How to Make an Engagement Ring Truly Unique

Your ring can be more than beautiful — it can carry the places, memories, and moments that make your love story one of a kind.

I want to share with you an engagement ring commission that was an absolute pleasure to create.

As a designer, I am always looking for sparks of inspiration. They appear in unexpected ways — a song, a phrase from a book, a landscape, even a plate of food. Anything that makes me stop and think, that’s worth noticing. I keep these impressions in a mental library, ready to draw on when the right project arrives. It’s also why I avoid looking too much at other jewellery. I don’t want to imitate, I want to create

One of my favourite cities to visit is Barcelona, so I was delighted when a customer asked me to design an engagement ring inspired by it. I had long wanted to make a piece influenced by the interior of the Sagrada Familia, and this commission gave me the perfect chance.

If you’ve never been, the Sagrada Familia is one of the most awe-inspiring manmade structures in the world. The first time I stepped inside, it felt as if the physical limits of architecture had dissolved. Stone columns rose like slender trees, branching into organic shapes that reached towards a ceiling alive with colour and light. Sunlight filtered through stained glass, spilling across pale stone in shifting patterns of brilliance. It was otherworldly — a place where you feel both protected and profoundly small.

My customer shared a collection of photographs from places in Barcelona that held meaning for him and his partner. Among them was the Sagrada Familia.

I sent him one of my own photographs of a spiral staircase inside the basilica, where coloured light from the stained glass danced across the walls. Coming from Scotland, I had never seen stained glass transform an interior with quite the same intensity.

That image became the starting point. I suggested a spiral design, with small coloured gemstones hidden beneath the setting — a subtle nod to Gaudí’s mosaics and the jewel-like glow of stained glass. His only firm request was for a single stone in a four-claw, compass-point setting.

I explored this idea for two months, experimenting with ways to bring in colour, but ultimately the design felt more powerful when kept open and flowing. The spiral itself held the spirit of the staircase without needing extra details. After discussing this with him, I refined the setting further, shaping the band with scalloped curves that echoed the staircase’s fluid geometry.

The CAD drawings of the design were bold — unlike any traditional engagement ring. I softened the curves in the final metalwork to ensure it was both sculptural and comfortable to wear, explaining how light would play on the polished surfaces. To my delight, he loved it instantly.

In total, I explored six versions of the ring before arriving at the final design. It took another two months to make and weeks of polishing to achieve the exact finish I envisioned.

When he proposed, the ring fitted perfectly. He later told me his partner was overjoyed and couldn’t stop looking at it — a reaction every designer dreams of hearing.

The finished piece has an organic structure, almost like a seahorse rising and branching into spirals that cradle the diamond. It feels alive, like a fragment of the basilica’s light and movement captured in metal.

The Sagrada Ring remains one of my most unforgettable designs — a reminder that the places we share can shape not only our memories, but the jewellery that tells our story.

The couple visited the Sagrada Familia on their honeymoon and took some beautful photos and videos of the ring with her wedding ring next to the staircase that inspired it. The bride also surprised her husband with his very own piece of Sagrada jewellery - bespoke cufflinks that he received as a surprise on the wedding day. 

How to make an engagement ring unique

The beauty of the Sagrada Ring is that it could only have belonged to one couple. Its design was shaped by their memories, their travels, and the moments that mattered most to them. That’s what makes an engagement ring truly unique — not just the choice of diamond or metal, but the meaning woven into its form.

For some couples, that inspiration comes from a city that changed them, a landscape that felt like home, or even a fragment of architecture that captured their imagination. For others, it might be a song lyric, a family story, or the colours of a favourite season. When a ring reflects something deeply personal, it becomes more than jewellery. It becomes part of your story — a symbol that no one else could ever wear in quite the same way.

If you’re thinking about designing a ring that carries your own memories, I’d love to help you explore what makes your story unique. Every detail has the potential to hold meaning — and together, we can shape those details into a piece that will stay with you for a lifetime.