Jewelry Redesign Story #37: From Clutter to Glamour

THE REDESIGN CHALLENGE:

Joshi has been spending a lot of time at home over the Pandemic and was noticing the clutter of her old jewelry. So, like so many of us, Joshi undertook a Pandemic Project and went about cleaning out her jewelry drawer. To reward herself, she brought all of the pieces she no longer wore to us and asked us to help her to turn the many unused pieces into one pair of earrings that she knew she would love and wear time and time again. 

Joshi, who has worked with us before, is aware that her style is very contemporary and modern-chic. Joshi was also focused on creating a jewelry piece that would work well in her online-based working lifestyle that began during the Pandemic -- something both small and comfortable, but also something that would really wow within the frame of a video chat window. 

Joshi chose to create large disk-shaped stud earrings -- ones that would make a splash visually but would still be comfortable to wear at home. 

THE REDESIGN PROCESS:

Initial Sketches 

For the design we decided on a hammered-disk stud earring and offered Joshi a couple of different design options and graphics like this imbalance arc or an asymmetrical chevron. 

It was important to craft a diamond design that would actually work with the collection of diamonds that Joshi had brought to us from her original collection of jewelry. After putting together the design puzzle, Joshi agreed that the asymmetrical chevron design was the best match between her graphics of choice and what worked best with the gems that she brought to us from her original jewelry collection. 

Once we had this much of the design down, we doubled down on the details, like how shiny the finish would be, how exaggerated the chevron would be, and how pronounced the hammered texture on the earring would be. 

It took us a few rounds of designs to get it right, but after a few backs and forths we found the perfect levels of pattern, shine, texture, and diamond setting. 

Rhino modeling

Rhino modeling was especially important in this design. We wanted to make sure that we could set all of Joshi’s previous jewelry’s diamonds into the new earrings.

The casting

Casting was also a particularly important step in this piece, as we had to be certain that there was thicker metal near the diamonds so they would be able to set and so that we would have some thickness to hammer out for the design’s texture.

THE REDESIGN REVEAL:   

The finished jewelry

Joshi was so pleased with the final jewelry.

“I’m wearing them now and they’re so beautiful,” Joshi said when we reached out to her after delivering the earrings. “It’s always a pleasure working with you.”

Thanks Joshi for being a part of designing some beautiful jewelry with us once again!

The finished jewelry on customer

Materials: 18k yellow gold earrings with round diamond in a flush setting

Manufacturing Level: Medium

Design Level: Medium

Looking to de-clutter and re-glitter? Get started here.