Ladies, how important are rings - or any jewelry, really?

[redqueen]

Reading about the engagement ring dilemma reminded me how little I care about jewelry and shiny things. I like jewelry, don't get me wrong. I just don't wear it that often and I sure don't get all weepy when I get some as a gift. They're shiny rocks, FFS.

So, DU Ladies of the Lounge, what say you on the matter?

[musette_sf]

1. there have been some good links posted on DU

in recent months about the marketing of the diamond in modern history. It's a bunch of hooey, and they are way overpriced for what they are.

I like making jewelry, and I like to collect beautiful objects, usually silver and semi-precious gems/stones.

[Tafiti]

13. Right.

DeBeers owns something like 75% of the world's diamond mines, and of course the profit motive associated with their sales has resulted in atrocious violence to many African nations, where diamond mines are abundant. When a new mine is discovered, DeBeers swoops in and tries to buy it, or take by force if necessary (probably with the help of African mercenaries looking to make money, I would assume).

The genius was in the marketing. Number 1, they successfully convinced the Western world (especially the U.S.) that an engagement ring is not an engagement ring unless it's a diamond (and the 2 months salary rule of thumb, to boot). Number 2, they again successfully convinced nearly everyone that diamonds are rare and therefore precious, which they certainly are not. Thus they were (and are) able to charge outrageous amounts of money for them. You know the advertising mantra, perception is reality.

[ProfessorGAC]

16. I Think They're Now Pushing 3 MONTHS!

The new marketing test, (i think i read this here at DU, but am not sure) is to see if they can get pathetic guys with more money than brains to spend 3 months, not 2, on the ring.

While i gave my wife her ring almost 26 years ago, if i spend a sixth or a 4th of what i make in a year on a ring, she'd kill me in my sleep.
The Professor

[Tafiti]

20. That wouldn't surprise me.

Sounds like a muckraking job for Eric Schlosser. Find out what PR firms DeBeers is working with, and dig up some marketing plans. I'm sure it's there.

And I hope my future wife would do the same. :)

[Mizmoon]

2. I find jewelry to be ostentatious and bourgeois

:hippie:

[MsAnthropy]

3. I'll take the cash instead

[redqueen]

4. YES!

EXACTLY!!!

I hardly wear any, and what I do wear isn't worth much. :)

[Lavender Brown]

5. I do like jewelry, but not necessarily

valuable jewelry. The only things I have that are actually worth anything are of sentimental value, and that's why they are worth something to me.

[commander bunnypants]

19. whoever that painting is of

hubba hubba hubba

CB

[Pithlet]

6. I like it jewelry. But, it's not important.

I have a few nice pieces from when I worked at a jewelry store that I still wear every once in awhile. But, nothing too ostentatious. I prefer simple over gaudy.

[merh]

7. Jewelry I wear usually has sentimental value

I don't like wearing a lot of jewelry, I ususally forget to wear my cheap earrings and my inexpensive watch. It is my white dove of peace lapel pin that I wear the most. It goes with everything!

[LiberallyInclined]

8. My wife always likes the funky, unique kind of stuff i buy for her-

she and I are both alike in wondering how so many women can seem to be so enchanted by cookie cutter designs using gold and diamonds and the like, and the rest of the crap you usually see in the jewelry cases in the chain jewelry stores...:puke:

I usually shop at smaller places that specialize in stuff from artisans and designers directly, and i know my wife's tastes pretty good, so when i get stuff, it usually very well-received ;)...

as for me- as a guy, i don't wear ANY jewelry- not even a watch or a wedding ring...i just don't like the stuff, or the way it feels.

but i DO love shopping for stuff for the wife.

[SarahB]

9. Not much.

Back when I was married (well, and not in the middle of a divorce anyway), after a few years went by and my husband made more money, he wanted to get me a larger diamond for my ring. I kept saying, "I don't care." I don't. I mean (God help me) if I were to ever get married again, I wouldn't want a plastic ring from a machine or something, but it's a mere symbol. People get too hung up on trinkets, wedding flowers, dresses, and other assorted crap when it's the relationship that is of prime importance. I've said this at times to certain contemporaries of mine and in return, often get this look:

:wtf:

I'm not sure if he even "got it" or was happy not to have to spend the money.

[redqueen]

11. I've received that same look, SB.

One woman told me that if my engagement ring wasn't worth two month's of his salary that I should give it back. I got snarky and told her it is, he just works at Jiffy Lube. :)

The look on her face was PRICELESS!

[the Princess]

10. It is so not a big deal to me

I don't even wear my wedding ring. And I didn't get an engagement ring from CO Liberal - by mutual agreement. It just didn't matter. Seems to me there are way too many people who put the emphasis on the ring and the Wedding rather than the commitment and the marriage.

