Handmade gold stud earrings

As you’re probably aware I mostly make bespoke jewellery, but I also handmake a limited number of ready to wear pieces to stock the webshop - and nowhere else! So I thought I give you an insight into how some of the pieces are made starting with these little concave yellow gold earrings. Why start here? Because I took a few photos the other day and I like the look of them!

Gold discs in doming block with punches and hammer

These simple little stud earrings start with some pre-cut discs that I ordered specially for the piece. I could stamp them from sheet, but this way there’s less waste and with precious metal, waste is the enemy. I pop each disc in the doming block and punch them twice to get the desired curve - just concave enough.

Domed gold discs

Then I mark the centre of the disc and drill a little recess to receive the earring posts which I make by drawing down 1mm wire. Each wire is cut to about 12mm and the end rounded so that it keys neatly into the recess. A dab of solder, a little heat and the earrings start to line up like soldiers ready to pickle.

Concave gold discs and posts

Next up I check the seams then pull and twist the posts taut. This serves the purpose of both hardening the metal and creating nice straight posts.

Gold disc earrings in the making

I cut the gnarly ends off and round the end of the posts, then clean them with some fine emery and mark where I’d like the assay mark to go on the stem. I used punch these guys, but since lasering has become an option I go that route instead.

Gold domed disc earrings ready for assay

When they come back from their little trip to Dublin castle a few days later I’ll polish each one on the motor then create two grooves on the post for added security and fit their gold scrolls.

Handcrafted gold dome earrings

So that’s it… the journey from little gold disc to handcrafted concave gold earring. You can find these simple little stud earrings in the webshop and as ever if you’d like a variation on the theme just drop me a line at evadorney@gmail.com

Platinum wedding bands on the double

Platinum solitaire engagement ring

I recently got an email from George who was looking for an engagement ring for his fiancée and had spotted a diamond one on my website. Over the course of a month we emailed back and forth and eventually George decided that he would indeed choose this engagement ring based on our conversations and a single image displayed online - new images are on the to do list. Decision made I sized the ring and sent it off to Wexford with my best wishes. The next evening George took a bemused Kate out in the lashings of rain and proposed for a second time with ring in hand.

So far so straight forward.

The following day I received a call from George saying how happy both he and Kate were with the engagement ring and could they please get wedding bands for their wedding next week! Now either he was the coolest customer I’d ever encountered or there was more to this than met the eye.

Bespoke platinum wedding bands in the works

Well the story is that George proposed to Kate back in March before having to return to New Zealand at a moment’s notice. He then couldn’t return to Ireland for a further five and a half months! Yes, newly engaged and separated by continents. When he finally made it back to Ireland he and Kate were promptly called for a pre-marriage interview and having aced that were given a wedding date just a week away! Both amazing news and a little daunting I think you’ll agree.

So here they are. The platinum rings that were ordered on Wednesday, made on Thursday, assayed on Friday, finished on Monday, posted on Tuesday and delivered a week to the day later. Not my usual lead time, but who doesn’t like a challenge and a good yarn?

To George and Kate! Wishing you every happiness together.

His and hers platinum bands in wooden presentation box

Sapphire and diamond circle pendants

Following on from my last post I thought I’d show you how the circle pendants come to be. Truly it is a collaborative process, with client input vital to the finished design.

It’s not unusual for me to have a number of projects on the go at a given moment and so some pieces and people are linked in my mind though they may have never met. This is true of Sue and Gillian and their two recycled yellow gold circle pendants.

Below you can see a variety of possible configurations from which Sue chose her elegant diamond circle pendant. You may even notice that I had more diamonds than made it to the final design, but Sue was also having a bunch of stacking rings made, so I preset the lot in yellow gold tube and had a play to see what might go where. The winner was this simple five stone graduating style with a little asymmetry thrown in for good measure.

Recycled yellow gold and diamond circle pendant

Meanwhile in the blue corner Gillian had three sapphires given to her by her mum which she wanted to include within the circular form. The three stone combinations weren’t quite doing it for her so we added some empty gold tube to the mix to create a more dynamic piece. As you can see the finished arrangement plays with different size empty spaces offset by that beautiful sapphire blue.

