Choosing a ring
Engagement and wedding rings
Engagement rings are usually less expensive than wedding rings. Engagement rings can be made out of precious metals, other metals, or other materials (wood, stone...).
The wedding rings, on the other hand, are invested more in money and style; the rings have to keep up with time and use, hopefully for decades.
Well-made jewellery from high-quality materials last for a long time, and with yearly maintenance by a jeweler, the jewellery can easily last for a lifetime. In the yearly check, the jeweler looks up any wear in the rings, stone settings, and general condition.
The rings stay in good condition when they are taken care of. To keep rings in good condition, remove them from your fingers when cleaning, cooking, exercising, and renovating. That way, you can prevent hitting the ring; the hit could harm the ring or stone settings. There’s no way to prevent small scratches (except not using the ring), but you can avoid the bigger scratches this way.
Price
For two wedding rings, the price is usually first on the mind.
There is no rule about how expensive or inexpensive rings have to be. Traditionally, the wedding ring should cost a man’s (or other party's) 3 months salary, but this is not a rule written in stone.
There is no rule for engagement rings, but sometimes engagement rings are more affordable than wedding rings.
Price is formed from used materials, stones, stone settings, and used processes of making.
Size
The size of the ring should be planned carefully; of course, the diameter is the most important thing.
The ring should be tight enough that it doesn't fall off itself, but loose enough that it comes off the finger fairly easily.
There’s also another thing to consider: how thick and wide the shank should be. Thin (less than 1 mm) rings usually tend to bend over more in use than thicker shanks, such as those with 1.2 mm of thickness.
Even a small amount of material increases durability noticeably!
Material
There are a lot of different kinds of materials and alloys to use.
Engagement rings are usually made out of silver, titanium, steel, or gold.
Wedding rings are often gold, and there are a lot of different kinds of alloys: white gold, yellow gold, rose gold, etc. The purity of the gold indicates how durable it is.
For regular use, 585 or 750 are the best choices.
There are different alloys of white gold that can contain nickel. Nickel is used to make the yellow color fade from gold to white. Nowadays, several goldsmiths use the gold-palladium alloy, which does not contain any nickel.
Stones and stone settings
Stones and stone settings enhance the appearance of the jewelry.
Some stone settings may not be compatible with some shanks, but with small changes, anything is possible.
Choosing a gemstone can be challenging, but if you're interested in symbols, mystics, myths, and so on, you can find inspiration from these things.
And of course, ethically produced stones can be important.
There are various gemstones found in Finland and Europe, and sure, all over the world.
Style
Matching rings can bring you closer to your significant other.
If you already have an engagement ring, you can ask a jeweler to make a wedding ring that fits in the same style as that ring.
There are multiple styles for crafting rings. You can choose the type of ring shank; do you want the traditional round ring with hammered surface or the by-pass shank with halo stone setting? You can mix and match different styles until you find one that speaks to you.
Process of making
Jewelry made by casting is more inexpensive than hand-made jewelry.
While working with metal, it tends to harden while hammering, filing, etc. Usually, cast jewelry doesn’t need this kind of work.
Still, cast jewelry is as good an option as hand-crafted jewelry.
