The Stone Comes First: Choosing a Natural Gemstone Ring for Christmas

By December, it can already be too late to start looking for the right natural gemstone.

Not because a beautiful stone cannot be found.

The issue is that exceptional natural gemstones are individual objects. The best examples are limited, they move between collectors, dealers and jewelers throughout the year, and by Christmas much of the strongest available material has already been committed.

Natural gemstones are not standardized products.

Two sapphires of the same weight can have completely different color, brilliance, proportions and character. Two tourmalines described in almost identical terms can look very different when viewed side by side.

And once you are making a ring for a particular person, "close enough" is not really the objective.

For a natural gemstone commission, I prefer to begin with the stone.

Then I design the ring specifically for it.

Start With the Person

A birthstone is an obvious place to start, particularly when a ring is being given for Christmas.

Garnet for January. Sapphire for September. Tourmaline or opal for October. Topaz for November. Tanzanite, turquoise or zircon for December.

A birthstone gives the piece an immediate connection to the person receiving it.

But it is only one way to choose.

Sometimes their favorite color is much more important.

A particular gemstone might remind them of a place, a family member or an important period of their life. A couple may choose a stone associated with the month they met rather than either person's birthday. Parents may incorporate the birthstones of their children.

Or sometimes the answer is considerably simpler.

You see a remarkable stone and immediately know who it belongs to.

There doesn't always need to be a complicated story attached to it.

Natural Does Not Automatically Mean Good

This is probably the most important thing to understand when buying a natural colored gemstone.

Being natural tells you what the stone is.

It does not tell you whether it is a good one.

Natural gemstones vary enormously in quality.

Color is particularly important. You are looking not simply at whether a sapphire is blue or a tourmaline is pink, but at the quality and intensity of that color.

Is it vibrant without becoming too dark?

Does the color remain attractive in different lighting?

Is it reasonably even across the stone?

Does the stone appear alive when it moves?

Clarity matters too, although it needs to be judged according to the gemstone. Some varieties are naturally far more included than others, and an inclusion is not automatically a defect.

Then there is the cut.

Good Cutting Is About More Than Shape

When people describe a gemstone as oval, cushion, emerald-cut or pear-shaped, they are describing its outline.

That tells you very little about how well it has actually been cut.

The angles, depth, symmetry and polish of a gemstone determine what happens to light once it enters the stone.

A beautifully cut colored gemstone can be remarkably alive. Light moves through it, the color remains strong across the face of the stone, and the material reveals itself properly.

A poorly proportioned stone can have excellent color in the rough and still appear flat once cut.

One of the easiest problems to see is windowing.

If a colored stone is cut too shallow, instead of light being returned through the top of the gemstone, you can effectively see through an area in the middle. The result can be a large, lifeless-looking centre surrounded by flashes of color around the edge.

Cutters also face a commercial decision.

Natural rough is valuable. Cutting away more material to achieve better proportions reduces the final carat weight.

There is therefore a difference between cutting primarily to retain weight and cutting to reveal the best possible stone.

The second approach may produce a smaller finished gemstone.

But often it produces a far better one.

Why Can Two Similar Stones Have Very Different Prices?

Generally, there is a very good reason.

And often, all you need to do is look more closely at the stones.

At first glance, two gemstones may appear comparable. They may be the same variety, similar in size and even described using the same color.

Place them side by side, however, and the difference can be extraordinary.

An exceptional gemstone can have a level of color saturation, brilliance and life that is immediately apparent. The entire stone seems to work. Light returns across the face, the color remains vivid, and there are no large dead areas distracting from it.

Stones of that level are rare.

For certain gemstones, truly exceptional examples can begin in the tens of thousands of US dollars and rise considerably from there.

That does not mean a natural gemstone needs to cost anywhere near that amount to be beautiful.

There are extremely attractive natural stones available for less than a few thousand dollars, and they can make extraordinary jewelry.

But they should not necessarily be compared as though they are the same product.

An excellent $2,000 stone and an exceptional $20,000 stone may both be beautiful.

They are simply operating at different levels of rarity and quality.

The difference may come from the intensity and purity of the color. It may be the clarity of the material, the quality of the cutting, unusually large size, treatment status, origin or a combination of those things.

This is why carat weight alone is such a poor way to assess a natural colored gemstone.

The question is not simply:

How large is it?

The better question is:

What am I actually looking at?

For my own work, I would rather use a smaller stone with exceptional color and life than increase the carat weight simply to make the specification sound more impressive.

A Ring Also Has to Survive Being a Ring

Beauty is not the only consideration.

How the person intends to wear the ring matters enormously.

A ring worn every day receives far more knocks, abrasion and accidental contact than earrings or a pendant.

Some gemstones are exceptionally well suited to that.

Ruby and sapphire are among the most durable natural colored gemstones and are excellent choices for rings intended for frequent wear.

Spinel is another very good option.

Tourmalines and many garnets can also make beautiful rings, but they deserve somewhat more care.

Other stones may be better suited to occasional wear, or to designs that give the gemstone more protection.

This is why I don't particularly like choosing a gemstone from a list and then treating the ring design as a separate decision.

