Making a custom pendant
1st July 2025 - Customer location: Cairns
The desired font for the initial pendant.
I thought today we would run through the process together of making a custom pendant. The design will use the first name letters of the customers 2 children. The customer had already found a font she liked and I would use this as the starting point.
Showing the customer how the pendant will look when on her exisiting chain.
I have cropped in on this image for privacy reasons, but a much larger version of the above image was used to create the design to the style and size she desired and also to match her existing chain.
Refining the width of the bail.
It was decided to go with the narrower bail on the right and to also fix it to the circular frame to reduce wear. The frame was a key feature to avoid the letters catching during wear which was occurring during wear of an existing pendant.
The pendant was created in 3 pieces.
With the design confirmed I was now ready to make the pendant. This particular item was made in 3 pieces that would be joined together. The bail and frame were made of strips of metal rolled and filed to shape. The initials were cut out of a flat plate of gold.
The pieces soldered together.
Prior to soldering the pendant into one piece all the internal sides are polished. The final task after assembly is to re-polish those internal sides and then polish the rest of the pendant.
Delivery time….all done.
I never got a chance to take photos of the pendant in the light box so snapped this with my phone before the customer picked it up. I placed the pendant on a short piece of 22ct gold plated display chain for boxing as the customer was still wearing her 9ct gold chain.
The colour difference of the display chain to the 9ct gold in the above photo reminds me of a trick of the trade that I really do not like and do not do. You can can read more about that here if you are interested.