The Kuczora Design Center provides you with almost endless customization options, but one of the most important decisions you’ll make is your choice of metal for your custom ring. There’s no “best” choice; all of our metal options are high-quality precious metals, and they all create beautiful, striking effects in any combination in mixed-metal pieces. Which one (or ones) you choose is entirely up to you, whether it’s something that compliments your and your partner’s skin tones or combines colors and patterns in a way that expresses something meaningful about your relationship.

Platinum

If you’re after a sleek and modern look, you can’t beat the combination of platinum and diamonds. It is a soft but strong metal, which means that dents can be polished out. When platinum gets dented, it doesn’t chip and lose mass; the metal is simply moved out of place, so buffing can return it to its original smoothness. As platinum ages, it takes on a patina—a hazier, less lustrous finish. Just like the little scratches that might accumulate with years of wear, platinum’s patina adds to its character. It’s beautiful and poetic that our platinum jewelry ages with us, accumulating new lines every year and developing a different kind of beauty just like we do, a beauty representing wisdom and experience rather than the enthusiasm of youth. But if you don’t like the look of wear on your shiny white ring, you can just as easily keep it clean, polished, and looking brand new.

We offer two alloys of platinum: PT600, which contains 60% platinum and 40% other metals, often other platinum group metals. Each manufacturer has their own proprietary mix, designed to achieve specific qualities. Our particular recipe is like a master chef’s blend of herbs and spices: a closely guarded secret! PT950, on the other hand, is as close to pure platinum as you can get. The two are indistinguishable to the naked eye, but PT600 is the more affordable option. It is also a more modern innovation in comparison to the more traditional and widely recognized PT950.

Palladium

Palladium shares a lot in common with platinum. In fact, it is part of the platinum group of metals, a group of metals that have similar properties as platinum. It’s just a shade darker than platinum, and it’s also a little harder, making it a better choice for pieces that will see a lot of wear. Despite being harder than platinum, it is actually less dense and therefore lighter in weight than platinum. Despite these advantages, it is still rare to find palladium jewelry, but its popularity is beginning to grow in the US market.

Palladium is a newcomer on the jewelry scene, and the skill required to work with it is not one every jeweler has learned yet. At Kuczora & Co, we love learning new techniques, working with new technology, and combining new knowledge with traditional craftsmanship in ways that evolve our artform.

Yellow Gold

While pure, 24k gold does not tarnish, its malleability does not make it a great metal for jewelry—especially pieces you intend to wear often. Just bumping your finger on a counter can bend soft 24k gold out of shape. On top of that, not everybody likes the extremely golden hue of 24k gold.

Yellow gold solves both of those problems by combining gold with a slightly harder metal. This tones down the color of the gold while making it stronger and more durable.

White Gold

White gold is a gold alloy that combines gold with a white metal, typically palladium, silver, or nickel. Nickel allergies being incredibly common, all of our alloys are nickel free for your safety. We will never use allergenic metals when alternatives are available. 

In addition to our 14k and 18k white gold alloys, we offer a “white gold (PD)” option, which is brighter than regular white gold. You also have the option of adding rhodium plating to a white gold ring to achieve that same shiny finish.

Peach Gold

This gold alloy sits somewhere between yellow gold and rose gold in hue. Rose gold is a fun variation that looks great with the right gemstone, but many people find it doesn’t work with their skin tone. Peach gold is perfect for someone who wants something a little different but feels that rose gold doesn’t quite work on them.

Red Gold

Want something different but bolder and more dramatic than peach gold? Red gold is for you. Its rich, coppery hue looks great beside palladium or white gold and brings out the sparkle of your diamonds.

Try It Yourself

Want to see for yourself how these metals look together? Head over to the Design Center in the menu at the top of the page and start experimenting. We can’t wait to bring your design to life.

Taurus is often stereotyped as a stubborn lover of luxury. But while Taurus might enjoy fine dining and high thread-count sheets more than most, they’re also dedicated to working hard to earn those luxuries. What might look like stubbornness is actually a deep sense of responsibility and devotion to achieving their goals. If you’re looking for a partner that will never give up on you and is willing to put the work in to make a relationship thrive, you can’t do much better than a Taurus.

