What a golden opportunity this Valentine’s Day is to start a new tradition of giving. Love is the greatest gift we humans have to offer and I just want to wrap my arms around everyone! It’s February and love is in the air. Spring is coming, and Valentine’s Day ushers in a new round of giving.

Really this holiday is exceptional because it is an opportunity to stop and think about what your partner, spouse, girlfriend, or lover, if you will, means to you. Think about the impact this day can have on the rest of your lives together. It is a whole day for lovers. It is a day that invites us to be ridiculously in love with full permission to express it! How cool is that? Our everyday lives can take some of the zest out of romance if not remove it completely if we let it. I mean, who has time? Valentine’s Day is the day to create time for love.

This could be the year to start your Valentine’s Day tradition and this is my invitation to all of us to step into the air of love. Give hugs; give flowers, cards, chocolates and jewels. Give compliments, it is so easy to be generous. We have nothing to lose on a holiday that just begs us to make fools of ourselves.

As I write this I am dreaming of candles, music, a stroll on a wooded knoll. I will gaze into my husband’s eyes and remember the first time I met him. I want to tell him he is everything to me and without him I would be lost. I am a fool in love and if I don’t tell him now, Valentine’s Day will pass and I will again be pulled into the daily routine, on the hamster wheel of life and the moment will be lost. Valentine’s Day is in itself a gift to us all. Start your new tradition of giving this year and feel the love!

So, this guy sends me an email. I get them all the time. “Do you make custom designs?” My reply, sent with a mixture of hope and foreboding is “Yes, as long as it is something we’re equipped to create. Send me a picture or sketch of what you have in mind and I will let you know…” You see, titanium has its limits. While the metal works nicely as jewelry, given its hypoallergenic, lightweight qualities, persuading it to behave as a malleable metal is just plain impossible. In addition, casting titanium requires a vacuum since in its molten stage it becomes highly explosive if exposed to oxygen. Therefore, we have set ourselves up quite nicely with a working studio, in which we deal only with cutting titanium, not casting.

In most cases, requests for custom designs are therefore denied due to these and numerous other limiting factors in the realm of titanium ring designs. In addition, when we are considering experimenting, we have to weigh in the initial cost as well as the potential for loss in materials and time if the design doesn’t work out.

Now, back to my “guy” and his email. In his message, he tells me a story of a lost custom-made titanium wedding band. The company who made the band is no longer able to make them and his wife is upset that he is currently running around with no visible proof of being wed. Additionally, he has put in his request far and wide with no success. I’m not sure it’s a good thing that I work in customer service because it is really, really hard for me to say no. Especially when the wife is brought into the discussion. The ring in question is worth something more than just the metal and craftsmanship that went into making it. There are all the memories attached, starting from the first day of their marriage, the honeymoon, the hand-holdings, the pillow talks etc. Anyone who’s been married knows about the ring and all that it holds.

Per my instructions, he sends me a picture of his long lost, custom titanium ring and I can see right away, without consulting my bold craftsman, Jake, that making this ring will require some work (if not a miracle). But I can’t rule it out because: #1) I can’t say no. #2) I believe in miracles. And #3) The ring design is not completely impossible. And sure enough, when I consult do with Jake, he has to agree. We both have a hard time saying no, and making a custom design offers us an opportunity to step outside of the box, which is always exciting.

The design required hand pressing a platinum inlay into a Celtic knot pattern. After a practice run using silver, Jake felt confident he could manage the design using platinum. We were off and running! The entire project took some time as there were many details to attend to; sending out a sizing kit to our customer to confirm size, getting our machinist to cut the Celtic knot into a domed ring etc. In the end, I have to say, it was well worth it, and in the words of our dear craftsman Jake, “This ring was one of the most frustrating and at the same time satisfying rings I have ever made. I do love a challenge! It pleases me so much to work so hard on a project and to see it come to fruition so beautifully. I love to think of the person who will wear it and all that it will mean to them. It is why I do what I do."

And yes, our customer, and his wife, are extremely pleased!

2013 was a tough year! In our world of titanium rings, the year began with a change of ownership and in the midst of our celebration, my breast cancer diagnosis. Just as my partner, Jacob Hansard, and I were taking charge at the helm for Titanium Rings Studio, I was promptly plunked into cancer treatment hell. This was not the way to start the New Year!

