Most people arrive at the atelier with a photograph and a budget. That is a perfectly good place to start, but it skips a step: nobody has ever told them what the parts of a ring are called, so the conversation stalls on the stone and never reaches the things that actually decide how the ring wears.
Start at the top. The head is the structure that holds the centre stone - prongs, bezel, or a half-bezel. Prongs let light in from the sides and make a stone read larger; a bezel wraps the girdle in metal, protects the edges, and suits anyone who works with their hands. Under the head sits the basket, the small cage of metal that sets the stone's height. A tall basket lifts the stone off the finger and catches more light. A low basket sits closer, snags less, and slides under a glove.
The gallery is the open space between the basket and the finger, and it is the part clients notice last and love most. It is where we put the quiet work - a pierced arch, a hidden stone set for the wearer alone, a set of initials cut into the underside. Nobody else will ever see it. That is rather the point.
The shank is the band itself, and its profile changes everything about comfort. A comfort-fit shank is domed on the inside so it rolls over the knuckle; a flat shank feels more architectural and reads wider. Width matters more than people expect: 1.8mm is delicate and stacks easily, 2.6mm feels substantial and holds engraving well. We size to the quarter, because a quarter size is the difference between a ring you wear daily and one you leave in a dish.
None of this is decided in a single sitting. A bespoke commission at Aurelia runs across three appointments - sketch, wax or CAD review, and final fitting - over roughly ten to fourteen weeks. You will see the piece before it exists, hold a resin model of it, and change your mind at least once. That is included, and expected.
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