Recycled yellow gold and blue sapphire circle pendant

I couldn’t resist including a picture of the reverse of this pendant which I find almost as pleasing as the front.

If you've a project you'd like to discuss why not give me a bell on 0877956321 or email me at evadorney@gmail.com

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Circle pendants

Over the last number of years my little circle pendant has proved popular time and time again. It seems I always have one of these little guys on the go. Whether made from new material or grandma’s wedding ring the simple circular form is hard to beat. It lends itself to a single stone or multiple stones depending on what you have in mind and can be as simple or as spangly as you like. It also can range in size from a €1 coin to a Digestive biscuit, well maybe a Jaffa cake - not too many rappers knocking round the Arbour.

I thought it would be nice to create a gallery dedicated to this versatile little pendant so below are a number of circle pendants that I’ve made in the past and will keep adding to in future - one on the go even now.

If you have your own project you’d like to discuss whether that’s using old gold or stones you have yourself or creating something new from brand new materials and stones feel free to get in touch by phone on 0877956321 or email evadorney@gmail.com

A gold spoon for a golden boy

When my nephew was born, nearly ten years ago, I decided to make him a silver spoon. It was to mimic the shape of his favourite plastic spoon with a narrow bowl for his little mouth and a wide softly rounded handle for his pudgy little hands to grip. I cut the outline from 3 or maybe even 3.5mm sheet silver and created a wooden form on which to shape this soon to be prized posession - both functional and wonderous, I imagined. Weeks turned to months and months to years and to my shame the silver spoon is still unfinished, waiting to be dusted down, trued up and given to the next, next-generation.

So when I was asked to make a gold spoon for another 1 year old I couldn’t resist the chance to redeem myself and make baby a baby spoon. Using recycled metal for such a large object was always going to be a challenge, but happily the gold melted well and reworked a dream. The following are pics of the making, his mum’s own silver spoon given to her as a child and the finished gold spoon.

In truth it’s no baby spoon at all, rather an heirloom to be passed on for generations - assuming baby doesn’t take a notion to recycle it that is!

If you have a project you’d like to discuss (it really needn’t be on this scale) why not give me a bell on 0877956321 or email me at evadorney@gmail.com

Bimetal gents band

Recycled gold and platinum ring - brushed finish

Continuing on the theme of using old gold in a new ring this next post is a handsome band I made at Christmas for my friend's son's twenty first - lucky chap!

It consists of a wide gold band that was made up of his mum and dad's wedding rings and a smidge of gold from his grandad's identity bracelet and a further finer band made in platinum.  Both bands were assayed independently before being soldered together and the result is a very smart, matte finished, two-tone ring in 9ct yellow gold and platinum that marries old and new.

If you've a project you'd like to discuss why not give me a bell on 0877956321 or email me at evadorney@gmail.com

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Remelting the old gold and turning up the new platinum band

Two-tone platinum and yellow gold ring

Hidden inner wedding ring

It's been an age since I blogged, but as I was updating images on the site I spotted this little ring which I think is worth talking about because it solves a problem faced by a lot of people - that of having a yellow gold piece of sentimental value, but wearing only white metal.

In this instance a yellow gold ring had been handed down through the family and my customer wanted to come up with a wedding ring design that incorporated this family ring, but still matched her platinum engagement ring. We talked through a few options, but opted to create a fine platinum band within which the yellow gold band sits. For all intents and purposes the wedding ring looks like a perfect match for the platinum of the engagement ring, but within it is hiding a secret yellow gold ring, original assay marks and all.

If you've a project you'd like to discuss why not give me a bell on 0877956321 or email me at evadorney@gmail.com

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Remodelled emerald cut emerald dress ring

Jessica and I met at a fair and she subsequently dropped me a line to see about remodelling a "little" antique emerald ring that had belonged to her grandmother. When we met up the emerald was scratched and chipped from years of continuous wear so the first thing I suggested before we settled on any design was to send the stone off for repolishing to see just what we were dealing with.

