A gift that gets worn

The gift that gets worn is the one that fits the life it is going into. Before the shape or the carat, four questions settle most of the choice: what metal do they already wear, do they wear earrings at all, do they take jewelry off at night, and is there a piece they never remove. The answers point to a category before you have opened a single listing.

Metal is the easiest to read from across a room. If everything they own is yellow gold, a white-gold piece will sit in the box. Someone with no pierced ears needs a pendant or a bracelet. Someone who sleeps in their jewelry needs a safety clasp and a setting without sharp prongs.

The one measurement

Rings are the only piece that has to fit, and they are the one piece people most want to give. Borrow a ring they wear on the right finger of the right hand, lay it on a ruler and read the inside diameter in millimeters; our ring size guide turns that into a US size. If you cannot borrow one, order the size you can estimate and tell them the first resize is free. A ring that is slightly loose can be made smaller in a week.

Eternity bands, with stones all the way round, cannot be resized, so they are the one ring to avoid giving blind.

What to spend on

For a gift, spend on the piece that gets noticed: the setting and the metal, and a cut grade of Very Good or better. The clarity grade is invisible once the piece is worn, and GH SI stones look exactly like EF VS stones from arm’s length. A certificate still comes with every piece, and every piece can be exchanged within thirty days if the guess was wrong.

Wrap it so it is obviously jewelry. The box is half the gift.