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This is a little series of blogs where some of our favorite engagement ring designers tell us how they imagined and then created their own engagement rings. Here for our third entry in the already critically acclaimed series "My Engagement Ring Story" : Emily Chelsea Jewelry specializes in custom designed engagement rings and wedding bands. Meticulously designed and expertly crafted, Emily Chelsea Jewelry is first designed with precision and accuracy then finished by hand for a handcrafted look. Emily is the person we go to when we have a client who has a super custom vision. Think words like "low sitting toasty butterfly" - Emily, we know you know what this means. Help! Not only is she a sister ring whisperer but this woman walks the walk. Emily Chelsea Jewelry is a proud member of Ethical Metalsmiths and is committed to social responsibility and equality. Her custom creations are made from 100% recycled precious metals or Fairmined Gold and ethically sourced diamonds and gemstones as often as possible AND is a Graduate Gemologist through the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). I mean. This gal. SO without further ado, check out what she made for herself!  What are the stats? Pear shaped rose cut gray diamond in an 18k yellow gold bezel setting by April Higashi. I originally wanted an amorphous green sapphire and was convinced that he would have plenty of options to choose from. I gave him some specifics but told him to choose the stone. In the beginning of the search, they found a great candidate, but because I was quite naive about it, I said yes but more green (thinking it would be out there). The search went on for over a year. At Christmas time, after telling all of my friends that surely, he would be proposing I finally broke down and asked him why he hadn’t. I thought maybe he would say they are putting the finishing touches on the ring but he said they still hadn’t found the stone. I was shocked. After being schooled by my boyfriend on why what I was looking for was actually a needle in a haystack, I finally began to understand. He came with me to Tucson that February and we picked out a pear shaped rose cut diamond together. I realized I had wanted a fresh start from the green sapphire debacle and we both loved this new diamond. How did you come up with the concept? I always knew I wanted a solitaire, something simple. I knew I wanted to have 2 wedding bands and was planning on getting creative with that so I left the engagement ring simple. Did you work on it with your partner? How was that? My poor, poor partner. I basically kept telling him: “What I want is out there and there are plenty of it (the center stone)! And I want you to pick it out, but make sure it is X,Y, Z… oh and this, this, and this…. I was actually really specific and probably his worst nightmare. He was afraid that he wouldn’t get exactly what I wanted so we ended up working on it together in the end. Did you always know what you wanted to design? Pretty much. I met April Higashi 5 years ago and after seeing her work, I knew I wanted a piece by her. What’s your favorite detail or part of the ring? Because it is translucent, the diamond looks different every day. Some days I can see deep into the ring and other days, I just notice the inclusions toward the surface. It has a little bit of iron oxide staining deep in the middle and I love when I catch a glimpse of that. Did you go over budget? No. If your ring was worn by a mythical character (ehm ehm you), how would you describe that character? Does it have a special power? Dark and stormy and full of mystery. Just like my diamond. Oh and can see into the future. :) Is there advice you usually give clients that you didn’t take yourself? Or something you learned in the process that you now share with your clients? I share my experience often since I had learned so much through the process. I felt so silly that even I, a jewelry designer and gemologist, could send my boyfriend on a wild goose chase for a stone that may have only existed once. There are so many times that we see a gem in a piece of jewelry or on Pinterest and are convinced that we can have one identical to it. But gems are truly one of a kind. If you have your heart set on something, then something has to give- and it is usually your timeline or budget. If there is no wiggle room, then I encourage clients to be more open. Once we get a certain image out of our heads, it opens up so many possibilities with other truly beautiful stones. And that first green sapphire that I thought wasn’t green enough? My very wonderful partner managed to buy it as well and we made it into a right hand ring that I wear almost every day. And yes, it is so, so green. He occasionally asks if I wish it were my engagement ring, but I don’t. I love the ring he proposed to me with and I love that we chose the stone together.  
