Pumpkin Spice Engagement Rings

U.K.-based designer Ruth Tomlinson, one of the participants in the MAD RE:FINE jewelry capsule we reported on last week, has rallied her business around the creation of one-of-a-kind, intentionally imperfect engagement rings, all handmade in her London studio.

A number of these will be on view when RE:FINE launches next week, but I had a chance to view her entire lookbook and was struck by her use of dusty brown and gold champagne diamonds and two very unusual marmalade-colored tourmalines.

As Tomlinson explains in this marketing video, she favors hand-cut diamonds used in Victorian and Georgian jewelry. “Commercial jewelers have boxes that tick the four Cs, but we’re more interested in the essence of beauty in the imperfect, reassessing what is luxury and looking at a jewel before the four Cs were even invented,” she says.

Tomlinson’s way too classy to describe the nuanced hues of her stone choices as “pumpkin spice.” But survey the palette of some of her latest and greatest, and you do get a warm, autumnal vibe, like the colors of Connecticut foliage just before the leaves fade and scatter.

Makes you want to sip hot apple cider garnished with a cinnamon stick and sprinkled with nutmeg. Or, you know, that other pumpkin spice beverage one starts to crave around 4 p.m.

Just hold the whipped cream—there’s nothing frothy about the engagement rings below; they’re more gritty-pretty, with stones that whisper of their rustic or antique provenance and settings that reveal the beautiful vagaries of human touch.

Asymmetric ring with 0.85 ct. pear-shape champagne diamond and 0.165 ct. t.w. antique white diamond and granules in 14k yellow gold, $8,730