The engagement ring you just don’t expect

Ethical and handcrafted engagement rings by Eva Franceschini

We met one freezing January morning in Piazza Duomo in Como.

To recognise each other, two simple directions. Mine: ‘I’ll have a grey coat and a black bag’. Hers: ‘I’ll have a colourful, very gypsy scarf’.

As with any self-respecting meeting in the dark, it is small details of this kind that make the imagination trot just enough to feed the imagination and arrive at the meeting with already an idea of the other.

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Appointment time 11. Me punctual, even a little early. She late, as befits an unformal and very artistic spirit. For a moment, I think it is all a trick to make her want me a little, to increase my curiosity.

And even if it is not, that is the effect it has. Accomplice also to the polar cold, I am no longer in the mood for the impending encounter. And finally there she is!

It is over a cappuccino and a coffee that I discover her story.

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The story of a local craftswoman and her engagement rings

Eva, originally from Padua, is a contemporary jewellery artisan.

She can do a bit of everything. Bracelets, necklaces, brooches and earrings are her bread and butter. But what she is really good at is creating rings. To be more precise, engagement rings and wedding rings. To be more precise still, ethical and customised engagement rings. That is to say, unique pieces, made to measure and with respect for the environment and the human being.

The exploitation scenarios behind the diamond market are well known. So she decided to use only certified ethical Canadian diamonds.

And he saw right through it!

Within this cleverly chosen market niche, she is truly at home.

She says that it was the customers who ‘showed’ her the way. People were looking for that kind of product and she created it.

No backtracking or compromise. Simply the goal of a multi-stage journey made up of studies, passion, experimentation and a lot of tenacity, which has led her to be what she is today.

The beauty of this story is that Eva followed a dream and realised it.

First the diploma in Master of Art in Sculpture, then the University in Conservation and Restoration. Her studies paved the way, she learnt the art and put it aside. She came to the world of jewellery almost by chance and, as she says, chance led her to meet her future goldsmith master, Lucia Davanzo, the one who taught her the craft and its secrets for real, providing her with a bench in her workshop.

But who can say whether it was chance or destiny? The fact is that it was in that workshop that Eva learned to make jewellery and found the courage to fly with her own wings.

She moves from Padua to the province of Como for love and she, who says she is not romantic, will end up becoming the expert on the romantic object par excellence, the engagement ring.

How to choose an engagement ring?

But also: what colour should it be, how should it fit, what stone should it have, how much should one spend? These are the most frequent questions that future fiancés usually ask themselves when buying a ring.

With Eva it works like this: the man, in search of the made-to-measure ring, the unique piece that will amaze his future life partner, contacts the goldsmith, by e-mail or Skype, explaining his needs, but above all his doubts and perplexities. Thus begins a dialogue between the artist and the customer, which is fundamental in outlining the salient features of the story that the jewel will have to ‘tell’.

Eva, an excellent listener, puts the pieces of the puzzle together, captures nuances and details, and begins to ‘design’, and to give physical form to the story, which finally, after about 8 weeks of work, will become material.

The result is surprising.

An engagement ring that speaks of the person who will wear it, personalised, unique, just like the story of each of us is unique.

As far as the cost is concerned, indicatively for a personalised, handmade, 18kt gold, ethical diamond engagement ring, it starts at 1900 euros.

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Info and Contacts

Eva is also technological, she has a website, a blog, she is on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. She realised that even such an ancient art could marry well with such modern means. These channels are her showcase to the world.

And the quickest and easiest way to contact her is by e-mail: info@anelli-fidanzamento.com

Our chat ended with me dreamily transported by the tale of her anecdotes and with her suddenly realising that she has a phosphorescent green headband around her neck, probably used in the morning to wash her face.

A true artistic spirit, I told you! 😉