Design Works – The Art of Reinvention

The next ‘Melt and Make’ design I can show you is a tale of two rings. These two sentimental signet rings belonged to our client’s family and over time had lots of wear and now were too worn to use. We were asked to use this precious gold and melt down and create a wearable new signet ring.

The starting point was to look at different signet patterns. We always have available a number of our own signets which helped the client choose the preferred size and shape of head.  Once the pattern was chosen, the rings were passed over to our goldsmith in our workshop to start the melting process.

Firstly, he melted down the rings together with additional gold needed to make a gold ingot.  With the ingot made, he then marked out to create the preferred shape before skilfully polishing the finished piece.

Making something as simple as a twisted wire ring is just one of the many ideas that our workshop can create.  A recent example of this was using our clients unused gold cluster ring. The first process is melting the ring down and poured into an ingot mould. The cooled gold ingot bar is then fed through rolling mills and shaped into wire. The wire is cleverly twisted together to the desired shape, size and polished to create something truly special.

Using your old gold items is such a great way of recycling so if you have a piece of jewellery that remains unworn, why not re-invent it?