Original 18ct and platinum ring with chipped and scratched emerald

My hunch was right and what we received back was a truly stunning emerald cut emerald with great life and sparkle as well as a really beautiful colour. Seeing this newly transformed stone Jessica didn't want to stray too far from the original design, however it was important to her to get rid of the gappiness between the accent diamonds and to create a refined, low mount.

I did up some drawings of what we'd discussed and took them to be transferred on to a CAD file. Renders were exchanged and with a little tweaking the design was completed and ready to be cut directly from wax. This model was then cast in 18ct white gold, assayed and cleaned up in readiness for setting.

Above are CAD renders and pics of the actual 18ct casting before it's cleaned back

The finished emerald ring is similar to the original, but with a weightier shank more suited to a modern lifestyle and that gappiness I mentioned has been banished by employing shared claw settings on the shoulders. The shank is broader and heavier at the back where it will receive most wear, but tapers elegantly towards the setting creating a refined look and the once jaded emerald has been repolished and reinvigorated making this little stone the belle of the dress ring ball.

18ct white gold emerald and diamond ring

If you have project you'd like to discuss please feel free to drop me a line at evadorney@gmail.com or give me a tinkle on 0877956321.

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Natural ruby engagement ring from recycled gold

I have been very remiss in my posts here lately, but rather than start from where I left off I intend to jump forward in time and tell you about a recent engagement ring remodel that is now adorning one happily engaged finger.

Nuala and Caolan approached me before Christmas to see whether I could take some of their old gold and turn it into their wedding rings and also source them a ruby for Nuala's engagement ring. Happily they were in no rush so I suggested I would source the stone in Germany while at the Inhorgenta trade fair in February - the selection of stones there is second to none and as it was important to them that the stone be ethically sourced this allowed for a more vigorous questioning of suppliers!

Initially I was tasked with finding a deep red ruby similar in size and shape to that of my own emerald cut diamond engagement ring, however finding said stone proved more difficult than imagined and so we widened the search to include larger oval rubies too! There was a bit of toing and froing before we settled on a real beauty from Tanzania weighing in at a hefty 1.82cts.

A spot of wax carving

The change in shape and size of stone meant a slight rejig of the overall ring design making it curvy rather than angular and indeed quite a bit heavier than originally anticipated. When I got back to the workshop I set about melting enough metal to make the ring and started to forge out the shape using the rolling mills.

However, as is sometimes the case with remelted metal, the resulting nugget was incredibly hard and unbending so having enlisted Dave's help in a vain attempt to bend it I had no choice but to reconsider how it would be made and start carving a wax model from which to cast the ring instead.

The trick to creating a symmetrical design in wax is to lay out guidelines before removing any wax and thereafter to reestablish the guidelines as you go. Wax is much faster to work than metal so it is very easy to go too far and remove too much material, but I'd recommend giving it a whirl if you're at all crafty.

Ruby solitaire engagement ring

The blue wax master was then sprued before undergoing a lost wax casting process during which the old gold was melted and poured into the ring shaped cavity left by burning out the wax. It's always necessary to use more metal than required and you can see a big nugget of additional metal on the side of the ring which has since become a matching wedding band.

There followed a spot of assaying, sprue removal, emerying and polishing before the ruby was ultimately set across the finger to create a lovely contemporary ruby engagement ring.

If you have a project you'd like to explore please feel free to drop me a line here or pick up the phone and give me a bell on 0877956321.

Recycled gold cufflinks with diamonds

Before I go any further I must admit to loving these cufflinks! They are so simple and clean and right up my street so thank you Cecily for commissioning me to make them.

The thinking behind this set of cufflinks is that the owner had been borrowing his dad's cufflinks and that perhaps it was time he had a good set of his own. Meanwhile his recent promotion in work was the perfect excuse to treat him to something extra special.

Recycled yellow gold cufflinks with channel set diamond detail

First of all an old gold bracelet and a fine pair of cufflinks were melted in the crucible to create a large flat ingot of gold. This was then passed through the mills until it was large enough to mark out two cufflink sized rectangles. These were pierced and cleaned back before soldering the U-arms in place. Lastly each cufflink was channel set with three small diamonds which came out of another necklace (more of which to come) before a final polish and a directional matt finish.

