A charming remodelled necklace
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Time to read 2 min
Remodelling those old, sentimental pieces, one of our favourite things we do here at Thorpe and Brown.
Remodelling appointments, one of our favourite parts of our job here at Thorpe and Brown. We all have those pieces lying around, loved and unworn sitting in our jewellery boxes, or perhaps an heirloom piece and a bit out of date? Our lovely customer had just that, pieces she no longer wore but remained sentimental, and pieces she wanted to use in a more meaningful way. The design concept from our customer was a charm necklace using her existing chain and salvaging all of the stones from the various pieces she had collected over the years. So we listened to our customers design ideas and added in our expertise when needed and we decided on a charm necklace with the preloved stones being set into some new hand made charms being stars and moons.
Our customers pre loved gold jewellery pieces brought into the initial remodelling appointment. Thorpe & Brown Ltd
So we set out on the remodelling journey and ensured the customer was kept in the loop at every stage of the process, from consultation to design ideas and visuals all the way through to the collection. This guarantees the customers design ideas are being met and that they feel apart of the process with remodelling something so unique to them. After the consultation the remodelling process usually invoices three stages as summarised below;
Stage 1. Metal meltdown. All of the agreed items are melted down together into one strip of metal.
Stage 2. Forging. The metal is then rolled and forged into the desired shape taking into account the dimensions and widths needed for the new pieces. Stone setting and mounting are also part of this stage to achieve the final design ideas.
Stage 3. Final cleaning and polishing. Once we are all happy with the forged pieces they ready for the final clean and polish.
Before the meltdown took place, Lily our Goldsmith drew up some visuals for our customer to view before we went ahead with the work. This allows the customer to provide feedback if the intended work looks to match what we have discussed and their personal design ideas. Once approval was given Lily proceeded to gently remove all of the customers stones and continue to meltdown the remaining gold. She then rolled out the newly forged metal into a flat sheet so she was then able to hand carve the new charms out. She used her skills to measure out the sizes that would best compliment the stones and the chain also provided by the customer.
The charms were now ready for the customers stones to be reset. A lovely way to incorporate the old into the new and to bring a new unique look to her existing pieces.
The stones were set and then jump rings were soldered on the the top of the pendants so we could attach them on to the chain equally spaced apart. Everything was now ready for its final cleaning and polishing to really bring out the luster of the metal and the gemstones.
The four pendants hand made by our Goldsmith from the melted down gold items. Thorpe and Brown Ltd
A charm necklace using the customers existing stones and melted down gold was the memo, pieces of jewellery that had sentimental value to our customer who entrusted us to create something unique that she could continue to wear, enjoy and cherish for many years to come.
Thorpe and Brown Ltd
Thorpe and Brown Ltd
Our team of goldsmiths, designers and setters are here to guide you through this remodelling process with any of the items you may have in your jewellery box waiting to be reimagined into new commissioned pieces of beloved jewellery. Please do reach out to us below if you have any remodelling ideas or questions or you'd like to visit us in our Burbage workshop.
