The history of eternity rings and bands goes back almost four thousand years. Ancient Egyptians are thought to be the first to make and wear eternity rings. Eternity rings are essentially a continuous circle of metal studded with stones either halfway or all the way around. Early eternity rings were meant to symbolize eternal life and love. The unending, unbroken circle of precious metal represents a never-ending circle of trust, or the circle of life. Eternity rings today symbolize an everlasting relationship of love and are commonly used for wedding or anniversary bands. Early eternity rings featured stones that went halfway around the shank of the ring. They also further set their meaning in stone when they were fashioned to look like a snake swallowing its own tail. This snake swallowing its tail eternity ring really helped solidify the meaning of the continuous circle as the eternal symbol of love and life. Eternity rings were originally made with the stones flush mounted. This is where the stones are actually embedded into the metal.

The flush setting makes for a very comfortable wear. If the stones are too large or protrude from the sides too far, then they can be uncomfortable between your fingers. Modern eternity rings are usually channel set for comfort and larger stones are avoided. Channel set refers to how the stones are encased by the metal only on the edges of the shank. This is not to be confused with claw set where the stones are raised above the shank and held on by prongs. Claw set is almost exclusively used for half eternity rings so that the prongs do not irritate the skin on the surrounding fingers. Modern advances in jewelry crafting have actually made full claw set eternity rings much more comfortable and popular. Channel and claw set eternity rings give a more brilliant shine to the stones used than the flush mount setting, but some still prefer the original embedded stone eternity rings. The meaning of an eternity ring traditionally is eternal love, but it is really open for individual interpretation.

They certainly make wonderful choices! Because these days an engagement ring is so much more than the simple diamond solitaire which became very popular in the latter part of the twentieth century, brides these days are demanding more unusual yet practical rings for their engagement bands. Eternity band engagement rings sit easily alongside a wedding band, which means that there is no need to cut pieces out of the wedding band itself to accommodate the gemstone of the engagement band. And the straight edges of the band ensure that the two rings will always sit closely together. Or if the full diamond eternity band is too ostentatious, for example, if a bride decides she wants something a little more special than just a plain band of precious metal for her wedding band, what better than a half eternity band wedding ring? In these eternity bands the diamonds are set so that they only cover the top third or half of the ring rather than the whole band, which is perfect to give a wedding band extra sparkle!

Ever since the ancient times, Eternity rings have been popular especially in the west. People have been switching rings for over four thousand years now because it is considered to be a sign of epochal friendship or relationship. Egypt culture and civilization holds a significant place in world history. The Egyptians were the very first people in the world to invent the art of making rings and wearing them as a piece off intricate jewelery. This piece of jewelery or a ring consisted of a continual band of metal which was embedded with precious stones and other kinds of semi-precious stones. Even in those days these rings were symbols of everlasting love and friendship. This practice continues even today as people still exchange eternity rings to show that they love and care!

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