If you’ve ever walked into a jewellery studio and felt like you’re meant to already know what you want, you’re not alone. Engagement rings and wedding jewellery can feel weirdly high-pressure, even when you’re excited.

Black Finch Jewellery is a Melbourne studio known for doing things a bit differently. Fewer rules, more curiosity. More colour, more character, and a lot of care in the process. We asked Davina Adamson, lead designer and creative director of Black Finch Jewellery,  a few questions to help couples understand what they do, how it works, and what to bring along if you’re thinking about designing something custom.

For couples new to Black Finch, can you share a bit about who you are and what makes your Melbourne jewellery studio different?

Black Finch Jewellery was founded in 2007 by Raymond de Zwart. From the start, we’ve been interested in pushing past the expected and bringing more art to the world of fine jewellery.

We saw an opportunity to refresh what people think jewellery can be. Not just in how it looks and is made, but in what it means too.

A lot of our work is shaped by asymmetrical beauty, unexpected colour and form, and the natural qualities of the stones themselves. We work with natural, ethically sourced gemstones, and we love pieces that feel bold, playful and luxurious, while still being deeply personal.

The best part is the process. We don’t hand you a catalogue and ask you to pick a style. We lead our clients into a design adventure, and that’s where the magic is.

You recently celebrated 18 years as a Melbourne-based fine jeweller. What has surprised you most or stuck with you on this journey of creating engagement rings and wedding jewellery?

The biggest thing has been the people, and the raw emotion. We’re lucky. We get to sit right alongside some of the biggest milestones in someone’s life.

Sometimes that’s an engagement or wedding. Sometimes it’s an anniversary, or a redesign years later. Sometimes it’s even a chapter like a divorce. Jewellery ends up holding so much of a person’s story, and we often form ongoing relationships with our clients. We’re welcomed into a really intimate part of their lives.

One thing that never gets old is when we get proposal photos sent back after a piece has been made. Seeing the joy, the surprise, the whole moment. It still warms our hearts.

Your “no rules” approach to engagement ring design is a big part of your reputation. How do you help couples create a ring that’s truly their own?

We’ve obviously grown and shifted over the past 18 years. We’re no longer a one-person studio, but the principles are the same. We want rings to feel bold, playful, luxurious, and a little unexpected in their colour and form.

We love working with the inherent natural qualities of the stones we use, and playing with colour as a natural expression of people’s stories.

We also don’t believe in traditional rules, because the likelihood those rules grew out of a marketing campaign is pretty high. Our job is to listen, and to help people pull out what they actually want.

Our designers could probably double as counsellors. We love meeting each new client and understanding their day-to-day lives, their existing relationship with jewellery, and the feeling they’re trying to capture in the piece. Then we sketch in front of them. That’s a big part of how the design becomes real.

We’re also lucky to have pieces in store as examples and a large in-store stone collection we can pull out and play with. Over a 45 minute to one hour consultation, the sketch starts to blossom into something that feels like their lifestyle and love story.

From there, we layer in the technical side with our production and workshop team, because we’re all in-house, under one roof, in Collingwood. It really is an end-to-end experience.

Heirloom redesign and upcycling old gold are growing trends. Why do you think couples are choosing to repurpose family jewellery, and what’s your process like?

We’ve definitely seen a rise in people bringing in heirloom gold and gemstones to repurpose into a custom Black Finch piece.

Sometimes it’s redesigning their own engagement ring. Sometimes it’s adding a sentimental touch, like incorporating their grandmother’s stones. Either way, there’s something deeply meaningful about giving new life to old treasures.

There’s also a practical side. With the wildly rising price of gold, many younger couples are becoming more resourceful. Turning to family pieces can be a thoughtful, sustainable way to create a dream ring, without starting from scratch.

Can you tell us more about your Gold Swap program for sustainable wedding rings and why you started it?

This initiative is part of the brand’s enduring Legacy of Love circularity ethos. Sustainability and ethical design underpin everything we do at Black Finch. We see it as honouring our precious biosphere, and investing together to make positive change.

We are second-hand gold dealers and we believe there is enough gold above ground already. It’s sitting in drawers and jewellery boxes. Worn down chains, broken rings, Grandpa’s oversized signet, outdated styles, maybe even pieces with heavy memories. That gold can be part of a circular system, without mining.

