“Just make me something pretty.”
The elderly lady was one of my spunkiest customers to date. Her eyes sparkled with dry wit, and her touch on my hand was kindly.
“What kind of pretty?” I asked, laughing, “Swirly pretty? Floral pretty?”
She shrugged and grinned at me,
“You’ll do fine. I know I’ll love it.”
Rarely do clients put their complete faith in my design capability. Most people have an idea, a thought or a stone for a basis, or at least a size reference. I appreciated her confidence in me, but felt completely at sea at to where to start.
A few days later she stopped in and dropped off four earrings. Four lost mate earrings- three diamonds of varying size and one dark sapphire.
“Can you use these in it?” She asked, “And use the same stone as you did in that ring you made me.”
Now I had something to go on! We had completed a swirly aquamarine ring for her late last fall, and I could now make a matching pendant. We soaked the ear posts overnight in the ultrasonic cleaner, melted the tiny amount of gold down, and measured the stones for setting size. Toni found a pear shaped aquamarine that would match the previous stone, and I fished some round wax rod out of my extruded stock: 14, 16 and 18 gauge.
A few hours later, some twisting, rolling, and bending later, and we had a wax ready to cast. Within a week, the metal was poured, the pendant (along with a dozen other custom pieces) was filed and polished and ground down and ready to set. Emily laid out the stones in front of her, selected the proper cutting burs, and worked her magic.
It did turn our pretty, and it matched the ring very well. Our customer loved it, and was happy to make use of some mismatched earrings that had lain in the jewelry box for years.
What kinds of things do you have sitting around at home that you’d like to use? A lost diamond earring that would make the perfect pendant? A broken gold chain that has enough metal for a thumb ring? Your grandfather’s garnet cufflinks that just might be the perfect earrings?
Send us photos of your stuff and your ideas, and see what we can make a reality! If you happen to be in the Northern Michigan area someday, stop by the store and have a chat, look around… get inspired!
