One of the most popular set of items in my collection are the birthstone stacking rings.
The concept is really simple, but the details and choices can get a little confusing so I thought I would pop all of the information in one place (here) to help you make sense of it all.
You can buy each ring individually - as a pick n mix style build your own stacking ring set idea - for all of the individual rings you can check out my birthstone stacking rings product page.
Sometimes people like to choose from an existing set of shapes, and just pick which stone they'd like to see in each shape. Click here for the ready designed stacking sets.
The Idea Behind the Stacking Rings
The basic idea behind the stacking rings is to choose a set of rings to represent special people, or times (e.g. anniversaries) in your life. You can choose the birthstones of your children, your family, yourself and your partner. The choices are endless. As well as the birthstones I can make beautiful spacer rings, and gold and silver heart rings which stack beautifully with the stones.
Choosing your birthstones.
Once you have decided what your rings will represent it's time to choose your stones. The list of stone options that represent each month are:
January - Garnet
February - Amethyst
March - Aquamarine or Sky blue topaz
April - Cubic zirconia (aka cz) or White topaz (both alternatives to diamond)
May - Emerald (I offer real and synthetic emeralds depending on the cut, most on the site are lab made.
June - Moonstone (alternative to pearl which I don't think is hard wearing enough for a ring)
July - Ruby (I offer real and synthetic rubies depending on the cut - please note rubies tend to be pink rather than red!)
August - Peridot
September - Sapphire (I offer real and synthetic sapphires depending on the cut but usually lab made.)
October - Opal ( I have white ones with flashes of colour, real and synthetic, and darker opals). Pink tourmaline is the alternative stone for October.
November - Citrine
December - Turquoise, Tanzanite, Swiss blue or London blue topaz
Cuts (or shapes) of the birthstones
On my birthstone stacking rings product page you will see that I have a variety of stone cuts; e.g. rose-cut, trillion cabochon etc. There is another blog page with information about each product page for pictures and details. Please be aware I do not have all of the possible birthstones in each different cut. Some stones just aren't cut in a particular way, or I haven't found a good supply of them (yet).
I think about three quarters of the stacking ring sets I make are three ring stacks and these look great with a longer shaped stone e.g a pear, oval, octagon - with two smaller stones stacked together to one side.
This is why it really helps (but isn't vital) to order all of your stacking rings together at the same time, so I can enable as good a fit between the stones as possible.
One other thing to be aware of is that the square stones do look a little larger so I offer 4mm and 5mm options for those rather than 5mm and 6mm.
If you have any questions on whether certain stones would work together please get in touch. I'm always happy to help.
Band finishes or texture
On the stacking rings I offer both a hammered finish and a smooth finish. In the gold heart stack above the middle ring holding the gold heart has the hammered finish whilst the others have been left smooth. A mix of the finishes gives a really nice contrast, and adds texture to the ring set.
I personally prefer the hammered look for myself as the finish hides the bangs and scratches I somehow manage to make on all my own rings, and also bounces the light making the ring more shiny.
Sizing for your ring
Take a look at this blog post I wrote for more information on how to measure your ring size.