[movie_girl99]

12. it's the thought that counts

i like jewelry but it doesnt have to fancy or expensive.

[Misunderestimator]

14. Sometimes... not a big deal, though my sister gave me a ring I always

wear now...

[Modem Butterfly]

15. My partner has terrible taste in jewelry

We're talking fishing lure earrings, cocktail rings that would make Libarace blush, etc. Not really good at the sparklies purchasing. So, I pick out my own jewelry, he pays for it. Which works out splendidly for all concerned.

I don't wear much jewelry, but I'm really into unique silver charms. On his last trip out of town, he got me a couple of nice ones. So he's not that bad at picking out sparklies.

[kittycat1164]

17. I never got an engagement ring

I just never really cared that much about it and I only have a simple gold band for a wedding ring. The ring isn't what's important in the relationship. IMO. I like jewelry, but if I wear something, I do want it to be quality. My earrings are all 14k, but that's because I can't tolerate cheap stuff. (Brian does think I made that one up...though I didn't lol) and I only wear rings on my two ring fingers, it drives me crazy to wear a ring on any other.

[redqueen]

18. I got one but gave it back.

I'm married now, and didn't get either an engagement ring or a wedding ring. The only ring I wear now is on my pinky, and only because my daughter found it (it's a chepie I lost a long time ago). She was so proud... so I'm still wearing it. :)

[alexisfree]

21. love to see the jewelry...

but I dont wear any....

[hollywood926]

22. what does a rainbow smell like?

i was torn on my answer.

i wear jewelry but don't obsess over it.

[JimmyJazz]

23. I think we are on the same page - I wear on silver band on

my finger that has an inscription in Hebrew (I think it cost about $40), a P.O.W. bracelet and a blue band. Aside from a piercing which is somewhat permanent, that's all I wear.

I can't even be bothered with a watch.

[barb162]

24. the older I get the less I wear jewelry, even though I have a lot of

good stuff. Too much of a pain to bother putting it on.

[grace0418]

25. I never wear gold and diamonds aren't interesting to me

Which is funny because diamonds are my birthstone. My wedding ring is white gold and cost $33 at Service Merchandise when we bought them in 1997. I didn't want an engagement ring, it seemed silly to waste the money. I wear another silver ring, a cheap watch and silver hoop earrings. I wear necklaces about once a week. The most expensive piece of jewelry I own is a necklace that was $250, and that was just because it was a one-of-a-kind hand-made piece made by an artist.

We are planning to replace our wedding rings with platinum bands made by the artist who made my necklace. They're going to be very simple, with words stamped around them. Still no diamonds.

[intheflow]

26. Precious stones are a labor/exploitation issue.

Actually, most metal is, unless it's recycled. I wouldn't turn a diamond down, but is it necessary for my beloved to pledge his commitment to me? Not at all, and I'd prefer not to have the burden of fearing such a costly item lost in everyday use.

[readmylips]

27. Mom of the engaged son....

My jewelry is very simple; my small diamond heart from my kids, my wedding rings, and simple earrings.

These little trinkets mean a lot to me because they were from my family and from the man I love. I love my wedding ring because it was my hubby's Mom's. He felt that I was the next Queen in his life after his Mom died.

[silverpatronus]

28. i made a vow a long time ago...

back when i was about 12 and learned about the precious metals and stones industry and how corrupt and murderous it really is, that i would never EVER accept a diamond. i think i'd turn down any man who dared propose to me with one. besides, what is a diamond ring except an attempt to buy me with shiny objects? all my jewelry is sterling silver and fake gems. if i were to ever have a real stone, it would be a sapphire. and i'd buy it my damned self.

[eyesroll]

29. I don't wear jewelry very often

I'm dating a man who wears more jewelry than I do. (Which still isn't much, but I find it interesting nonetheless.)

[redqueen]

30. Piercings?

Or lots of big gold chains with huge medallions? ;)

[eyesroll]

33. Neither...

Just the occasional ring/bracelet type thing...

Like I said -- not much, but less than I wear.

[Withywindle]

31. I'm ambivalent about rings and things...

Too much Tolkien in my formative years. :scared:


Women who actually keep score and care about how much men spend on stuff for them creep me the fuck out. I respect honest, straightforward whores a lot more than ones who fool themselves about what they're doing.

[Beaverhausen]

32. I have some jewelry that belonged to my grandmother- sentimental value

I don't crave jewels but have some piece I love because of who gave them to me or who owned them.

[miss_kitty]

34. I make jewelry, but rarely wear it

I also collected stuff for years, and rarely ear that either.

