Nature inspired engagement rings are the choice of true nature lovers. Flowers and butterflies, birds and fish, feathers and shells, branches and vines… How not to be confused in all these patterns, stones and metals and choose the ring of your dream?
If you are considering a nature inspired engagement ring, this article will become your full guide. You will find out more about nature motifs, learn about stones and metals which are better to use and get familiar with organic jewelry trends in the works of fashion houses and celebrities
Why choose a nature inspired engagement ring?
You love and enjoy natural beauty
Do you and your beloved one like to spend a lot of time outdoors? Do you enjoy caring for plants or animals? Whether you like birds or bright fishes, the energy of mountains or the power of trees, you will surely enjoy a piece of it on your hand.
You care about the planet
Do you dream of preserving the planet in its beauty and you are taking particular steps? A nature inspired engagement ring can be a wordless symbol of how caring for the planet is important for both of you.
You’ll have one of a kind ring
Choosing a nature inspired ring you get a special ring that stands out from other ordinary pieces. It will feature an unusual nature design that will catch the eye of anyone. Besides, by choosing your own ring design you can create the unique symbol of love where every detail will mean something special for you and your soulmate.
You will be in trend
Organic inspired jewelry is getting more popular in recent years. Jewelry brands find inspiration in nature and create ethical & sustainable jewelry collections every season. Jewelry pieces with natural motives not only have an unusual eye-catching design, they are also made from ethical materials.
Next, you’ll learn more about nature-inspired designs, celebrities’ choice & organic jewelry of fashion designers.
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Before we go further check out Nature inspired engagement ring that we did for our client.
Types of Nature Inspired Engagement Rings
Prompted by floral shapes, creators of nature inspired engagement rings focus on designs replicating twigs and vines, leaves, flowers and the patterns of the tree bark.
Floral engagement rings
The flower motif in engagement rings is especially popular because of the elegance and romance all the flowers feature.
Among the most favoured flowers are:
Lilium. In the Victorian era liliums depicted love and passion for the beloved. In addition, the meanings of liliums depend on color as well:
- red – represents affection of the giver
- orange – denotes happiness and warmth
- pink – symbolizes wealth, joy and youth
- white – signifies purity and innocence
- yellow – friendship, joy and gratitude.
If your couple is loving and passionate, an engagement ring with liliums will help to emphasize it.
Lotus. In general the lotus represents purity and rebirth as it appears from the dark waters pure and unblemished. But in each culture it has its own number of meanings: in Buddhism it symbolizes the rise of the soul from the dark to the light of wisdom, in Hinduism it represents beauty and prosperity, in ancient Egypt it was the symbol of rebirth and in China – cleanliness and dignity. Christians replaced lotus with a white-water lily to symbolize the holy Mother Mary. Still, a lily kept the same meaning of purity, divinity and fertility.
A lotus engagement ring will be a perfect choice for those who want to show originality and resilience in the face of difficulties.
Rose. The rose flower is the most popular botanical inspired symbol with different meanings. All roses represent love, but flowers of different colors convey a different concept. In Victorian flower dictionaries, white roses mean purity. Red roses symbolize passion and immortal love. Yellow roses –mature love. Pink roses are for innocence and first love.
Other popular flowers are small violets, bright chrysanthemums, orchids, daisies, lilies of the valley, etc.
It may be hard to find a nature inspired engagement rings that will suit your style, personality and taste. Mass market rings are designed with standard measurements without taking into account individual details like hand shape or finger size. As a result, the ring does not fit comfortably, looks strange or simply bulky on hand.
The best choice here would be a custom-made engagement ring. Whatever flowers or other patterns you like, a custom piece will match your idea exactly.
Leaf and twig rings
The tree, with its branches reaching up into the sky, and roots deep into the earth, can be seen to dwell in three worlds – a link between heaven, the earth, and the underworld, uniting above and below. It is also both a feminine symbol, bearing sustenance; and a masculine, phallic symbol – another union.
Leaves are also a very trendy motif in nature inspired engagement rings. Foliage has special meanings in many cultures, but in general, it symbolizes growth and fertility. In the Chinese culture, it represents all the beings of the universe. In the heraldic coat of arms, oak leaves represent strength and victory, grape leaves stand for liberty and abundance, holly of mistletoe represent truth and prevision.
Marquise-cut emerald leaves are the perfect setting for a round or oval center-stone. Together they make a classic nature inspired engagement ring.
Wildlife & Animal Inspired Engagement Rings
Whether you or your beloved one feel special to animals, you can express your emotions in a ring. Inspired by wildlife, be it a dolphin, a fish or a hummingbird, feathers or scales, you can apply your ideas in a hand-engraved engagement ring made by your sketching.
An additional source of inspiration can be myths with their dragons, phoenixes and other creatures.The insect world is commonly represented by butterflies, dragonflies, bees and scarabs. Embedded in a diamond engagement ring, they become a true choice for someone looking for a different look.
