Looking for interesting or unconventional wedding ring jewelers/designers
I'm in the market for wedding bands. Rather than settling for a traditional plain gold wedding band, I want to explore the more artistic options. Jewelry has rarely ever worked for me, either I take it off and forget about it or lose it, hopefully something ultra unique will help make it an exception. Ideally something under 1000 Euro/USD. Of course I'm shopping around my city and neighboring ones as well, since you never know where you'll find a hidden gem.
Ideally I would find an artisanal jeweler in Europe. But as an example of what inspired me is this Patrick Adair: https://patrickadairdesigns.com/ I first found about him when I saw videos of how he made rings from superconductor coils/cables. He uses a very wide range of materials and I find almost all of his work aesthetically pleasing, even if I wouldn't wear most of them.
Me. I do exactly that. Wedding rings are my speciality. I'm (technically) in Europe if not the EU (sad face). I make all sorts of things, it's really just a case of talking with the person and finding out what they like.
Just off the top of my head, I make wobbly wonky things or angley faceted things or kinda semi-gnarly organicy things
I like to use unusual metals, I do a lot with electrum (gold/silver mix) and shibuichi (silver/copper) but have made up all sorts, including silver bronze and gold-bearing-brasses. I don't really do gems, but I don't recommend people wear gems in wedding rings anyway. I often use people's heirloom jewellery as part of their wedding rings - melting down Granny's old earring so you can wear a bit of family history every day is quite nice, I think.
I have a website but it's quite out of date , and an Etsy shop but the best thing to do is message me and talk about ideas.
Those rings are gorgeous, mat. You do incredible work!
How did you get into it? Is it hard? I used to love the idea of making jewellery as a kid, but career took a very different path.
I got into it largely by accident, which is how I've got into most of my jobs. It can be hard but I like a challenge. It's usually more stressful than hard, really - there are points in any project where if I fuck up it's going to cost me a lot of money. I hate those bits, one slip of the rotary tool can junk an entire piece and I may end up having to replace quite a lot of material at my own cost.
It's career number three for me, so far.
I have been thinking about doing this actually, but not wedding related. I hope it's ok to ask a hypothetical question? It's just that I don't know where to take it or who to really trust with this much gold because I have an old bracelet that is 14k gold and weighs 19 grams. So hypothetically what could I do with that? The bracelet is a product of its time and very uncomfortable to wear, so could I get a couple of pieces of jewelry out of it, and pay for the goldsmith's labour with an amount of the gold? So that they only use say half for the jewelry and take the other half, in gold value, as payment. It's just that I have no room in my budget to do something like this for regular cash
Hmm. It's not a bad idea, but it really depends on the person doing the work. For such a trade to be useful to me I'd need to see an assay on the gold. 14k can be made up of various things, usually copper, silver and zinc but the proportions matter to me so I can go on to make other things with it. They may not to someone else though.
With that information I'd be able to price the work you want, and then it's just a case of finding a balance between making stuff for you and paying myself. 14k is worth about £50/g as casting grain and I generally price my time at somewhere between £250-500/day. So half a bracelet is around a day's work, but plenty can get done in a day.
9.5g of gold is one fairly hefty ring, or a smaller ring and perhaps a pendant or some little earrings or something. Depending on what you wanted it would cost more or less, so there would be more of less material available for making stuff with. Of course it's possible to bulk it out during casting with extra silver or copper (obviously gold would eat up the value of the exchanged gold very fast!), so if you perhaps wanted a large bangle or something that could be worked out. That wouldn't leave you with 14k afterwards, of course.
Lots of jewellery makers don't have casting equipment so you would need to find someone who does. And someone who is comfortable working with zinc-bearing alloys (zinc is horrid to work with, it boils at 907C which is cooler than copper/gold/silver melts and gaseous zinc is not fun to be around). But none of this is impossible, just things to consider. You could probably find someone on Etsy who is near you.
This is incredibly helpful, thank you so much for taking the time, made my day!
If I were to get another wedding band, I would earnestly consider a Damascus steel band with a gold inlay like this one from a jeweler in the US. I have a gold band now, and while it took a few weeks to become comfortable wearing it, I hardly take it off now.
I also thought about non-traditional bands before my wedding, but felt like most men’s bands were not really my style. They seemed like over-the-top caricatures. I like the aesthetics of the jeweler you linked, but would also not wear most of those day-to-day.
I really appreciate the more understated looks of something like this hammered finish white gold or this rose gold and black, or a wood inlay that doesn’t have the glassy epoxy finish I often see. They read like wedding bands, but in the more formal sense with the sensibilities of a traditional jeweler as opposed to a less refined look.
Yes! We have mokume game rings (fancy Japanese term for something that's more or less Damascus in that context) .
Mine looks similar to this one (except the offset band is made of tantalulum, so it's matte black), custom made from a local jewelery (it's a Swiss shop). They're gorgeous.
Also: since we've been practising Japanese sword more than a decade together, we liked the symbolism of having a sword-like pattern in our hands.
My wife and I have matching/coordinated puzzle rings by Norm Greene - they're both 6-band rings with yellow and white gold - mine has white gold inners and yellow gold outers, and my wife's is the inverse.
I've never seen a puzzle ring with jewels in it before. How do they make it so they don't pop out when you solve it?
Most of the rings pictured in the link above feature flush set stones, which means they're firmly attached 'inside' a single band. When you take the ring apart the stone won't be affected. A couple have more traditional claw settings, but same same. There can easily be space under a claw setting to slot a band or two from the rest of the puzzle in.
Properly set stones are pretty solid. It's hella fiddly, I really don't enjoy doing gems.
I'm not actually sure - both of ours are just plain-bands. Depending on the relative size of the gem and the setting, you could have the setting attached to just one of the six bands - I don't know how durable it would be.
I think aesthetically you want to be pretty conservative with a wedding band because you wear it all the time, so it needs to go with every outfit and accessory you will ever wear. Simple materials that don’t draw too much attention work best for that. For uniqueness I’d go for something with more subtle cues like this or this.
I used Lashbrook Designs to design my own wedding band. This is the design I ended up going with, it's not exceptionally fancy, but I like that it's just a little off-kilter. I feel it represents me well. Unfortunately not Europe-based, but may help with the inspiration.
Here is a jeweler I really like! Very organic and unique designs: https://ninosstudio.com/collections/rings
I'd highly recommend looking at Etsy for this. You'll find many unique designs, jewelers that are willing to fully customize the ring for you, and usually much better prices than at any store or any of the more famous independent jewelers.
The combination of my wife's engagement and wedding rings were custom made to artistically resemble a Claddagh ring her late father gave her, in rose gold, with a pink primary gemstone, and lab grown diamonds. Made by an independent jeweler in the US and even with the fully custom job, was less expensive than every ring linked here so far.
My wedding band was also a custom order from a US based etsy jeweler and is titanium band with hand chiseled gouges that were then multi-color anodized before polishing the high areas to give contrast.
If you're a fan of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, Jens Hansen has a variety of LOTR-inspired wedding rings worth checking out. That's what I did for my wedding!
It's in the US, but Catbird has a lot of designers and eclectic rings. I think it's a helpful starting point for figuring out what resonates.