Engagement Ring Photos and the Importance of Real Photography

As we approach 6000 “real” photos of engagement rings and wedding bands, we’re reminded of all the work we’ve done in getting our designs on this very website. It’s important to understand that our quality and workmanship have to be top-notch when photographing at the macro level. Our jewelers and craftsmen must execute with the same passion as our designers. It takes years of experience across these many dedicated individuals to deliver a quality piece, something that a virtual image will never convey.

Sometimes we wish our photos could be produced by the touch of a button. It would be much easier to generate 6000 perfect computer renderings and not worry about capturing the countless hours of detail and passion put into our pieces. One slight problem, our customers don’t wear virtual rings.

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Photograph taken of Caledonia Design - Unique Engagement Rings

The key to our business is heirloom quality unique engagement rings. The designing is only half of the battle. The craftsmanship yields the end product and is where we really shine as you can see in every one of our engagement ring photos. Our designs are handmade and given meticulously attention to in every detail. How would anyone be able to see our quality if our collection was all computer generated? The diamonds still have to be precisely set, the metal still has to be polished smooth, and the engraving still has to be cut by hand.

Our customers come to us because they want to cherish the beauty and art put into everyone of our designs. They don’t want the same design that has been made ten thousand times by an overworked, underpaid worker overseas. They want unique, they want one-of-a-kind, and they want heirloom quality.

Virtual jewelry only shows 50 percent of any given design. It’s a mere concept of how a design should look. The design still has to executed into a beautiful piece of art and that feat takes years of experience. Quality and craftsmanship come with no easy button.

Sapphire Engagement Rings

At Knox Jewelers, we have been creating more and more Sapphire Engagement Rings in many design styles.

Click here to see our Sapphire Engagement Rings

Corundum, the stone that is commonly called sapphire, comes in every color of the rainbow except red, as red Corundum is called Ruby. There is also a white sapphire that when well cut, can look very much like a diamond.

Here are a few photos of some very unique sapphire engagement rings we have made. We can build these designs around any shape or size sapphire or diamond. So follow the links or click on the photos if you’re interested in more info.

Blue Sapphire Engagement Rings

Here is a custom version of our “Caledonia” design with a remarkable 3.60 carat blue cushion cut sapphire.

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Blue Cushion Cut Sapphire in Knox Heirloom Band (Caledonia)

Check this link to see other versions of our “Caledonia” Knox Heirloom Band. – Caledonia Custom Designs

Here is one of many of our “Cushion Barcelona” engagement ring designs. This is shown with a blue cushion cut sapphire. The hand done filigree and hand engraving make this design truly unique.

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Here is a link to other versions of our Barcelona engagement ring. – Barcelona Engagement Rings


Our “Bezel Elegante” design is shown here with a beautiful bezel set, blue princess cut sapphire.

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Check this link to see other versions of our “Elegante” engagement ring. –Elegante Engagement Ring Designs


Here is a very classic design with a blue emerald cut sapphire, beautifully accented by two tapered baguette shaped diamonds. Notice the elegant claw prongs holding both the side baguettes and the center sapphire.

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Here is an Emerald cut blue sapphire in our “Art Deco” engagement ring.

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Emerald Cut Blue Sapphire Art Deco Engagement Ring
Check this link to see other Art Deco designs on our website. – Art Deco designs

Here is a Bezel Set Emerald cut blue sapphire engagement ring with hand done filigree.

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Bezel Set Emerald cut blue sapphire engagement ring with filigree.
Here is our “Seville” design with a rich blue diamond cut sapphire. This is a very unique engagement ring with the hand engraving and hand done filigree accent.
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Purple Sapphire Engagement Rings

This purple sapphire engagement ring features our “Seville” design again, with hand engraving and hand made platinum filigree.

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Purple Sapphire in Knox Seville Design

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Here is a link to all of versions of our “Seville” design throughout the website. – Seville Engagement Rings

Here is a recent three stone engagement ring design with a purple sapphire. The design features a near eternity diamond band and also beautiful hand engraving.

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Three Stone Engagement Ring Design with a purple sapphire.

Here is our “Lotus” halo style engagement ring, shown with a bright purple sapphire.

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Lotus Halo Engagement Ring with Purple Sapphire

Yellow Sapphire Engagement Rings

This sapphire engagement ring features a low set cushion cut yellow sapphire mounted around diamonds, hand engraving, and yellow gold filigree. This is a custom version of our “Cushion Barcelona” engagement ring.

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Here is a link to other versions of our Barcelona engagement ring. – Barcelona Engagement Rings

Here are two custom versions of our “Fireworks” engagement ring with yellow sapphires.

