Jewellery comes in many forms and is worn for many reasons - quite often, pieces are worn (or at least kept) for sentimental reasons; to remind you of a person who is no longer around or lives far away, a place/time/event that means a lot to you.
A bespoke jewellery service is perfect for creating or re-working memorial jewellery as you can get exactly what you are after. 
There are so many ways to create a meaningful piece of jewellery, and to go through all the varieties and possibilities would take forever, and so I will briefly cover just a few examples.


1. Re-sizing. 
The simplest way to make a piece of inherited jewellery wearable, is to make it fit. 

2. Recycling metals. 
Melting down inherited silver/gold is another possibility, although this does usually mean also adding new metal, and recycled metal often has problems such as perosity (looks like tiny pin pricks in the metal).

3. Recycling stones.
If you inherit a piece of jewellery that is broken, or not your cup of tea, you may be able to take the stones out and use them in a new commission. For example, I inherited a gold and ruby earring that my grandfather bought my grandmother for their ruby wedding anniversary; one earring was lost, and this one had a missing stone, and was a bit mis-shaped...so I have taken the tiny rubies out, and have them ready and waiting for when I come up with the right design.

4. Changing purpose.
 Simple adaptations to turn a ring into a pendant, a pendant into an earrings, an earring into a brooch - etc. make an object that holds so many memories into something you can wear and enjoy.

5. Life diamonds.
Life diamonds are something I really want to look into, and have never worked with. "life diamonds" are diamonds that are created out of someones ashes. I'm not sure of costs, or what kind of sizes the stone would be, but I think I read that you can choose from Yellow or Blue diamonds - the colour is created as part of the process of turning ashes into a diamond (with extreme heat and pressure). 
It is an option that may be open to you, you can then get the diamond set in a commissioned piece of jewellery.
(I will definately look into life diamonds and do another blog on them in the near future)

6. Birthstones.
Using the stones that represent the month that your loved one
was born (or to represent the month you met/married etc). 
January - Garnet
February - Amethyst
March - Aquamarine
April - Diamond
May - Emerald
June - Pearl
July - Ruby
August - Peridot
September - Sapphire
October - Opal
November - Topaz
December - Turquoise

If you would like me to go over any of these options in more detail, or discuss other possible routes to commission your own piece(s), please contact me.