Ten settings we work in, what each one actually does, and who it suits. Scroll through. Itit.
Most people arrive knowing they want "something simple" or "something vintage" and discover in the studio that they meant something else entirely. That's normal. This page exists so the discovery starts earlier.
Solitaire
/img/styles/solitaire-engagement-ring.jpgOne stone, nothing else. The solitaire is the reference point every other style is measured against, and it has never once gone out of fashion, which is a claim no other setting can make.
The whole design is proportion: how high the stone sits, how thin the band reads against her hand, whether the prongs are visible from the front. Get those three right and a solitaire is the most confident ring in the room. Get them wrong and it looks like a stock setting, because it probably is one.
Halo
/img/styles/halo-engagement-ring.jpgA ring of pavé diamonds surrounding the center stone, framing it and enlarging its outline. The most efficient way to buy visible size.
A 1 carat center in a well-cut halo reads closer to 1.75 from arm's length. That's real, not a trick of photography. The frame of small stones reads as one continuous outline to the eye at conversational distance.
Three-stone
/img/styles/three-stone-engagement-ring.jpgA center stone flanked by two smaller ones — traditionally read as past, present and future, though most people who choose it like the width across the finger.
The side stones can be matched rounds, tapered baguettes, trapezoids, or pears set outward. Each reads completely differently: baguettes give it Deco architecture, pears give it movement, rounds keep it soft.
Bezel
/img/styles/bezel-engagement-ring.jpgThe stone held in a continuous rim of metal rather than prongs. Once considered the practical choice; now increasingly the fashionable one.
A bezel is the most secure setting made. Nothing to catch, nothing to snag, no prongs to wear thin over twenty years. It also reads distinctly modern: the metal rim gives a clean geometric outline a prong setting can't.
East-west
/img/styles/east-west-engagement-ring.jpgAn elongated stone turned ninety degrees so its long axis runs across the finger rather than up it. A small change that reads as a completely different ring.
It's the most contemporary thing you can do with an entirely traditional stone. Emeralds, ovals, and radiants all work; the effect is quiet and deliberate rather than loud, and it photographs beautifully because the stone faces the camera flat.
Vintage & filigree
/img/styles/vintage-filigree.jpgMilgrain along the edges, pierced openwork in the gallery, hand engraving cut into the shoulders. Drawn from Edwardian and Art Deco originals, when platinum first made metalwork this fine possible.
The detail lives in profile and underneath, the parts of the ring only she sees. Done properly, with milgrain applied by hand rather than cast in, the difference is visible under a loupe and felt across a lifetime of wear.
Pavé & micropavé bands
/img/styles/pave-engagement-ring.jpgSmall diamonds set into the band itself, either partway around or the full circumference, held by tiny beads of raised metal.
Micropavé uses stones under 0.01 carat set in continuous rows, and at that scale the band reads as a line of light rather than as individual stones. It's the detail most responsible for a ring looking expensive from across a table.
Cathedral
/img/styles/cathedral-engagement-ring.jpgThe shoulders of the band arch upward to meet the center stone, like the vaulting the name refers to. Structural rather than decorative.
The arches lift the stone and support it from the sides, which means a cathedral can hold a large center securely on a relatively slim band. It also creates the space underneath that makes a hidden halo possible.
Toi et moi
/img/styles/toi-et-moi-ring.jpgTwo stones set side by side on a single band, usually of different shapes, curving past each other. French for 'you and me'.
Genuinely old, Napoleon proposed to Josephine with one, and genuinely back. A pear and an oval, or two elongated cuts opposed, gives a ring that looks like nothing else on any other hand.
Solitaires remain the largest single category, but the fastest-moving requests are hidden halos, elongated cuts set in simple settings, bezels, and vintage-inspired filigree. The common thread is a preference for the center stone to read at its true size rather than being framed.
Work backwards from photographs. Anything she has saved or pinned will have more in common than she realizes — band width, metal color, how high the stone sits. Bring those images to the consultation and we'll identify the pattern. A simple solitaire or a hidden halo is also the safest default, because both are easy to modify afterwards.
Almost all of them. A cathedral setting with a hidden halo and a micropavé band is three of the styles on this page in one ring, and it's one of the most common things we build. The point of designing rather than selecting is that you aren't choosing from a menu.
Less than people expect. The center stone is usually 60 to 80 percent of the total, so moving from a plain solitaire to a cathedral with a hidden halo and pavé might add $1,200 to $2,500. Realreal. What adds cost is hand engraving and hand-applied filigree, because those are hours at the bench.
Both. We keep semi-mounts and finished pieces on hand so you can try styles on and see how they sit, and most of what leaves the building is designed for the client. Trying a style on is the fastest way to rule things out. Aa.
Photographs are unreliable for this. Bring the three you keep coming back to and we'll put them on your hand. The shortlist usually collapses to one within ten minutes.
Book an AppointmentOr call (405) 805-1050 · By appointment, seven days