Jewelry is not unpractical, it's like an insurance for bad times. When shit hits the fan you still have your jewelry to sell.
I've been tempted to try making them at home since about 2007, but for some reason all the different people I've lived with since then have objected to me running a lightly modified microwave oven continuously for a month at a time, with a few holes in the heating cavity so I can install an inverted pyrex bowl and pipes to connect it to a low-pressure methane supply system…
They want them because they are pretty and because – like it or not – it’s what society has taught them to expect.
You'll get the value of the gold in the ring but not much for the gemstone.