Handmade rings are a tricky subject for me. As a maker, I'm often times left wondering where the heck the line between handmade and machine made is actually drawn.

At the end of the day, I think the distinction matters less, and the transparency and honesty matters more.

Here's an interesting set of examples: 

• A stainless steel ring that is cut to size on a lathe. The machine is operated by hand but the work is done by a tool.
• A stainless steel ring that is cast from a mold. Molten metal is poured into the mold and then the ring is cleaned up and may or may not have additional pieces added to it after it cools. The mold does a lot of the formation work.
• A stainless steel ring that's hand forged. It's hammered by a piece of metal attached to a stick. Then cleaned up much like the the previous example where the ring is casted.

Which of the three examples would you say are handmade?

I'd say all of them. Each of these examples requires the skill of an experienced artisan if it's to result in something we consider a work of art.

Below we're going to look at some of my work, as well as the work of others in this space so we can get a better idea of what we're looking for when we say handmade.

Unique Handmade Rings

To me, one of the telling signs of a handmade piece is this: Is this work identical to others of a simliar design? Is it unique in some way when compared to peices of the same model?

In other words, if I forge 50 rings this month that all are in the style below, will each one be identical to the next?

If the answer is yes, they are all identical, tt usually removes it from the handmade category.

It isn't possible for a human to produce an identical copy over and over again. Unless of course the artist is actually a God— one that cranks out identical masterpieces— in which case the makers of the world should bow down and worship them endlesssly.

Handmade Gemstone Rings 

This handmade gemstone ring falls into my personal category of handcrafted. Yet, most of the work is done with tools. It's ironic but understandable.

The ring starts from a section of pipe, is hammered by hand to size (the texture is applied as it's hammered). A partial hole is drilled in the center of the face of the band, and then four 1mm holes are drilled around the partially drilled hole. Little rods are inserted into the holes and a tool called a guillotine is used to collapse those holes when the whole piece is hot, locking in the 1 mm rods that were inserted into the 1mm holes.

The ring was a nightmare to design and took about a year to develop the techniques for, but that's irrelevant to the discussion at hand.

Pun intended.

The gem is set by hand, and the ring is cleaned up with a dremel (hand tool). But by and large the work is done entirely by a single person and a novice would mostly find it impossible to make one.

For more of my handmade rings with stones, click here.

Handmade Engagement and Wedding Rings

Please note, I receive no $$ from you clicking on these links.

But it does feel good to suport other makers.

Patrick Adair Designs

There's a brand I want to introduce you to if you aren't already familiar with them: Patrick Adair Designs.

I often times advocate for rings that aren't mine when someone has specific requests relating to materials. I grew up forging things such as knives, hooks, and chains, but have no experience when it comes to smelting materials or working with additional compounds.

In cases like this (or when someone is being a wise-a** on an ad I'm running and says "Wow! For $70 it better be made of meteorite) I kindly refer them to this maker who occupies the same niche.

Their work comes at a little higher of a price point ($150 to $5,000), with the metorite ring being my personal favorite.

I mean, who doesn't want a piece of space wrapped around their finger?

I think Neil Degrasse Tyson would probably love this one.

When you take a look at how they make their rings. You quickly see material like round bar stock, tools like metal saws, lathes, dremels, and more. A lot of the work gets done by machines but a lot of it also gets done by hand.

Would I consider this handcrafted or handmade? How about their claim that their rings are handmade by artisans in Utah?

If they were ever to market their work as "Unique handmade engagement rings" I'd give them the pass.

Honest Hands Ring Company

Another maker that shares a similar space as Patrick Adair Deisgns.

A quick look at some of Ben's work, tells me it's made with a lathe in a similar fashion to Patrick's.

A cool selling point of Ben's work is the inclusion of antler into the design. My parents were both hunters and I spent some insanely long boring hours shed hunting (looking for antlers that deer shed as part of their growing process). They work out of Colorado.

Ben has his own site as well as a shop on etsy. A look at his reviews shows me people are really happy with their purchases. His prices also tend to be a tad higher than my own: $145 to $850 USD.

Artisan Made Rings

What about the word artisan? If you type artisan made rings into google what are realistically going to get?

The oxford dictionary defines artisan as: a worker in a skilled trade, especially one that involves making things by hand.

Here's where my take on this may differ. I worked cosntruction for a year and a half. I was an electricians apprentice. I would never have refered to myself as an electrican. I worked electrical.

I was a novice in that land. And my definition of artisan in the land of handmade rings has a prerequisite of the person having made at least 1,000 of something before I would start to consider them an artisan.

By this standard, I was an electrician when it came to installing outlets and switches.

Scott James Jewelry

Another example of a designer I place into the artisan/ handmade/ handcrafted category is Scott James Jewelry.

Their work is made using what most of us would consider silversmithing techniques, with soldering being a very important tool in their arsenal. A soldering iron could be called a machine (question mark) but requires a lot of talent in order to produce results that might be considered art.

Their style is heavily influenced by nature, evident by the Wisdom Ring modeled after a tree branch, below.

Their work is right alongside my price point, with prices starting at $65.00

Final Thoughts

If I see nothing about how a brand's or individual's work is made, I immediately get suspicious.

I'm also entirely distrustful of bigger brands like pandora or kay jewelers. I'm not saying these two brands are evil, but I'm using the big names as an example.

One of the reasons is that their stores are everywhere, and they need to produce a lot of jewelry in order to maintain their stock.

My gut (and experience digging into trafficking) is that on some level, they are knowingly exploiting people, even if it's within legal means.

When you sell based on volume, the more corners you can cut— and the more you can refrain from paying out— the higher the profits. I've also heard stories about some of the shady practices that go on with bigger jewelry houses.

Generally, my advice is this: 

You want handmade? Go with artists.

Not big brands. Not big time deisgners.