They are connected.

The stone, the setting and the way the ring will be worn should be considered together.

Designed for the Stone — But Not Dependent on It

Every natural gemstone has its own proportions.

A two-carat cushion does not have one standard length, width and depth. Neither does a three-carat tourmaline or a one-carat sapphire.

That individuality should influence the architecture of the ring.

I design each ring specifically around the stone it will hold — its dimensions, shape, depth, color and how it interacts with light.

But the aim is not simply to build a setting around a gemstone.

The ring itself should stand on its own.

Before the stone is set, I want the goldwork to already feel like a complete object: considered in proportion, interesting from every angle and worthy of becoming an heirloom in its own right.

The gemstone then becomes part of that architecture rather than something placed on top of it.

This is particularly important in my work because granulation is an integral part of the Rings by NK design language.

Tiny individual spheres of gold are positioned and fused by hand to become part of the structure and rhythm of the piece. Depending on the design, they may define an edge, emphasize a line, surround a setting or create a pattern that only fully reveals itself when the ring is viewed closely.

It is not decoration added at the end.

It is part of how I design the object.

That means the relationship between the gemstone and the goldwork has to be resolved from the beginning.

The stone needs a ring worthy of it.

And the ring should remain beautiful even before the stone is added.

Sourcing an Exceptional Stone

Over time, I have established relationships with specialist gemstone suppliers around the world who deal in exceptional natural material and, importantly, exceptionally cut stones.

That matters.

I am not interested in searching endlessly through unfamiliar suppliers simply because a stone appears cheaper or looks promising in a single photograph.

With natural gemstones, experience with the supplier is part of the buying decision.

Before purchasing an important stone, I review detailed macro photography and video and, where necessary, request additional footage under both natural and artificial light.

That allows me to assess the color, cut, brilliance and inclusions far more accurately before the stone travels.

Where the value of the gemstone warrants it — or where a client requests it — independent laboratory certification is also obtained.

Certification can verify the gemstone's identity and disclose detectable treatments. For certain gemstones, it may also provide an opinion on geographic origin.

There are occasions when I will consider a stone from a supplier I have not previously worked with.

But in that situation, the possibility of return has to form part of the process.

If the stone arrives and does not meet the standard suggested by the photography and video, it goes back.

In practice, this is rare.

Careful review before purchase normally tells you a great deal.

If It Is for Christmas, Start Before December

The issue with December is not that the sourcing process stops working.

It is that the market has already been moving for months.

The best suppliers hold finite stocks of exceptional stones, and many of those stones have already been selected for Christmas commissions well before December arrives.

The choice becomes narrower.

Then there is freight.

International shipping in the final weeks before Christmas becomes less predictable precisely when there is the least tolerance for delay.

For a custom piece, I would much rather spend October selecting an exceptional stone, November making the ring around it, and December completing the setting and finishing without unnecessary pressure.

That also gives us the freedom to say no to a stone.

That is important.

When there is sufficient time, there is no reason to accept something that is merely satisfactory because Christmas is suddenly two weeks away.

If the right stone is not the first one considered, we move on.

The objective is not simply to finish a ring before December 25.

The objective is to make a ring that will still deserve to be worn decades after it.

Five Things I Would Ask Before Buying a Natural Gemstone

Before committing to a significant natural gemstone, I would want to know:

• Is it natural, and has it been treated?

• How does the color behave in both natural and artificial light?

• Is it genuinely well cut, or has the cutter prioritized retaining carat weight?

• Is the gemstone durable enough for the way the ring will actually be worn?

• Does the value or nature of the stone justify independent laboratory certification?

Those questions matter considerably more than whether somebody has described the gemstone as "premium", "AAA" or "investment quality".

With natural gemstones, the stone itself has to justify the description.

An Object That Begins With a Stone

Natural gemstones are compelling partly because no two are quite the same.

Color varies. Inclusions vary. Proportions vary. Even two stones cut from the same mineral can behave completely differently once light enters them.

That individuality is the starting point.

But for me, the finished piece needs to become more than a remarkable gemstone in a gold setting.

The stone influences the architecture of the ring, and the ring should in turn give the stone a context that could not simply be transferred to another piece.

The proportions, the setting, the surfaces and the granulation are developed together until they become one object.

That is ultimately what I am trying to make.

Not simply a valuable stone.

Not simply a piece of jewelry built to carry it.

A complete object that is beautiful from every angle, bears the evidence of how it was made, and is substantial enough — physically and emotionally — to be passed on.

The gemstone may be what first catches the eye.

Look closer, and there should be much more to discover.

CHRISTMAS COMMISSIONS

Natural gemstone Christmas commissions are now open.

If you already have a gemstone, birthstone or color in mind, we can begin there.

If you don't, the better starting point is often simply to tell me about the person who will wear it, how they will use the ring and the approximate budget.

From there, I can source stones from specialist suppliers and present a small number that I believe are genuinely worth considering.

Each Rings by NK commission is individually designed and handmade in solid gold in Makati.

Private consultations by appointment.

Allow approximately 4–6 weeks for most custom commissions, with additional time where a particular natural gemstone needs to be sourced internationally.