Heirloom Re-Design
Creating jewellery from your heirloom family treasures touches the very core of me. This is a very intimate process of designing a new piece of jewellery from past treasures. For some people this process is a time of letting go and transforming the energy from the past into talismans and future heirlooms.
Here’s what to expect
You will come in for your first consultation, a Zoom or a phone visit. Together we will discuss what you are looking for, be it ring, earrings, pendant. I can re-work yellow gold, but not white gold. White gold does not respond nicely when re-melting. If you have white gold this can be used as a credit towards new white gold. I can re-use most yellow gold, even if the karats are different. I can set your gemstones or source new ones for you. All of this I will discuss with you once I assess the materials we have to play with.
Creating a new heirloom piece is a very involved process on my part. To prepare the gold I will need to dismantle existing pieces, remove stones, separate usable gold. Anything with solder joints can not be used because it introduces contaminants into the new casting, so I cut all of these away. Once everything is separated I’m able to weigh your usable gold.
If I am carving a new design for you, once this design is carved, the wax gets weighed to see how much gold is needed for the new casting. At this point I will write up a quote for you with a breakdown of all the associated costs. I will add in any additional gold in the same karat or higher once we’ve discussed your desired purity and colour.
Below are just a few examples of the numerous Heirloom Re-Designs I have created over the years…
Laurel’s Wedding Ring
Created from her original green diamond wedding ring on the left, Laurel wanted the design to be similar to her Wanderlust Ring I created for her in the middle photo. As you can see her green diamond is a marquis shape, and she wanted all of her little white diamonds involved. In keeping the flow with my original Wanderlust design, this is what I created for Laurel in 18k gold.
Lorraine’s Wanderlust Wedding Ring
Using Lorraine’s family diamonds I created a white gold version of the Wanderlust Ring design. These diamonds of her past, embedded into her present wedding ring continue her beautiful story.
KEZIAH & JAY’s Wedding Set
Keziah chose my Madrone Ring design which her diamond fit perfectly into. I hand carved the matching wedding branch ring to fit around the Madrone Ring, and gypsy set five of her smaller diamonds. After hand carving Jay’s wedding band I used their family heirloom 18k and 22k gold jewellery to make them the most stunning forest inspired wedding ring set.
GAIL’S BRACELET
We created numerous pieces with Gail’s gold and gems she had been carrying for years. The most incredible piece we designed for her is her “Metal Garden Bracelet’. In this masterpiece we found a vibrant leafy home for her family sapphire and diamonds. This link, which was destined to live in her handmade bracelet, represented the completion of a life cycle. Moving on. A new chapter. We had enough gold to create Gail an Athena band and an Embrace Ring .
CHRISTINA’S WEDDING RING
Here is a photo side by side of Christina’s new wedding ring, and what it looked liked previously. I removed Christina’s diamond and created a whole new ring in white gold, and used her yellow gold as the bezel and design on the top of the ring.
BEV’S HEART PENDANT
I hand carved this precious one of a kind woodland style heart pendant for Bev. We used her Mother’s rubies and gold from the top picture, cast this into the pendant, then bezel and gypsy set all of the rubies.
MOTHER’S EMBRACE
This heart was carved as a gift to a surrogate mother from the baby Owen’s family. We combined many elements here to honour family and new life. Four heirloom birthstones, one for the new mother, father, the surrogate mother and baby Owen, including the footprint of baby Owen! This was no easy feat, taking an ink print of a newborn baby’s foot, but it all worked out well in the end.
This footprint image was scanned, shrunk to fit my hand carved heart, cast in white gold, and soldered to the lower right of white gold heart. A beautiful gift for the surrogate mom to carry close to her heart, as she returned home to her family, halfway across the world.
These are just a few of the designs I have had the honour to create over the years. If you’d like to see more, I have them woven throughout my Instagram page. Each one has such a unique story. Please browse through my other blogs to learn about the story and inspiration behind some of my other designs… like Artemis, Rose Cut Diamonds, and other informational blogs!
If you have heirloom treasures and are curious to begin the process of redesigning, I would love to hear from you!. Please fill out this custom request form.I have many questions for you. This helps me understand the treasures you have and your idea of design and desire of transformation. Over the years, these Heirloom Re-designs have become a very large part of what I specialize in, re-creations that are close to my heart.
Thinking about a bespoke custom piece?
Creating a unique piece to match your vision is a fun, exciting journey of discovery for both of us. Let's get started on the design process for your own unique Melissa Caron Custom Jewellery.
Caron,
Your designs are art treasures, truly worthy of heirlooms to gift to another generation.
Thank you so much, you are very kind!
Thank you so much, reading this warms my heart!
Thank you my dear!! This is a beautiful compliment!!