Taylor Swift Inspired Old Mine Cushion Cut Moissanite Milgrain Bezel Engagement Ring in Silver, 10K, 14K and 18K Gold

An elongated old mine cushion held in a milgrain edged bezel, caught at each corner by a small claw and carried on a split shank that divides as it rises to meet the head. It is a vintage outline with a modern proportion, and it is the look people now ask for by name.

At a glance

• Inspired by: The style Taylor Swift has been photographed wearing
• Centre stone: Elongated Old Mine Cushion moissanite, colourless, VVS clarity
• Carat options: 2, 3, 4 and 5 carat, centre stone
• Setting: Milgrain edged bezel with four small corner claws
• Side stones: None, a single centre stone
• Band: Split shank that opens toward the head, approximately 2 mm at the back
• Metals: 925 sterling silver, 10K, 14K and 18K gold in yellow, rose and white
• Ring sizes: 1.5 to 13, including half sizes
• Made: To order by hand in Surat, India

The Taylor Swift inspired look

Few engagement rings have been searched for as heavily as the antique style cushion Taylor Swift has been photographed wearing. This ring brings together the elements that define that look, an elongated old mine cushion, a beaded milgrain frame and a softly split band, and makes them in colourless moissanite in the metal and carat weight you choose.

This ring is designed and made by Mapple Gems and is inspired by a style Taylor Swift has been publicly photographed wearing. It is not the same ring, and Mapple Gems is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by Taylor Swift. The centre stone is moissanite, not diamond.

An antique cut in a vintage frame

The old mine cut is the ancestor of the modern cushion. It was the standard diamond cut of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, shaped by hand long before the modern round brilliant was worked out, and it is recognised by its softly squared outline, high crown, small table and broad, blocky facets. Instead of the fine pinfire sparkle of a modern brilliant it throws big, slow flashes of light, which is why it is often described as having a candlelit look.

Milgrain is a line of tiny beads raised along the edge of the metal. It was a signature finish of Edwardian and Art Deco jewellery, and here it traces the whole outline of the bezel so the frame reads as fine detail rather than a hard rim. Four small claws sit at the corners over the bezel, which adds security and a little more of that antique character.

Below the head the band splits into two slim rails. The split gives the setting an open, airy look from the side, lets more light reach the stone and makes the head appear to float above the finger, while the back of the band stays a single comfortable shank.

Why the old mine cushion cut

The old mine cut is the antique forerunner of today's cushion: a softly squared outline with a high crown, a small table and broad facets. It gives large, slow flashes of light rather than fine sparkle, and in an elongated outline it looks long, graceful and unmistakably vintage.

Is this style right for you?

Compared with a modern cushion in open claws, this design pairs the older, chunkier old mine faceting with a closed milgrain bezel and a split shank. Choose it if you want a softer, heirloom character rather than crisp modern sparkle.

What moissanite actually is

Moissanite is silicon carbide, a crystal first identified by the French chemist Henri Moissan in 1893 in fragments of the Canyon Diablo meteorite in Arizona. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1906, and the mineral was named after him. Natural moissanite is vanishingly rare, so every moissanite sold as a gemstone today is grown in a laboratory.

Here is what that means for a ring you will wear every day:

• Hardness 9.25 on the Mohs scale. Only diamond and a handful of laboratory materials are harder. It will not scratch from ordinary wear, and it is well suited to a ring worn daily for decades.
• Refractive index of 2.65 to 2.69, higher than diamond at 2.42. More light is bent back to the eye, which is why a moissanite reads noticeably brighter than a diamond of the same size under the same light.
• Dispersion of 0.104, against 0.044 for diamond. Dispersion is the splitting of white light into spectral colours. This is the origin of the rainbow fire moissanite is known for, most visible in direct sun or under spotlights.
• Doubly refractive. Under strong magnification a gemmologist can see facet edges doubled. To the naked eye it looks like extra brilliance.

Moissanite is not cubic zirconia and it is not glass. Cubic zirconia is far softer at 8 to 8.5 on the Mohs scale, it clouds and abrades within a few years of daily wear, and it has little resale value. Moissanite keeps its polish and its brightness indefinitely. It is also not a diamond, laboratory grown or mined, and we never describe it as one. It is its own gemstone with its own optical signature, chosen by people who want maximum presence on the hand for a fraction of the cost of a diamond of the same size.

Every moissanite we set is graded colourless, the top colour band for moissanite, and VVS clarity, which means any inclusions are extremely difficult to find even under ten times magnification. Nothing is visible to the naked eye.

Choosing your metal

This ring is made to order in ten metals, so the version you choose is the version we build. There is no plating over a base metal and no filled or bonded gold anywhere in the range.

• 925 sterling silver is the most affordable way to own the design. It is 92.5 per cent pure silver, bright white, and it takes a high polish. Silver is softer than gold and will pick up fine surface marks with daily wear. It can also tarnish, and a soft polishing cloth brings it straight back.
• 10K gold is 41.7 per cent pure gold. It is the hardest and most scratch resistant of the three gold alloys, a sensible choice for hands that work. The colour is a little paler than 14K.
• 14K gold is 58.5 per cent pure gold and it is what most engagement rings sold in the United States are made from. It balances a warm, convincing colour against real everyday durability.
• 18K gold is 75 per cent pure gold. It has the deepest, richest colour and the most weight in the hand. It is also the softest of the three, so it marks a little more readily.

