The charming young woman first contacted me a couple of years ago. She loved the unusual, stepped edges and gold pattern in the eucalyptus bark ring from the website and wanted to create something similar for her girlfriend. She was planning an overseas proposal adventure later that year to hopefully witness the elusive and magical Northern Lights and surprise her beloved with a beautiful engagement ring.

Just as we were kicking off the design discussion an unforeseen & consequently unjust government debt pressured her engagement budget and she needed to put her plans on hold. I was disappointed for her, it’s a big decision to choose a life partner and create a stage to propose, it’s not something you want to suppress! I could sense the genuine quality of her love and I was keen to fulfil my part of her dream so I was delighted to hear from her again.

We immediately reignited the eucalyptus bark design discussion, fine tuning the layered detail and curved gold patchwork pattern. Her partner wasn’t interested in gems and this design gave us scope to create a detailed gold ring that didn’t require the fuss of gems. An unusual aspect of the original design, which drew her to the design is the layered steps that feature prominently on one side of the ring. I exaggerated this complex detail because without having to account for gems I had more room to push the design over the face of the ring.

An accurate ring size is greatly preferred especially with a layered ring that isn’t straightforward to resize, but it’s not always easy when the ring is a surprise. We needed her partner to slip on a sample silver ring without raising engagement suspicion. She schemed a brilliant plan to hide the silver band in some bushes near a park bench which she ‘found’ while sitting with her girlfriend. It was innocently tried on for size and fitted perfectly, a genius idea that was flawlessly executed!

She was keen to include hand engraving on the inside sleeve of the ring and since rose is in her name, it seemed the perfect motif to draw. I discovered the Australian botanical pink bloom, Boronia Serrulate (a favourite of mine) is also known as the ‘native rose’ and as luck would have it, is endemic to Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park area, which is near where they live. At this stage we were heading into the busy Christmas period and engraving couldn’t be undertaken until the new year. She figured it was worth holding her proposal breath for a few more months, and thankfully she did because Ray @londonengraver exquisitely hand engraved the drawing of Boronia blooms and leaves, covering the whole of the inside of the ring like a beautifully patterned silk lining.

We secretly set two little Australian Argyle pink champagne diamonds to represent the pair in a curved section of rose gold between Boronia blooms, hidden from outside-view.

 

Making this ring filled my heart, it’s why I enjoy the sometimes lengthy but always wonderfully thoughtful process. I love this ring and it suited her gorgeous partner perfectly, she knew it would, and the sweet smile says it all.