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This is a little series of blogs where some of our favorite engagement ring designers tell us how they imagined and then created their own engagement rings. Here for our second entry in the already critically acclaimed series "My Engagement Ring Story", a favorite of both the Giants baseball team and yours truly, our fave jeweler, everybody put your hands together for NICK ENGEL! So, round here at LITTLE BIRD we suh-eriously heart Nick Engel & Co. He is an incredible jeweler who hand fabricates engagement rings for many of our clients from S C R A T C H. I mean. He's kind of a big deal. Spoiler alert: Best Ring Ever Award goes to Nick for Ali's stunning bespoke emerald cut diamond engagement ring. Without further ado, let's learn how Nick Engel went.........
What are the stats? 2.09ct Post Consumer Emerald Cut Center Stone Flanked by half carat baguette diamonds set in 18K Rose “Ali” Gold which I self alloyed. How did you come up with the concept? I started off creating a couple of rings that were more traditionally my style but none of them were just right. My team kept reminding me that this ring had to be exceptional and different from my other pieces. I honestly began playing around with fabrication and ended up with the final design after countless hours of filing and altering it until I was happy. Did you work on it with your partner? How was that? I actually did not. We created each others bands (which was awesome!) but I wanted to fabricate her entire ring while keeping it a surprise. I was lucky to have insider information from her best friend who took her ring shopping. Did you always know what you wanted to design? I had no idea...I really needed the process to dictate the final design. What’s your favorite detail or part of the ring? Setting the sidestones upside down and making the basket float were the two elements that really made the ring feel badass to me. Did you go over budget? I didn’t have a budget in mind so not really but I definitely went over what I thought I would make it for. If your ring was worn by a mythical character, who would that character be? Does it have a special power? Pegasus! Sparkly, brilliant, and capable of magically making your goals a reality. It’s special power is foresight... it predicts a pretty amazing future! Is there advice you usually give clients that you didn’t take yourself? If I told you I’d have to kill you... A Chronological Account           We are introducing a new series to the LITTLE BIRD blog. Enter: "My Engagement Ring Story" where some of our favorite engagement ring designers tell us how they imagined and then created their own engagement rings. Should be illuminating for those who are looking to create their own ideal engagement ring. Our first story comes from Brittany Stadtmiller about her engagement to Bobby. You guys. Brittany is the funniest. She runs the most attractive AND hilarious jewelry Instagram account I know of: @gemsteady. Not only did their engagement lead to MARRIAGE, but it also created the alternative fine jewelry company I've come love to hard: GEM STEADY. Enjoy! THE TLDR (too long, didn't read) VERSION:
Nuff said. Let's get right down to our interview with Brittany about her engagement ring...  Tell us the stats! I actually never had an engagement ring. My husband and I got married on a whim so it was straight to the wedding band which was a super fat sterling silver cigar band. How did you come up with the concept? We had just begun our adventure to start a jewelry business and I thought the idea of just one really sexy wide band would be timeless (and fairly simple to create for freshly self taught jeweler). Our story is probably best saved for another day/blog post, but I knew I never wanted to be engaged or ‘have a fiance’ so one big band is all I needed to seal the deal. Did you work on it with your partner? How was that experience? Our wedding bands were some of the first rings we ever created (my husband is the maker) and marks the beginning of both our personal and business life together. It is definitely a pretty straight forward design, but we did work together on figuring out the perfect width and sizing. Did you always know what you wanted to design? I had no idea. We literally decided to get married after only a matter of a few days spent together so I had never really even thought about what my ring would look like. It was spontaneous to say the least. What’s your favorite detail or part of the ring? My favorite part of the ring is the fact that it was one of the very first rings my husband ever made. He had never dabbled in jewelry before, so you can see the seams and imperfections of where the metal connects. I guess that is a pretty good metaphor for our relationship too :) Did you go over budget? Not even close. If your ring was worn by a mythical character, who would that character be? Does it have a special power? A super powerful sorceress. It would definitely absorb and emit healing powers and have the capability to manifest pretty much anything I ever wanted and deflect all bullshit. Is there advice you usually give clients that you didn’t take yourself? I always tell my clients that they should make a decision based on what makes them feel good even if that means getting something made by someone other than me. There is no right or wrong way to wear your jewels. They should go for something that will feel timeless to them.    