Jennifer Dawes Designs

We loved our engagement ring experience with Jennifer so much that we got our wedding bands from her too! After trying on a bunch of her beautiful rings, we decided on a custom wedding band. It fits perfectly with the curve of my engagement ring. It’s delicate and unique and I love it! My fiancé got a plain wide rose gold band. He wanted something different but not too crazy and Jennifer helped us come to that decision. It looks fantastic and makes a little statement without being over the top.
We both love Jennifer and highly recommend her. She’s a lovely person and her designs are just beautiful.

I will make this short and sweet. I live in Manhattan, and I wanted something original for an engagement-​wedding band stack. My now-​husband was not really jazzed about the whole ring thing, as he didn’t want to purchase a stone from an unethical mine, and the whole giant-​Bridezilla-​solitaire concept was not his speed. After consideration, we decided to go for a lavender sapphire, and Jennifer and Deborah ordered six different stones in various hews of light purple for me. I was able to choose the exact stone color and they made me something amazing. I got married in September, and have just now received the wedding band facet of my stack – so it is complete! I love my Lux ring — it is 1.07 carats and a pastel color which I didn’t think I would want until Deb convinced me it was the right one. My stack is complete and am happy to meet Jen Dawes at the amazing store I purchased from — The Clay Pot — when she visits NYC this weekend. Her Popular Stacks page on the website guided me to choose the multiple rings that I did. Wonderful products, helpful folks. A great experience overall!

Best engagement & wedding ring experience ever!
Once my (now) fiancé and I decided it was time to move our relationship into the next stage of life, I began searching for rings online. Searching for a ring online is not exactly awesome — until I found Jennifer’s website! I knew she was the designer for me, immediately. I wanted rings that were sustainable, beautiful and unique — no blood diamonds here!
We are from New York, but we planned a vacation to California and made an appointment to visit her studio in Santa Rosa. How lovely! Jennifer and her team were so warm and welcoming, we felt right at home.
We had a good idea of the rings we were looking to create, but we were able to choose the emerald we wanted and contemplated a few different styles, but stuck to our original design. We spent 2 – 3 hours playing with jewelry and getting to know one another — an experience that we would have never had going to some jeweler in NYC.
Jennifer LOVES what she does and it shines through in her work!
Our appointment was in mid-​October and we had the rings and were engaged by the end of November! They kept my fiancé updated throughout the ring creation process and if either of us had a question or vice versa, communicating was a breeze.
We purchased both wedding bands and the engagement ring and are thrilled with all of them; they are absolutely gorgeous and everything we could’ve ever wanted.
Thank you to Jen & her team for such a memorable and pleasurable experience. We loved working with you and are totally in love with our rings and each other :)

I absolutely love my engagement and wedding rings! My fiancé and I looked at many designers to find a beautiful and unique ring. We also wanted rings that we could feel good about and we were excited to learn that Dawes uses recycled gold, responsibly mined stones and makes everything locally. We worked closely with Jennifer and Deborah over several moths to design my two rings and my husband’s wedding band.
We were just married a few days ago and are loving wearing our wedding bands! My husband wasn’t too excited about wearing jewelry and initially wanted something more industrial like titanium. I wanted our rings to match and suggested a matte hammered gold band. It looks great on him and he thinks the weight and feel are perfect for his hand. His ring is the perfect combination of manly and refined. It took a few days to get used to wearing them and they now feel like a natural part of our hands.
My Golden Gate engagement ring is ornate with a center sapphire in a complex blue/​green/​grey to match my eyes and is accented by a row of tiny diamonds. The band is a plain Canyon in hammered yellow gold. The two rings coordinate beautifully without feeling overly matchy.
The entire process from our initial conversation to the delivery of our three exquisite rings was an absolute joy!