Element: Earth

Taurus has their feet firmly planted on the earth. Once they’ve set their sights on something, they’ll be as unstoppable as a boulder rolling down a hill. At the same time, that earthy disposition might make them seem emotionally distant and impossible to move once they’ve made up their mind.

Ruling Planet: Venus

Ruled by the planet of love, Taurus has a love of beauty that goes hand-in-hand with their love of the finest things in life. But while physical attraction is important to Taurus, they’ve got to be on the same emotional and intellectual wavelength as their partner to truly fall in love.

Taurus Aesthetics

While your taste is as much a product of your culture and environment and the rest of your natal chart, not just your sun sign, a Taurus’s aesthetic sensibility might gravitate toward the clean, strong, and luxurious. Diamonds on platinum make the kind of statement a Taurus would appreciate.

Compatibility With Other Signs

Any pair of zodiac signs can become a powerful team if you know your own strengths and areas to work on. In any relationship, knowing yourself, allowing yourself to be honest and vulnerable, and being receptive to your partner’s needs are the keys to happiness. Understanding your tendencies and traits as well as those of your partner’s can help you turn any perceived point of incompatibility into something that makes you both stronger.

Aries: At first glance, these signs are polar opposites. Fiery, outspoken Aries relishes conflict and competition, while Taurus lives for stability and predictability. But an Aries that can get a Taurus to open up and a Taurus that can get an Aries to let the small things go can end up lifelong partners that bring out the best in each other. Will bond over the give-and-take of learning how to love a different kind of lifestyle.

Taurus: Another Taurus can be your best friend or worst enemy. The good news is that you’ll probably be able to tell one from the other on your first date. When committing to another Taurus, stay self-aware: are we getting too boring? Too comfortable? Stuck in a rut? Too emotionally distant? Under the right conditions, two Taurus partners will have a trusting, emotionally honest, and stable relationship. Will bond over a weeklong binge of their favorite TV series.

Gemini: The typical Taurus might seem boring to Gemini, who needs an active social life and new experiences to feel fulfilled. Gemini might succeed in bringing Taurus out of their shell, and Taurus can give Gemini a safe port when the outside world gets a little too stormy. Will bond over cooperative games like puzzles and escape rooms that require Gemini’s energy and Taurus’s perseverance.

Cancer: Both Taurus and Cancer desire a stable home life, but Cancer is the more emotional of the two signs. Though Taurus is attracted to beauty, a relationship with Cancer will be founded upon a deep emotional connection and shared interests. Will bond over just being comfortable in each other’s presence.

Leo: Like Gemini, Leo is gregarious and adventurous, which can be tough to balance with Taurus’s home-bound predilections. Leo loves attention, however, and Taurus will happily be that devoted partner Leo craves. Both signs are looking for stable, committed relationships, and clear communication and boundaries, and compromise will be the keys to creating that long-lasting bond.

Virgo: Another Earth sign, Virgo appreciates routine, hard work, practicality, and attention to detail even more than Taurus. Virgo is one of Taurus’s most natural matches. Will bond over a love of bullet journals and meal planning.

Libra: Both Libra and Taurus are ruled by Venus and thus have a developed aesthetic sense and value luxury, but Taurus might find Libra frustratingly flighty and indecisive. Libra can help Taurus loosen up a little and live in the moment, and Taurus can help Libra approach life more practically. Will bond over their interior design Pinterest boards.

Scorpio: Situated opposite each other on the astrological chart wheel, Taurus and Scorpio are the embodiment of “opposites attract.” Both signs tend to dig in during a disagreement, and intense Scorpio will have to understand Taurus’s need for honesty and stability in a relationship.

Sagittarius: In the case of Scorpio and Taurus, opposites attract. But with Sagittarius and Taurus, it’s more like oil and water. Taurus might find themselves enamored of Sagittarius, but the question is whether Sagittarius would be willing to settle down and give Taurus the dedication and predictability they require.

