What makes our pieces so special?

When encountering our rings for the first time, new collectors always note how distinctly soft and weighty they feel. There are three main reasons for this: design, finishing, and gold volume.

Always Wearable

Design. At the design stage, beauty and wearability are our priorities, so each sketch is full of soft curves and gentle edges so that the pieces will always feel incredible. 

Finishing. During the finishing stage, maintaining the soft, buttery edges takes time, skill, and special finishing tools. When a piece comes out of a casting kiln rough, bench jewelers will typically reach for flat files to knock off the bumps and high spots. This creates flat, sharp planes. In order to avoid this result and ensure softness — and also maintain consistency in the process — our goldsmiths use proprietary finishing tools and practiced polishing techniques. This takes tremendous skill and attention.

Gold Volume. While careful finish work is critical, no amount of polishing will create a soft piece if the metal is too thin. The incredible softness of our pieces is made possible because we use a lot of gold.

Where most rings are made through fabrication (bending and soldering thin sheets of metal), we create all of our jewelry using the ancient art of lost wax casting — the only technique that accommodates a high volume of gold.

The result is pure pleasure. Our jewelry feels as good as it looks. 

(Learn more about the art of lost wax casting.)

Always Solid

Most gold jewelry — whether fine jewelry or demi-fine — has a tinny, weightless quality. It lacks a certain heft one would expect from gold. This is sometimes purely a design element, but often it's because the construction consists of hollow areas, or because the metal itself is light due to plating. 

George Rings jewelry is always solid 18k yellow gold — never hollow, never scooped out, never plated. Where we have domes or fullness in our pieces, they are solid so that your physical experience with the jewelry matches what your eyes expect. They weigh what they should weigh. 

The primary joy of gold is its delightful density. Solid 18k gold is 1.2 times heavier than 14k gold and 1.5 times heavier than gold-plated silver. To feel something so relatively tiny pack such power is a superlative experience. It isn't "heavy," it's just really, really satisfying. 

Always 18k Gold

Unlike 14k yellow gold, which is composed of only 58% gold fine metal, 18k yellow gold is composed of 75% gold fine metal, making it richer in color, higher in value, and — as mentioned above — heavier in weight. Its greater gold content also makes it softer than 14k, which allows for a gorgeous patina to develop rather quickly. We love this characteristic of 18k gold the most — its ability to patina and show the signs of daily life and become more beautiful for it.

Always Delicious Gems in Full Bezel Cups

With few exceptions, we choose cabochon-cut gemstones (i.e. smooth, gumdrop-shape cuts) for our pieces, even with precious gems. We also insist on solid gold bezels (cups) and full backs. These are unusual choices that require custom lapidary work and extra attention to stone setting in order to achieve. The result is truly rare, truly unique, and truly wearable pieces.

Always Committed to Responsible Sourcing

At George Rings, we create heirloom jewelry from the most precious and beautiful of earth’s raw materials. Respecting these resources and the human hands that work to supply them is our determination.