There are many ways to refer to your favorite animal. In general, if you have a particular idea, the concept is made real by getting a personalized engagement ring. Nature inspired engagement rings are often decorated with hand-carving and intricate metalwork. Graceful curves and natural patterns are applied to the entire band by hand-engraving and filigree.
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Celebrities’ choice
It often happens that we have an idea but we don’t know where to start. Especially for this, we have collected nature inspired celebrity rings. And below you will find an overview of the most interesting designers to give you more ideas for your engagement ring.
A number of singers and Hollywood stars such as Emma Watson, Holly Berry, Christina Aguilera, Miley Cyrus, Lindsay Lohan and Salma Hayek have been fascinated by authentic pieces made by Mexican designer Daniela Villegas. The jeweler creates accessories inspired by nature. The Alpaca Rings, Dinosaur pendants and Coyote thumb rings thrilled celebrities which usually like minimalism.
You can see more about celebrities’ rings on our YouTube channel NinaVova Jewelry Masterclass.
Which materials to choose for your nature inspired engagement ring
We are moving to the review of classic gemstones and metals you can choose for your ring. But let’s take a look at the unusual materials fashion designers came up with.
Non-Traditional Materials
For thousands of years, precious metals and gemstones have been forming deep inside the Earth. However, the past decade has seen a breakaway from traditional jewelry. Jewelry designers began to use unexpected natural materials.
The Maison Boucheron turned to marble and sand in its Bleu de Jodhpur collection
Piaget in its exquisite emerald cuff used the natural beauty of peacock feathers. The flower made of diamonds, sapphires and emeralds sparkles on a bed of white gold and feathers.
The Brazilian jewelry designer Sylvia Furmanovich created dainty orchid drop earrings by covering orchid petals with lacquer and setting them among 18K diamonds.
Shagreen & Tortoise collection by the Paris-based designer of jewelry Marie-Hélène Loubrielle combines textures and colors of natural seashells with the sparkle of old-fashioned gemstones.
Classic materials for nature inspired engagement ring
As for classic nature inspired engagement rings, they are created with traditional materials, yet feathers, petals, and shells can be replicated in gold.
Stones
The following stones are used to reproduce shades of different colors:
- Pink flowers are laid out with sapphire and topaz of the same color, as well as spinel, rubellite, amethyst and morganite.
- Diamonds, transparent spinel, colorless topaz, white tourmaline and moissanite are suitable for creating white motifs.
- Blue topaz, cornflower sapphire, blue spinel and aquamarine for blue patterns.
- For red patterns, you can choose ruby, red spinel, tourmaline and garnet.
- Emerald is ideal for green, as well as green sapphire and green tourmaline.
- The yellow pattern is laid out with a yellow diamond, yellow topaz, citrine, heliodor (or golden beryl), fire opal and yellow sapphire.
Most people associate sapphire with blue, but sapphire can be any color except red – red sapphire is called ruby. Yellow sapphires are much cheaper than blue and pink ones, and still are quite attractive.
From precious stones, you can choose a classic white diamond or come up with a composition of colors represented by pink moissanite, red ruby, light-blue aquamarine, morganite, opal or any other stones you prefer.
You can read our complete guide to alternative gemstones engagement rings or watch our video on YouTube about the 7 best gemstones for engagement rings.
Metals
Each of our engagement rings is custom-made. Your ring can be made of gold of different colors or platinum. Besides, you can choose gold of any quality you like (karat). Let’s look at the karat and gold color you can choose.
What do karats mean?
The number of karats indicates how many parts of precious metal the product is made of, with a maximum of 24. Don’t confuse it with carats of a diamond.
As an example, gold of 24k is 999.9% pure and free of any impurities. An 18k gold ring will contain 18 parts of pure gold and 6 parts of other metals.
Jewelers use samples of 10, 14, 18 and 24 carats for their products.
The most popular are 14k and 18k, as these karat levels provide a good balance of durability, quality and price without causing allergic reactions.
We at NinaVova work only with hypoallergenic gold, platinum and sterling silver.
The color of gold
There is a common misconception that the color of gold depends on its karat. This can be sometimes suggested by “experts” at some jewelry stores. This is wrong. The color of gold directly depends on the alloy (additives).
Today, there are various colors and shades of gold:
- White gold is an alloy of gold that doesn’t look worse than more expensive platinum; this color is often used to create luxury jewelry. It goes well with diamonds of various shapes as it highlights brilliance without distorting their color.
- Yellow gold is a classic variant, the popular color for wedding rings and Swiss watches. While white gold perfectly frames diamonds, yellow is well combined with colored precious stones as well. It looks good on dark skin, it is bright and visible.
- Red gold is an alloy of gold with much copper content. The more copper, the redder the shade.
