What’s better than a diamond ring? How about a custom designed engagement ring with the color and stones of your choice in a style that is uniquely you and one-of-a-kind. Expert gemologist, Cub Root of Form to Feeling, is sharing all the inside info on one of our favorite wedding jewelry trends – colored gemstones – plus insight into the custom jewelry design process, heirloom style pieces and more. Read on, and watch Cub’s video Q&A to see more of the incredible designs he and his team have made!
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Photo // Caitlin Rose Photography
What colored gemstones have been trending in your jewelry making?
While I wouldn’t say that any one particular gemstone has been trending, in the designs I’ve been doing or from what I’ve been seeing I would definitely say that garnet has been very popular. Spinel has been very popular. Both of them in a very large variety of colors. Garnet can come in red, purple, green, orange and every part of the spectrum in between those. Spinel can come in red, purples, even really low saturated colors like lavender, grey, those sort of thing. Those colors have been very popular.
What are the colors diamonds come in?
Believe it or not, diamonds come in just about every color. The color in diamonds is caused by trace elements within the atomic structure of the diamond itself. Some of the colors you might see, yellow for instance, is caused by there being nitrogen in the diamond. Believe it or not, some colorless diamonds as you go down the color grading scale have aspects of yellow in them. Some of the more rare colors are pinks and blue as well. Some of the rarest colors are red, orange and purple. A lot of those are very valuable, but diamonds do come in just about every color of the rainbow.
What is the most unique piece of jewelry you’ve created?
The first piece comes to mind due to the uniqueness of it – which comes from the story behind it. There’s a piece where the parents came to me wanting to create a piece to remember their daughter by, and so we created a beautiful ring using a really fine sapphire center stone with diamonds that set all the way around the ring. We even set a little emerald inside the ring, but every single part of the ring symbolized part of their daughter’s life.
The second one was just a really cool set of rings we made for a client who was actually a fighter jet pilot in the marine corp who was able to get his hands on a rear stabilizer bolt from his airplane that he flies, he gave that to us and from it, we were able to mill an entire set of wedding bands for him.
What gemstones make for the best bespoke heirloom?
So for this question we need to look at what’s been popular historically. If you want to create a piece that will be in your family for generations, that’s going to be passed down, really your main – three, rubies, emeralds and sapphires – are going to be really good gems to use for an heirloom piece. The lore behind some of those gems is really cool, as well. Those three have definitely withstood the test of time, so if I were going to bet on what would still be popular decades from now, those three would be at the top of the list.
Are your diamonds and gemstones ethically or sustainably sourced?
This is something that’s really important to me. I only work with suppliers of diamonds and colored gemstones who are extremely transparent with me, who actually see first hand every step of the process that the diamond or gemstone might take from mine to market and in doing this and knowing this pathway, we can guarantee that any diamond of colored gemstone that is sold at Form to Feeling has really benefited local populations and everyone in every step of the process.
How customizable is the creation process with Form to Feeling?
So the simple answer for this question is very customizable. In general my clients will have nothing but an idea, and so we work with that to go from the idea to an actual finished piece. There’s really no project as far as level of difficulty or intricacy that I say no to, with the capability to create and use whatever materials the client might want.
We have seriously had so much fun learning about gemstones beyond the diamond! Thank you to expert gemologist Form to Feeling for giving us all the deets. To connect with Cub and his team to get started on your own custom jewelry item, visit the Form to Feeling Brides of Austin vendor profile.
