How To Build A Sophisticated Birthstone Design

We love birthstone jewelry because it's a sweet way to add a personal touch to any piece of jewelry. Birthstones can be integrated in a way that accents jewelry, or they can be added as a hidden design detail for a more discrete look. Here are our steps to build a sophisticated birthstone design:

Birthstone Necklace: Bespoke pendant designed for a client using heirloom diamonds and added birthstone elements to represent her family.

1. List out the stones you can use.

An obvious first step, but one should always start at the very beginning. First, determine how many months you want to integrate. If you are making a piece to represent your children, this will probably be a smaller number than if you want to create a piece to represent all of your grandchildren. Get out a stack of colored pencils and do some quick Googling to see what your gemstone options are. Write out each month you need to integrate, and do a quick scribble next to each month to represent the color of that birthstone. Hint – a few stones come in multiple colors, so you can draw out all of those options.

2. Decide on your color spread.

See if you can come up with a tonal pattern for your colors. In an ideal world, the birthstones you need to use would coordinate nicely, such as if you have all blue options (September sapphires, December zircon, and March aquamarine, for example). Sometimes you might not be that lucky, but because certain months might have multiple gemstone options or colors available, you may be able to play around with colors more than you would initially expect. If you have an October birthday to integrate, you're lucky to be able to choose between tourmaline (which comes in many shades, but primarily hot pink or dark green) and opal. This means that you could pair a pink tourmaline with a red garnet (January) or a ruby (July), or you could pair a green tourmaline with a green garnet (January again), or an emerald (May), or even a green sapphire (September). Alternatively, you may decide you prefer a pop of color contrast and select shades that are more distinguished from each other. 

3. Think about how you want the birthstones to show.

If you have a gemstone color that you really don't love – for example, my birthstone is an amethyst and I just don't like wearing purple – you may want to consider opting for a scattered look. This would allow you to downsize that month in relation to the rest of your design, so that the color doesn't stand out as much. This is in contrast to a more uniform-sized option, which would highlight each color equally. I realize that, especially in the world of birthstone jewelry, there is a constant tug of politicking (certain honorees may not appreciate seeing their birth month downsized relative to everyone else), but if you feel you have the flexibility to do this, it's a great option from a design perspective.

Amethyst scatter bracelet: Customized Tura Sugden Diamond Scatter Cuff, set with amethysts instead of diamonds to represent the birth of our clients' newborn baby girl.

Another option could be to "hide" the birthstone somewhere, such as on the inside of the piece or in a hidden halo. This typically works if you are only honoring one or two birth months, since the stones need to be quite small, but it's a nice, subtle way to integrate the thought into an otherwise color-free design.

4. Consider your color tones vis-a-vis the metal tone you prefer. 

Are your color tones warmer or cooler? In the end, your preference for yellow, rose, or white gold may simply stand with the color tone you wear most of the time. But, if you're open to different hues, then this is a fun way to integrate the setting into the color selection and make the entire piece feel more cohesive. You can also use the metal color to "hide" certain birthstone hues. For example, I find that small peridot basically disappears into a yellow gold setting, while white gold accents the light lime green color. 

5. Save images of pieces you love.

Start looking for design inspiration. Don't worry about picking pieces that are specifically designed to show off birthstones, rather, save images of pieces you like in general. Hopefully, you will notice a pattern in your aesthetic preferences: do you like more minimalist styles, or ones with lots of texture and detail? Do you prefer a bigger look or a more refined one? Hint – check out our Instagram and our website for ideas. For example, our Stargazer Collection and The One designs were created with birthstones in mind, and these might give you some inspiration for how to create your own piece. 

Stargazer adaptation: Customized Alx&Co. Collection Stargazer pendant set with amethyst and emerald to represent the client's two children.

6. Make an appointment!

Come ready to talk through your general budget preferences, design likes and dislikes, and the all-important list of months we need to honor. We'll talk through how you want to wear the piece and recommendations for designs, and you'll leave with a beautiful concept you're sure to be excited to see come true!