The Engagement Ring, Reimagined

An engagement ring is one of the few pieces of jewellery you will wear every day for the rest of your life. So while there is plenty of inspiration to be found online, from the latest diamond shapes to the settings currently filling your Pinterest boards, choosing the right ring is about much more than knowing what is fashionable.

For Sam Stirrat, founder of Blackacre, the starting point has always been something much more personal: creating jewellery specifically for the person who will wear it.

It's an approach that has earned Blackacre a run of multiple "Bespoke Jeweller of the Year" awards, recognition as the best place to buy an engagement ring from titles including Gents Journal, Luxury London, The Handbook, The Wedding Edition, Country Life and Country & Townhouse, and a run of five-star reviews that has not been broken in 9 years of trading.

Blackacre began in 2017, when a customer who had bought one of Sam's pearl bracelets online was so impressed with the piece that it prompted him to ask whether Sam made engagement rings too. Sam hadn't, not yet. "I'd never made one at that point," Sam admits, but he moved mountains to quickly learn how, with the support of a fellow jeweller. He made the ring in collaboration with that jeweller, and when the client proposed at a place called Blackacre, the name stuck. "It was at that point that I realised this highly personal experience was really powerful, particularly on engagement rings," Sam says. With no funding or family money behind him, he chose to focus on one thing and do it better than anyone else, "and that's how Blackacre started."

So, what does "bespoke" actually mean?

"I think bespoke is unnecessarily intimidating," Sam says. "I wish there was another word for it, because bespoke screams scary and expensive." Bespoke can imply elaborate, and entirely singular, but Sam sees it much more simply. "To me, bespoke is about just creating something for someone. You don't have to reinvent the wheel."

For Blackacre, that can be about taking an idea, an existing silhouette or a piece of inspiration and tailoring it so that it feels right for the individual wearing it.

That makes bespoke particularly appealing if you know broadly what you like but haven't found the exact ring you want. Rather than being restricted to what is already sitting in a cabinet, the process allows the details to be considered around you, from the stone and setting to the metal and finer details.

And for anyone beginning the process with absolutely no idea what they want, that is where the support of genuine experts at Blackacre makes all the difference. The expert advice, design work and collaboration available are why so many people obsess over their work and the service offered.

Where should you start if you have no idea what you want?

It is easy to feel that you should arrive at a jeweller knowing your diamond shape, metal, setting and style. In reality, you don't need to. "We see all sorts of different and wonderful people," Sam says. "There's no standard. Part of our offering is that we treat each person as an individual."

For anyone who wants a starting point, Blackacre's collection of engagement ring designs is widely considered the largest and best of its kind in the UK, and is a useful first stop for inspiration or simply to see the quality of the work.

Blackacre's process begins with a conversation, designed to establish what the client likes, what matters to them and what they are hoping to create. The first step is usually a simple phone call. "We want to forge a meaningful and human connection from the outset," he explains. "We totally get it that the prospect of designing a ring can be somewhat overwhelming." It is this commitment to personal interactions and advice that leads him to note, "the personal nature of our work means we create lifelong connections to each client we work with."

Rather than approaching the process as a simple transaction, the team uses its expertise to educate clients and help them understand the choices available. "Our team, we don't have any salespeople, we don't have any marketing people," Sam says. "We only have experts that care."

This is particularly important when it comes to the stone itself.

Don't choose a diamond from the certificate alone

One of Sam's strongest pieces of advice is not to rely solely on the information written on a diamond certificate. "I wouldn't judge a stone off a piece of paper," he says. "Two stones can be the same on paper but be very different in real life. You could have two stones with the same measurements, the same colour grade, the same clarity grade on a certificate, but when you see them in real life, that's exactly where an experienced jeweller such as Blackacre can help."

The way a stone interacts with light, its visual performance and the way it actually appears to the eye are all things that are much harder to understand from a certificate alone. For that reason, Sam recommends seeing stones in person and, ideally, doing so alongside someone with proper gemological expertise. "It seems crazy to me to spend a huge amount of money and not have seen what you're going to purchase," he adds.

It is a useful reminder that buying an engagement ring is not simply about finding the highest specification within a particular budget. There is an element of judgement involved too, and that is precisely where an experienced jeweller can help.

Should you follow engagement ring trends?

Of course, trends have their place. Sam has seen the industry evolve from a period when the classic round diamond on a platinum band dominated, to the current popularity of oval diamonds, elongated cushions, bezel settings and chunkier gold designs. "I guess the bespoke offering moves with trends," he says.

But there is an important distinction between being inspired by a trend and allowing it to dictate your decision. "It's about taking someone's idea or inspiration and tailoring it in a very subtle way." For Sam, the most significant shift is actually that people increasingly want something that feels specific to them and their story. "Everyone wants something that's specific to them and their story," he says. "That's universal."

This is perhaps one of the biggest advantages of bespoke: you can borrow the elements you love without ending up with something that feels as though it could belong to anyone.

What about mixing metals?

If you have always assumed your engagement ring and wedding band need to be made from the same metal, it may be time to rethink it. Blackacre frequently mixes metals. "We mix a lot," Sam says. "Even in our most simple designs, say a single stone ring on a gold band, we'll still set the diamond in platinum."

It isn't purely an aesthetic decision either. Setting a white diamond in yellow gold puts yellow reflections through the stone, so platinum is used to preserve its true colour, even though, as Sam puts it, "it's much harder to do, it takes longer, and that's why a lot of people don't do it." "Mixing metal is really cool," he adds. "Anything that's more personal, more sophisticated, harder to do, I like. You don't want something that everyone else has, right? When it's something this special."

