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

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

Remodelling an 18ct yellow and white gold illusion set diamond engagement ring - Part One

This is the first of two entries involving an 18ct yellow and white gold illusion set diamond engagement ring. The diamond was given to Geraldine by her mum and she called me to see what might be done. We took a look at all of her current jewellery including her own wedding and engagement rings and devised a plan....

Platinum halo engagement and wedding ring set - Diamond pendant

I made up a new platinum mount to take the round brilliant cut diamond - a pave set halo design with clearance underneath for a wedding band to sit flush. Next I cut the diamond out of her engagement ring with the setting intact and with a little additional platinum used the shank to make a new plain band to sit next to the cluster. I added a bale to the engagement diamond setting and transformed it into an everyday diamond pendant and in the meantime the existing diamond set wedding ring made it's way to the left hand as an eternity ring.

This project worked out a treat with everything in use and all the metal used up except for the old gold mount... more of which to follow.