Capricorn: Perhaps the most natural match for Taurus, Capricorn is even more hard-working and driven than Taurus. In a relationship, these two signs will work hard for each other, both financially and emotionally. Both signs also value honesty and will remain faithful. In disagreements, their overly practical natures might lead to nitpicky semantic disputes, but when their values and goals align, Capricorn and Taurus are a true power couple. Will bond over shared intellectual convictions.

Aquarius: This one could be a “manic pixie dream girl” (or guy) situation: wild and zany Aquarius will take Taurus out of their comfort zone, but since both signs are fixed signs, there will be mutual trust and a feeling of stability for Taurus to fall back on.

Pisces: While watery Pisces will go with the flow more than dogged and determined Taurus, these signs will bond over a love of beauty and art. Pisces’s easygoing nature is also well-suited to supporting a Taurus’s practical, goal-oriented approach to life. Will bond over their record collections.

Your Love is Written in the Stars

Where do you find your comfort, Taurus? No matter how the stars have aligned for you, you’ll find your match in our Zodiac collection. Check out the collection and design your paired Zodiac rings here. Just choose your ring sizes and your signs and we’ll take care of the rest. 

Making a purchase as important as an engagement ring can be an overwhelming process, especially when trying to decide on a custom design. Like someone who got a tattoo when they were young that doesn’t quite match their older, more mature personality, you don’t want to be stuck with an engagement ring that looked great fifteen, twenty years ago but just isn’t you anymore.

It’s helpful to understand the trends of the past that led us to today, not so you can avoid designing something that looks old-fashioned but so you can separate what’s in style today from what you’ll love looking at forever. This quick stroll through engagement ring history will help you recognize the timeless design elements that have stood for centuries and maybe rediscover a few that have fallen by the wayside.

1477: The First Diamond Engagement Ring

The story of the first engagement ring is a famous one. Like every aristocratic marriage of the Middle Ages, was a product not of romance but of politics: the Duke of Burgundy had aims to chip away territory from the edge of the Holy Roman Empire, and the emperor arranged to have his son, Maximilian, married to the Duke of Burgundy’s daughter, Mary, to secure peace between the two lands and ensure that Mary’s children would sit on the throne.

It doesn’t get much less romantic than that. But Maximilian, known as “The Last Knight,” was a Don Quixote-type figure, a romantic who held to chivalric ideals in an era when those knightly virtues were seen as old-fashioned. He traveled through Mary’s native land receiving gifts from the locals, and rather than keep them for himself, he sold them to fund the purchase of a gold ring whose diamonds take the shape of the letter M.

1500s-1600s: Gimmel Rings

Like modern stacking rings, gimmel (also spelled “gimmal”) rings are two or three rings meant to be worn together. They were either interlocking or shaped in such a way that they appeared to be single large ring. Back then, only the bride would wear a wedding ring, but both partners would wear an engagement ring. During the wedding, the individual rings would be joined together to use as a wedding ring. This trend is the precursor of the matching wedding band/engagement ring stack that started gaining in popularity in the past few years.

1600s-1700s: Engraved Poesy Rings

These rings, popular in Shakespeare’s day, consisted of a gold band with a snippet of poetry engraved on the inside. This is a beautiful expression of individual love from a time when the concept of romantic love was still developing. This gold ring, dating to the 16th or 17th century, bears the inscription, "Many are the stars I see yet in my eye no star like thee.” Another famous example of this style bears the simple yet endearingly romantic promise, “vous et nil autre” (“you and no other”).

Bring it back in style by engraving your custom Kuczora ring with a message of your own, or any other image or symbol meaningful to you.

1860s-1940s: The Diamond Boom

The discovery of diamonds in South Africa helped popularize the gemstone as a symbol of everlasting love. Throughout the late 1800s into the early 1900s, the old European cut was the most popular diamond cut, later replaced by the brilliant cut. The brilliant cut maximizes a diamond’s brilliance, which the Gemological Institute of America defines as the “intensity of the internal and external reflections of white light from the crown.” In other words, the brilliant cut makes diamonds as sparkly as they can be.

