What to do collectively along with your wedding ceremony ceremony ring after the marriage ends

Do you may need post-divorce wedding ceremony ceremony or engagement rings burning a niche in your jewelry subject? Be a part of the membership.

About 43 p.c of once-married people have been divorced by the purpose they’re of their fifties. Virtually 800,000 people divorced inside the U.S. alone in 2017.

That’s quite a few rings loaded with emotional baggage and raw supplies. Maybe it’s time to do one factor with these rings.

I’ve a kind of rings. Usually as soon as I open my ring drawer, mild glints off its princess-cut diamonds and I consider: “I must do one factor with that.” Then I shut the drawer. Form of a metaphor for what happens as soon as I think about the marriage itself.

So, what can we do with our undesirable wedding ceremony ceremony rings? I’ve been asking jewelers and divorced friends.

A wedding ring is loaded with reminiscences, symbolism, and disillusioned needs. Maybe turning it into chilly, laborious cash is just what you need. Or probably you need one factor else.

The newer your divorce, the additional therapeutic bodily transformation will likely be. And the additional seemingly you are to do one factor dumb.

1. Toss it inside the river? No! Don’t do it! I cringe at any time once I see that scene in a movie. What a waste of priceless supplies. It will actually really feel good inside the second to make a dramatic gesture like that nevertheless don’t be fooled. It’s nonetheless down there, honey. Solely now it’s buried inside the muck doing no individual any good, least of all you.

2. Transform it. Positive! My pal Adrienne took her wedding ceremony ceremony ring to a neighborhood jeweler after her divorce, had the diamond eradicated, added a pair new stones and turned it proper right into a one-of-a-kind ring for her middle finger. She’s now thankfully remarried. She would say be taught out of your errors and switch on, ideally with larger jewelry.

3. Take it in for appraisal. If it’s an classic or made by a designer with title value, this generally is a good place to begin out. Your ring is also worth better than the sum of its parts.

4. Put it up for public sale. If it does have designer or historic value, it’s more likely to be worth paying a vendor’s fee to make sure it reaches a big viewers of potential collectors. Uncover an public sale house that focuses on that mannequin or interval.

5. Pawn it. In case your divorce left you strapped, this may be the quickest strategy to make that ring cowl your prompt payments. Park it and borrow in the direction of it. You might revisit what to do with it later, everytime you’re in a better place.

6. Advertise for gold. If it includes substantial gold, have it weighed and market it by the gram. Gold is selling for virtually $1,800 per ounce and has been at peak value for the earlier 12 months. This generally is a good time to advertise gold jewelry. Make sure you’re dealing with an excellent enterprise and have an considered the ring’s market value sooner than you commit.

7. Flip it into one factor you really want. Use the proceeds to excessive off the down price on a car or information a go to you may on no account get your ex to take with you. Splurge on one factor fabulous and impractical.

8. Take a flame to it. Personally, I consider that’s the good thought. In distinction to torching your Vera Wang gown which is ready to flip it proper right into a worthless pile of ash, torching your rings leaves you with the raw supplies for… a mannequin new piece of knickknack!

Ought to you’ll be able to’t do the torching your self, most studio jewelers will most likely be snug to do it while you watch, after which give assist to remodel it into one factor specific, custom-made for you (with no associate attempting over your shoulder).

My pal Jim Dailing, an Oregon-based studio jeweler and coach, typically holds an event he calls “The Good Ring Meltdown.” Spherical Valentine’s Day, he invites people to ship their rings to his studio and take a torch to them. By doing that, they’re really burning the significance out of the distinctive ring and returning it to its elemental state.

Then Jim helps them design that metal ingot right into a hoop or pendant they’ll placed on now – or give away.

I’m earlier wanting to torch my former marriage by the use of that earlier ring of mine. I merely don’t care that so much anymore. Nonetheless in the midst of the interval as soon as I used to be selecting up the objects of my life, it may need been satisfying and vital. Having carried out it himself, Jim says it’s surprisingly therapeutic to indicate your wedding ceremony ceremony ring into molten metal and start over as soon as extra.

I would want to rearrange these diamonds and gold into one factor else though. Our society imposed this picture of marital dedication on diamonds. Nonetheless what are they really? Diamonds are the hardest substance recognized to man. Pure diamonds like mine had been formed over billions of years, beneath unimaginable stress and heat. And what’s gold? A unusual ingredient, primarily probably the most malleable of all metals, proof in opposition to corrosion.

That looks as if a recipe for a long-lasting marriage doesn’t it? Oh properly. Once more to the jeweler’s workbench with you, little band of gold, little pile of diamonds.

I want to take my wedding ceremony ceremony ring once more to its elements and make one factor gorgeous out of it, one factor sturdy nevertheless malleable, bolder than the distinctive, further distinctive, a lot much less constrained. What’s going to you do with yours?

Jewelry featured on his net web page was designed and made by Jim Dailing, Gary Roe and CEEM Design.