We’ve been custom design experts for 75 years and have made unique custom rings spanning many different genres. I’m going to assume you know what type of jewelry you’re wanting to design (ring, pendant, etc.), so we’re going to skip that part. Here are 6 tips from our experience to help you design the perfect custom jewelry piece to compliment your unique style.

A great place to start with when designing a custom piece of jewelry is with color. What colors do you wear routinely? What color metal is the jewelry you usually wear? What color gemstone or diamond do you want (they come in every color of the rainbow)? Starting with those questions helps with the decision making process down the road and helps to narrow the field. For instance, I love rose gold, but if you’re going with a blue center stone you might want to re-think the metal color. Blues look best in yellow for dark blues, and best in white for light blues.

We’ve made hundreds of custom rings in the last couple of years, from high fashion to geek chic. Knowing what you love is important in making something you’ll treasure in a piece of jewelry. Here’s a short checklist:

Go through the list, or make your own, and highlight a couple of them. Once you have an idea of the kinds of things you like, you’re ready to move on. Having a hard time narrowing your style? We can help. We have a great tool we use to help our customers figure out their style. It’s fun, it’s fast, and it gets the creative juices flowing.

As you work down the list, don’t worry about having any concrete ideas to this point. The idea is to start to put together the types of things you like and don’t like and to get a direction for the creative process. By now we have a good grasp of the subject (you) and your likes, dislikes, and potential color schemes, or at least some styles and colors you like, and equally as important, dislike. The goal to this point is to narrow the focus and the next stop in this process is thinking about shape.

Diamonds and gemstones are cut in many different shapes, but not every shape is going to leave you totally satisfied. Here are a couple of pointers when dealing with diamonds and gemstones and deciding what shape you want to go with.

We’ll start with diamonds.

Rounds are king when it comes to diamonds. The physics shows that the most light, fire, and brilliance occur when a diamond is cut into an ideally proportioned round diamond.
Rounds appear the biggest when comparing the same carat weight diamonds cut in the different shapes. All of the square cuts (princess, radiant, cushion, and Asscher) all look smaller than the same weight round cut diamond.
Fancy shape diamonds (marquise, oval, square) are more unusual and distinctive, which can flavor the custom piece with a unique and attractive appearance. If you’re going for a non-traditional look, but want a brilliant and sparkly center piece, a fancy shape might be the right choice to design around

With color gemstones:

Consider cushion cuts. I have found that the cushion shape gives a nice saturation of color throughout the gemstone which really stands out opposed to other cuts.
Color gemstones are often cut in unique styles with fascinating angles and interesting shapes. While diamonds are usually cut with a small variety of styles, color gemstones are often cut in artistic and creative ways. We have a variety of gem cutters who specialize in rare cuts which can make a custom piece of jewelry really stand out.

The last step before getting into the design is to think about what types of elements are appealing to you and what you would like to incorporate into the design. Is there an engraving you would like to include? How about a symbol, i.e a Celtic knot, cross, dragon, tattoo, initials, star, etc. Consider small design elements that add texture like filigree (small piercings through the setting or ring shank often seen in antique jewelry), milgrain (tiny “beads” that go on the outside of the ring or setting), bezels (settings with metal all the way around the stone), 4 vs 6 prong settings, channel settings (no prongs around the stones), or repeated patterns (infinity symbol, etc.). There are many different design elements, choosing one or two you like go a long way in giving an individualized feel for the custom jewelry piece.

The key to custom design is to break down all of the components of jewelry into areas of peak interest to the designer. By now, you should have a good idea of what you like and don’t like and by narrowing down the elements and colors, you should have the beginnings of a piece of jewelry that expresses your individual tastes and preferences. From here, we get into building the piece of jewelry. If you haven’t seen our software at work, check out this video on our custom design page to see how our unique process gives you a real look at an editable version of your custom design. At RUMMELL, we want to make custom jewelry that reflects our customers unique personalities and preferences. If you have an idea for a piece of jewelry or you want some help in coming up with the perfect engagement ring, statement piece, or gift, contact us with your idea or questions and we’ll be happy to make it come to life.

Last but not least, here are a few helpful hints from our experience in making custom jewelry to ensure you’re happy with it for years to come.

Use diamonds as accents instead of color gemstones. Color gemstones make great center pieces, but when they are small they lose their rich color and tend to blur into the ring, often times decreasing the appeal of the piece. If you want color accents instead of plain white diamonds, use color diamonds. Diamonds come in every color of the rainbow and they flash and sparkle like a white diamond making them great enhancers.
If designing a ring, use a nice, hard stone like a diamond, sapphire, ruby, garnet, and others. If they are too soft like opals or emeralds, they’ll often times get damaged. Consider putting the softer gems in a pendant or earring set where they won’t get as much wear and tear.
If you want a square shape, but want to keep the brilliance of a round diamond, use shapes in the metal or halos with square shapes to enhance your round diamond to give you the appearance you want.
Use Pinterest to get ideas of things you like and send us your pins. They help to visualize the things you like.
Stop by and see how easy we make this process. If you have any concerns or questions, we’d love to put you at ease. In most cases, because of the ease of our software, we can complete a design you’ll love in 30 minutes. Not in town? Send us your ideas and we’ll send over pictures for you to review and comment on in less than 24 hours. Just upload your pictures here.

We hope this gave you some great ideas for future projects and hope you’ll start thinking, “why buy something someone else designed when I can design it myself, to my unique tastes.”

Thanks for reading!

6 Expert Tips for Unique Custom Jewelry Design