- Rose gold is a trendy alloy of gold, silver and copper. Many luxury jewelry houses, such as Chopard, Tiffany, Cartier, create real masterpieces of rose gold. This very beautiful and attractive alloy is relatively inexpensive because it contains a sufficient amount of inexpensive copper. Rose gold is lighter than red gold. This is caused by the higher part of silver. Pink gold is even lighter than rose gold, again because more silver was used.
- Green gold. A pale yellow-greenish hue is rarely used in jewelry because of its fragility. Green gold is used to create decorative inserts, not a solid piece.
There are also rarer and more expensive shades of gold: black, brown, dark and light blue, and purple. They are expensive due to the laborious process of production. Some of them are fragile and limited to small inserts in the product.
On our youtube channel, we prepared a complete guide about how to choose the best engagement ring metal.
Ethical gemstones and metals
Simply put, ethical gems are mined without exploiting workers or harming the environment.
While some companies use heavy machinery to penetrate deep into the bowels of the Earth, much of the mining is also done by hand in highly unsafe conditions. Diamonds are classified as ethical only if these violations are not committed in the course of their production.
We give great importance to the ethics of metals and stones. All our gold is recycled and all our gems are ethically sourced. Our stones are purchased from trusted sellers with accompanying certificates. And because of the quality we provide, we are able to give you the lifetime warranty.
There are many factors to consider when choosing gemstones and metals for your engagement ring. For example, a diamond placed in the middle of a halo-ring may look yellowish if the stones around it are not correctly matched. This often happens in mass-production rings that are sold at malls. And it is not the only one issue you may face. Here are 7 more reasons why you should avoid Mall Jewelry Store.
Jewelry designers & brands inspired by nature
Nature has become a great motivator for fashion jewelry designers. Their works can give more inspiration for your own organic inspired engagement ring.
The Gucci fashion house has unveiled its second luxury jewelry collection, which they call Hortus Deliciarum (‘gardens of delight’). Cascades of diamonds recreate the streams of the waterfall. The French technique “en tremblant” lets every precious leaf and star tremble and sparkle. Orange-pink sapphires and other light stones represent the blooming of roses. And the sky is made of sky-blue tanzanites.
The king of diamond Harry Winston invites us to have a look at lilies. Blooming lilies bouquet is turned into the finest diamond jewelry made of platinum, pink and yellow gold.
Maison Chaumet released a new collection called Les Habitants De Ciel dedicated to the inhabitants of the sky – the birds – where sapphires, garnets and diamonds are framed in pink, white and yellow gold.
A British jeweler and designer Theo Fennell offered a “buzzing” collection of jewelry bees made of yellow sapphire. The top pick is a cute 18K yellow and rose gold ring set with a pink flower and diamond leaves.
The 2021 Blue Book Collection of Tiffany also turned to the natural world. Green tourmalines, rare Colombian emeralds, aquamarines, sapphires (including yellow and orange), spinels, tanzanite and kunzite convey tones of green, blue, oranges and reds evoking meadows, seas and the core of the planet itself.
More engagement ring ideas: from ancient Egypt to the present day
Nature motifs are time-tested. Let’s see how it inspired our ancestors.
Ladies used to wear animal, insect and bird-shaped jewelry as amulets in ancient Egypt and Rome. In those times, each jewel was endowed with a special meaning: some attracted good luck, love and wealth, while others served as protection.
The Native Americans were also very interested in the nature around them. They used to make rings, necklaces, bracelets and pendants with the use of such materials as bones, shells, corals, turquoise and later melted silver coins. Some were simple, some more complicated like flowers, leaves and feathers, animals and insects.
The Indian jewelry is probably the oldest in the world. It was already popular 5000-7000 years ago during Ramayana & Mahabharata times. There was jewelry for festivities like weddings, as well as royal and temple jewelry. Adornments with motifs of flowers, birds were especially typical for temple jewelry.
In Europe the interest in natural patterns revived with the rise of the Art Nouveau style.
Animalistic and floral motifs took on new life. Conventional, identical mass-production got replaced by original accessories. Butterflies and dragonflies symbolizing joy, flexible lines of snake meaning life and eternity, and birds who were believed to bring love and good luck.
Creating a personalized engagement ring is quite exciting but it is better to entrust this to the specialists. We at NinaVova will help you to sketch the design, tell you which ideas can be fulfilled, create a realistic 3D model and visualization. Our work is hand-made, performed by one specialist from the beginning to the end. This means a thorough quality check at every stage.
We hope the article helps you to get an idea of what you need. If you already have a vision of how your nature inspired engagement ring may look, just contact us for a free consultation and together we will create the ring of your dream.
Below you’ll find a video overview of how a nature inspired engagement ring is made from A to Z. We’ll show how a custom sapphire engagement ring was born. From the video, you’ll understand the way it goes: from the idea & sketches to a totally finished ring.
More articles that will help you to decide:
Everything you need to know to pick one of a kind engagement rings