I have loads of it. I like to look at it.

When I do wear something, I have two neckaces I made I really like to wear. Both are seven strands and are made of glass beads with silver findings. One is african trade beads (white hearts and ghost beads) and the other is all my leftovers and some silver beads.

[SOteric]

35. I have

a collection of jewelry, each and every piece of which is something sentimental to me.

Graduation presents, gifts from a now deceased lover, cameos my mother and I collected together before her death...

I can't say that jewelry doesn't matter to me, it does; just not for it's own sake.

I'm not really marriage-minded, so the engagement ring question is a bit hazey. If a man I loved went out of his way to gift me with a ring, a bracelet or a pair of damned dog tags, I would cherish it because of the love and the sacrifice, not because of the worth of the setting.

[Ariana Celeste]

36. I'm into silver..

Gold makes me look sick. It's overpriced. I hate diamonds, just as I hate most traditional items. When it comes to stones, I like stuff like turquoise, amethyst, emerald.

My jewelry (that I actually wear, anyways) consists of...

1. Simple silver wedding band, that matches my man's.
2. An abstract looking silver ring, that was given to my mother by her best friend, and eventually given to me.
3. A silver ring with a little black stone, that my ex girlfriend bought me for my birthday a few years ago.
4. A silver locket my grandmother bought me, that unclasps into the shape of a 4 leaf clover. Good luck. :)

Before I left school... I used to wear hundreds of those colorful rubber bracelets. Something like, $4 for 10 or something. And silver bangles, I had tons of those and loved them! Now just my rings and locket, though.

[MissB]

37. I hate diamonds

I prefer a simple gold band.

I wear earrings often enough, and a watch. Occaisonally I'll even throw on a necklace.

But I don't ask for or anticipate jewelry for birthdays/Valentines/ whatever holiday.

I found it odd to get a pearl necklace and earrings for Christmas a few years ago. :shrug:

[skygazer]

38. I'm not into diamonds, for one thing

I don't think they're particularly pretty stones and I don't like the slave labor that is used to extract them. Besides, they're ridiculously overpriced.

I mostly like plain silver jewellry or handmade, unique items. But I'm not a big wearer of jewellry - I almost never change the jewellry I'm wearing right now - two rather simple rings, a pair of silver feather earrings, a thin silver chain with a purple heart on it (sentimental value) and one silver bangle bracelet.

For my birthday, my boyfriend knows that jewellry is pretty far down my list of things I probably want. Tools are actually higher and this year, he got me some moccasin slippers with sheepskin linings that I love.

[yellowdogintexas]

39. I have three diamond rings..all family pieces.

One of the stones is from an antique ring which belonged to my great aunt..she later remounted it with some smaller stones and eventually it came to me. Her setting was falling apart so I had it remounted again.
I do not like rings that are tall or bulky so this one is low, flat and has a lot of pretty gold work.

The other two rings are solitaires each one a little over 1/4 carat and one belonged to my grandmother and the other to my favorite aunt. I wouldn't let go of them for anything. I wear them together on my pinky finger.

I had an amethyst for an engagement ring, not expensive but pretty, we spent the engagement ring money on a three week trip to Spain. We bought really pretty gold/white gold wedding bands and neither of us can wear them any more due to weight gain. In one of life's little ironies, we can't have them enlarged because of the way they are constructed.

[n2mark]

40. I voted other

In the summer I can't wear it as I break out all over.

In the winter if I wear any jewelry I end up taking it off within a few hours, must have an allergy to the metals I guess.

[tjdee]

41. Oh for pete's sake, I like jewelry.

I don't wear much of it, but I love the look of gems and diamonds (except for yellow gold, not for me). I don't like huge rocks, but I do like the glint of a tastefully sized jewel. I think diamonds are beautiful, someone told me they were like little stars on your finger/neck/whatever...and cheesily I always think of that.

I buy fake, when/if I buy. I look at it like fur. No reason to get the real thing anymore. Not to mention the industry,etc.

[fortyfeetunder]

42. No big deal

I just wear a gold wedding band in a rather unique design, and the occasional pair of earrings. I like outdoor sports so the idea of wearing something with rocks in it just didn't appeal; I didn't ask for an engagement ring.

I can't justify paying $$$$ for a piece of jewelry when I can buy a nice flute or sax or cello instead.

[NGU]

43. I love my engagement ring!

but the diamond from it is from my grandmother's engagement ring and my mother was married with it too. It is becoming a family tradition and I will be the third woman married with it. That makes it more special than just a diamond.

