Jewelry Redesign Story #36: Her Perfect Custom Cross Pendant

THE REDESIGN CHALLENGE:

Soojung came to us with a custom design request: a diamond-set cross pendant. We’ve never made a cross pendant before so we were excited to work with Soojung to create a piece that she would love and that fit in with her personal style. 

Cross necklaces have been popular, some say, since the Black Plague, when they were thought to protect the wearers from evil, especially in the form of the illness that was then  confronting Europe. In today’s time, a cross pendant is a perfect balance for a spiritual connection to health, protection, and wellness amidst the current pandemic as well as a fashionable nouveau gothic accessory (thank you Cruel Intentions!). 

As a fan of modern designs with classic sensibilities, Soojung was excited for us to custom design the perfect cross pendant for her. 

THE REDESIGN PROCESS:

 Initial Sketches 

When designing a classic piece, it is important to keep things fairly simple in terms of design. Because Soojung requested a classic design that included modern elements we created sketches ranging from very sleek and simple to those with some more decorative diamond clusters for a slightly more gothic and maximal statement. 

Soojung chose the first sketch, one that offered a balance between the more complex and simple design elements of the pendant. 

Rhino modeling

Once Soojung chose the design we created our 3D CAD rendering. This piece had a lot of specifics that were especially important to our rendering because of the variety of diamonds, how many diamonds there were, and the different ways we needed to create the prongs to support the different diamond clusters. 

The casting

The casting that we created from the 3D CAD was essential to have the same physical body that the finished piece of jewelry would have so that each individual diamond would not only fit into their prongs but would come together to create a holistic piece of jewelry. 

THE REDESIGN REVEAL:   

The finished jewelry

We loved the way that this cross pendant turned out and so did Soojung. This was our very first cross pendant and, although we had a complex design and manufacturing process, we loved being a part of the story of this piece of jewelry. It’s our favorite cross pendant we’ve made yet and we look forward to many more.

New Jewelry on the Customer

Materials: Platinum with diamonds in prong setting

Manufacturing Level: Difficult

Design Level: Moderate

Interested in your own custom cross pendant? Get started here.