When it comes to choosing your wedding band, however, Sam recommends looking beyond Moodboards and Social Media. "Quite often we find that Brides might think they like a certain wedding ring because they've seen pictures on Moodboards or Social Media," he says, "but actually when they try it on, it doesn't quite work with their engagement ring, or it doesn't look good on their finger." There are practical considerations too. "If you've got a gold engagement ring and you sit a diamond set platinum band next to it, the diamond set platinum band will, in time, rub away at the gold ring and damage it," he explains. "There are some notable practical elements that it pays to also get advice on."

What if you have an heirloom stone?

Bespoke doesn't always mean starting from scratch. Blackacre regularly works with inherited jewellery and family stones, redesigning them into pieces that feel more relevant to the person who will wear them today. "We call it redesign work," Sam says. "It is a means of adding a deeper meaning or sentiment to a piece if the opportunity exists."

The subject is personal for Sam too. His wife's engagement ring was made using a stone that belonged to his grandmother. "My family had nothing to do with jewellery," he says. "But I used the stone that my grandma had, and redesigned it to propose to my wife."

For Brides who have inherited a grandmother's diamond or have an old piece of family jewellery sitting unworn in a drawer, this can be a particularly meaningful route. Rather than replacing the history of the piece, redesigning it can give that history another chapter. Blackacre's redesign work starts from around £5,000.

How much should you budget for a bespoke engagement ring?

This is perhaps the question most people are nervous to ask, but Sam believes the conversation should be open from the beginning. "We don't have an official minimum spend," he says. "Bluntly speaking, we like creating jewellery, and we want to create beautiful pieces irrespective of the price point." Instead, the team asks clients to share their broad budget and works out how the design and stone can be adapted accordingly. "Whatever price people are spending, to us it's a huge amount of money, and we're respectful of that," Sam says. "Whether someone's spending five thousand pounds or a hundred and five thousand pounds, we treat them the same."

The important point is that budget should be part of the creative conversation, not something to be embarrassed about. Knowing what you want to spend allows a jeweller to guide you towards the strongest options within that figure.

Whilst Sam is reluctant to comment too much on specifics, as each client receives the same outstanding offering regardless of budget, we learn that custom variations of existing or house designs typically start from £5,000, with bespoke creations starting from around £10,000.

How long does a bespoke ring take?

If you are planning a proposal, this is one detail you don't want to leave until the last minute. Blackacre recommends allowing around six to eight weeks from the initial contact through to receiving the finished ring. "Six to eight weeks to create an engagement ring is optimal, on average," Sam says. "If you said to me today, can you make this ring? I could probably make it and have it to you in six weeks."

While the team can work more quickly when necessary, allowing this amount of time means there is space to properly enjoy the process rather than rushing decisions.

That process is part of what makes bespoke feel different. It can include an initial consultation, selecting the stone with an expert, hand drawn designs, technical CAD drawings and updates from the workshop as the ring takes shape. "We want to leave some element of delight and surprise at seeing the finished piece," Sam says, "but it's nice to take people on that journey."

The aim is not simply to hand over a finished product, but to allow the client to feel involved in creating it.

Planning a surprise proposal?

There is a particular intimacy to designing an engagement ring in secret. "It's a really privileged position, and that's not lost on us," he says. "We build a really strong emotional connection with our clients, so we almost share in their anticipation, their excitement, their nervous anticipation."

His advice for anyone proposing is not to put too much pressure on themselves to find the one perfect ring entirely alone. "Take time and do your research," he says. "Think about what your partner likes, but don't underestimate how much your own thoughts and opinions count for." Where possible, involving your partner in the design can make the process feel collaborative and ultimately create an even more meaningful story. "It's about the sentiment and meaning that goes into the piece," he adds. "If you're both putting thought and care into it, it carries more meaning."

If the proposal really does need to remain a surprise, there are practical ways to work out the ring size. Sam suggests using a ring your partner already wears on their right hand as a reference. "Your dominant hand has more muscle mass in it," he explains, "so it tends to be one to one and a half sizes bigger than your left hand."

And what makes a ring timeless?

For Blackacre, it isn't about choosing the most classic design or avoiding trends altogether. Asked to describe the one ring that captures everything the brand stands for, Sam doesn't hesitate for long. "A timeless, elegant creation, which has a deeper intrigue," he says. "So when you look more closely, you see a detail, or details, that you didn't notice at first." It is about creating something that feels connected to the person and the story behind it.

That philosophy is reflected in the brand's wider approach. Blackacre is a certified B Corporation, one of the first top tier jewellers in the UK to hold the certification, and places an emphasis on ethical sourcing, transparency and responsible relationships throughout its supply chain. "It highlights the high standards of environmental and social performance that we adhere to, ensuring nothing but the best for our clients," Sam says. The brand works with responsible cutters and independently vets its stones, as well as undertaking its own sourcing expeditions, including to Sri Lanka and Colombia, with an expedition to Botswana planned next.

Sam sums up the brand's approach to longevity in one line: "Look after people, and people look after you."

An engagement ring is an unusually personal purchase. It marks a particular moment, but ideally it also becomes part of countless moments afterwards: anniversaries, holidays, everyday mornings and all the ordinary days in between.

That is why the most interesting engagement rings are not the ones that make the biggest statement. They are the ones where, once you know the story, every detail seems to make sense.

For Brides considering bespoke, Sam's advice is simple: start with yourself, not the trend. Think about what you love, what you will genuinely want to wear for years to come, and what story you want the ring to tell. The most meaningful ring is not the most extravagant one. It is the one that could only have been made for you.

Love the idea of creating a bespoke piece of jewellery? See Blackacre's Directory Profile here.