If you have a project you'd like to discuss you can drop a line to evadorney@gmail.com or give me a bell on 0877956321.

Recycled rose gold torc

Doreen had seen a beautiful torc on a friend and thought that something similar would be just the thing for her sister's wedding in December so she packed up a number of rose gold chains and bracelets that hadn't been worn in years and popped on down to the studio in Windy Arbour.  As with any occasion where someone has enough gold for multiple projects we discussed all sorts of options from bangles, through rings and pendants and created a plan of action before embarking our first project...

Handmade rose gold torc

Work began with something like 90g of gold which was more difficult to melt than usual on account of its sheer mass, however it made up for this by being a remarkably malleable and ductile alloy! The rough shape was forged using the rolling mills so that when the length was flattened it tapered from narrow at the nape to generous at the collarbone. It was quite the task manipulating and annealing this great length of metal until if finally curved to my will, but once the curve started to come together things moved faster. There was much hammering, filing and cleaning back and all of the lemel (metal filings) produced was caught in readiness for the next project - more of which next time.

Doreen called to fit the necklace shortly afterwards and we made some amendments to the curve on her neck so that it would sit as snugly as possible against the breast bone while skimming the collar bones. I also removed some extra length at the back to make it easier to take on and off - I don't know how many times I've been told that "it's easy to take metal away, but there's no putting it back" and this particular truism has stuck fast!

A short while later Doreen returned to collect her finished torc, now fully polished and perfect for that December wedding.

If you have a project you'd like to explore please feel free to drop me a line here or pick up the phone and give me a bell on 0877956321.

Twisted yellow gold rings

The first time I met the girls, three out of four sisters called to the studio and it's safe to say the the pitch went up a level as this happy family discussed designs and the future of their parents lovely heavy 18ct yellow gold wedding bands. The design they settled on was a simple twist ring that each girl could have and wear.

Twisted 18ct yellow gold rings

The real difficulty with this project was to determine the width of metal that would yield enough length to create the twisted strands, so a little trial and error in silver ensued. That done I simply melted the two rings into one and drew the gold bar down through the draw bench until I had a great length of 1.2mm thick wire. I then straightened the wire by annealing it fully and stretching it out before cutting it in two and beginning to twist. From here the twisted wire was cut into four lengths and each length turned up to make these 4 matching twisted gold rings, one for each daughter.

If you have a project you'd like to discuss please drop me a line here or give me a tickle on 0877956321.

Bespoke and remodelled gold and diamond jewellery

It has been such a hectic month with collections reaching fever pitch in the last few days! I'm off  to Croatia for a little holiday this morning, but fear not, my good buddy Carol will be manning the store while I'm gone and I've created a little collage of the gorgeous jobs I've been working on just to whet your appetite for when I return!

Engagement rings, pendant, torc, bangle and cufflinks made from new and recycled materials

Recycled yellow gold and emerald pendant

When Sarah contacted me she had a lovely thick 18ct ring and another broken 22ct wedding band that had been passed down through her boyfriend's family. She also had a little gold bracelet of her own and a great desire to make him a very special pendant for his 40th birthday. Originally the design included the spiral of life with an emerald at it's centre for abundance, but a little redesign brought us to setting the emerald in the centre of the circle like before, but with a six pointed star on the reverse - again symbolising abundance.

The original gold rings pictured at the top and the new gold and emerald pendant pictured below

There wasn't quite enough metal to make a disc large and heavy enough as things stood, so we decided to add an a further 6g of 9ct yellow gold to the mix just to bring up the weight. Some of this additional metal went to make the bale and the setting before the rest went into the pot to be melted.

Usually the ingots of gold are long and rod shaped but on the flip side of the ingot mould there is a wider opening for making small amounts of sheet metal. Invariably it comes out lumpy and uneven but as usual the trusty rolling mill flattened out the bumps and pressed the gold into submission!

From this knobbly little sheet I marked and cut out a generous disc and started to work assembling the bale and setting which you can see just held in tweezers midshot. I seem to have forgotten to take any further photos and suddenly we have the finished piece! Roughly speaking I hammer textured the front of the pendant before setting the emerald and then sending it off to be engraved with the six pointed star on the reverse.

