Jewelry Redesign Story #1: My Grandmother’s Jewelry

March 09, 2019

"custom jewelry"

Before and After Image

H.S. adored her grandmother and loved the collection of bracelets, necklaces and earrings her grandmother left to her. However, the jewelry was very old -- not to mention out of fashion. Giving the jewelry away was out of the question, but H.S. thought it was unfair to the memory of her grandmother to leave the pieces collecting dust in a drawer instead of showing off their considerable value to the world.

H.S. brought us the collection of jewelry and also had the idea to create a modern yet classic tassel pendant. But just the idea wasn’t enough and we still had lots of redesign to do!

Grandmother Jewelry Pile

Luckily, we had a wealth of materials including 14k white gold castings and chain with diamonds, green jade donut beads, pink star sapphires, and green jade beads.. H.S. was glad to know that she could get a piece that felt entirely new to her without having the price of the beads, stones, and chain gold included in the cost of her final piece.

Hand drawn sketch

We started out with hand-drawn sketches. It all starts out with pencil and paper! There’s nothing quite like a classic technique to get something just right. After H.S. chose between our three redesign proposals, we got to work on creating something refined and ready for 3D modeling, and finally, creating of castings and finally something shiny and new for H.S. to enjoy.

Gouache drawing

After a final gouache drawing of the piece, we did some 3D models, had the 3D printed into castings, and soon the pendant was ready to be put together and finalized.

3D print and castings

H.S. finally received her custom made pendant, after a difficult design and manufacturing process. H.S. loved the custom made piece and we love to see a happy customer wearing their new pieces