However, we managed to take charge of a teetering business amidst a struggling economy while creating a new look and navigation for the web site. Hence our recent re-launch of the site with an updated new look that has been long overdue. It is a testament to our commitment and ability as a team to work together in the face of great challenges!

I have to say here that I have the best business partner ever, because while I was going through the life-changing experience of cancer treatment, Jake was completely supportive…ready to step in wherever I fell out. I can’t thank you enough Jake! I also discovered that being on the phone with customers was absolutely therapeutic for me. I couldn’t be feeling pitiful and still be effective for our customers, so I found myself stepping outside of my pain and self-pity in order to be there for our customers, and that kept me strong.

So, while there is never a shortage of work to be done both in the studio and on the web site, we are extremely grateful to have achieved such milestones in the face of extraordinary adversity. We invite you with warm hearts and proud faces to our website, Titanium Rings Studio and welcome any and all feedback. Jake and I have grown into our administrative roles, liberated from all confines, we are reveling in this newfound artistic freedom and ability to control every facet of our business. And I am now cancer free!

As you browse the site be sure to check out our variety of Men's Titanium Wedding Bands, Playful Promise Rings and Black Titanium Rings. Included here are Thin Blue Line Titanium Rings as well as Titanium Diamond Rings and so much more.

Jake and I are ready for 2014! We’re ready for a year of creative brainstorming and discovering what else can be done with titanium jewelry. Perhaps this is the year we can play with meteorite inlays! And I will get my hair back! We look forward to this being the year of great health and living life to the fullest and we want to do our part to make this true for you as well. Let’s celebrate!

But there's a problem with the "conflict-free" label - it doesn't actually guarantee anything. Advocacy groups and critics have pointed out the obvious loop-holes and flaws in the certification process. In practice, this means that murder, kidnapping, extortion, beatings, mutilation, slavery and rape continues as direct result of diamond mining, and those who seek to profit from it.

The Wall Street Journal reported from Angola on 6/19/2010, confirming that such abuses are still taking place. One of the loop-holes in the Kimberly Process is that abuses occurring in territories controlled by recognized governments don't count as blood diamonds. The WSJ reported that soldiers in Angola routinely shake down diamond miners for money, often resulting in deaths and beatings, while in Zimbabwe massacres and rapes have taken place at the hands of government soldiers taking control of diamond-rich sites. The people living nearby are then forced at gunpoint to become diamond miners - essentially slaves.

So while the Kimberly Process impeded the funding of rebel groups, it greatly increased the legitimacy of corrupt governments and dictatorships, allowing them more power to abuse their own people. Diamonds from these governments can have a "conflict-free" label slapped on them; meanwhile consumers are unaware of what people had to suffer to bring them those diamonds.

While most jewelers hope that the blood diamond problem disappears, one way or the other, even those with any sense of ethics can't afford to boycott the sale of diamonds. It's a tradition that is so entrenched in Western society that many jewelers would go out of business if they attempted it. Some jewelers, including TiRings.com, are offering alternatives like pre-configured (i.e. already crafted and ready to wear; doesn't need to be special ordered) white sapphire engagement rings, in the hope of shifting consumer habits away from diamonds as that is the only real solution. At least for now, while the problem is so significant.

Why white sapphire? It features a similar optical dispersion rate to diamonds and is rated 9 out of 10 on the Mohs scale of hardness (diamonds are 10 out of 10). The white sapphire must be high quality and have the right type of cut, but even then, it is barely a tenth of the price of an inferior diamond and only a trained gemologist could tell the difference. However, there are other alternatives, like synthetic diamonds and cubic zirconia. In this case, however, it's more about being able to look down at your hand and not be reminded of a child's parents being murdered by machete, as he is stolen away to become the next generation of diamond miners.

As the ages passed, the ancient peoples searched far and wide for a way to create the perfect symbol of love. Civilizations rose and fell; great empires ruled the world and then receded back to their origins. Religions were invented then replaced; gods created and then forgotten. Yet the power of symbols was never ignored, and the search never ceased. The people found mysterious metals in the earth, some rare and others common. They discovered how to forge these metals into newer, stronger, finer rings. For a while they were happy, but as it were, all their new rings eventually became decayed and broken by the passage of time and the adventures of life. The symbols were better, but they were still breaking; and so the search went on for thousands of years, for people everywhere in this world, to this day.