We’ve offered this kind of option for years, but we formalised the program and created a customer-facing campaign in 2025. The price of gold kept climbing, and as we repriced our own work multiple times, we realised there was a bigger opportunity here. To help customers, and people who have been dreaming about a Black Finch piece for a while, by making gold swap a clear path.

In simple terms, you bring your old gold in and we document each piece. We weigh it, acid test it, and assess it based on the current gold rate. Once you approve the quote, you receive Black Finch credit. You can put that towards a custom design, ready-to-ship jewels, made-to-order favourites, or gift cards.

A couple of practical notes. Gold swap is in-store credit only, not cash. We also don’t reuse your gold directly into your new piece, because it needs refining first.

What does “slow jewellery” mean to you, and how can couples benefit from a more thoughtful approach when designing their wedding jewellery?

It’s funny. I don’t think any of our team would actually describe what we do as “slow jewellery”. Many of us are jewellers, artists, curators. We come from a place of making meaningful objects, which I guess inherently is a considered process. We think it’s the only way, the right way.

A big part of that is keeping our supply chain local wherever possible. We work with Melbourne partners, and if we can’t keep it in Melbourne, we don’t go much further than Queensland.

We also work with precious materials, and we didn’t join the lab diamond trend. We honour earth’s treasures, sourcing responsibly from small mining families.

When you’re making high value pieces, there’s an expectation of intention and care. There’s also a level of skill involved, built over decades in the workshop. There’s a lot of noise in our industry, but our custom design model is about consideration and technical expertise. It’s the opposite of fast, disposable jewellery.

If someone’s thinking about a custom or redesigned ring, what should they bring or know before their first visit? Any advice to make it less overwhelming?

Budget. Honestly, that’s the biggest one.

We often have customers who feel nervous about sharing their real budget, but it genuinely helps. Budget gives boundaries to the design brief. It helps us prep the right stone options, guide metal choices, and plan workshop time realistically.

Our custom and redesign services have a minimum spend of $5,500. Having a parameter is a good thing. It challenges us to create the highest value piece within your budget, rather than leaving everything wide open.

The other helpful thing is a little bit of inspiration. Scroll our Instagram or website and save anything you’re drawn to. Not to copy, but to spot patterns in what you like. Stone colours, shapes, proportions, settings, texture. Even five screenshots is enough to start a good conversation. From there, we’ll guide you through the technical side. Stones, settings, process, all of it.

Are there any big mistakes or myths you wish couples knew about before starting their engagement ring or wedding band journey?

Given our “no rules” belief system, there really can’t be a big mistake.

If you’re overwhelmed, start with your budget, your lifestyle, and what you actually love wearing day to day. That’s usually where the clarity shows up.

Looking back at nearly two decades of Black Finch, do you have a favourite story or memorable moment from working with couples?

There’s honestly too many. Every week we have a new favourite piece in store that we’re all staring at in wonder.

What’s next for Black Finch. Any new projects, collections, or ideas coming up in 2026?

2024 and 2025 were big years for us, mostly behind the scenes. A lot of the work wasn’t especially glamorous, but it really solidified our foundations after the rapid growth we experienced through the pandemic.

In 2026, we’re looking forward to more one-off pieces again, especially rare cuts and coloured stones. Coloured sapphires and coloured diamonds are always calling us.

Mens engagement rings! Yes, big bling rings for males will be making waves come March. We have difficulty gendering pieces, but we felt it was necessary to signal to men that you too, deserve a diamond. We have organically been making for men for years, this is just a chance to showcase what is possible in a capsule collection.

We’ve also been working on an exciting sensory project with another female-led local business for the past 12 to 18 months, and we’ll finally be able to reveal it in 2026. The brand alignment feels genuinely authentic, and we have so much respect for who we’re collaborating with.

There’s another hero collection in early development, plus a fresh new look that’s been in progress since late 2023. In short, there’s a lot coming, and we can’t wait to bring more people into the Black Finch experience.

For couples not sure where to start with a Melbourne jeweller, what’s the best way to reach out or begin the process with Black Finch?

It’s easy. You can walk into our Collingwood flagship store Tuesday to Sunday, 10 to 5.

If you’d like a proper design consult, we recommend booking via the online booking form. We like to come prepared with stone options and examples, so the more you can share when you book, the better.

We hope to see you in store.

A big thank you to the Davina & the Black Finch Jewellery team for sharing their process with us. You can find Black Finch Jewellery in the Polka Dot Wedding Directory here.