The Durham Rose Blog
Ideas, advice & inspiration to help design your custom ring
It’s All Going Pear-Shaped: Why Pear-Shaped Stones Are Trending for Custom Engagement Rings
Whether diamond or morganite, selecting the stone shape for your custom engagement ring can be tricky. The classic round brilliant is always appealing, but sometimes choosing a different shaped stone can give your ring that extra bit of character that you’re looking...
5 Tips to Make Sure Your Bespoke Engagement Ring Lasts Forever
There are very few things in life comparable to a bespoke engagement ring in terms of sentimentality and value. You might own things that have cost more money – your house, for example! But they’re items that you’re unlikely to carry around with you. And there aren’t...
Six Reasons to Choose a Bespoke Rose Gold Engagement Ring
With its warm tones and lustrous finish, rose gold remains one of the most popular metals around for custom engagement ring creation. The suggestion of pink, which softens the yellow of pure gold, can’t help but hold undertones of romance. Which is why, despite the...
10 Things You Might Not Know About Custom Engagement Ring Design
If you’re looking to buy an engagement ring, the choices can seem overwhelming. There are so many different options – styles, stones, metals, sizes. And yet for all that, finding ‘the one’ can be next to impossible. That’s one of the reasons why custom engagement...
Coloured Diamonds: Everything You Need to Know
When you’re designing a custom engagement ring, one of the most important considerations can be the choice of stone. For many, diamonds have the romantic edge, with connotations of enduring love. But as beautiful as a well-cut diamond can be, sometimes that clear,...
Custom Engagement Rings and Wedding Bands for Men
There’s no denying that the engagement and wedding ring market is generally geared towards women. It’s what tradition dictates and society expects. But increasingly in recent years, we’ve been receiving requests for bespoke male engagement rings and customised wedding...
How to Create a Bespoke Engagement Ring Using Family Heirlooms
All engagement rings are special. But every so often we have a customer come to us with a truly sentimental commission. They’ll either have a grandparent’s engagement ring that they would like redesigned. Or stones from some other important family heirloom that they’d...
How to Choose the Stone Shape for Your Custom Engagement Ring
There are lots of things to consider when designing a custom engagement ring. The band metal, gem type, configuration, and style. But there’s one other area that can significantly impact upon the overall look of your finished ring. Stone shape. Whether you choose a 20...
5 Reasons to Select a Bespoke Engagement Ring
Custom engagement rings have become increasingly popular in recent years. As technology has evolved and techniques have changed, companies like Durham Rose have found ways to make custom ring design accessible to a wider number of people. The opportunity to design...
How to Match a Wedding Band to Your Custom Engagement Ring
When you’re getting married, a huge amount of attention is given to your engagement ring. And that’s a lovely thing. Because no matter how big, small, expensive or otherwise it is, your engagement ring is special. And you want other people to acknowledge it as so....
Is It Possible to Buy Custom Engagement Rings Online?
It sounds almost like a contradiction, doesn’t it? A custom engagement ring bought online. Because while all engagement rings should be personal, a bespoke engagement ring designed just for you surrrely has no place on the internet. Surrrrrely, all custom engagement...
In the Pink: From Diamonds to Tourmaline, Pink Stones Are the Ultimate Engagement Ring Must-Have
Colourful engagement ring stones have been gaining popularity for a few years now. From vivid yellow to black, the full spectrum is available. But look around and the one colour you’ll see desired more than most is pink. Shocking cerise, peach-tinged coral or soft...
Beautifully Bespoke Vintage Inspired Engagement Rings
There’s something inherently romantic about the look of vintage jewellery. Maybe it’s the association with all those gorgeously classic movies like Sabrina and Breakfast at Tiffanies. It might be the delicacy and intricacy of the designs. Or maybe it’s the thought of...
Top Ten Favourite Engagement Ring Styles
The beautiful thing about designing your own engagement ring is that there really are no rules. When you’re working with a company like Durham Rose, you can do pretty much anything within the laws of physics. As long as the components of a ring go together, we can...
The Ultimate Engagement Ring Sizing Guide
If you’re planning to make a proposal, you’ll have a fair few things on your mind right now. Not just the where and how to do it. But the endless questions relating to the ring – what will your intended like? Should you design it yourself? (The answer is always ‘yes!’...
Ethical Engagement Rings: The Durham Rose Story
There are lots of things that make Durham Rose stand apart from other jewellers. The bespoke-only ethos. Our approach to design and our determination to allow customer involvement. Our customer focus. And our complete transparency in terms of cost. But there’s one...
Get the Look: Twisted Band Engagement Rings
Twisted band engagement rings have become increasingly popular in recent years. Their main appeal is that they can make a relatively simple, low-cost ring look spectacular. And they really don’t need to be overly ‘showy’ to shine. So, what do you need to know about...
Get the Look: Bezel Set Engagement Rings
Second only to the perennial favourite solitaire, the bezel setting is one of the most popular styles of engagement ring. It’s also one of the oldest forms, simply because the bezel setting is the easiest way to secure a stone to the band without risk of future loss...
Get the Look: Two-Stone Engagement Rings
After a series of celebrity engagements, it’s tempting to think of two-stone engagement rings as a relatively new phenomenon. In the last few years, they’ve moved from being fairly rarely seen to being bang on trend. But in truth, the double stone ring has been around...
Get the Look: Flower Engagement Rings
Flowers and romance have long been inextricably linked. The Victorians even went so far as to ascribe a language to flowers – florioraphy – which was used for the subtle art of courtly love. If you wished to accept a secret proposal, wearing – or sending – a solid...