The Custom Engagement Ring Design Process
A custom engagement ring should provide more individual design opportunities than simply choosing a diamond and changing a few details on an existing engagement ring design.
At MDT DESIGN, custom engagement rings are created collaboratively with our jewellers and individually handmade in our Melbourne workshop. Every detail is considered around you, your stone and how the finished piece will be worn – with no mass production, no casting and no off-the-shelf limitations.
Whether you arrive knowing exactly what you want or have no idea where to begin, our process is designed to take you from the first conversation to a finished engagement ring made especially for you.
Your idea. Our expertise. One piece made entirely for you.
1. Start With a Conversation
Each custom engagement ring should begin with a conversation.
It is not necessary for you to know what kind of engagement ring you want, or have a finished design in mind. There is no need for you to be equipped with technical knowledge or even the vocabulary to explain exactly what you’re looking for.
You might arrive with photographs you’ve saved, a particular diamond shape in mind, elements from several different rings, an existing piece of jewellery you love, or simply an idea of how you want the finished ring to feel. Although some clients aren’t quite sure of any of this. That is where we come in- a custom engagement ring consultation at MDT DESIGN will take you step by step- through each design and every detail, until you can gain clarity on what it is that you love, in a supported design based environment.
During your consultation, our team will talk through your preferences, design, lifestyle, budget and the person who will wear the ring. From there, we’ll begin exploring the endless possibilities.
If you’re designing an engagement ring for a surprise proposal, that’s completely fine too. We will assist you to navigate the decisions without taking the surprise out of the proposal.
Book a Custom Design Consultation
2. Explore the Design
This step is where ideas begin to become something tangible.
Rather than expecting you to imagine a ring, or even have an understanding of all the designs that exist in the engagement ring world- we can explore existing rings to give you a visual and physical idea of what they look like. We can also explore sample settings, loose gemstones and reconstruct physical elements to demonstrate how different shapes, settings and proportions work together.
You might fall in love with a diamond from one design, the proportions of another and a design detail you’ve seen somewhere completely different.
That’s the point of custom designing jewellery. Some can find it overwhelming, but we believe it should be an enjoyable and exciting process. So we break it down for you, including any education necessary for you to make the best decision for you.
We aren’t simply trying to find the closest ring we have in our large stock collection. We are working towards discovering the engagement ring you actually want.
Classic solitaire. Trilogy. Halo. Tension set. Sapphire. Mokume Gane. Something understated or something we’ve never made before.
The design we create develops around you.
3. Select Your Diamond or Gemstone
Once we establish a direction for the design, we can then proceed to explore the stone/s that will sit within it.
Allow our team of experts to guide you through diamonds and sapphires that we have available in our boutique or source stones specifically around your specific preferences and budget.
We’ll help you understand the features that really make a difference to your particular gemstone- rather than simply presenting a list of specifications.
The shape, proportions, colour, clarity and size you desire and also your budget can influence your final choice – but they can also influence the end design too.
This is why we don’t consider the gemstone and the ring as two completely separate decisions.
The setting should be designed around the stone, not the other way around.
But it is important to note that there is room to play and be inspired throughout the process of choosing a diamond.
If you already own a family diamond or inherited gemstone that you’d like to incorporate, we can also assess it and discuss whether it is suitable for your new design.
Learn more about using a family diamond in a new engagement ring
4. Refine & Approve Your Design
Once the overall direction, gemstone and proportions have been resolved, we refine the details.
This is where everything comes together: precious metal, setting, dimensions, profile, diamond or gemstone placement and the smaller details that determine how the finished engagement ring will look and wear.
We’ll provide a clear quote before production begins.
Nothing moves into our onsite jewellery workshop until the important decisions have been made and you’re happy with the direction.
Then the design leaves the conversation and enters the hands of our jewellers.
5. Your Engagement Ring Is Handmade in Melbourne
This is where the MDT DESIGN process is fundamentally different.
Your engagement ring isn’t ordered from a catalogue or sent away to an anonymous manufacturer.