Yellow gold is gold alloyed with silver and copper. Rose gold takes more copper, which gives the warm pink tone. White gold is alloyed with palladium or nickel and finished with rhodium plating, which gives it a bright white face. Rhodium wears thin over time and wants redoing roughly every one to two years, which any jeweller can do quickly. Every gold ring is stamped with its karat mark.

Choosing your carat size

This ring is offered in 2, 3, 4 and 5 carat centre stones. Carat is a unit of weight, not of width, and the photographs may show a different size from the one you choose. The version you select is the one we make.

• 2 carat is the most chosen size. It is unmistakably a statement stone and still sits comfortably under a glove or a coat sleeve.
• 3 carat is a clear step up in presence and photographs beautifully. This is where most people land when they want the ring to be the first thing anyone notices.
• 4 carat covers the finger generously and suits longer fingers and larger ring sizes particularly well.
• 5 carat is a red carpet stone, the closest to the celebrity look. It is the size people ask about across a room.

If you are between sizes, order the smaller centre stone in a richer metal rather than the larger stone in the cheapest one. A well made ring in 14K or 18K gold ages far better than an oversized stone on a thin shank.

Made to order in our own workshop

Mapple Gems is a family run jewellery workshop in Surat, in Gujarat, India. Surat is where roughly nine out of every ten diamonds in the world are cut and polished, and the bench skills that grew up around that trade are what this ring is built on. We do not hold finished stock. When your order comes in, a goldsmith casts your metal in your size, a setter places every stone by hand under a microscope, and the piece is polished, checked and photographed before it leaves us.

Making takes ten to fourteen working days for most orders. Shipping is free worldwide and fully insured, and it is normally three to seven working days once the ring has left the bench. Buying direct from the bench is the reason a ring like this costs what it does here rather than several times more on a high street.

Caring for your ring

Moissanite attracts skin oil and hand cream the same way diamond does, and a film of it is the single most common reason a ring looks dull. Soak the ring for ten minutes in warm water with a drop of washing up liquid, brush gently behind and underneath the stone with a soft toothbrush, rinse and pat dry with a lint free cloth. Once a fortnight is plenty.

Take the ring off before the gym, gardening, swimming pools and hot tubs, and before using bleach or oven cleaner. Chlorine attacks the alloys in gold over time and does nothing good to sterling silver. Store it on its own rather than loose in a box with other pieces. Have the claws or setting checked by a jeweller once a year. White gold will want its rhodium refreshed every one to two years.

Questions people ask about this ring

Is this the same ring Taylor Swift wears?

No. This is our own ring, made in our workshop and inspired by a style Taylor Swift has been publicly photographed wearing. It is set with moissanite rather than diamond, and Mapple Gems is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by Taylor Swift.

What is an old mine cushion cut?

It is an antique style cushion with a high crown, a small table and large facets, the cut that came before the modern cushion brilliant. It shows broad flashes of light rather than fine sparkle, and in an elongated outline it reads long and elegant on the finger.

Does the bezel make the stone look smaller?

Very slightly. A bezel adds a thin frame of metal around the stone, and the milgrain edge keeps that frame delicate. In return it protects the whole edge of the stone from knocks, which is why bezels are one of the most secure settings there are.

Can this ring be resized?

Yes. The back of the band is a single plain shank, so any jeweller can size it up or down without touching the split or the bezel.

What colour and clarity is the moissanite?

Every moissanite centre stone is graded colourless with VVS clarity. Colourless is the top colour band for moissanite, and VVS means inclusions are extremely difficult to see even under ten times magnification. The grades are the same on every metal and every carat weight.

Will people be able to tell it is not a diamond?

Not by looking. Both stones are colourless and brilliantly cut, and at arm length they read the same. In direct sunlight moissanite throws more rainbow coloured fire than a diamond does, which is the only tell most people would ever notice. Telling the two apart with certainty needs a conductivity tester, or a loupe and the training to read facet doubling.

Does moissanite get cloudy or lose its sparkle over time?

No. At 9.25 on the Mohs scale it is one of the hardest gem materials there is, and it does not abrade, cloud or dull with wear the way cubic zirconia does. What makes any ring look dull is a film of skin oil, soap and hand cream, and a gentle clean restores it completely.

What ring sizes can I order?

We make sizes 1.5 to 13, including every half size. Choose your size at checkout. If you are unsure, measure a ring that already fits the correct finger, or ask a local jeweller to size you, and remember that fingers run slightly larger in hot weather and late in the day.

How long will it take to arrive?

Every ring is made to order in our workshop in Surat. Allow ten to fourteen working days for making, plus three to seven working days for insured worldwide shipping. If you have a proposal date, tell us when you order and we will confirm whether we can meet it.

Is the metal solid, or is it plated?

It is solid throughout. 925 sterling silver is 92.5 per cent pure silver, and the gold options are solid 10K, 14K or 18K alloy stamped with the karat mark. Nothing in this range is gold plated, gold filled or gold bonded. White gold carries a rhodium finish on the surface, which is standard for all white gold.

Is the wedding band included?

No. The price is for the engagement ring alone. Wedding bands are sold separately, and we are happy to advise which of ours sits best beside this design.

Do you offer engraving?

Yes, and there is no charge for it. Tell us the wording when you order and we will engrave the inside of the band. Most people choose a date, a set of initials or a short phrase. Allow up to about twenty five characters.

What is your returns policy?

Returns are accepted within thirty days of delivery on an unworn ring in its original packaging. Because every piece is made to order, engraved rings and rings made to a non standard specification are handled case by case. Write to us and we will sort it out.

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