April 20th 2012

I spend as much time as it takes to get the design right before I make a piece of jewellery. In the case of this pendant and chain set we had very little time to start with but I did make the deadline......just.

Just before Easter Maureen asked me to quote on a pendant design. She intended to give the pendant as a present over the Easter long weekend. I knew we would be cutting it fine and it ended up being 8pm on the Thursday before Good Friday that the piece was ready.

Fortunately the design was very clear in Maureen`s head. The piece was to be a rectangular plate with a Celtic infinity knot symbol on the front and the family members names engraved on the back. So now all I really needed to do was confirm the size of the piece, the engraving and the chain style.

The first picture I created was to show the scale of the symbol in relation to the rest of the plate. Maureen chose number two. Next I made up a brass plate to the size that the she specified and engraved it with the names in a Celtic font to confirm the layout of the back.

The final step was to run through a catalogue of photos of chain designs to confirm the chain to be used. With an oval Belcher style chain selected I could now quote on the piece. Very quickly after the quote was accepted I set about getting the piece organised and pictured below is the finished pendant. The chain and plate are both made in 9ct yellow gold and the infinity knot in matte finished 9ct white gold.

For this pendant Maureen knew pretty much exactly what she wanted. Often that is not the case but even when it is the digital and physical drafts are vital in making sure that what I make is exactly what the customer has in mind. It takes a bit more time but the result is the ability of my customers to confidently customise a piece of jewellery to exactly how they want it and knowing the cost before committing to the purchase.