I have a gorgeous, gorgeous charm necklace, eight stacking rings and a custom anniversary ring made by Jennifer Dawes. They are all lovely and she is an amazing person. She listens carefully to what her clients want, she is thoughtful, spiritual, and creative. My charm necklace commemorates my pets and is simply beautiful. People ask about it all the time. My stackers are colorful and fun and I am going to have more of them made. And my anniversary ring, which Jen designed and made from my family gold, is simply stunning. Next month I am traveling to California to discuss with her a diamond ring I want to have made in memory of my mom. Jewelry is important to me – I want it not only to look beautiful but to be meaningful and Jen totally gets that. Her staff is terrific — Deb is a gem and lots of fun — and I think these women are the very best.
Some of the reviews I have read here really make no sense to me. But I’ll tell you one thing — you could not pay me enough to work with brides. Most people manage to get married with generosity, dignity, and grace but some, well, don’t. Those who have to work with these self absorbed, entitled ladies deserve a medal!
Update:
Trip to Santa Rosa to design a ring from my mom’s gold was wonderful. These ladies listen! And I ended up redesigning my wedding ring to add diamonds and having a ring made from family gold for each of my step daughters. I love the emphasis on repurposing jewelry and updating and preserving pieces filled with sentiment and love. Kudos to Jennifer Dawes for cultivating an unusual business ethic in this day and age!

There’s no doubt that Dawes Design has beautiful jewelry but the craftsmanship is absolutely awful. I rue the day I fell in love with 1 of her rings & chose it as my engagement ring. It began a nightmare that lasted 2 years.
I chose the ring because I fell in love with its delicate design & unique aesthetic. I also fell madly in love with its center stone: a really special purple/​blue sapphire. But guess what? When my boyfriend bought the ring and sent it to them to resize: they shattered the sapphire. No one, not the store I bought it from, not Jennifer Dawes herself, could tell me how that happened. I have since talked to another jeweler & he told me he doesn’t see any reason why the stone would’ve even been touched during a resizing…
Anyway, Jennifer promised she’d find me a similar sapphire. She reset the ring & my boyfriend proposed. I was extremely happy with my ring… until the time came to find a wedding band for it.
If you look at Dawes’ site, it clearly says her rings are designed to be stackable, which is exactly what I wanted for my engagement ring. To that end, I purchased an extremely thin, delicate pave band to wear with it. When I tried them on together, however, something wasn’t sitting right. It seemed like the band was being pushed back too far & also rubbing against the sapphire.
I reached out to Jennifer to see if she had any suggestions. She told me to send her both the engagement ring & band & she’ll see what she could do. When I did, she told me that she wouldn’t be able to get the ring to fit with that band, but if I bought one of her bands (which, according to her was flatter and thinner) it would work. I have to be honest: this was NOT in my budget at all. I was in the middle of paying for a wedding & her band was 5 times as expensive as the similar pave band I bought! BUT it was so important to me that I maintain the integrity of my engagement ring (& keep it as an heirloom forever), that I decided to take out a credit card solely so I could follow her suggestion.
I bought her band. She sent my engagement ring back &, about a month before my wedding, sent me the band. First of all, her band did not look any thinner to me than the band I already had. That aside, I tried them on & saw a similar issue as before: the band was being pushed back & sticking out in the back a lot. I sent them a photo. They claimed it didn’t look like a problem and that all stacking rings get pushed back a little. We decided I’d wear it for a bit after the wedding & get in touch if there was a problem.
Naturally, after wearing it for 2 weeks on my honeymoon, there was a big problem. Not only were the two rings massively uncomfortable together, but the band had gone ahead & scratched my sapphire: exactly what I was trying to avoid!
I wrote them pretty upset that they had made me buy a band & supposedly worked to prevent this exact thing from happening. I got several different excuses from them that made little sense. I sent the rings back again. Jennifer told me that this ring was a prototype ring & her similar styles now look different (less delicate), so she was going to try her best to give me this ring back. She was going to raise the entire ornament & that should fix the problem.
About 5 weeks later, I got my engagement ring & band back. I put the engagement ring on, only to notice there was a large brown stain on the ring’s band. What the heck?! I send her a picture of it & her response: «Oh, oops. It just didn’t get cleaned up after welding.» Um… HOW?! If you’re sending a ring back that you’ve screwed up multiple times at this point, why wouldn’t you look at it under a loupe & make sure it looks correct. This actually didn’t even need a loupe to see the stain. It was enormous.
Back to California it went again (I’m in NY). It came back to me finally, & I wore it with my wedding band for 3 months. Until 1 day, I took the engagement ring off & saw that, in fact, the band had completely scratched up the back of the sapphire.
YES. AFTER ALL THAT.
I wrote her, furious & disappointed. Jennifer called me, apologized & said she will remake the whole ring for me & would try to make it look as delicate as the original.
After 6 weeks she sent me back a new engagement ring: a hideous, clunky thing that I would never have chosen had I originally seen it in the store. It was nothing like the delicate piece I had fallen in love with.
At this point, we decided to have her return my original setting & for her to refund me the money for the useless pave band she made me buy. She did agree to that at least. But I now have an engagement ring I can’t wear with my band. It’s extremely upsetting to me that the piece of jewelry that I spent so much time looking for & dreaming about is completely ruined. I really would not wish this experience on anyone, let alone 2 people trying to start their lives together with what was supposed to be a lovely, time-​honored tradition.