Sarah planned to give Jason his gift at the top of Croagh Patrick but while they climbed the Reek she hadn't the heart to make him wait for his pressie!

If you have a project of your own you'd like to discuss please feel free to drop me a line here or give me a bell on 0877956321

Handmade wedding and engagement rings from recycled metal

The original rings

Congrats to Suzanne and Andrew who are 25 years married today!

Now technically they already had wedding bands (pictured here), but 25 years later they felt like a change. Andrew never really wore his original wedding ring and was looking to have something a little more substantial and unusual made, meantime Suzanne had her heart set on a contemporary diamond solitaire.

Recycled yellow gold wedding and engagement rings

Asymmetrical wedding ring, diamond solitaire and matching wedding band

They had quite a lot of metal so initially I melted it all down and through a happy accident the pour split into two ingots. The larger became Andrew's band while Suzanne's engagement ring was made from the smaller.

The design of his ring is simple and contemporary with flat sides rising asymmetrically rather than to the midpoint. To achieve this the large ingot was first made into a heavy flat gold band before some careful marking out and some even more careful filing transformed it into the ring you see here.

I sourced a lovely baguette diamond for Suzanne which was bar set across the top of this modern engagement ring and all the gold dust filings from Andrew's ring were remelted into a further ingot to create her wedding band.

Just a spot of hand engraving and these three recycled gold rings were ready for collection!

If you have a remodelling job you'd like to discuss please feel free to drop a line to evadorney@gmail.com or to give me a bell on 0877956321

Sapphire cluster engagement ring

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In February 2012 when Eoghan called me to say that he was going to propose to my best friend my emotions were all over the place. Delight at the good news, fear at the responsibility of making the ring and more than a little nerves about keeping this secret -  I'm not usually yacking away on the phone to my customer's intended! Our exploratory wander through the jewellers in town revealed one thing - that neither of us had a clue of the kind of ring Neidra would want. We looked at modern, at antique, at classic and at contemporary but soon realised we'd have to call on Neidra herself if we were ever to get it right.

Eoghan proposed later that year and having tried on a multitude of styles they came back to me to make this vintage inspired, but really rather modern sapphire engagement ring.

Making a platinum, diamond and blue sapphire engagement ring

Quite simply it never rains, but it pours and at the time I was making Neidra's ring I was also making Louise's so these two girls are forever linked in my mind. As an aside they have both had their first babies in the last couple of months so more congratulations are in order.

Down to the making - The first task was to order enough material for both rings and then lay out the setting on the large flat piece of platinum. I used the round wire to turn up the bezels for both rings and pierced our a gap within which the belly of the stones would fit. Next I made the swaged shanks on which the settings would sit. The rough ring was cleaned back to a nice tapering, but flat surface and then a groove cut to accommodate the belly of each stone. At this point every thing was given a good polish and then soldered together. Then came the small matter of setting the sapphire and the diamond before sending both rings to be pavé set with tiny diamonds.

If you'd like to discuss a custom project please feel free to drop me a line, meantime you can see more handmade engagement rings here.

Recycled yellow gold wedding ring

This ring was made from pieces of gold belonging to the women in Gerry's life. His future wife, his mum and mother-in-law all added a little bit of material to the cause and from it his wedding ring was made.

Recycled yellow gold wedding ring

The old gold was melted in a crucible and the resulting nugget rolled out into a strip. That strip was then turned up into a ring and the rounded ends cut off to create a perfect join. (Everyone gets these little nubs back with their finished piece to sit in the drawer until inspiration strikes). A little solder and a quick hammer to make it round then into the pickle to remove that black patina. If you're familiar with my blogs you'll know that the next step is to emery the surfaces of the ring to remove any scratches and then to create a comfort fit on the inside of the ring before giving it a final polish. Gerry wanted a matt finish which gives a nice contrast to the highly polished inside and edges. The finished ring has a slightly rosier tone which is thanks to that little bit of rose gold chain making the ring all the more individual.

