The Durham Rose Blog
Ideas, advice & inspiration to help design your custom ring
Everything You Need to Know About Pave Set Custom Engagement Rings
If you’ve been on the look out for an engagement ring, you’ve doubtless encountered a whole new lexicon of styles and cuts. And it’s not always clear which each term – solitaire, princess, halo, pave – refers to. To help you get to know one of the most scintillating...
Keeping It Curvy: The Trend for Curved Custom Wedding Bands
Wedding rings inevitably play second fiddle to engagement rings. Rather than the big bang of excitement and romance, they’re the symbol that seals the deal. Which invariably means that they’re given less attention. But that doesn’t mean that they can’t be beautiful....
Three Stone Engagement Rings: How to Get the Look
Three stone engagement rings – also known as trilogy engagement rings – are second only to the solitaire ring style when it comes to popularity. As rich in symbolism as they can be in sparkle, these are rings that carry extra meaning, even when bought off the shelf....
How to Work to Your Budget When Designing a Custom Engagement Ring
As much as you want to focus on excitement and romance, when selecting an engagement ring budget has to play a part. No one has unlimited funds. And no one wants to see debt every time they look at their loved one’s hand. And the same premise applies when designing a...
Why Yellow Gold Can Make the Perfect Custom Engagement Ring
Yellow gold was the go-to metal of choice for engagement rings and wedding bands for centuries. But around the late 1990s, it began to fall out of style. White gold, rose gold, platinum, and palladium all crept in, and yellow gold seemed suddenly a little bit old...
Five Things You Need to Know Before Deciding on a Custom Engagement Ring
You’ll never make a purchase quite so loaded with sentiment as your engagement ring. It carries a significance that few other things can. That’s why more and more people are turning to bespoke jewellers to commission their own custom made engagement rings. But if...
Are Opals a Good Stone for Your Custom Engagement Ring?
When it comes to engagement rings, whether ready-made or custom-designed, opals are not a traditional favourite. For years, they carried a reputation for bad luck. For those with even the smallest inclination towards superstition, an opal would be considered an...
Black Diamond: The Custom Engagement Rings Everyone is Talking About
White diamonds have dominated the engagement ring market for decades. And it’s easy to see why. They are beautiful and durable, and almost guaranteed to last as long as your relationship. But along with your wedding ring, your engagement ring is arguably the most...
Five Things to Avoid if You Don’t Want to Damage Your Custom Engagement Ring
A custom engagement ring is incomparable. The sentiment that goes into its creation is priceless, regardless of whether it features a flawless higher carat diamond or an aquamarine at its centre. It’s what it represents that is important. That is why it’s the last...
Everything You Need to Know About Marquise Cut Custom Engagement Rings
Stone shape can be one of the biggest decisions when it comes to designing a custom engagement ring. Perhaps more than anything else, it influences the overall flow of your design. And it’s possibly for that reason that people either love or hate the marquise cut....
A Simple Guide to the Most Popular Custom Engagement Ring Styles
The major advantage of designing your own custom engagement ring is that apart from the laws of physics, the rules do not apply. You don’t have to go for the trending styles or the most popular stones. You can mix and match design aesthetics. And you can select design...
Why Sapphires are Trending for Custom Engagement Rings
The interest in sapphire engagement rings is no new thing. The recent trend emerged with the engagement of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, back in 2010. But really, you could say that it was the Duke’s parents who sparked the interest 30 years earlier. And the...
Custom Engagement Ring Trends for 2021
The thing about creating a custom engagement ring is that you don’t really need to worry about trends. When you design your own, you can go for whatever look or style you love without the smallest bit of influence from other people. But that doesn’t mean that you...
Custom Engagement Rings: How Understated Can Still be Stunning
There’s a tendency, when it comes to custom engagement rings, to think that big is always better. That you need a big, bold stone. That you need the brightest bling. And that anything less than an a-list dazzler is going to fail to live up to the occasion. But here’s...
Custom Engagement Ring Design Tips to Make Your Diamond Look Bigger
Designing your own custom engagement ring throws up all kinds of questions. But there’s one consideration above all others that causes the most anxiety: the choice of centre stone. Despite the fact that there are numerous other gorgeous gemstones available –...
Moissanite vs Diamond: Everything You Need to Know for Your Custom Engagement Ring
One of the biggest questions you’ll have to confront when designing your own custom engagement ring is the type of stone you wish to use. Diamond is the obvious choice. But you have many other options. Rubies, sapphires, alexandrite and topaz all make a great choice...
10 Things You Might Not Know About Custom Engagement Ring Design
If you’re looking to buy an engagement ring, the choices can seem overwhelming. There are so many different options – styles, stones, metals, sizes. And yet for all that, finding ‘the one’ can be next to impossible. That’s one of the reasons why custom engagement...
Coloured Diamonds: Everything You Need to Know
When you’re designing a custom engagement ring, one of the most important considerations can be the choice of stone. For many, diamonds have the romantic edge, with connotations of enduring love. But as beautiful as a well-cut diamond can be, sometimes that clear,...
Custom Engagement Rings and Wedding Bands for Men
There’s no denying that the engagement and wedding ring market is generally geared towards women. It’s what tradition dictates and society expects. But increasingly in recent years, we’ve been receiving requests for bespoke male engagement rings and customised wedding...
How to Create a Bespoke Engagement Ring Using Family Heirlooms
All engagement rings are special. But every so often we have a customer come to us with a truly sentimental commission. They’ll either have a grandparent’s engagement ring that they would like redesigned. Or stones from some other important family heirloom that they’d...