Working with the sentimental
18th August 2017
Some pieces of jewellery may not have a lot of monetary value but to the owner have extreme sentimental value. Today we look at 3 such pieces, two pendants and a ring.
The sister`s pendant
This customer`s sister had passed away some time ago. He wore as a pendant one of her sterling silver earrings shown in this photo. If you look closely you can see that the connection to the pendant is made by wrapping around the shepherds hook fitting.
The original pendant/earring now lost.`
The pendant was lost along with the chain. To replace it he would need to find the original manufacturer or have someone custom make one. He could not do the former so came to me for the latter.
Using his hand as a scale reference and some comments I duplicated the pendant and replaced the chain. To achieve a dark staining to the metal I used Ruthenium rather than Liver of Sulphur which is more grey than black.
The replacement pendant and chain.
The Grandmother`s ring
To celebrate an upcoming 21st birthday I was asked to make a new ring out of an old one. This ring belonged to the young ladies late grandmother and the plan was to make a ring out of the white sapphires in it.
The late grandmother`s ring
The desired design was a very simple channel set white gold band. We looked at other options including adding more gems to the ring but this is what she wanted. The gems and who they once belonged to were all that mattered.
The desired design.
I often get to work on extremely expensive gems which these were not. However unlike some of those expensive gemstones, these can never be replaced.
When I unset these gems you can see that they have some chips from wear and also very sharp girdles. It would be a very nervous time setting these irreplaceable sapphires.
The unset gems in their life worn sate.
The chips I was able to hide during the setting into the channel. I also made the channel quite high to offer some protection to the gems. The ring was made in 9ct Palladium white gold.
The finished ring in 9ct Palladium white gold.
Mal`s pendant
The lost cross.
As long as I have known Mal he has always worn a diamond set gold cross. A few chains have come and gone if I recall correctly but the cross has always been the same.
Rounded and soft from the years of wear, sadly it has been lost and he missed it greatly. With an upcoming birthday I decided to make a replacement as a gift. This old photo was what we used as a guide.
After we had decided on a size that we thought was close to the original, I set about laying out the cross and modifying the diamond set area so that it fitted in a bit more cleanly. One thing I do remember about the old cross is that the diamond was not as nice as the one we set into the replacement.
Layout of the new cross.
The definition on the new cross will be a bit sharper but wearing that down will give you something to do Mal for the next 50 years :) Now we just have to decide if we are going to handmake a chain or order in a machine made.
