Gold is never plain

Step One: Find a Vintage Ring

Be bored and start searching your favorite vintage shopping platform for nothing in particular on a Friday night. Find a 10-karat gold and cubic zirconia ring in an amazing, unique setting for an incredible price ($122.48 with tax and free shipping). Hesitate for a bit because it’s CZ and you don’t really wear CZ anymore since you started your fine jewelry collection. Remember that it’s only one hundred bucks and, thanks to your handy-dandy jewelry Instagram account, you now interact with a handful of jewelers who would probably be willing to take on the task of replacing the CZ with a stone of your choosing. (This all happens in 5 minutes, flat.)

Step Two: Consider Your Options

Post about your new purchase on the aforementioned jewelry Instagram account and ponder your options for a replacement stone. The bluish-violet tones of tanzanite are appealing, but tourmalines come in any shade you could possibly think of and are so fun—maybe a deep blue green tourmaline would work? There’s also the juicy lime green of peridot, a stone which you’ve only recently come to appreciate. But then someone mentions that a salt and pepper diamond could be absolutely chic, and that’s where your mind goes. You won’t decide until you receive the ring and see how it feels on your finger. You will let it call out to you, let you know what it needs on its own.

Step Three: Select a Jeweler

This is the easiest part. You’ve been chatting with Lauren of Lauren Newton Jewelry off and on since you first re-posted a pair of her beautiful azurite malachite earrings back in February to celebrate Black jewelers during Black History Month. She’s always been really friendly to you and her work is both delicate and raw in a way that gets under your skin. And, quite frankly, with all this talk about supporting Black jewelers in the industry, you want to put your money where your mouth is and #payBlackwomen. Reach out to see if she’s available and do a little dance when she says she is.

Step Four: Make a Decision

Try on the ring when it arrives and realize that a salt and pepper diamond is the ONLY way to go. A brightly colored stone in this already dramatic setting, while beautiful, would be too much. With the ring firmly on your right ring finger, you envision it as part of your everyday ring stack, which includes a 14-karat gold love knot pinky ring and a black and white diamond eternity band on your left hand. You want to add more white diamonds to your left hand (specifically, a 4-stone white diamond Koemi ring from M. Hisae Jewelry, and a 9 Granule diamond ring from A.M. Thorne). A salt and pepper diamond on your right hand would provide some balance. You know in your heart that this ring needs the subtle glimmer and depth of a salt and pepper diamond.

Step Five: Send Ring to Your Jeweler

How fancy! To have a jeweler of one’s own! She inspects the ring and realizes that the prongs will need reinforcement—due in part to the fact that the cubic zirconia was not a standard trillion cut stone, and instead had the corners lopped off to fit within the setting. She thinks she can make it work with a standard trillion and you cross your fingers because the other option would be to have a stone custom cut, which sounds awfully expensive.

Step Six: Select a Replacement Stone

Your jeweler says she will show you 3-5 stones at a time for you to pick from, and if you don’t like anything in a batch, she will keep shopping around until you do. Luckily for you both, one stone in the very first batch immediately captures your heart. It is just as moody as you had imagined. You send the photo to your sister and your new jewelry friend and they both select the same stone without any hints from you whatsoever.

Step Seven: Be Patient

Wait. Not long. Also, lightly harass your jeweler to send you a photo of the empty ring setting so you can post it to your jewelry Instagram. It’s content, right? Plus after your initial poll, people seem really interested in what you’ll choose. Your jeweler kindly obliges your request, because she’s the best.

Step Eight: Try on Your Newly Updated Ring!

Try to wait to open the package when it arrives (there’s still that %$#@ SARS-CoV-2 going around, after all), but the most you can manage is three hours. Rip it open and slide your gorgeous new 10-karat gold, salt and pepper diamond ring onto your finger and realize you were so, so right.