Colour me beautiful – when it comes to gem stones, coloured ones are gaining popularity

Diamonds have long been a classic choice for jewellery, they are a girl’s best friend after all, but there has been a steady increase in the popularity of coloured stones over the past few years.

Iain Henderson Design is making an increasing number of engagement rings with coloured stones, some cufflinks set with amber, remodelled family jewellery containing rubies and emeralds, and even created a necklace from a piece of coal.

Maybe it’s the celebrity influence – the Duchess of Cambridge’s engagement ring originally belonged to Princess Diana and is a beautiful Ceylon sapphire surrounded by diamonds – and an increasing number of Hollywood stars (Halle Berry, Blake Lively and Carrie Underwood for example) have been seen sporting coloured gem stones in their rings.


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Are they a good investment?


ruby engagement ring + wedding band - Jewelry

Despite the perceived wisdom that you should invest money in diamonds if you want to see a return, coloured gem stones have been setting records all around the world when it comes to sale prices.

At the end of 2014, Sotheby’s set a new world record when it sold a 8.62 carat Burmese ruby for £5.4m, and a new record for sapphires was also set at a recent auction in Hong Kong.

Other sources quote a 2,200% increase in the value of some types of stone over the past decade, so the answer to whether they’re a good investment is clear.

What are your coloured gem stone options?

If you want a piece of jewellery with coloured gem stones there’s a massive range to choose from. And as we source all of our stones to order from specialist merchants, we are confident we can find something to suit your style and budget.

You could use colour as your inspiration and match a stone to the one you choose. If you’re after red there are rubies or garnet; for blue try sapphires, topaz, turquoise or aquamarine; if you want green then go for emeralds or peridot.

Or you could go with a traditional birth stone. Take a look at a list here. www.birthstonesbymonth.co.uk


Green diamond eng ring & Wedd band - Jewelry

And as if it wasn’t complicated enough, many stones come in a range of colours. You might not know that sapphires come in a wide range of shades of blue, as well as green, pink, purple, clear and black. Ceylon sapphires, like the one in the Duchess of Cornwall’s ring, are named after the area of Sri Lanka where they are mined and are prized for their clarity and beautiful colour.

Diamonds can also be sourced in a variety of colours – from yellow to pink or green and current favourite, black.

It can be a bit overwhelming, so why not take advantage of a chat with an expert and call to see us at the studio? We can talk about what piece of jewellery you’re hoping to create, your style and budget, then recommend a design and stones to suit.

How should you wear them?


18cty eng ring w sapphire & diamonds - Jewelry

Coloured stones in engagement rings have been the most popular recently, but we’ve also studded wedding rings with black diamonds, remade some family jewellery into matching earring and necklaces, and created a pair of bespoke cufflinks.

As all of our jewellery is bespoke, we can create almost anything you choose, so you can incorporate coloured gem stones into pretty much any kind of jewellery. Take a look at our Facebook page www.facebook.com/ihdjewellery for lots of examples of the unusual jewellery we design with our clients.

As well as creating pieces from scratch we can also “retro-fit” stones to jewellery, so if your wedding band is plain and you want to add some colour, we can advise about the size and suitability of stones to do this with.

Inspired? Give the team a call on 01274 551224 to book an appointment to talk to us about your next piece of bespoke jewellery.

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