The Lure of Personalized Promise Rings
Personalized Promise Rings are the very latest trend to hit the jewelry market and a great way to show that you care deeply about the
promises that you have made.
Promise rings take many forms and are most typically worn as an expression of monogamy, as a commitment to abstain from drugs
or alcohol, or as pre-engagement rings to express the promise of monogamy within a committed relationship.
Wearing promise rings is certainly not a new thing, and for thousands of years people have worn the rings to feel a closer
bond with promises that they have made both to themselves, and to others.
Prior to the 19th century when all jewelry was hand-made, the idea of personalized promise rings would have been something of an
oxymoron, because all promise rings were personalized.
As the industrial revolution took hold though in the middle of the 19th Century, increasingly there has been a movement towards the
mass production of jewelry, and so the personal touch has disappeared to a great extent.
And it is only in the last thirty or so years that there has been a big movement back to personalized, one-off pieces of jewelry.
The trade-off between personalization and mass-production is on two fronts.
First, the standards of personalized jewelry can greatly differ depending on who you get to make it. And so whilst you may end up with
a far superior product, there is always the possibility that you won't.
Mass produced jewelry does tend to be less distinctive, but the quality of the jewelry is more consistent.
Second, getting a fully personalized product that is made to order, like personalized promise rings, is going to take far longer
than simply picking out a ring in a jewelry store, and so you do need to have more time available in which to wait for the finished product.
But with those two provisos, getting promise rings personalized for you and your girlfriend/boyfriend
as pre-engagement rings can
be an extremely romantic thing to do, and really show your commitment to the relationship.
You will certainly be in good company, because such rings were particularly common in Shakespeare's time, and normally these would be
customized with some engraved writing on the inside of the ring, often in Latin, which would pledge their love to the other party.
The big lure of personalized promise rings is that you can both choose the materials that you like best to make your rings from,
so that you end up with a finished ring that you will genuinely get pleasure in wearing.
And that you can also add touches such as inscriptions that make the rings uniquely meaningful to you.
When you commission such rings to be made you should check carefully that the jeweler you choose has made such rings before,
and has a track record of satisfied customers.
You certainly do not want to be the guinea pigs for your jeweler, and it is important that you go for someone who is already experienced.
You should also discuss the types of materials such as gold,
silver and the types of stones that you would like to be used,
and also the typical timescale that you can expect it to take for your personalized promise rings to be ready.
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