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Yellow Princess Cut Sapphire in a very unique engagement ring

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Yellow Round Cut Sapphire in a very unique micro pave engagement ring

Green Sapphire Engagement Rings

Here is a fabulous green cushion cut sapphire engagement ring. The sapphire is surrounded by a halo of diamonds. The hand engraving and hand done filigree are what make this unique engagement ring a work of art.

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Another beautiful green sapphire engagement ring. This is a version of our “Amante” halo design, customized with hand done filigree filling the gallery.

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Orange Sapphire Engagement Rings

Stunning orange sapphire engagement ring. Based off of our “Contour Trellis” three stone engagement ring.

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Stunning orange sapphire engagement ring

Here is a custom version of our “Cushion Barcelona” design with an vivid orange square cushion cut sapphire.

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Orange Square Cushion Cut Sapphire in Custom Cushion Barcelona Engagement Ring. Hand Engraved with Filigree.

Here is a link to other versions of our Barcelona engagement ring. – Barcelona Engagement Rings

Pink Sapphire Engagement Rings

Here is a beautiful 1.84 carat cushion cut pink sapphire engagement ring in a micro pave style.

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1.84 carat cushion cut pink sapphire engagement ring

Check this link to see other versions of our “Adriana Sophia” ring. – Adriana Sophia designs

Here is a Pink Cushion Cut Sapphire in a split shank micro pave engagement ring.

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Another Pink Cushion Cut Sapphire in a split shank micro pave engagement ring

Check this link to see other versions of our Cielo design. – Cielo Engagement Rings

Click here to browse our Sapphire Engagement Rings

Hand Engraved Engagement Ring Designs

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Knox Hand Engraved Ring Designs

Hand engraving on jewelry and other metal objects is a very specialized art form in and of itself and when skillfully placed on an already high quality ring, can make for an absolutely unique and heirloom quality piece of jewelry.

The actual engraving is done with an extremely sharp tool called a graver. The graver is used to carefully carve a pattern or design into the metal, leaving no room for error. The artisan that does the hand engraving will have various sizes, shapes, and angles of gravers that they use for different effects/designs. The cutting into the metal with the graver is often (but not always) facilitated by small hand held pneumatic devices that are essentially small pneumatic hammers.

Click here to Browse our Hand Engraved Engagement Rings

What is Cast in Place engraving or CAD-CAM engraving?

It is important to differentiate between actual hand engraving and the much more commonly found cast in place engraving or CAD-CAM engraving in which a design or pattern is placed in the wax or prototype of the item being cast to give the look or effect of hand engraving.

Here are a few examples of cast in place engraving or CAD-CAM engraving.

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Example #1 of cast in place ‘engraving’

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Example #2 of cast in place ‘engraving’

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Example #3 of cast in place ‘engraving’

Is it possible to tell the difference between hand engraving and cast in place engraving?

The quick answer is no, a novice may not always be able to tell the difference.

While even a novice may be able to tell the difference between extreme examples from both methods, (the example photos used here are classic examples of the representative methods) please note that there will be many examples from both methods that may be virtually indistinguishable from each other when looking at merely photos, especially to a novice.

That said, the predominant indication of cast in place/faux engraving will be a ‘smoothed out’ or ‘polished down’ look to the detailing in the pattern as opposed to a much sharper or crisper pattern in hand engraved designs.

Here are a few examples of actual hand engraved engagement rings. Notice the sharpness and crispness of the detailing in the patterns.

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Example #1 of a hand engraved engagement ring design

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Example #2 of a hand engraved engagement ring design

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Example #3 of a hand engraved engagement ring design

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Example #4 of a hand engraved engagement ring design

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Example #5 of a hand engraved engagement ring design

Click here to see more Hand Engraved Engagement Rings

Unique Engagement Ring Styles – Filigree

Filigree Engagement Rings

What exactly is filigree?

Filigree is fine and delicate ornamental work done in platinum or gold wire.

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Filigree can be located on the shank or crown portion of the ring. It can be used as a main, accent, or complementary design element. By definition, filigree is wire work done by hand.While it’s very common to see mass produced pieces with cast in place filigree, only true hand wrought wire can be considered as such. Hand curled filigree is an extremely skilled and tedious task as the wire used is often under half of a millimeter or the thickness of 3-4 pieces of paper. It takes a steady hand in welding wire to a ring and is often done under a 10X microscope to ensure proper contact and alignment.

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The design pictured above uses filigree to hold several very light blue ceylon sapphires.

Click here to see our selection of filigree engagement rings.