Rings

A question about : Rings

What are your rings made from and why?

I visited the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham yesterday and among the many currently fashionable white gold, there was platinum and palladium.

The Jewellers general consensus is that while white gold is all the rage, it's actually not that great a metal. Rhodium coated yellow gold, which needs re-coating every few years isn't great.

Moving up a notch from white gold is Palladium.
This is supposedly as rare as platinum, as strong too but still fairly new to the metal market. One jeweller was very complimentary of the metal and said it would eventually become the favourite, which would push prices up.

Obviously then there is platinum which added with a few diamonds is probably out of most people's league.

So, what say you MSE men and women... what material are your sings made from and why did you chose that?

Best answers:

• Both my engagement ring and wedding ring were made from OH's design in the Jewellery Quarter
  OH choose platinum for both mainly because a) I hate gold jewellery and never would have worn it b) with white gold I didn't fancy the hassle of getting it re-plated all the time you can guarantee it will always happen when the money just isn't there to get it done lol. Also I was concerned that due to my part time job in a bar moving barrels ect around was going to cause it to tarnish quicker especially with some of the chemicals we use for cleaning.
  There the two main reasons I preferred platinum I don't know if he was offered Pallidum and I haven't really seen it or heard much about it so I would be weary without speaking to someone in the know
• I have a platinum engagement and wedding ring..the reason being is that this is both our second time around and we wanted something completely different to the first time!
• Palladium for me and my fianc!e. I got her engagement ring custom made, and went for palladium as its so unusual. We're an unusual couple, so we wanted unusual rings! The wedding rings are also palladium to match.
• Ours are from the jewellery quarter, made to DH's designs. All chunky platinum because I'm allergic to gold/white gold and he didn't want to miss out!
• Our wedding rings (which we don't get to wear yet as we don't get married until 2015) are both Platinum because that's what the band on my engagement ring is made from. The wedding band I have is designed specifically to match my engagement ring and OH wanted platinum becuase he wanted out rings to have some kind of matching element as the design of them is very different. I think he went for platinum on the engagement ring after having a good long conversation with the jeweller about the properties of white gold, platinum and palladium. (He knows I don't like yellow gold) The engagement ring he chose was available in white gold or platinum and I don't think he liked the idea of me having to faff about and get it replated every few years. Have to say o0ur jeweller has been brilliant too, aftercare service second to none, shows a genuine interest and is just lovely. I even get free loan of a tiara for our wedding day!
• I've got 18 carat white gold and my wedding is the same. My h2b's wedding ring is tungsten carbide because he's a tool maker and it will shatter if he get's it caught in work if he doesn't take it off.
  Steph xx
• My wedding ring is brushed Palladium. I chose it because it is good for those with sensitive skin and it won't fade over the years. It cost Ј280 in 2008 and took about 12 weeks to be ordered (From Swag) in my size; it was made in Germany.
  It scratched up quite a bit in the first few weeks of wear - i bet it was the sand on honeymoon. However, it hasn't changed since then.
  My wife's white gold has need replating
• Thanks for the replies.
  It's good to know there is a good mix out there of what people have chosen
• We're having palladium wedding rings because it's naturally a white metal and very hard wearing but my engagement ring is white gold because it couldn't be made in palladium so I no I'm going to have to get my ring reset in palladium eventually xxx
• Ours are simple bands in 9ct gold as they are hard wearing so will last without any hassle of getting dipped or anything.
  Plus my engagement ring is 9ct gold diamond solitaire and jeweller recommended same gold next to it.
  Our plain bands are court fit so they are smooth all the way round so don't cut into the skin at all.
• I have a platinum engagement ring. It's a family ring (it belonged to OH's mum) so didn't have any choice of metal! I didn't want a yellow gold ring though as I tend to wear silver jewellery, and thought a yellow gold ring might look a bit odd in that context. It does mean we'll have to get platinum rings, but having not spent on an engagement ring means I can live with that.
• Palladium.
  Like previous posters, don't like the colour of gold on my skin, didn't want to keep re-plating white gold, so it was a toss up between palladium/platinum.
• Yellow gold for us. I'm ginger and it suits my colouring! And he likes traditional. 18k for me (engagement ring is 18k) 9k for him as its harder wearing.
  However, if I wanted a white metal I would go for Palladium, no contest. It seems the best option for colour, low maintenance and price!
• Gold celtic band for me, and matching solid silver with a gold Celtic overlay for DH - made by a friend for us. I don't wear mine though - it's somewhere in the house but I couldn't tell you where.
• Ours are most likely going to be welsh gold. Mine will be white welsh gold, OH's will be yellow. I'm not much of a yellow gold person, white / silver colours suit me better and my engagement ring is white gold so will match that.
  On the flip side white doesn't really suit the OH lol, so he's having yellow.
  Why Welsh gold? We're Welsh and proud of it lol. Doesn't look any different to normal white or yellow gold in our cases, but just love knowing that it has been dug up close to our home if you get my drift. All for supporting local business
• Ohhh Welsh gold for us as well
  We live in North Wales and went to an independant jewellers in the walls of Conwy just before Christmas to see the annual light parade (think celts and medeval knights waving flaming torches round a castle...). We were just wandering around and ended up in a shop (we were not looking for rings!) and came accross Clogau rings. My engagement ring is a discontinued Clogau and the shop owner looked at it, chatted to us and dissapeared, reappearing with two rings that were 'just us'. A mixture of white gold and the honey coloured Welsh gold in a celtic pattern, we fell in love with them straight away
  Very happy with our choice and now we have a lovely little personal story to go with 'the day we picked our rings'
• I think I know the ones scmp!
  Ours are Clogau too, but just the plain looking bands. I'd have liked something dual coloured like that but nothing caught my eye. Do keep looking at the catalogues just in case though. Not bought them yet so I can still change my mind lol!
• My rings are 22carat gold (wedding, engagement and eternity) I just had to have my engagement ring repaired as I lost a stone and it needed resetting. It cost nearly as much to repair as it cost to buy it but having had 20 years of daily wear and the price of gold has gone up (a lot) it looks good again now.
• Cooliogti - They are the Annwyl rings silver and gold, Ј409 for the two of them Love them! I like the tree of life one as well but these two match nicely lol