Happy New Year!

My last job for 2011 was a pearl ring and I thought the process of its creation would be a good example to share with you on the site.

At my first meeting with the customer I was shown her pearl and asked to put together some suggestions for designs. At this early stage in the process it is important for me to get some idea of the customers preferences for jewellery styles.

I gathered up a group of images from which the customer selected two that she liked. The band from one photo and the diamonds around the pearl from another stood out to her as features that she liked. I now created a graphic to show her what the pearl would look like in a design using both features.

Once the photo was created I then needed to change the band to reflect the customers preference for all white gold and wider at the base.

In the photos I used to create this design the pearls shown were all round. My customers pearl was a slightly off round button shape and that is not reflected in the photos. I could have edited up the photos to reflect this but the customer did not require it. The flattened/button shape of the pearl was one of the things that she particularly liked about it. She disliked how high many of the pearl rings she had seen sat off the finger. It would be my job to set the pearl as low as possible and to also hide the slightly off round shape of the pearl.

With the design approved I was now able to accurately quote on the ring. The quote was approved but if it had not been it at this stage of the process that I can make changes to the design to match a budget if required. I can then alter the images to reflect those changes. If I am unable to come up with a design in my customers budget range that they are happy with then we either put the job on hold or cancel it.

Getting back to this ring, the customer approved the quote and paid a 20% deposit. It was now my job to turn that digital image into a real piece of jewellery. The finished ring pictured below was created in 18ct palladium white gold and used a total of 52 round brilliant cut diamonds.

As time races towards Christmas I am busily finishing the last couple of pieces of jewellery for 2011, pictures of which I will share with you all in the new year.

The last month of 2011 has been extremely busy with pieces of jewellery for weddings, engagements and presents, many of which have been in the planning for some months. To those customers that I was unable to see prior to Christmas due to being heavily booked I thank you for your understanding and look forward to meeting with you when I return to work in 2012.

To all of my customers I thank you for your support in 2011 and look forward to catching up with you in 2012. Yumi and I wish you all a merry and safe Christmas.

regards,

David & Yumi Taylor

Recently a customer came to me with an engagement ring she had purchased elsewhere. When purchasing the ring she had selected a diamond and then a design she wanted it set into.

This is where everything went wrong. The picture of the design she liked displayed a different size diamond to hers and the jeweller who was making the ring also changed the size of some of the other diamonds to be used in the ring.

With these variations in diamond size the finished ring looked nothing like the design she wanted and she did not like it. The height of the ring was also far to high for the customers tastes. Six months later and she was asking me to remake the ring.

The chain pictured here is a belcher style with a large Euro bolt ring as the feature. I handmade it after a customer asked me to supply a variation on a design she had seen. The link and euro bolt ring sizes were custom made to her requests as were the chain ends that connect to the catch. The design was finalised using computer graphics and silver drafts. It was made in 9ct yellow gold and weighs 40 grams.

Making this chain prompted me to write a post about how to make an informed purchase when you buy chains.

Generally there are three categories that chains fall into:

• hand made
• common machine made
• speciality machine made

Most of the chains available in the retail market fall into the common machine made category. You can view a selection of some of the most common styles in the chain section of this website. These chains are bought and sold within the trade by a price per gram which fluctuates daily with the price of gold.