We came to Dawes Designs because we were captivated by Jennifer’s unique designs and custom approach. Her commitment to sustainable beauty made the choice even easier. We’re so glad we did, because the whole process was a delight from start to finish. Jennifer’s mastery of her art was apparent from the minute we entered her showroom. Relaxed, yet with focused creativity, she listened and guided our way to a design that reflected our wishes more beautifully than we could have imagined. She special ordered an exquisite diamond, and she & her staff followed up with flawless service. We’ll be back for more, and so will our friends!

My parents ordered me a custom graduation ring from Dawes Designs, and I couldn’t be happier. Jennifer worked with me to find the perfect stone, styling, and color of gold and made me a ring that is both attractive and sturdily made. I don’t like the flimsy feel of many jewelry pieces and don’t wear much jewelry in general, so the balance between elegance and strength that Jennifer gives to her pieces gives me a deep respect for her work. She managed to make me a ring that reflected all my favorite things about jewelry, in spite of my extreme fussiness and generally unadorned fashion style. She is a clever and creative designer with a firm ethical consciousness.

I can echo everything said by the previous reviewer. It was a very special experience visiting Jennifer at her studio with my boyfriend (soon to be fiancé) and she was very generous with her time as we discussed various ring styles, metals, stones. It’s very difficult to find artisans who are so knowledgeable — and even activist about — the ethical and sustainable sourcing of materials, and I feel honored to have a ring made by someone who cares so much about her craft.
For some reason, her retailers offer slightly lower prices that buying direct, so you may want to research where to actually order your ring from a local jewelry retailer.

Yes, it is obvious that Jennifer’s jewerly is absolutely stunning, modern and timeless at the same time, but having a piece of her jewelry is much more than that.
Purchasing my engagement ring from Jennifer Dawes was an experience I could have never imagined. She invited us to her beautiful studio which was tucked behind her home in Sonoma county. Jennifer and her staff were incredibly kind and personable. We arrived and her husband, who was building wood-​fire ovens, let us onto their lush property where their son was chasing around their 17 chickens. Her assistant brought us out tea, and Jennifer spent over an hour talking to us and helping us create the perfect engagement ring. Even though we didn’t make a purchase that moment, she hugged us goodbye, as if the experience meant as much to her as it did to us. We really got a sense of who she is as a person and an artist. Even if you don’t have the opportunity to visit her studio, know that you’re purchasing a piece of art created by a humble, passionate, and talented artist.
And every time someone asks me about my ring (which happens A LOT, strangers even) I always gush about her because these are type of people and businesses I want to support.

My boyfriend/​fiancé and I had a WONDERFUL experience with Dawes Designs. Jennifer and her team were very professional, responsive, creative, and kind. We love the elegant, beautiful, unique engagement ring made by Dawes (which we were able to create with the help of Jennifer and her team) — the ring really reflects my personality and style (unlike many of the Stepford rings out on the market). I have sent many-​a-​friend to the Dawes web-​site since finding it! Jennifer is committed to working in a way that is as sustainable/​local/​green as possible! I can’t wait to get our anniversary jewelry from Dawes in years to come!

This is a wonderful local jewelry designer whose work is inspired by the landscapes of Marin County. She has exquisite taste and the best quality of gemstones. I recently received one of her kinetic rings as a gift — it is a platinum ring with a sapphire set in the middle. The setting resembles a very delicate flower — and it rotates like a pinwheel. I love her wedding bands as well and her necklaces are one-​of-​a-​kind. She custom makes pieces as well. What an amazing talent right in our own backyard. You can find her stuff around town, I saw it last year at Gallery Flux in the Castro.