Engagement rings for the earthbound stargazers

Everywhereness begins with the landscape and reaches beyond the stars, to the interstellar constellations and planets that rain diamonds.

But back here on Earth, Davina Adamson, Creative Director at Black Finch, stood in front of a cliff face, looking at seams of geological strata running through the rock. Gold forms that way. So do diamonds.

The connections expanded, taking her imagination far from where she stood.

“That sense of what’s here, and what’s above, and where things come from, and what we’re all made of,” she says. “And so therefore that idea of everywhere.”

Seventeen pieces came out of that concept. Four of them are one-of-one rings that can never be made again.

I was lucky enough to get a behind the scenes tour of the Black Finch studio and workshop, chatting to the jewellers and the founders, Davina and Raymond, seeing first hand the breathtaking new collection. Here’s what I learnt.

The universe, scaled for the hand

The premise is simple enough in principle, and large enough in theory to create a sense of sublime – everything we have on this planet came from somewhere else.

“As we are stardust, the same thing with all the minerals under the ground,” Davina says. “There are planets far away that rain diamonds. Everything comes from the greater universe, and then we refine them into these tiny little wearable sculptures. You have the universe on your hand.”

Gold and gemstones hold traces of planetary history, shaped by pressure, time and energy, then brought down to the scale of a finger or an earlobe.

Ask her to put the collection in one sentence, and Davina has it ready: “the mysteries of the universe, condensed into wearable form.”

For the lovers. The dreamers. The earthbound stargazers.

Stars on one side, cliffs on the other

Look closely at the pieces and the detailing moves between two scales.

Some of it reaches up to conjure a sense of the celestial. Some of it remains grounded, in rocky cliffs and local geology and the resting place the stones were pulled from. On one ring, tiny diamonds are set in lines to stand for seams of quartz and mineral running through a cliff face, the way sedimentation layers sit in rock.

The gold is hand carved and heavily textured throughout, left organic enough that the material shows. Against that, a 2.56ct Sri Lankan sapphire in a soft lilac cornflower blue, with no variation through the stone and perfectly even colour.

There are starburst huggies set with princess-cut diamonds, which close with a click the whole workshop can hear (ASMR girlies like us loved it!). There are baroque pearls paired with pink sapphires in oval and emerald cuts, a first for Black Finch, the perfect statement for a wedding day. There is a mismatched pair of earrings with hand etched lines, togetherness and individuality in the one set.

The pieces read as fluid rather than gendered, which has long been true of Black Finch and is part of why couples find their way here.

Four rings that belong to one person each

At the centre of the collection sit four engagement rings built around stones that can only be used once.

Spectra. A two tone pink sapphire, cut as a soft tapered baguette, set with diamonds.

Meridian. A 2.56ct emerald cut lilac sapphire suspended between two bands of textured 18kt yellow gold, carved, textured and shaped by hand. Its cool, lucid colour is punctuated by tiny flashes of orange sapphire and white diamond.

Paragon. A 2.01ct marquise cut diamond sitting low and luminous at the centre, with eight baguette cut white diamonds radiating from its edges and flowing down the sides of the band. The setting turns the traditional solitaire slightly on its axis. Davina describes the baguettes as a ribbon draping around the piece, and on the hand they read as ribbons of light.

Lumis. A champagne cushion cut diamond in gold that feels geological, shaped as though by heat and pressure.

The rarity is where the emphasis lays, representing the uniqueness of relationships. Black Finch recently sold a sapphire that was golden brown with a small patch of purple inside it – truly unrepeatable.

“When people say I want one like that, we can’t do it,” Davina says. “That rarity mirrors the idea of the relationship, that everyone feels individual and every connection is specific and unique.”

Ask Davina which piece feels like the heart of the collection, and she comes back to the Meridian. The geological element runs through the split band, wax carved and left matte, holding a stone with no variation in it at all.

“The absolute clarity and wonder and perfection of the stone is startling,” she says. “You think about how it was made over millions of years. It summarises that human wonder we have at the sublime and the mystery of our strange little planet.”

The whole ethos of the collection, landed in one ring.

Six months, and a stack of sketchbooks

Seeing Davina’s sketchbooks firsthand was an unexpected treat.

The first drawings go back about six months.I could match page to piece: the asscher cut ring is there, and the necklace, and the Paragon. The finished pieces look remarkably like the pencil illustrations.

“Jewellery is really slow,” Davina says, speaking to the process of designing the collection. “Because we make it here, and it’s so small scale.”

The organic pieces start as wax. A bangle in the collection was made by laying a waxy texture over a bangle pattern, then casting from it. One ring began as a line drawn straight into the wax by hand, now set with an orange baguette sapphire and electric blue opals.

Every collection is also a testing ground. New clasps, new finishes, and new making techniques that shape what the team can offer in custom work.

“We’re rarely repeating ourselves,” Davina says. The team is working towards smaller collections, which takes some discipline on her part. There were four times as many designs before the team talked her down.

Stones first, then the design

The team travels to the Queensland sapphire fields, to Sri Lanka and to the gem shows in Tucson, choosing character over flawless grades, and some of those stones sit in the collection for a couple of years before they find their person.

A stone with its own quirks asks for a design that responds to it, which is where the asymmetry comes from.

“Asymmetry brings movement and life into a piece,” Davina says. “Where more traditional pieces have a stillness that we don’t respond to in the same way.”

Seeing the collection

Everywhereness runs from everyday fine jewellery through to the four one of one engagement rings, with rare sapphires, pink tourmaline, diamonds, Australian opal, baroque pearls and richly textured 100% recycled gold throughout.

One of the pieces has already gone to someone marking a significant birthday, which Davina describes as a talisman, or an ode to the future.

Ancient materials, worn for all life’s moments.

The Everywhereness collection is available in store and online. Black Finch is at 344 Smith Street, Collingwood. Explore the collection and book a consultation at blackfinch.com.au.