You can see more remodelling projects here or if you have a remodelling project of you own that you'd like to discuss please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Palladium emerald cut diamond solitaire

This has to have been one of my favourite projects, not least because Aileen chose to model her engagement ring on my own! She'd spotted my ring a few years back on the old website and when Derek proposed I got a little email to see whether we could meet. She tried mine and was smitten from the first, but to be 100% sure I sent them off for a little potter round town to try some other styles. It's a risky business, but you only get to choose your engagement ring once and in my opinion it's important to get it right. Happily they came back more certain than ever that this was the ring and so I sourced this lovely spready emerald cut diamond for them.

Handmaking a palladium solitaire engagement ring

This ring is remarkably simple being made from just the one bar of metal, but as is often the way, simple designs are terribly unforgiving of inaccuracy. The palladium bar was initially rolled slimmer at the ends leaving a good centimeter untouched in the middle where the diamond was to fit. With the ring turned up, the crude join was cut through and soldered before hammering the ring round. It was then run through the mill again spreading the metal and creating the required depth for the setting. Next the sides were filed flat and the tapering profile established. Metal was removed to create a seat for the diamond and the mount polished before finally setting the stone.

And there you have it, a palladium emerald cut diamond solitaire engagement ring with room for a wedding ring to sit flush against it.

Three and a half years later I still get a thrill when I look down at my finger and see my little emerald cut twinkling back up at me - I hope Aileen does too!

Bespoke silver cufflinks

I'm very fortunate to have such loyal customers and I like take care of them in return. These cufflinks were part of a wider wedding and engagement ring project and involved making 4 sets of personalised cufflinks which were engraved with the initials of the groom, his groom's men and future father-in-law.

Handmade rectangular monogrammed cufflinks

To start with I ordered a large length of 4mm silver sheet with the intention of rolling it down  to 3mm and in doing so spreading the metal and removing the guillotine squeeze marks at the edges. With this perfectly flat material I then reestablished two flat sides at 90 degrees to each other and marked out my cufflink pairs. At this stage I sent them to assay along with the cufflink swivels so as to avoid the stamp warping the finished cufflinks. I then cut them into individual cufflinks and cleaned them back. Rectangles like squares are a very unforgiving of inaccuracy so it was vital that each side be perfectly flat and at 90 degrees to the next. With the rectangles prepped U shaped cufflink arms were soldered onto the back of each before pre-polishing them and riveting the swivel in place. A final polish and the cufflinks were sent for engraving where the initials were set alternately on the bottom left and right corners and inscribed in a box.

You can check out me ready to wear cufflinks here or if you'd like to discuss a custom project please don't hesitate to drop me a line.

Twisted sapphire and aquamarine ring

Diamond encrusted gold ring

This is the second ring that I've made for Mary, though we have yet to meet in person. Last time it was a lovely remodelled gold tapering band punch set with diamonds that incorporated her old engagement ring amongst other things. It worked out well and Mary was left with another lump of metal to plan a future project.

Inspiration and drawings

The piece on the left became the diamond encrusted ring while the piece on the right rested in the drawer for another year before being duly reimagined. The design was loosely based on a twisted ring her children had given her which incorporated their birthstones. We moved away from the heart and princess shapes toward the idea of a pear shape and a round and when I was stone shopping in Germany I kept an eye out for a sapphire and an aquamarine which would reflect the gentle colouring of the original ring, 

When we think of sapphire it's Kate Middleton's deep blue engagement ring that comes to mind, but sapphires come in all sorts of shades from gentle greens through cerise pinks through yellows or in this case purple. They are the next hardest stone to diamond and the only real alternative for every day wear. Their breadth of colour and sparkle makes them one of my favourite stones.

Recycled gold sapphire and aquamarine ring

Twisted sapphire and aquamarine ring

The first step in making this twisted ring was to make the settings. I rolled down the remaining bar into a long flat wire and turned it up in the round and pear shaped settings. I then melted that material again to create the bar for the shank. Again to the rolling mill to form a tapering length of wire which was turned up in to the ring. It was then a question of gently manipulating the curve of the metal to suit the curves of the settings before soldering all the pieces in place. With that done all the surfaces needed an emery and the inside of the settings were polished to make them as bright and reflective as possible before setting the stones.

And there you have it, a twisted sapphire and aquamarine ring made from recycled gold.

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