Mal's Story
I met Mal at the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair in 2023 and had the pleasure of working with her earlier this year to remodel a rather fantastic stack of inherited rings. These rings were her mum's and had great sentimental value but weren't her style or size. Mal had bought one of my Dot rings at GNCCF so I knew we could do something with her inherited gold to suit her style.
Repurposing Gold
The great thing about hallmarking is that you can play detective and - depending on what's been included on the stamp - the hallmark can tell you when, where and who made the jewellery, as well as the carat of the gold. With a bit of research I found out that this gold was 14ct Soviet gold which has a slightly lower carat than the modern UK 14ct standard and so we decided to send Mal's gold off to be refined to modern 14ct gold alloy.
Rings
Project number one was making a Dot ring with the large oval pink faceted gemstone, and the large square purple cabochon -
Necklace and Bracelet
We then moved on to making a Dot necklace and bracelet. I shared a new design for a Dot necklace that I've been working on but not yet finished for the website (watch this space - coming soon!) and Mal loved it, so we used her gold and some silver supplied by me to make this charming Dot necklace -
The gold Dot bracelet was so much fun to make - I love it when I get to meet my client's brief as well as develop my designs at the same time. It gives me that time and space to play that is so precious! I will be developing versions of the bracelet to list in my shop soon - another space to watch.
It's all in the detail, which is why the necklace has an adjustable chain length and the bracelet has been finished with a handmade T-bar clasp and infinity loop. Very satisfying.
