Why We Gift Jewellery When We Love Someone
Why is giving one of the oldest ways to express love? A reflection on words, gestures and the objects that help us give form to what we feel.
Words often reveal more about our lives than we realise. When we slow down and listen to them, they show us how human beings have learned to care, to connect, and to give shape to what cannot be seen. Valentine’s Day, at its core, is not about objects or rituals, it's about how we make love visible.
Giving makes love visible
From an etymological point of view, a present is something placed before someone (praesentare). A gift is something offered freely (giefan). Originally, neither word referred to value, luxury, or the object itself, they referred to the act.
Love, by contrast, is invisible. It can be felt deeply, but it cannot be seen unless it is expressed. Across cultures and throughout history, people have searched for ways to give form to love, to make it understandable and shareable. Giving something is one of the most immediate ways to say: I thought of you, I chose you, I acted for you!
This is why words matter. Linguistically, a gift is not about possession, but about intention and presence. The word love has never been limited to emotion alone. In language and in life, love implies attachment, care, and responsibility. To love someone is not just about feeling; it’s about staying to take action and making choices. Giving becomes one of the simplest ways to transform feeling into gesture.
Gold, time and Legacy
Across time and cultures, love has often found expression through objects designed to last. Gold, for example, has always carried meaning beyond beauty or rarity, it does not rust, it does not fade, it resists time. Long before it symbolised wealth, it symbolised permanence. When gold is given as a gift, it quietly says: this feeling is not temporary. It reflects the kind of love we hope for: steady, resilient, able to endure.
When a gift is made of gold, language, material, and emotion align: the act of giving, the feeling of love, the desire for continuity. Everything speaks the same truth, without needing words.
Giving to ourselves
Love doesn't follow only one direction, sometimes, we choose to give a gift to ourselves. This too is love. Marking an achievement, honouring a journey, recognising what we have built is a way of saying: I see you, I value who you are and what you have lived. It is not excess, it is care. A reminder that intention and presence matter inwardly as well.
In this sense, being your own Valentine is deeply human. It means recognising your worth with the same tenderness you offer to others.
Perhaps this is why we give when we love: not because objects replace feelings, but because they help us express them. Because love wants to be seen. Because intention seeks form. Because giving is how we say you matter to others, and to ourselves.
And sometimes, a small object can hold a very big meaning.
This is the spirit of handmade jewellery: creations born of time, care, and intention, designed to carry meaning far beyond the moment they are given.
