What to do alongside together with your wedding ceremony ceremony ring after the marriage ends

Do you have post-divorce wedding ceremony ceremony or engagement rings burning a spot in your jewelry discipline? 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. Nearly 800,000 people divorced inside the U.S. alone in 2017.

That’s a number of rings loaded with emotional baggage and raw supplies. Presumably it’s time to do one factor with these rings.

I’ve a kind of rings. Sometimes after I open my ring drawer, mild glints off its princess-cut diamonds and I imagine: “I should do one factor with that.” Then I shut the drawer. Form of a metaphor for what happens after I contemplate the marriage itself.

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

A wedding ring is loaded with recollections, symbolism, and upset needs. Presumably turning it into chilly, laborious cash is solely what you need. Or maybe you need one factor else.

The newer your divorce, the additional therapeutic bodily transformation could also be. And the additional probably you are to do one factor dumb.

1. Toss it inside the river? No! Don’t do it! I cringe at any time after I see that scene in a movie. What a waste of treasured supplies. It’d 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 nobody any good, least of all you.

2. Rework it. Certain! My good good friend 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 heart finger. She’s now fortuitously remarried. She would say be taught out of your errors and switch on, ideally with increased jewelry.

3. Take it in for appraisal. If it’s an classic or made by a designer with establish price, it’s a good place to start out out. Your ring may be worth larger than the sum of its components.

4. Put it up for public sale. If it does have designer or historic price, it may very well be worth paying a vendor’s cost to make sure it reaches a big viewers of potential collectors. Uncover an public sale residence that focuses on that kind or interval.

5. Pawn it. In case your divorce left you strapped, this may be the quickest choice to make that ring cowl your prompt payments. Park it and borrow in opposition to it. It’s possible you’ll revisit what to do with it later, everytime you’re in a larger place.

6. Put it on the market for gold. If it includes substantial gold, have it weighed and put it up for sale by the gram. Gold is selling for virtually $1,800 per ounce and has been at peak price for the earlier 12 months. This is usually a good time to advertise gold jewelry. Make sure you’re dealing with a very good enterprise and have an idea of the ring’s market price sooner than you commit.

7. Flip it into one factor you actually need. Use the proceeds to excessive off the down price on a vehicle or book a go to you probably can not at all get your ex to take with you. Splurge on one factor fabulous and impractical.

8. Take a flame to it. Personally, I imagine that’s the excellent idea. In distinction to torching your Vera Wang gown which might 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 jewelry!

When you’ll be able to’t do the torching your self, most studio jewelers will seemingly be snug to do it while you watch, after which help you rework it into one factor specific, custom-made for you (with no companion wanting over your shoulder).

My good good friend Jim Dailing, an Oregon-based studio jeweler and teacher, usually holds an event he calls “The Good Ring Meltdown.” Spherical Valentine’s Day, he invites people to convey 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 metallic ingot right into a hoop or pendant they are going to placed on now – or give away.

I’m earlier wanting to torch my former marriage by the use of that outdated ring of mine. I merely don’t care that so much anymore. Nevertheless all through the interval after I used to be selecting up the objects of my life, it can have been satisfying and vital. Having carried out it himself, Jim says it’s surprisingly therapeutic to indicate your wedding ceremony ceremony ring into molten metallic 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. Nevertheless what are they really? Diamonds are the hardest substance recognized to man. Pure diamonds like mine have been usual over billions of years, beneath unbelievable stress and heat. And what’s gold? A unusual issue, primarily probably the most malleable of all metals, resistant to corrosion.

That appears like a recipe for a long-lasting marriage doesn’t it? Oh successfully. 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 beautiful out of it, one factor sturdy nevertheless malleable, bolder than the distinctive, additional distinctive, a lot much less constrained. What is going on to you do with yours?

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