On our recent visit to London’s Victoria and Albert museum we saw quite a few pieces of ‘grand’ jewelry set with gems that had been reused to create them. Because each of them had been ‘custom made’ they could be termed ‘bespoke’ in manufacture. It’s a common term in the United Kingdom; but you seldom run into it in the United States, even though it could often be applied in the jewelry business - particularly when it comes to making a piece of jewelry using larger gems or re-purposing gems and precious metal. The majority of the engagement rings we sell, for example, are ‘one-off’ bespoken pieces; allow me to illustrate this.
Last November a young man came into our store on a mission to buy an engagement ring. We had her finger size; and he had some fairly definite ideas about style - and a budget as well. As I interviewed him, it became clear that, provided we listened to him carefully, the sale would not be difficult. My first task was to find a fancy cut diamond that would meet his criteria for color and clarity while meeting his budget constraints and my demands for beauty (I’m not going to sell a diamond I think to be mediocre in appearance). This took a bit of research; but given our connections to top diamond cutters, I was fairly quickly able to present him with a selection of gems I’d be proud to sell. He selected one and then it was time to design a ring. At this point there are always a few questions that should be answered for a successful design. Since an engagement ring is ‘communication’, I had to know what he wanted to say in giving it and what she would want it to say as she wore it. From my standpoint, both of these questions had to be answered in such a fashion that the durability of the ring would not be compromised.
He wanted the diamond to stand out so that there would be no question about the purpose of the ring. For him this meant that the ring’s design had to be fairly simple. Having met her, however, I knew that she would love something decidedly feminine. Finally, she’s an active young woman; so the ring I would make had to be fairly rugged. We solved the first problem by designing a ring with a very simple ‘head’ (the piece that holds the diamond) and a ‘thin’ shank (the ring part of the ring). Then we solved the second part of our problem by incorporating into our design a few ‘surprise’ diamonds (diamonds that she could enjoy but would not be immediately obvious to a casual observer). Finally, we met my concerns for durability in two ways. We made the shank, though thin when viewed from above, thick through so that it would not easily bend; and we braced the prongs that would hold the big diamond. The braces would not be visible when viewed from above; but they would effectively keep the prongs short and difficult to bend. The young man liked and approved our design, so we made it and he had it for a Christmas engagement. Then I waited. I called him after he had presented it to check on our success and he said, “She loves it! I couldn’t have done it without you.” I love to hear that.
Of course we also specialize in repurposing diamonds; and here an interesting story from last year comes to mind. One of our long time clients walked in the door and announced that he wanted to ‘trade-up’ on the diamond in his wife’s engagement ring. My response? “Check with her first. She may be emotionally attached to her original diamond.” He came back a week later and said, “You were right. She wants to keep her original diamond. What do we do now?” I said, “Let’s make a jacket for it that will say what you want it to say and will ‘beautify’ her original ring.” I interviewed her, and once I had learned what sorts of things she valued as beautiful, I came up with a design proposal. She approved it and he trusted me to make a ring he would see as a show piece. Six weeks later I delivered it. He loved it; but she was somewhat taken aback by its ‘showiness’. Confident in it, I said, “Wear it; and if you don’t like it a year from now, come in and I’ll make a new jacket for you at no additional charge. That sounded fair to her; so she wore it out. Two weeks later she was back to tell me she loved it; and today I learned that she wears it everywhere. So if you want to see a picture of it, drop in the store and ask to see it - along with her thank you.
Bespoke jewelry - custom made jewelry - is really our metier. So if you’ve ‘dreamed’ of a piece of jewelry you’ve never quite found, come in and see us. We can make it from scratch using your diamonds or supplying new diamonds; and we’ll even help you trade up for a bigger diamond if you have that in mind. Check out our website, hurstsberwynjewelers.com, for an idea or two; then phone us at 708.788.0880 for an appointment to begin that piece of custom jewelry.
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