What’s Your Jewelry Personality? Tesla or Beyonce? Part 1

Yellow gold with Moonstone ring with two bezel set diamondsAre You More Like a Tesla, or Beyonce?

Seriously we each have our jewelry personality. Sometimes we need to figure it out, but it's there. It's kind of a combination of your opinions, lifestyle and sense of beauty.

Whether you like simple and spare, or detailed and artistic, there is a ring design out there in the ether with your name on it. In this post I'll show different styles for you to look over and give advice for honing the details you'd love the most in your ring.

How Detailed do You Like Your Ring Design? Questions to Ask Yourself.

In discussing with my Panamanian jewelry designing friend Vernon Wilson about figuring out a client's jewelry personality, he shared these questions with me.

I too ask leading questions to figure out what my clients like. I wanted to share these because maybe they'll help you in honing your list of details you'd like in your ring.

If you won the lottery, what car would you choose? Is it smooth and racey? Is it simple? Is it flashy? Is it colorful? Are there straight lines? Or aggressively curvy ones?

If that lottery win allowed you to buy your dream home what would its outside front entry way look like? Greek, Colonial, Modern, Victorian and the list goes on. Architectural loves can help you figure out what you'd like in a ring.

What Do Your Answers Mean?

They show whether details and artistry are more important than straightforward themes to you.

As you immerse yourself in the styles and ask yourself, "is this too grandma? Do I adore that? That is awesome, can I wear that?" And other questions you'll feel the answers wash over you. Here in Part 1 are five stylistic themes to consider as you narrow your focus in on what you love.

Your Jewelry Personality Styles to Consider

In this next section I'm going to share pictures and descriptions of different ring styles.

Filigree

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Milgrain and hand engraving on a diamond ring Calla Gold jewelry

Filigree Details in the Side (Gallery) View Make This Ring Sing

Sapphire with Filigree white gold ring

A Wedding Ring Like This With Delicate Filigree on it Won't Stand the Test of Time With Hard Daily Wear.|Cowgirls Need Sturdy Wedding Rings|A Wide Ring with Recessed Diamonds

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[ezcol_2third_end]Filigree is a delicate, intricate, and lace-like artistic design element used in gold, platinum and silver jewelry.

Filigree creates openness and lightness in pieces of jewelry.

It was popular as well in Italian and French metalwork from 1660 to the late 19th century.

Filigree details can be worked into the side view under the center top element or "gallery" of a ring, or show up on top.[/ezcol_2third_end]

Rings With Strong Engraving Details

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Platinum wedding set with hand engraving

This is an Ideal Looking Finger Fit|It's Your Dream Ring

milgrain engraving

Hand Engraved Milgrain Engraving, Sets off the Little Diamonds and Highlights the Design

[/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_2third_end]Starting with simple lines, straight or curved in your ring, adding engraving changes the look  in wonderful ways depending on what the underlying lines of your ring are.

In the top picture the wedding band uses openings to create space and kinetic motion and engraving to add detail and cohesion with the engagement ring

It can make your ring look more light, more vintage or just more detailed and interesting.

There are different methods of engraving, they are covered in my blog "Engraved Rings – Five Things You Need to Know."

Engraved details can be the focal point of your ring or just a decorative detail to set off your diamonds or frame a design element on your ring.[/ezcol_2third_end]

Simple Three Stone Styles

Jewelry Personality

Classic Three Stone Ring with Three Oval Diamonds

The classic three stone engagement ring represents the past, present and future. It is classic and simple.

When you go for a simple design it highlights your diamonds or gemstones and celebrates their fire and beauty. With just gemstones with no additional decoration you achieve maximum simplicity.

Vintage Classic and Detailed

Jewelry Personality

This Vintage Style Has Flourishes and Swoops with Hand Engraving

The depth of details covered in the Vintage style are great. Do you love Edwardian, Victorian, Art Deco or Art Nouveau?

You can pull details from different time periods to create the look you seek.

When looking for examples of styles you might like check out Pinterest.

There are so many wonderful Designs shown, and the search function is very helpful. Check out my blog, "How to Use Pinterest to Design Your Engagement Ring."

Old World

This Inlaid Opal Ring Uses the Etruscan Style with Bezels to Set the Opals and High Outer Walls for Protection

This style pulls from other countries and cultures and history.

Using influences from older designs adds a flair and a difference to your ring.

Influences include Etruscan, Greek, Roman, Egyptian, African and others.

In early jewelry making when the tools were simple, diamonds were usually bezel set.

Early jeweler couldn't add strengthening alloys to their gold so more gold was used. This meant wider rings with handmade details like hand twisted wire and braided wire.

Art Nouveau, Curvy, Natural Themed

An Art Nouveau Pendant Showing Flowers and a Woman, Common Themes in Art Nouveau

Lord Google defines Art Nouveau as, a style of decorative art, architecture, and design prominent in western Europe and the US from about 1890 until World War I.

It is characterized by intricate linear designs and flowing curves based on natural forms.

My take on it is that it allows a dreamy and romantic representation of the botanical and natural world.

In this style, viney, intertwining elements, flowing water, branches, flowers or a woman's flowing hair are all welcome. There are no straight lines in Art Nouveau and the nature themes are my favorite aspects to include.

Why Stop Now?

I Could See Beyonce Wearing This Orchid Ring that I loved Making for Robin

It turns out finding images and thinking about categories is kicking my butt here.

After four hours I'm still at it. This may end up being an e-book.

All I know is that if I make it much longer your head will be on your arm as you gently snore.

I will write a part two and when I do I'll add the links both ways so you can binge read.

But for now in your jewelry personality journey, are you feeling more Tesla or Beyonce?

Your Personal Jeweler
Calla

Read Part 2 - What is Your Jewelry Personality? Metal, Width and Height?

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About Calla Gold

Calla Gold is a Personal Jeweler and Author who takes pride in working with clients one-on-one to integrate their personal sense of style and taste into custom designed jewelry and repaired jewelry pieces.   Unlike typical Santa Barbara jewelry businesses, Calla Gold has no brick-and-mortar location. Calla Gold comes to you, bringing you the jewelry collection you want to see and collaborating with you to create unique custom jewelry. Calla also works with at-a-distance clients.

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Dani Antman
6 years ago

Loved all of them except for Art Nouveau!

Calla Gold
Calla Gold
Reply to  Dani Antman
6 years ago

That is cool. Art Nouveau is so specific that people either love it or don’t. Thanks for weighing in!

Tracey B
Tracey B
6 years ago

Seeing these different styles is pretty helpful. I find I say I like simple, but when I see filigree and vintage my heart says, “that!”
And then I saw that opal Etruscan ring and my heart went, “That!” Hmmm, this could be harder than I thought. I could pull a Beyoncé and just have more than one style.
Can a girl have a vintage engagement ring and an Etruscan ring? For her wedding ring?
Can’t wait for your next installment.