If the ring fits, wear it!

Jewellery and craftsperson Jenny Burgess has over fifteen years international experience exclusively in jewellery design and the creation of high-end one-off pieces. Jenny tells Thread.co.nz her tips on getting an accurate finger size…

Jewellery and craftsperson Jenny Burgess has over fifteen years international experience exclusively in jewellery design and the creation of high-end one-off pieces. Jenny tells Thread.co.nz her tips on getting an accurate finger size.

"Hands have always fascinated me, but on the whole, most of you wouldn’t give the shape of your hands or the length of your fingers a second thought until it came to choosing your engagement and wedding rings.

Fingers are tricky things to size, and even though I love rings, it’s good to remember that our hands weren’t created to have rings on them and so there are a number of things we have to allow for.

One of these is temperature: this is because your fingers will expand and contract when your hands are hot or cold. So if you are buying your rings during the summer months, don’t buy them too big because by the time autumn arrives they will need sizing down. Just as if you buy your rings during the winter, as the weather warms up in the spring they’ll start to get tight and may need an extra piece of metal added to allow for this.

Guys, your hands tend to be warm most of the time, in comparison to a lot of women who never seem to be able to warm theirs up. But you have to be careful when you are in the sea because your hands are going to cool down, and if you don’t have a knuckle to hold your ring on, it’s usually bye-bye ring!

Even if you know one fingers’ size, I’m afraid there isn’t a formula I can use to work out the size of your other fingers. Fingers tend to fall into 2 categories, those with big knuckles and those with no knuckles. Both have their advantages and disadvantages so it’s not as though you’ll have drawn the short straw, so let me explain that a little better. If you are someone who has big knuckles you will find your ring will always spin around once you’ve managed to get it on and it can be a tight squeeze to try to relax your hand as much as you can whilst you do it.

Now those of you whose knuckles aren’t the widest part of your fingers, you will need to make sure that you’re rings fit really well, especially if the ring is heavy because if you flick your hand your ring could fly off, which is the last thing you want.

Over the last few years I have put a lot of lugs into people’s rings… what on earth are lugs I hear you say? Well the simplest way of describing them would be to compare them to speed bumps. Their purpose is to break up the inside circle to help reduce any spinning. I’ve also seen a lot of different looking lugs and I have to admit that some of them don’t look very comfortable, but they do work and they sit in the soft fleshy part at the back of your finger.

There are some rings that can’t be sized due to their design or the continuous pattern which goes around the ring. This is tricky because it means that you can’t afford for your hands to change. You may be surprised at the difference a small weight loss or gain can make to the size of your fingers. I remember sizing a ladies ring down seven sizes after she had lost a lot of weight!

The other thing that most people don’t realise is that there is a bit of an art to taking a finger size. If you are having a ring made it is ideal if the jeweller who is making your ring, measures your finger. The reason I suggest this is because they are more likely to take all these things into consideration and will take more care that the size is accurate.

Sets of ring sizers usually come in a couple of different widths, so if you are having a wide ring madeand the jeweller doesn’t know this, they measure your finger size with thin ring sizer and your ring will be made too tight.

You always have to go up a couple of sizes when you are having a wide ring made because they are taking up a lot more space on your finger and once it’s on they tend to create a lot of suction and can be difficult to get off.

I know this is a lot of extra things to think about when you are buying your rings but I believe it’s always better to be well informed. If you’re one of the lucky ones whose fingers are long and slim, just appreciate how rare you are to not have these challenges!"

Visit www.jenib.com now to view her pieces and have a chat with Jenny Burgess.