This blue sapphire initial ring keeps its personalisation completely out of sight. On the hand it is a plain sapphire solitaire. Turn it over and two letters, an A and an L, are pierced into the gallery in fine script, sitting where only the person wearing it will ever see them.
Custom Design
On its face this is a clean, classic solitaire. A 1.09ct unheated oval blue sapphire sits raised on fine claws in white gold, the cornflower blue clear and even across the whole stone. Sixteen micro-pave diamonds run down the shoulders, bright against the white metal, carrying the eye up to the sapphire without ever competing with it. Worn day to day it stays quiet and well proportioned, the kind of ring that does not date.
The secret is underneath. Turn the ring side-on and the couple initials appear, an A on one side of the gallery and an L on the other, hand-pierced into the openwork basket that cradles the stone. From above there is no sign of them. Because the letters are cut into the structure of the ring rather than engraved onto the surface, they sit protected inside the setting and will still be crisp decades from now.
This is the whole point of the commission. From across a room it is an elegant blue sapphire solitaire and nothing more. Look closely, or slip it off at the end of the day, and the two initials are there in the metal beneath the stone, a small piece of the two of them that goes everywhere the ring goes and belongs only to them. It is one of our favourite things to build into a ring, and it works best when the surface stays as simple as this one.
The Hidden Gallery
The gallery of a ring is the openwork structure beneath the centre stone, the part that holds the setting up off the finger. It is usually purely functional and rarely looked at. Piercing initials into it turns that hidden architecture into the most personal part of the piece. Each letter is cut by hand rather than stamped, shaped to sit within the curves of the basket and follow the line of the setting, which is exacting work at that scale.
There is a quiet romance to a mark no one else can see. An engraving on the band rubs against the finger over the years and is visible to anyone who looks. Initials set in the gallery stay sheltered inside the setting and stay private by design. On a customised engagement ring, made to mark something between two people, a detail that only those two fully know feels right.
Commission Showcase
This blue sapphire initial ring was made for one GIOIA couple and is not for sale. If the idea appeals, we can build a personalised ring around an unheated sapphire of your own, chosen and assessed in person by Clarence Yee, co-founder and gemstone specialist at GIOIA, with your initials or your own mark worked into the gallery. For the wider choices on sapphire colour, cut and setting, our sapphire engagement ring page goes into more depth.
Let’s Create Yours
If a blue sapphire, a hidden detail, or a mark of your own is where your thinking is, come and see stones in person at our boutique in International Plaza. Bring the idea, however rough, and we will work it through with you from there.