Seven Heirloom Diamonds
& a Five-Ring Stack

Every now and then, someone comes through the door who feels a little like a kindred spirit. Cori had been following CMD on Instagram for some time when she and her partner made the drive from Connecticut to visit The CMD Shop & Design Studio in Asbury Park. They were looking for something nontraditional to mark their upcoming marriage, and from the minute Cori started trying things on, I knew this was going to be a fun one.

She was stylish, edgy and thoughtful, with a strong point of view but enough openness to let the design evolve. Cori originally imagined a mixed-shape stack, but once we started putting different combinations on her hand, the squares kept winning. There was something about the geometry that felt completely natural on her, so we followed it and eventually landed on a five-ring square stack with layers of silver, oxidized silver, yellow gold, rose gold and diamonds.

Then Cori told me about the seven diamonds that had belonged to her mother.

Building the Stack Around Her Mother’s Diamonds

Those stones changed the project from a beautiful custom stack into something much more personal. Cori wanted to incorporate the diamonds into the rings she would wear as part of this next chapter of her life, but she didn’t want the finished piece to feel overly traditional or like an imitation of the jewelry they had come from. She wanted the history without being limited by the original design.

Once we finalized her stack, Cori had the diamonds carefully removed from their existing jewelry by a local jeweler and sent to our Upstate New York studio. From there, we could begin placing them throughout the new design, treating each stone as part of a larger composition rather than simply recreating what had existed before.

That’s one of the things I love most about Reconstruction. The sentimental value stays intact, but everything around it can change. An heirloom doesn’t have to look like an heirloom in the traditional sense to continue carrying the people and stories that came before it.

Five Rings, Four Metals and Plenty of Personality

Cori’s finished stack combines five square bands, each doing something slightly different while still feeling like part of the same piece. From top to bottom, we created:

A matte sterling silver square Zodiac Ring, 2.5mm wide and set with twelve CMD diamonds.

A matte 14k yellow gold square Asbury Ring, 6mm wide, featuring a 3mm diamond along with six of Cori’s family diamonds scattered across three faces of the square band.

A 3mm wide oxidized sterling silver square ring, which gives the stack a dark line of contrast and a little extra edge.

A 1mm wide sterling silver square ring, acting almost like punctuation between the wider bands and giving the composition a little breathing room.

And finally, a matte 14k rose gold square Leo Ring, 4mm wide and set with the largest of her family diamonds front and center.

Individually, the rings are quite different. Together, the metals, widths, finishes and diamonds create a stack that feels intentional without becoming overly matched. It has structure, but it still has movement and personality, which is exactly what I wanted for Cori.

Giving Heirloom Jewelry a Completely Different Future

I think people sometimes assume that preserving the meaning of heirloom jewelry means preserving the original jewelry itself. Sometimes that absolutely is the right choice. Other times, the stones or metal hold the part of the story you care about most, while the design no longer has anything to do with the person you are today.

Cori’s stack is such a good example of what can happen when we separate those two things. Her mother’s diamonds are still there, but instead of living inside jewelry Cori might rarely wear, they’re now woven through a set that feels unmistakably like her. She gets the history, the sentiment and the connection, while also getting something bold enough to become part of her actual everyday life.

That balance is at the heart of so much of the Reconstruction work we do. I’m not interested in turning every old piece into something that looks “heirloom.” I want to understand what matters about it, what no longer works and what would make you genuinely excited to put those materials back on your body.

A Little West Coast Perspective

I originally shared Cori’s story while I was traveling out West, driving along the California coast and thinking about how much history can live inside places and objects. Northern California is where so much of CMD began for me, and returning there always reminds me how strange and beautiful it is to watch things evolve while still carrying pieces of where they started.

Maybe that’s part of why Reconstruction resonates so deeply with me. I don’t think honoring the past requires standing still. Sometimes the most loving thing we can do with what we’ve inherited is allow it to change with us.

Cori’s seven diamonds had already lived one chapter before they came to our studio. Now they get another one.

What Could We Make From Yours?

If you have family diamonds, old wedding jewelry or heirloom pieces that mean something to you but no longer feel like something you would actually wear, I’d love to see what we can make of them. Our Reconstruction process is built around looking carefully at what you already have, deciding what is worth carrying forward and designing something that makes sense for the life you’re living now.

You can begin with a complimentary consultation or book a full Reconstruction appointment with me, either virtually or in person in Asbury Park.

There are so many ways for an old diamond to keep telling its story.

xo,
Colleen

© Colleen Mauer Designs. All rights reserved.
Published: July 16, 2025
Updated: August 24, 2026