It is individually handmade by our jewellers in our on-site Melbourne workshop using traditional jewellery-making techniques. Our process begins with solid precious metal rather than mass-produced components.
No mass production.
No casting.
No shortcuts.
Working precious metal by hand requires force, precision, patience and an understanding of how the material behaves.
It also means our jewellers aren’t simply executing a design created somewhere else.
The people making your jewellery are part of the process.
That’s something we believe matters.
Discover the MDT DESIGN handmade jewellery difference
6. Setting, Finishing & Inspection
As the ring takes shape, the individual elements of the design come together.
The gemstone is set, surfaces are refined and the final details are finished by our jewellers before the piece undergoes its final inspection.
For a simple solitaire engagement ring, that precision may be almost invisible in the finished piece.
For technically demanding designs – such as our tension set engagement rings or Mokume Gane jewellery – the construction itself may be fundamental to the appearance of the ring.
Different designs require different skills.
What doesn’t change is the standard to which they’re made.
7. The Finished Ring
After weeks of conversations, decisions and work at the jeweller’s bench, there’s a rather special moment when an idea finally becomes a ring.
Before leaving our Melbourne workshop, your finished piece is meticulously completed and inspected by our jewellers.
Then it’s yours.
Ready for the proposal, the wedding, the story that follows – and eventually, perhaps, another generation.
8. Our Love at First Sight Guarantee
Designing an engagement ring for somebody else can feel like an enormous responsibility.
Especially when the proposal is a surprise.
That’s why MDT DESIGN offers our Love at First Sight Guarantee.
If the design isn’t quite right, we’ll work with you in accordance with the guarantee to adjust, modify or redesign the piece so the ring they ultimately wear is one they truly love.
It means you can preserve the surprise without feeling like you’re making every decision alone.
Learn more about our Love at First Sight Guarantee
Terms and conditions apply.
9. Lifetime Jewellery Care
Our involvement doesn’t end when the ring leaves the workshop.
Jewellery designed to be worn for decades should also be cared for throughout those decades.
MDT DESIGN offers complimentary servicing for the lifetime of your piece, including professional cleaning, polishing and inspection.
Regular servicing gives our jewellers the opportunity to inspect the setting and condition of the ring while maintaining its finish.
Because we don’t make engagement rings simply for the proposal.
We make them for everything that comes after it.
What Makes a Custom Engagement Ring From MDT DESIGN Different?
There are many ways to personalise an engagement ring.
What we call custom goes considerably further.
Individually Handmade in Melbourne
Your engagement ring is individually handmade in our Melbourne workshop by jewellers rather than mass-produced elsewhere and personalised afterwards.
No Casting
Our custom process is built around traditional handmaking techniques rather than casting a ring from a mould.
It’s a distinction that goes beyond aesthetics. The way jewellery is made is part of the quality of the finished piece.
Designed Around You
Custom doesn’t mean choosing Design A and changing the diamond.
Your stone, preferred metal, proportions, setting, lifestyle and personal style can all inform the finished piece.
Explore Custom Engagement Rings
A Workshop Capable of More
Traditional solitaires are only part of what our jewellers make.
MDT DESIGN specialises in handmade jewellery, custom design, sapphire engagement rings and specialist techniques including tension setting.
That breadth of knowledge gives us the freedom to explore designs beyond conventional engagement ring settings.
The Workshop Is Here
Design and manufacture don’t happen in two different worlds.
Our workshop is part of MDT DESIGN, in Melbourne. Your jewellery doesn’t disappear into an external production chain after the consultation.
The people you speak to and the people making your jewellery are part of the same process.
We’re Here After You Say Yes
The finished ring isn’t the end of our relationship.
Our Love at First Sight Guarantee provides reassurance around surprise proposals, while complimentary lifetime servicing means we’re here to care for the piece long after it leaves the workshop.
Ready to Create Your Engagement Ring?
You don’t need to know exactly what you want.
That’s what the process is for.
Bring us your ideas. Bring us a diamond. Bring us twenty screenshots that don’t seem to have anything in common.
Or simply bring us the person you’re designing it for.
We’ll take it from there.
