Are you looking to breathe new life into a family heirloom piece or a vintage ring? We know just the place for you! Bario Neal is an amazing jeweler, not to mention they are an ethical company run by WOMEN. We have profiled their gorgeous, creative, inspiring jewelry before, and we have talked to them extensively about using white sapphires as an ethical diamond alternative. What always amazes us is that many of their rings are one-off pieces created for a special individual, often recycling family pieces.
Their team says, "We love to work with customers on personal and meaningful projects. This often leads to creating a unique and custom design for the customer, ranging from personalizations of our collection pieces and reusing heirloom material, to new designs."
Interested in a custom project of your own? Contact Bario Neal by filling out their custom design questionnaire, and if you are local to Philadelphia or New York, they strongly encourage making an appointment to meet with them in person.
Curious about the timeline? Custom orders are produced on an open timeline while Bario Neal crafts a unique design. Production takes a minimum of two months, so plan ahead!
If you need a bit more inspiration, here are ten custom pieces that will knock your socks off!
1. Custom Rose-Cut Diamond And Sapphire Cluster Ring
This is NOT an engagement ring — no sir! This ring was a gift from Stephanie to herself in order to commemorate getting her masters degree in nursing. Go Stephanie!!
Again, NOT AN ENGAGEMENT RING! This ring was commissioned by three daughters for their mother. There are four stones to represent the mom and three daughters; take note that two of the stones are the same to represent the twin sisters in the family. It's all about the details!
This ring turned out quite different than what the client originally thought she wanted. It wasn't until she actually went to the Bario Neal shop with her partner and saw the rings in person that she had the idea to cut down the iolites Bario Neal had in stock to mimic the cut of our half-moon sapphires. And wow — this looks simply celestial.
This ring is special because the gemstone was cut by Topnotch Faceting, which is owned by Jean-Noel Soni who creates award-winning, precision-cut gemstones that are ethically sourced, cut by hand, and created without the use of computer-aided design.
You can learn more by reading Bario Neal's blog post about his work.
This center stone was one of two heirloom princess cut diamonds that were handed down from a pair of earrings and shared between two family members. Sister rings!
This piece was created for a really special couple who combined family heirlooms to create a complete wedding set, along with bands. The stones are from pieces from both sides, including diamonds from one partner's parents' engagement ring and an emerald from the other partner's grandmother's necklace. This piece is both beautiful and sentimental!
This ring is primarily made up of moissanite, a lab-grown diamond alternative, in combination with a single natural diamond because both partners are scientists and really wanted to incorporate both science and tradition into their engagement ring. This is seriously one of the coolest ideas we have heard.
How creative is this? Most of the stones in this ring came from the customer's collection and are a mix of Montana sapphires and heirloom stones collected over the years. Each represents a planet in the solar system: the center stone is Jupiter, the smooth cabochon sapphire is Earth, Mars is a Ruby that used to belong to her mother, and so on. There's even a tiny Pluto hidden on the back of the shank!
We think this is one of the most unique rings we have ever seen. This ring was a new take on a Bario Neal design, the Kalmia Ring. This ring was designed to look like a claw.
This ring has a great story, and one we think most people can relate to. A woman's partner bought her a star sapphire ring on a trip to India five years ago, but the stone fell out and was lost. Bario Neal helped to recreate the ring with an antique stone and a new setting for their engagement.