Do you need an engagement ring? Well, do you? Must you have a ring to call yourself committed? Is there a right way to get engaged? I've been an expert for a decade, but when I went through it myself, man oh man, did I learn a lot about love, commitment and the meaning of rituals. So after years of hearing your stories, on my one year wedding anniversary (today is my anniversary) I'm sharing my engagement story! Spoiler alert: commitment is what you make of it. OK, I'll just get right down to it then... Here is what I did to find the love of my life:1. many many dates in San Francisco using online sites (ehm ehm OkCupid) 2. An evening in with a bottle of red wine and my good friends ADVANCED FILTERS. People, this is the only way. You have to manifest your fate. I even paid the extra $10 to unlock the "A-List" search filters (some of which were ridiculous):
 this is what happened when we tried to get engaged:It really was love at first site. The rest was history... UNTIL it felt like it was time to get engaged. If you've been through it, you know. It's kind of *a thing*. Are we ready? Am I ready?? Are YOU ready??? You take many many long hard looks at your partner and yourself as you imagine making this kind of commitment. For us. Well. It took us some time... AND THEN: one crisp and cold winter night at a cabin we rented off of HWY 1 on the Sonoma Coast of California, we were making dinner in our pajamas listening to makin_science's (aka Jordan's) Spotify Discover Weekly (his is oddly far better than mine which feels unfair because he doesn't even have it connected to a Facebook account as he refuses to have one). So, we are slow-dance/hug-swaying in the kitchen to something along the lines of Nick of Time by Bonnie Raitt and he takes the rubber band off the little bunch of rosemary and he loops it around my left ring finger. And that was it. The best ever. Ever. And, I mean, how can you pick out a ring for an Engagement Ring Consultant that's more perfect than a rubber band? Yes, the title is official and therefore capitalized. In any case, makin_science an I were gonna make_it_official.  IMMEDIATELY we (me) started making plans for how to use a three stone heirloom diamond ring from his mother and father so we could create two rings out of the stones - one for each of us. I was going to make a David Bowie space-inspired ring and he was going to make a Conan the Barbarian-inspired ring with a flush set a diamond in a big yellow gold band. My heart swelled. He even wanted a diamond in his ring. We was into this. You guys, we’re engaged! WAIT. We are "engaged" though, right? Like, plans were in the works on our rings and I had a rubber band on my left ring finger. So it's official, right? Well, later makin_science informed me that we "still had things to do" before we were officially engaged. Dun dun dun. And here I thought I was the engagement ring expert... TURNS OUT, he just wanted to have the rings on our hands. It mattered to him. This guy who mocked tradition. This guy who valued science and reason. Listen people the guy wanted rings on fingers dammit. Rings on fingers and then, and only then, is it official. So we had the David Bowie/Conan the Barbarian mash-up rings made by the best jeweler ever, Nick Engel. And when they were done, I couldn't wait to put my engagement ring on and then finally be "engaged" to makin_science aka Jordan. I never knew I actually cared this much. When we got the rings we both put them on immediately and never took them off. Jordan's "wedding band" was actually his "mangagement ring" till we got married and it was the sweetest thing ever. It felt like solidarity. It felt real.
what I learned about getting engaged:THE MORAL OF THE STORY: We make it up as we go. For Jordan, rings meant something. For me, THE resident engagement ring lady, it actually didn't matter at all. I'd take the rubber band. There's no right way to do this life. No correct way to love. No proper way to show love. Us humans made this whole crazy courtship->ring->engaged->married thing up from the start. We did it for many different reasons, but that's Esther Perel's territory, not mine. It's up to us to decide what it all means for ourselves. Oh, and one more conclusion: if you need help with this whole crazy engagement ring stuff, I'm here to help you figure out what it means to you ;) ;)  |
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