Regarding other jewelry, I don't change my jewelry often. I have my engagement ring, college ring, and a diamond necklace that I wear all the time. I will change out the necklace sometimes to match an shirt and put in some earrings sometimes. I am extremely loyal to jewelry and all of them were presents. I think I wear them more due to the giver than the diamonds.

[Sgent]

44. My mother

never had an egagement ring.

My dad bought her a new car -- which she needed much more (as she put it) than the ring.

That being said, she did express some wistfullness about 20 years down the road, and my dad gave her my great-grandmothers engagement ring for their 25th anniversery.

[tigereye]

45. I love jewelry

but not the expensive guilt -inducing kind.

I have a silver wedding ring with moon and sun and comets that we had made. No diamonds or gold for me.

and I have a lot of silver rings... the weirder the better.

I have a truckload of funky earrings - prefer metal ones

and metal bracelets. Kind of that Wonder Woman thing.

[NGU]

47. Part of the reason for passing the diamond from Mother to Daughter

is to keep from having the expensive guilt-inducing kind especially when you are starting out in life. I did get to help pick out the new setting for the diamond. I picked the setting I wanted but it was also one of the less expensive. In fact, my ring cost less than half of the ring he wanted to get me. I don't think it is wrong to have an heirloom on my finger that is pretty even if it costs more than a silver ring. Two woman that I admire were my diamond and had happy marriages. Maybe it is just a symbol, but what a wonderful symbol of the past, present, and hopefully, the future where I can give it away someday.

[tigereye]

49. I think heirlooms are different - they have that nice family vibe

I'm just not a big fan of diamonds. I'm more a ruby, sapphire kind of person.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

46. The sentiment behind the jewelry is more important

than the jewelry itself. I treasure the little craft pins my kids made as much as the $fancy$ stuff Mr. GoG has bought for me.

[foreigncorrespondent]

48. Not important to me at all!

Sapph could go out and buy the cheapest engagement ring for me she could find, and to me, it would be worth billions, simply because it has come from her.

I used to have a lot of rings at one time, but had to pawn most of them just to make ends meat. It was at that moment I really learned the valuable lesson that material possessions really mean nothing at all.

[Donailin]

53. Hear Hear!

Back when I was married, I had a lot of jewelry, including a diamond rolex that ex bought me to make himself feel better about the affair he was having with some bimbo. Then when I hit hard times after the divorce, I sold it all and now have no desire for jewelry at all. I like the way organic jewelry looks on others, that is, beaded or braided things, but I just don't have a desire to put ornaments on my body.

I think women who wear tons of gold bracelets and rings and stones just look silly, as if to say "look at all my jewelry" and I think, "but why??"

Where ever your treasure is, there your heart lies. . .

Now, if someone asked me about books, that would be a whole nother animal. I can never have too many, and in fact fantasize at times that if I won the lotto, that is, if I ever played, I would go to Barnes and Noble with a pick up truck and go just nuts. Same with CD's.

[foreigncorrespondent]

56. Exactly!

I do loss prevention work, so I do come across a lot of people.

Anyway, one of the stores I work in happens to be in a fairly rich part of Melbourne. Late last year I was working in this store and this woman came in, and I swear she had at least two rings minimum on each finger, gold bracelets up both arms, and earlobes full of ear rings. Anyway, she caught me looking at all her stuff and said to me, if I liked it all, I just looked at her and said, "you must have no self esteem what so ever if you think it takes all that gold to beautify you." With that she just left.

As for books, Sapphocrat has a lot of books, but I'm not much of one for books, so I don't have many. The ones I do have though I do read, because they are things that truly interest me.

[Bertha Venation]

50. I wear the bracelet my sisters gave me for my 40th birthday as a talisman.

If I wear jewelry it's because of who gave it to me and/or what it means to me. Except for earrings, which I wear sometimes just for the hell of it.

[Thtwudbeme]

51. Michael and I might get rings

if we can find ones we like; we have been married a year and a half.

[DS1]

52. Other: My poop smells like a clean morning fog

[Phentex]

54. I have a few things I love but I hardly wear anything

but earrings on a daily basis. I'm always doing something like painting or gardening and jewelry gets in the way.

[JI7]

55. i like shiny things

but Diamonds and some other expensive ones are overrated. they are overpriced because of the effective marketing which gets people to pay such high prices for it even if they aren't rare.

there are now manmade gems which are just as nice looking but not nearly as expensive which i would buy.

but i don't buy diamonds, also diamonds fund terrorists because of the corruption involved so more reason not to buy.

[Bitter Betty]

57. Jewelry makes me feel pretty

I know I shouldn't like jewelry because "we" can't afford it but I do. So I say... "diamonds are a girl's best friend!"