New Jewellery From Old

I often get enquiries about creating new jewellery from old jewellery, recycling stones or metal from family heirlooms or a piece of jewellery that is old fashioned but has a lot of sentimental value. Rather than leave jewellery languishing in the back of a jewellery box why not have it remodelled into a contemporary design, bringing the elements you love back to life and creating a contemporary heirloom to pass on that reflects your style and taste.

I can easily take apart unwanted designs to free the beautiful stones to be used in a new design. Alternatively, you may just want to reuse lots of gold scrap and have it melted down into a fresh piece. I frequently undertake commissions from clients to do both these forms of recycling and they result in really fresh designs. What is especially lovely is the sentimental value that is attached to the original elements remains but in a new piece of jewellery you will want to wear. Designing around stones is particularly exciting, especially when they are unusual cuts such as the round and triangular facetted cushion cut amethysts shown in this project.

This shows the three amethysts within a fine inner gold setting which I cut out of the outer rim. The yellow gold collet set around the stones was holding them together and this in turn had been soldered inside two slim bands of gold to form a tapered dress ring

This ring was brought to me with the wish to rework the amethysts into a new and substantial pinkie ring design. I suggested making the setting in rose gold with a softly beaten finish; the rose gold would warm the amethysts and the beaten finish would soften the bold ring style. I cut the amethysts from the original gold setting and worked with the idea that I would reset the stones in the same layout but within a more heavyweight setting.

Working out the width of the setting on the wax model

Although there is a lot more gold around the stones it does not overwhelm them or diminish them but actually enhances the curved cuts of the stones. I carved a few variations of this design before settling on casting the one shown below. After polishing I hand-hammered the metal and finally the stones were set. This ring looks lovely on my client who wears a lot of modern diamond and white gold rings so it’s a real blast of colour against such cool contrasting rings

The final wax model which I designed and hand carved based around the loose amethysts. As you can see a lot more gold was used in this design to create a more opulent design to set off the beauty of the stones

“Using ‘old’ gold Tawny created a unique new ring for me, that compliments my existing ring. She was a pleasure to work with and due to my not living in the UK she was extremely accommodating and made it easier for us to meet up when I was in London. She listened to my thoughts but also added valuable insight when in the design stage”

– Ruth

One finished ring – one happy client

If you have inherited or been given old fashioned jewellery that contains precious stones that you’d like me to redesign into a contemporary ring or piece of jewellery please drop me a line at bespoke@tawnyphillips.com and bring the stones with you to an appointment at my studio in Bermondsey

bespoke@tawnyphillips.com
07814 677589