ruining my ering, what to do? (LONGish)

[lux]

I got married less than a year ago, and my ering has a TON of fine filigree work on either side of the stone. The ring tapers down to a very thin band (2 mm), but i could not find a curved wb that i liked, so i stuck with a straight band that i love.

less than 6 mos. into being married, my wb has scratched off a good deal of the detail on the filigree. i''m worried in two ways- i don''t want to ruin the structural integrity of the ering since it''s so delicate, and i also don''t want to continue scratching it because it is so pretty. i went back to the jeweler whom we purchased the ring from, they suggested the best bet would be a curved band soldered to the ering to protect it from any further damage.

there''s a minor problem with this: i have a job where i really cannot wear the ering all the time, it''s too dirty/hand intensive, and being that the ring is delicate, i do not want to risk wrecking it further/losing it. however, i want to wear my wb 24/7. never intend to take it off, you know?

the conundrum continues: i would, excepting the times that i am at work, like to be able to wear both rings on the same finger, i just really like them together... and the ering has a very tall setting (it took me almost a year to get used to wearing it w/o smacking it on things, and i''d like to not have to ''relearn'' tasks with my hands by switching it to my right hand)

even more difficult, i thought about just adding a curved band to the ering to protect it and then wearing that on top of my wb, but then i realized the same scratching will happen to the curved band...

what do i do?

i have considered a few things:

a) custom made band to go in between, perhaps (it might look awful, though) a split shank with one side curved to fit the ering and one side flat to be flush to the wb? probably if i go this route it would be all tiny stones, i don''t have a lot of finger real estate with the size of the ering/how tiny my hands are.

b) different ering? i am kind of loathe to do this, i hated shopping for a ring and when i finally found one i liked, it was as though there would/could never be a ring that would suit me as well.

c) just giving it up, keeping my ering in a box, and rocking the solo wb. ladies, i need solo wb pics to make me feel better about my hands!

oh, to top it off, i am

a) not really a fan of diamonds for my own fingers,

and

b) really kind of poor with student loans.


anyone have any suggestions/words of wisdom/whatever?

please help a girl out!

ps- no one else but me likes the way my ering and wb look together. they are most definitely NOT a set, and even my husband laughed when he first saw them together and said, "that looks really, really weird." (and he was not talking about seeing a wb on my finger...) i''m not particularly attached to how they look together, but i am attached to them separately, if that makes sense? i love them both, i like them together, but i want them to be together more for the symbolic aspect rather than the visual aspect.

thanks for your patience in reading!

 

[NeverEndingUpgrade]

lux, saw the photos of your gorgeous e-ring! I can see why you would be worried about the filigree getting damaged. What does your w-band look like? Does it have peridots too? Are the rings gold or platinum?

 

[lux]

Thanks, neverendingupgrade! i''m kind of biased, but i think it''s gorgeous, too.

my wb and ering are 18k white gold.

My wb is, well, i should just take pictures, huh?

it has no stones, but it is decorative. pictures in a few minutes.

 

[Miss Fortune]

would love to see some photos. it sounds like a spacer might be in order.

 

[Allison D.]

Lux, since you want to wear both rings together nearly all the time (except for when at work), I''d opt to solder the rings together for wear outside work.

I''d then perhaps get a plain filigree band that you can wear during work. In this way, you''re still wearing a wedding band, but you''re not ruining the engagement ring.

I realize it''s not a perfect solution; it''s not THE wedding band you''re attached to. However, it lets you have what you most want (wearing the rings together) for the largest percentage of the time and yet still allows you to wear a wedding ring to work.

 

[lux]

ok, so this is the band alone.

 

[lux]

ok so that was way too tiny!

sorry.

hopefully this works a bit better.

this is (obviously?) my wb alone.

 

[Elegant]

Do you have a closer shot of the band? It''s hard for me to see!

 

[Elegant]

Oops - posted at the same time!
That''s a beautiful band! I love it all by itself! Maybe take out your ering once and a while, but I like the wedding banc...it''s pretty.

 

[kindred]

I second Allison''s suggestion. Have a second wedding band you wear for work only and have the current wedding band and engagement ring soldered together if you really like them together.

 

[lux]

allison, kindred, i think you guys may be onto something, at least in having something else for work- only problem is, the jewelers told me they couldn''t put my current wb and ering together, since the band isn''t curved to match the ring? should i take it somewhere else to see if someone else might do it?

here''s the two together.

 

[NeverEndingUpgrade]

Both of your rings are gorgeous, but to me, they both should stand alone. If it were me, I would wear the w-band on my left hand and the e-ring on my right. I might also put a very thin peridot band next to the w-band just to bring in the color. My two cents for what it''s worth.

 

[lux]

neverendingupgrade, i like the idea of switching hands and then bringing the color in with a thin band- it''s cute!

i''ve just felt so naked with only one ring on my left finger...does anyone else get that when they only wear their wb?

i think i''m just really attached to the idea of the two-ring thing, but when we were looking for rings, i never for a moment considered how they would go together (mostly because the bands that ''matched'' my ering were absolutely hideous nightmares), so i just instead looked for something that i liked just as much.

i suppose, now that i think about it/really look at it, the two of them together are sort of vying for attention.

 

[NeverEndingUpgrade]

lux, after 2 years of marriage, I had my diamond set into a 6mm wide yellow/gold diamond band that I wore alone for 14 years. I never could find anything to go with it and I was happy with that. I just upgraded to a wedding set because I wanted a new look. I know how hard it is to find bands to go with some rings. That yellow gold band is going to be set some day soon with a pad sapphire and worn as a right hand ring. I think you have to kind of respect the rings design-wise, ya know?

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Your rings are both very pretty! I definitely would not want to solder them together. I think I would have a very thin curved band soldered to the e-ring in order to protect it Sort of an attached spacer). That way you can continue wearing the wedding band with it. It would take years for the wedding band to wear away a solid curved band. And then you'd just have to have it redone. That would allow you to still wear the current wedding band alone, too.

As a matter of fact, they could custom make a curved band that would fit perfectly next to your e-ring. That would probably look the best.