Redesigning a grandmother's ring

A special 21st birthday present made with her grandmother’s gemstone

This necklace was a special commission with a lovely story behind it. A 21st birthday present for a young girl that started with her grandmother's ring. I love starting with a grandmother's heirloom, they are full of history and sentimentality and love and all things grandmothery -like. 

But we don’t always love what we inherit. We may love our aunt or our nan dearly, but her jewellery may just not suit us. It may not be practical with our lifestyles or maybe we just prefer clean and modern lines. But to keep those heirlooms stored in a safe seems so wasteful. Better yet to repurpose them and keep your nan’s spirit alive and close to your heart.

The original brief was to make ring for her 21st birthday using the red stone in her nan’s ring.  Keeping in with her family tradition of receiving a ring as commemoration of your coming of legal age.  My first step was to remove the stone and get it tested as my instinct said it was not a natural gemstone.   It turned out to be a synthetic ruby, but this did not deter from its sentimental value.  

Having that in mind, I agreed with my client that perhaps setting the red stone in sterling silver as a necklace to keep her nan’s spirit close to her heart and start from scratch to make her a ring completely different that was suited to her taste was the best way forward. But that ring I will save for another blog post…..

The necklace was made with a contemporary rub over setting and two small rings to hold the sterling silver chain. It hangs perfectly on her delicate neck. Hopefully a piece she will enjoy daily.