me.

This is the design we ended up going with. I love its simplicity and strength - but it's still somewhat thin enough to look relatively delicate on my hand. I was able to specify that I wanted the raw stones to be as varied as possible, since they range in color from whites to yellows to reds to browns to grays. I also had one very small princess cut diamond put in there, which adds just a little bit of sparkle. It's 18K gold, which has a really deep, amazing glow. The two things I love most about the ring is that glint from the cut stone, and that the raw stones look completely different depending on the light - it's like I have three different rings! Also, I'll blog soon about my surprise wedding band, and Tim's awesome ring.

Here's my Todd Reed ring, in all its blurry-pic splendor:

I really wanted Tim to love my ring, too. I know not everyone feels that way, but it was our first major purchase together (albeit with HIS money), and it's something I hope we'll both be looking at and enjoying for a long time. 

If you have a ring, was it important to you that your fiance(e) like it as much as you? Did s/he give you free reign over the choice? Or did s/he pick it out for you?

All Todd Reed pictures property of the artist and from here.