Before World War II, engagement rings passed through a number of styles that all had one thing in common: ornamentation. During the Edwardian era at the beginning of the 20th century, engagement rings featured intricate naturalistic designs inspired by Art Nouveau. When you picture antique jewelry, you’re probably imagining something from the Edwardian (1901-1910) or Victorian (1837-1901) eras: lots of filigree, curlicue, and whatnot. The patterns of the Art Deco ‘20s, meanwhile, were often more geometrical, while the ‘30s saw a return to naturalistic filigree, with rings engraved with branches, leaves, and flower patterns.

Post-World War II: 1950s-1990s

The post-WWII years saw the birth of celebrity culture, and celebrities from Lucille Ball to Marilyn Monroe to Elizabeth Taylor all flaunted massive diamond engagement rings, with the ring itself little more than a platform to showcase the size of the diamond. Cushion cuts, square cuts, emerald cuts, and baguettes rose and fell in popularity between the 1960s and 1980s.

The 1990s, meanwhile, marked a return to simplicity, with solitaires on white gold or platinum bands being particularly popular. This was a decade of authenticity and individuality, diametrically opposed to the ostentation of the 1980s. The more minimalistic engagement ring designs of the era reflect that shift in values.

2000s

That return to simplicity didn’t last long, as the 2000s were just as over-the-top as the 1980s. Side stones, pave bands, pave halos, double bands, and colored diamonds all had their moment during the first quarter of the 21st century. Some of those designs look as dated today as the ultra-low-rise jeans of the era.

Your Future, Your Ring

Today, couples are less concerned with following trends than they are with being true to themselves. The best current styles tend to combine aspects of past styles in interesting and meaningful ways. For example, you might have a cherished heirloom in the family, but your grandmother’s style is not your style. Rather than keep it in a box in the closet, keep that ring, and everything it means, alive by redesigning it in a way that honors its legacy while capturing your unique vision.

Designing a custom engagement ring can be overwhelming. Kuczora & Co. combines mastery of traditional techniques and the latest technological innovations to help you create the bespoke, artisanal engagement ring you’ve always dreamed of. Book a consult today and explore your options for a custom engagement ring or heirloom redesign.

Couples who end up getting custom wedding rings didn’t always start out with a custom ring in mind. What often happens is that you go to a jeweler in search of your dream ring, but end up not quite finding it. You may spot a few pieces that come close to perfect, but when you’re searching for a ring you’re going to wear every day for the rest of your life, “close to perfect” isn’t good enough. You might think, “If only we could combine the gold alloy of this ring with the profile of that ring, and add the stones from this other ring…”

Rather than let you walk away unsatisfied, the jeweler might offer to make a custom ring for you. If you’re working with the right designer, one whose way of working and sense of style lines up with yours, brainstorming a design and watching it come to life can be exciting. More often than not, however, the process is a long, frustrating one. If you’re not a jewelry expert yourself, you might not have the vocabulary to describe exactly what you want, and you can’t be sure if what you see in your imagination is doable in reality.

It can be a little intimidating to enter into a conversation with a jewelry designer when you have a design in mind but lack the expertise to communicate your vision. The result can be a lot of frustrating back-and-forth, with no guarantee that you’ll end up with a ring that’s better than any of the ready-made “close to perfect” rings you passed up.

Along with frustration can come a feeling of being overwhelmed. You may have experienced this feeling if your journey for the perfect ring began online. Even if you’re not planning to buy a ring online, you’ll probably do some research on your phone or computer, getting a sense of what’s out there, what it will cost, and what’s in style. You can end up spending weeks, months even, browsing jeweler websites, learning about metals and gemstones, and finding inspiration. All of this is fun on its own, but when it comes time to make a decision, you might find yourself overwhelmed by options and losing sight of the features and styles you were interested in to begin with.

Shopping for wedding rings shouldn’t be a frustrating or intimidating experience. Seeing a custom design come to life should make you feel more excited about what’s to come, not less. It should be a journey of joy and discovery, just like marriage itself.

Designing your own custom wedding rings is a great way to get in touch with what is unique about your relationship. Our Design Center blends traditional goldsmithing techniques with cutting-edge technology to bring you a ring that tells your story through precise craftsmanship and flourishes that tell your story. Try it for yourself and see just how fun and easy it can be to go from generic to authentic.