Commissions and Commissioning a piece of jewellery

Commissions

Commissions keep my brain alive!

Designing new stuff is great!
Making for the 234th time is not so much fun and the more successful a designs proves, the more often I have to make it.

Commissions, on the other hand, are a challenge and a chance to use different techniques and skills and, once in a while, it's a delight to work on something different and it's an honour to do so if it's going to be something special and significant for the client.

If you're thinking of commissioning a piece then here are a few pointers to get your thinking started: The following is mostly applicable to rings as most commissions are for weddings and engagements but please bear in mind that you can commission anything that you can imagine and not just gem set rings!

Costs

There are so many variables in the process that it makes more sense if you can come up with a budget and ask me to work within it. If you want to spend £1,000, for instance, I would calculate my work, the metal costs, hallmarking etc and then what was left can be spent on stones. I could show you two diamonds of equal size but one costing £100 and the other £500 depending on the quality so having and idea of budget at the outset makes more sense than designing something and then asking how much it's going to cost.
As a rule of thumb I can generally do the work cheaper than you could buy it 'off the peg' so it's up to you whether you want to save some money for something else or just opt for better materials in your jewellery.

Design

I just need a starting point. Ideally a picture of something that you've seen and like in order to let me know the sort of look and style that you're after. Things to think about are, obviously the metal colours and the stones but also the style of setting the stones. Traditional rings are set with claws and this allows more light to come in behind the stone. This applies more to coloured stones but, with diamonds too, claws have the advantage of obscuring less of the stone than flush or 'rubover settings'
Rubover settings comprise a solid rim of metal that is forced over the stone to retain it. A rubover gives a hard outline and a more contemporary look and that is often favoured in modern jewellery.
Flush settings, sometimes called 'gypsy settings' have the stone actually buried into the surface of the metal and are often used on wedding bands in order to create a smooth ring with the stones protected.

Metals

Gold
In the UK the minimum standard for gold is 9ct or 375. This means that it is 375 parts per thousand gold and the rest is made up of other metals. You will realize then that 9ct is not, strictly speaking, gold.
The table below gives you the other standards and so you can choose just how gold you want your jewellery to be.

As you go to the higher standards the metal becomes yellower, denser and softer. This means that a piece of 18ct gold will weigh much more (1.6 times) than a piece of 9ct of the same dimensions (and so will be much more than twice as expensive).
White golds are not white! (yes it's a scandal isn't it!) 9ct white gold is a very pale yellow and 18ct white is more of a grey. Much white gold on the market is plated with rhodium to give it a hard white shine. By the time this has worn off you don't look at the ring in the same way any more and will probably not notice the change in colour. I choose not to use rhodium where it will wear off (but I will if you make me!) so you need to choose your white golds with care and an eye to the long term. If you want to combine yellow and white then 18ct golds give the best contrast and you could use platinum if you want a better white metal.

Platinum
Platinum is really expensive and really dense. It's approximately twice as heavy as 9ct gold and about 5 times more expensive. Therefore a ring that would cost £100 in 9ct gold is going to cost nearer £1,000 in platinum. It is harder and whiter than white gold and so you are getting something extra for your money but you need to be aware that working in platinum is a whole other thing financially and you might want to spend the money on a bigger or better stone.

Stones.

Please read our diamonds page for an introduction to these marvelous stones. If you prefer to use coloured stones or to mix the two then the options are virtually endless. Traditionally sapphires, rubys and emeralds have been classed as precious stones and all the others as semi-precious. Generally it would be the precious group that would be set with diamonds but there is no need to restrict yourself to those three when there are so many interesting and vibrant colours available.
As with diamonds you will find that the price varies hugely depending on quality and that bigger stones are cut from better material making them even more expensive. You will probably want to find a balance between quality and price so that you are not paying a great deal more for a virtually indiscernible difference.

Time frame

The absolute minimum for a commissioned piece, other than something simple like a wedding band is three weeks. This gives us a week to source the materials, a week to make it and a week to get it hallmarked. Some designs will take longer and involve more processes such as making moulds and masters for casting. I've not missed a deadline yet and I will do my best to move the process along as fast as possible so that you get your jewellery quickly and so that I get paid!

The process

I personally find drawing time consuming and not very fruitful in conveying a design to the client. I prefer instead, wherever possible to make a design up in silver so that you can see it, handle it and try it on. Generally this silver model can then be used to make a casting mould so that the work is not wasted and you know that the piece you end up with is the same as the piece you've seen.
Up to the point where I buy the actual materials you are not committed to anything and you can change your mind or pull out all together. It's important that, if you're commissioning a unique piece that you should get exactly what you want and so I don't mind how long it takes to establish that.
Once the design is finalised I will ask for a deposit to cover the cost of materials and then you should be only a few weeks away from wearing a stunning piece of personal jewellery.

So how do you start..?

1. Find a starting point for how you would like the piece to look.
Look in jewellery shops and on the internet
Gather pictures from brochures and the web

2. Decide on your metals and stones

3. Give me a call on 01275 390357 or use the Contacts page
It may help for us to meet but often it's not necessary (it will save you that horror!) and
we can do the whole thing by fax, phone email and post.

Browse our modern jewellery
and other pages with useful information

Top