It sounds like a fairytale, and yet that's essentially the true history of rings - some say it started 4,800 years ago. It's a history that's still being written, because we're still trying out new metals and other materials year after year. Diamonds were discovered early in human history to be the hardest material, able to be cut only by another diamond (diamond is adapted from the Greek word adamis, meaning "unbreakable"). However, they are too small to be cut into a ring, so it became practice to put diamonds onto rings.

However, the ring itself; the symbol representing eternity; really needs to last for an eternity. But they say nothing is forever. Is there anything out there that can actually last forever?

As of very recent history, the search may be over. Titanium has properties that range from highly useful to downright bizarre. For example, while most metals will corrode away over time, titanium actually grows its own protective layer. While most think of titanium as a metal, it's actually an element and is found in many things, even organic matter like some plants. The growth rate of this protective layer is so slow that it's not perceptible to the human eye, but it thickens over a period of years which severely impedes any kind of degradation. Potentially, this protective behavior could go on indefinitely, making it invulnerable to any natural degradation at all.

If this is in fact the end of the search, then this is what it has come to: a ring that is strong, weightless, unbreakable, and beautiful. Just like true, eternal love.

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Check out these images of Frost rings to get an idea.

Frost is unique in that it can take the most punishment out of all the rings out there. It's mainly due to the textured finish, which is patterned in a way that makes scratches unnoticeable. As titanium is extremely scratch-resistant in the first place, a Frost ring virtually guarantees that it will be unaffected by even the most high-impact lifestyles. It's recommended for people who engage in activities like hiking, construction, contact sports, and so on.

How is Frost created? The Frost technique is a trade secret, and can only be achieved through handcrafting. Many rings you'll find come straight off an assembly line, but a Frost finish ring won't be one of them - so this makes it a recognizable indicator of quality. They're stunning to look at too; Frost rings sparkle in bright light, while in low light they are a subtle-yet-compelling sight to behold.

That said, titanium is not invulnerable, and can be affected is a number of ways. The most common issue is a titanium ring becoming dirty. In this event, simply use any household cleaning product, such as dish soap or window cleaner, rinse with water, and dry with a towel. Due to titanium's corrosion-resistance, you don't have to worry about ruining the facade with any household chemicals (in fact, only the most concentrated acids can affect it).

Titanium rings with high-polish finishes are more prone to scratches if a scrape or impact is severe enough. If this happens, you may have to have your titanium ring polished - fortunately, however, all the solutions are low-cost. Click here to have your titanium ring re-polished. You can also try a cream metal polish if the problem is not severe.

Be warned, however, that certain titanium ring types must be handled with caution. They are: anodized (colored) rings, inlayed (or two-tone) rings, and stone-set rings. In general, it is better to clean these with a half-ammonia (such as Windex), half-water solution and soak for several minutes. Air dry on a soft towel and repeat as necessary until clean. The need for caution with these ring types is not to protect the titanium, but the other metals, gems and oxide layers.

To give you an idea, here's a really neat tool which allows you to experiment with different designs from our website: interactive Stackable rings tool

(Just click and drag the rings from the left to the space on the right.)

The great thing about Stackables is that you leave your options open. Sometimes you want to wear just one thin, low-key ring. Other times, you want to match an outfit with various colors and prominent accessories. You can also sandwich your regular ring behind or between Stackables, allowing you to switch it to smaller fingers and still hold the ring in place. Stackables allow you to mix and match to suit your mood.

When you buy more than one you qualify for our 7% discount for ring sets. Check them out: Stackable Titanium Rings.

Best of all, it’s a place where you get to share your thoughts, and read the thoughts of everyone else involved: be they the customers who enjoy our rings, the artisans who design and make them, or the support crew who hold the ship together.

Here’s the link: http://www.facebook.com/tirings?ref=nf

Just click on the “Like” button at the top center of the page to add us to your list (you may have to log in, the box for that is in the top right corner).

To kick it off, one of the first things we’re announcing is our Discount Range of titanium rings (well, more like “re-announcing.” Long-time customers will be aware that we’ve featured the discount range for a little while, but kept it low-key until now).

Here’s the deal: TiRings was founded on the idea of offering the highest quality handmade titanium rings. But sometimes you want a titanium ring for, say, a small gift and don’t want to pay “highest quality handmade” prices, right? The Discount Titanium Rings Range is the answer to that. They’re high quality machine-made titanium rings, rather than handmade, and cost just a fraction of the price.

Here’s a link to one of the rings in the Discount Range to show you what we’re talking about: $89 Discount Cable Fortitude Ring.

Once again, click here to follow TiRings on Twitter.