16 Unique Filigree Ring Styles
At Green Lake Jewelry Works, our Gold and Platinumsmiths are skilled artists who craft and create every ring we make by hand. Below are our favorite ways of incorporating the -nearly- lost art of filigree wire designs into jewelry.
1. Two-Tone Filigree
We love the dimension you can achieve when utilizing multiple metals in an engagement ring design. Using two-toned filigree provides an opportunity to highlight details that would otherwise blend into the form/body of the ring. Mixing metals also allows you to highlight a colored gemstone that might seem too stark a contrast if the ring was made of entirely one metal type. We encourage you to mix it up with your custom design!
Did you know that filigree was only available in yellow gold and silver when the technique started? Read more in our Fabricating Filigree post here.
2. Paisley Patterned Filigree
Filigree with curling closed edges can evoke the feel of a paisley pattern. Mixing the pattern with more solid pieces set with diamonds and edged in milgrain can also add the effect. From more minimal to extravagant takes on this paisley style, this pattern is a timeless classic to include in an engagement ring.
3. Hidden Hearts Filigree
A little heart says a big ‘I Love You’ when you wear it every day. Hearts are a great detail to add to rings with a a duo of delicate filigree tendrils. Sneaking one into the gallery or the open shoulders of a ring design are two ways our designers love to covertly add a heart to a custom design.
4. Animal Filigree
Filigree is an elegant way to incorporate custom and meaningful design elements in a ring without letting them overshadow the ring itself. These four animal designs feature a koi fish, killer whale, grasshopper, and a phoenix in a very delicate way. Let us know what custom filigree you’d like to see in homage to your favorite animal!
5. Initial Filigree
Adding an initial for a family name (or even two to represent a new life pairing) in filigree is a unique take on more traditional inside engraving. From a linear sans-serif to a flowing script, there’s many approaches to adding a filigree letter to your ring.
6. Wave Filigree
If you want to make a sweeping or flowing ring design, adding filigree is a way to add a light airiness and create lines of motion at the same time! It’s easy to get swept up in the designs of these custom rings with all the wave styled details.
7. Symbolic Filigree
An infinity symbol, a treble cleft, or a mountainscape are just a few of the ways you could add symbolic filigree to your custom design! What symbol would you include to celebrate you and your partner?
8. Sweeping & Fantasy Filigree
Extending the length of a filigree curl adds an air of fantasy to an engagement ring design. This style of filigree often plays with the edges of the design and breaks over the borders and frames of the ring’s structure to illustrate a sense of fantasy and whimsy.
9. Floral Filigree
Enhancing the spaces a floral style piece of jewelry with filigree makes the motif feel even more delicate. Subtle design choices like filigree, as opposed to leaving empty spaces or solid spaces of metal, make these floral pieces so exquisite.
10. Unique Gallery Detail
The gallery is a necessary structure to most ring designs as it accommodates the pavilion of the center gemstone. Instead of leaving this space empty, we love having the opportunity to fill it with artistic filigree!
Did you know that to create a filigree ring, each filigree curl is curled by our expert jewelers so each curve matches up perfectly in each of the panels? When you look through you only see say 8 curls, but really there are 16 perfectly lined up!
11. Wild-Growing Vine Filigree
Another style of filigree that breaks the ‘boundaries’ of a ring is our vine-style filigree. Curling metal around the exterior and adding delicate tendrils filled with gemstones make these rings look like they are straight from the forest.
12. Vintage-Inspired Filigree
Filigree in its most traditional application is for vintage style rings to add detail and airiness to a design. Some unique ways we use filigree in our Green Lake designs is to achieve intricate dome-style silhouettes or as a textural relief to vintage scroll engraving on the surface of a ring.
13. Celtic Knot Filigree
Over and under twists of filigree wire achieve these seemingly impossible Celtic knot inspired patterns. None of these details are cast, they are created by the hands of our artists. Do you have a sentimental knot motif you’d like to see included in your ring design?
14. Accenting A Gemstone
A stellar gemstone looks even more beautiful when framed by a delicate filigree motif. Our designers can help you find the perfect filigree pattern to accent a round, oval, pear, or fantasy-cut gemstone!
15. Mixing Leaves And Filigree
Adding a simple leaf with hand engraving or diamonds can give a natural feel to a more vintage styled ring. When compared to our #11 motif ( Wild-Vine Filigree), this style is like a manicured filigree garden.
16. Our Iconic ‘Petite Filigree Ring’
One of Green Lake’s most iconic designs, the Petite Filigree Ring, features one dozen hand-fabricated filigree curls. This ring has the perfect mix of vintage details working together: hand engraving and milgrain are gorgeous, but it is the petite filigree curls that make this design stand out!
