I know it may seem hard to conceive of jewelry as a simple gift; and in some ways it’s not. On the other hand, the best of jewelry gifts usually signify love, a simple gift we gladly give to others. Take, for instance, the following story.

Back in February one of our long time customers came in to the store, greeted me, and after a little social discourse, revealed his purpose. He wanted to celebrate the tenth anniversary of his marriage by “upgrading” the center diamond in her engagement ring. As the beneficiary of long experience, I said, “I wouldn’t do that without checking with her first.”

Somewhat perplexed, he asked, “Why not?” I responded that she may well have strong sentiments attached to it. He acknowledged that he’d not thought of that; and after a little more conversation, he left. A week later he returned, saying, “You were right. She doesn’t want a new diamond; so what do we do now?” At this point I offered my analysis of the problem. He wanted to make a vivid statement of the success of his marriage, his love for his wife and his personal economic success. He had no inhibitions about an obvious display, she was more modest. In this light, I suggested that (as she did not have a matching wedding ring) I could make a wedding ring ‘jacket’ for the ring that would meet his need for a statement while not offending her sentiments. Intelligent and shrewd man that he is, he said, “I think you’d better talk to her about it.” That was a lot harder than it sounded. Business soon put them into Phoenix for a month or so; and this meant that I had to carry on my interview with her over the phone and via e-mail.

In the initial interview she made it clear that she didn’t want something that was ‘flashy’ – too ‘blingy’. In response, I asked her what kinds of things she thought were beautiful. She responded, “Flowers.” I then asked her if it were possible for her to e-mail me a picture of her ring next to a ruler (I’d not seen it in years) so that I might prepare some sketches for her. A day or so later a shaky (she’d done her best with what she had) cell phone camera picture arrived in my e-mail. From it I was able to get an idea of the general character of her engagement ring and (roughly) the sizes of the gems with which it was set. I submitted three rough sketches to her and she picked one, a pair of wedding rings set with teardrop shaped diamonds that would snug up to her round center diamond in a floral arrangement. I then suggested that we use some natural yellow diamonds in the arrangement to ‘soften’ it and add interest to it. After some thought, she agreed; and I knew at this point that I’d nailed her husband’s desire for a statement piece. Now the questions were that of assembling the diamonds, agreeing (with the designer who would execute the job) on the details of the design and doing it all in such a way that her appreciation of beauty would triumph over her her natural modesty (the ring I had envisioned would extend over a good 3/4ths of an inch down her finger) . Glarch!

The first problem was assembling the fancy yellow diamonds in the size I needed; and with a huge jewelry show going on in Hong Kong at the time, most of them were there. I persevered and managed to get a lovely suite of four matched fancy yellow teardrops with less trouble (it only took 10 days) than I’d imagined. The two larger ‘colorless’ diamond teardrops were harder. While this may seem odd to you, the fact was that they not only had to match one another in over all appearance, they also had to match her center diamond well enough for a critical eye to see the three as a seamless continuity. More perseverance was called for, but I was finally able to assemble diamonds I could be proud of. So the next step was the designer.

To my dismay, the designer (a charming man and an artist) was in the process of getting married (to a very nice woman, I might add)! This slowed the whole thing down. Then my client’s father became ill! (How easy is it to celebrate when a close member of the family is grievously ill?) Thankfully, the designer, after a false start, put together the ring I’d imagined and sketched; and the client’s father got better. So I delivered the ring a week ago. He was delighted with the ‘statement’; she was stunned at the sheer display. But it was (and is) beautiful; and its beauty swept all doubts before it. They left happy and I breathed a sigh of relief.

Some simple gifts are simple for the giver, but not always simple for those who labor to produce them. Nonetheless, I derived great personal pleasure from the ‘exercise’. It was, and is, jewelry that can travel proudly into any company; and this is as it should be. This is why we celebrate Hearts On Fire diamonds and offer them to you as simple – and stunningly beautiful – gifts to celebrate your love. Check out our website, hurstsberwynjewelers.com; then call us at 708.788.0880 for an appointment that will start us, and you, on our next great adventure in romance. We’re’ Hursts’ Berwyn Jewelers; and we have the stuff of dreams waiting here for you.