Diamond Engagement Rings

One of UK’s jewellers has done research among 100 couples and this is what the trend seems to be. It was found that many women were not entirely satisfied with their engagement rings. A little over 60% of the women were absolutely satisfied but the rest had cause to grumble.

Here’s what they seemed to be dissatisfied about. They would have liked their engagement rings to have been designed in white gold, they wished their diamond engagement rings cost somewhere between £500 and £1000 and in fact, there were some who wished that it would cost over £2000.

The diamond is still by far the most popular stone of choice though some young women also indicated a preference for sapphires or even amethysts.

So when a man chooses a diamond engagement ring with which to propose to the woman of his dreams, maybe he needs to get a bit practical and find out what she likes by way of the gold to use or any other metal, the size of the stone as well as the price range. A bit of a practical and sensible approach could mean a happy woman for the rest of their married life.

Is there a trend to combine the two? Ask a few jewellers around and you might just be surprised at the answer. Many young couples are seriously looking at just one ring on their finger instead of two.

Why would anyone do that? Perhaps it’s taking the road to simplicity. Rather than have two rings on the same finger, you simplify things, combine it and have just one ring. Looking at it like that, it does seem to make sense. This could be to make that one ring look much better. Let’s face it, in most cases, the wedding band is just a simple circle of gold.

So what seems to be the form this new two-in-one ring is taking? Many prefer to have a diamond at the centre with either diamonds or other stones around it or on either side. Of course, the choice of metal is entirely up to you – you can choose from platinum, traditional gold, yellow gold or white gold.

A Singapore jeweller has introduced a new feature online which allows customers to come to the site and design their own diamond rings. So if you want a diamond engagement ring to be designed now, all you need to do is to log on, choose the diamond, choose the setting, the material – say yellow gold, white gold, platinum, etc – and choose the design and pay.

This just makes it so simple – especially for men who are usually quite clueless when it comes to choosing jewellery. Now, if you have a budget, you can design your own ring well within that.

What the site also does is to give advice about the kind of ring and setting to choose. Why, they also give you tips about how to propose, the kind of romantic setting that would appeal to a girl and how to finally present the ring. This makes things so much simpler when a man has to choose a diamond ring for a special occasion.

Buying from here also helps the person feel comfortable because the diamonds are all certified and the buyer gets the proof and report along with the diamond ring. The website owners on their part are very happy to be associated with these joyous moments in their customers’ lives.

Delfina Delettrez presented her jewellery collection last Tuesday at Le Grand Véfour restaurant in Paris and it was quite an unusual presentation. She has always veered toward the unusual with skulls and skeletons being favourite themes for her work. This time round, it’s a bit different. Up till now, she worked mostly with enamel and silver. This collection sees a vast change.

Here’s what she did – she went and raided the cupboard where her grandmother kept the family silver. Then she arranged her jewellery very unusually indeed, on the family’s heirloom silver. The gold and diamond crocodile was one of the pieces she had displayed on cutlery and there were other pieces like a bat necklace that was arranged artistically on a cake platter.

Besides the jewellery, she also displayed her new sunglasses line which she is launching in collaboration with Alain Mikli. Spiders, bears, bats – they all dazzled and shone at the show.

From ancient times, Wales has seen gold mining. The early Welsh nobility are said to have worn jewellery made with the gold from their land. However, there hasn’t been enough gold to keep it going as a thriving gold industry. The earliest Welsh gold mine in fact has become a tourist attraction though there seems to have been mining done there as early as 1000 years ago. There are two areas where the gold mining operation was concentrated. In the north, it was the region that lies between Snowdonia and Barmouth and in the south, which is where the Roman mining took place, it is situated at Dolaucothi in Carmarthenshire and this is the earliest known gold mine.

There is gold in the Welsh hills but the sad fact is that it costs three times as much to mine gold in Wales as it does in Australia or South Africa and that makes the whole operation not viable. It has a great degree of purity though - add the historical aspect to that and you’ll see why the British royal family has their wedding rings fashioned from this gold. For generations, this has been a tradition and though the mines might just become a fact of history, the gold lives on – in the best of company.