Friday, May 23, 2008

Story of the Ring (Part 1)


as you probably saw from my 'we're engaged!' post - this is the ring. my beautiful red plastic adjustable ring. i was thrilled to wear it - even if it did confuse people and prompt them to constantly ask me 'where's the diamond??'


even when the ring started leaving a ring of rust on my skin and chris started asking me if i wanted a 'real' ring - i was still in love with it. after a few weeks though i started to reconsider. i knew the plastic one probably wouldn't last the whole year - and while i had been against an engagement ring to start with it was fun having something on your finger to play with and show to people. but what kind of ring?


i knew from the get-go i couldn't go with a diamond. a girl in an anthropology course i took did a lecture on the diamond industry (years before the movie 'blood diamonds' came out) and how it was basically the mafia - i've been morally against them ever since. that and the fact that some people go into SO much debt over a rock...ay yi yi! now i don't mean to diss on those who have diamonds. i have many good friends that have them and respect their choices - i just knew it wasn't for me. so i started searching. i liked the idea of a pearl - very pretty but not something i could wear everyday. so then i started looking around online at antique rings. i didn't plan to buy one online (who knows what kinds of scams there are!) but just wanted to get some ideas....and i discovered white topaz!


same look as a diamond but practically dirt cheap in comparison! chris and i went to one of the big chain jewelry stores (even though their commercials make us throw up a bit in our mouths) just to see if they even had them. no they did not. end of story. i then went to a local jeweler and asked them if they carried any white topaz rings - they said no but immediately followed that with a 'but we would be happy to order the stone for you and customize it!' very nice!


i browsed around and saw a beautiful diamond ring that i (guiltily) loved. it was a round solitaire with little chippy diamonds all around it - all in a white gold setting with a very thin band. perfect! two days later i brought chris in to show him and we asked the jeweler if he could do that setting but with white topaz - he said that he could although he'd have to enlarge it a teensy bit since he couldn't cut the white topaz into such small chips. fine with me! so the ring i'll be getting will look like an almost $5,000 dollar ring but will have only cost an immensely tiny fraction! in fact - the main cost is the white gold and the custom order - the stone itself is very inexpensive. which will be nice if anything every happens to it - which it shouldn't. it's an 8 on the hardness scale and i'm not doing a ton of hard work with my hands (hello - i don't do any work, remember?)


this is an idea of what the ring will look like - although i'll definitely be posting pictures as soon as i get it (about 3 weeks)



so there ya have it - the story of the ring - part 1. i do feel slightly guilty after having gone on to chris about not wanting a ring and then getting one custom made. even more so i feel guilty about perpetuating the whole gotta have a diamond thing. even though i know it's not one people will think it is - i'll just have to advertise it as the great alternative!

deep down though i'm super excited to wear this ring - IT'S SHINY!


oh! i forgot - the first ring - i mentioned how we were pretty sure it wouldn't survive a whole year? well...it broke today! as i was gathering up my bags to leave work it snagged on something and popped right off! needless to say i was super bummed (it was the cherry on top of my already shit-tastic day)! but i found the red rose and plan on super gluing it back on. i'm always gonna keep it even if it's not always on my ring finger :)

6 comments:

carrster said...

Beautiful! What a lovely ring. I can't wait to see the real thing. :)

Virginia said...

Can't wait to see the ring :) Although I thought the rose was cute too.

Molly said...

Mine is an Ikuma, mined in Canada. It was incredibly important to me that we knew it was a "safe" diamond, that no one died mining it, that no wars were fought because of it, etc.

http://www.benbridge.com/Pages/ikuma.htm

And it wasn't too expensive either... I don't know why I felt so traditional, but I wanted a diamond myself. :) I really wanted a simple one--one stone, standard band. Not big. At all. Just right.

I love the look of yours though!

KeLL said...

It's a beautiful ring (and it looks like a flower!). I can't wait to see it when it arrives.
I would have killed Richard if he would have bought an expensive ring. I am proud to say he can never say, "She's wearing my boat!" (like his friend does).
I have no idea where my diamonds were mined from. We did support a local, family owned jewelry store instead of a mall chain.
And I picked out Molly's ring (with Ryan's help). One of the big factors that sold us was that it was mined it Canada. Those crazy Canadians give people a non-corrupt, death free option.

Anonymous said...

I like it! Yay for independent jewelers...my boyfriend works for one in Seattle.

Dolce said...

Michelle, this ring is beautiful! I do own a diamond ring, however PH told be it will be the first and last one he buys. Thank you so much for the white topaz option, I'll have to check that out.

Congrats...on everything!