Jack Vulcani of Colorado spent months panning for gold flecks in rivers to craft his girlfriend’s engagement ring himself. She cried when she saw the video.
There is no fixed rule on how much an engagement ring should cost. While some follow the traditional two months’ salary guideline popularised by jewellery advertising campaigns, most people choose a ring that suits their budget and financial situation. One American, however, chose not to buy a ring at all.
Jack Vulcani of Wheat Ridge, Colorado, decided to make one himself by collecting gold flecks through gold panning in rivers across the state.
According to 9News, when Vulcani began thinking about proposing to his girlfriend, Joanne, he came up with an ambitious plan: to pan for gold and collect enough of the precious metal to craft the ring himself.
He took his collected gold to a Wheat Ridge jeweller, who had never attempted such a cast
“I just sat down, thought about it really long and hard, and eventually a thought just kind of popped in my head: what if I were to make the ring myself? And I just thought, you know, perfect,” he told the outlet.
He began collecting tiny pieces of gold, one fleck at a time. “I was like, this is going to take forever, and for some reason that got me going, you know?” he joked.
It took months before he had enough gold to take the next step. He brought his collection to Wheat Ridge jeweller Zak Allen and asked whether it could be cast into a ring.
Zak was excited by the unusual request. “I initially got excited just because it’s like, well, that’s a new thing!” he said. The project was a first for him too; while he believed it could be done, he had never tried it before.
After finding a mould and melting the gold, Zak poured it into shape. For Jack, seeing the ring come together was a moment worth the months of work. “To spray it off and see it go great was absolutely amazing, and definitely exciting,” he said.
He managed to keep it all a secret from Joanne. Once the ring was finished, he took her hiking and played a video on his phone showing his time by the river. At first she did not understand why he was showing her footage of himself by the river, until she realised what she was watching.
“I’m just watching this video of him gold-panning, and I’m like, this is cute, but I don’t know why we’re doing this right now,” she said. “And then halfway through the video I realised, oh, this is the process of you making the ring, and I just started crying. I blacked out a little bit, but it was a really special moment.”
Jack knows his proposal might set a high bar for anyone planning their own. “I just wanted to make her day, not crush anybody else’s dreams,” he said.