July 21st 2012

I enable people to make informed choices with their jewellery that they cannot make when they buy jewellery from the large chains.

With 30 years of experience in designing and making jewellery I am able to provide information to my customers that enables them to make important decisions about their new piece of jewellery.

With engagement rings it might be the ability for a customer to learn about what determines the value of a diamond and to then make a choice. With a wedding ring it might be the ability to select a width of 6.2ml instead of a standard 6ml. The options are endless.

Then there is the ultimate custom made piece of jewellery. Designed by the customer and so unique that the only way they can obtain it is to have it custom made.

Today I want to share with you a pair of pendants that Alicia commissioned to celebrate the 30th birthday of herself and her twin sister. Alicia came to me with the following sketch, and a pair of both yellow sapphires and diamonds that had sentimental value to her family.

Before I could give Alicia a quote I needed to address two issues with the design she provided:

• the overall size she wanted the pendant to be
• the correct scaling of the gemstones to the rest of the pendant

For the size Alicia thought she wanted she had drawn the sapphires too small in proportion to the rest of the pendant in the sketch. I quickly traced out the design on a silver plate and she was then able to see how large the pendant would be if scaled to her sketch. The decision was then made to reduce the size of the pendant to that of a 5 cent coin and I proceeded to make a more detailed silver draft.

From this rough draft above I would be able to finalise the rest of the design and was now able to provide a quote. With the quote accepted we looked at the type of bail to be used on the top of the pendant. I digitally edited up some options and Alicia made a choice.

From here various colour choices for golds were made as well as the style of setting for the yellow sapphire. Next I created a draft of the engraving for the back of the pendant.

Now the final stage was to address the filigree for the side of the pendant and once again a silver draft was made for Alicia to approve before making the pendant.

So with all that done both pendants were ready to be made. One final design feature that Alicia decided on was to have the letter matte finished and the yin/yang polished on her sister`s and to reverse the finishes for her pendant.