"Can old jewellery be turned into something new?" is a question I get asked a lot. I often have people email me about small collections of jewellery they have that don't get worn anymore, but that they could never bring themselves to sell or lose.

The short answer is yes. Almost always. Stones can be reset, gold can be melted down or the value offset, and two or three pieces that no longer fit your style can become a unique piece that does. This extra special sentimental pendant is a perfect example of what can be done with your old and inherited jewellery.

The finished 18ct gold, blue sapphire & diamond pendant

Two rings from a beloved mother into one pendant

I was recommended to K by a close friend of hers, who I'd remodelled a jewellery collection for the previous year after we met at the Handmade in Chelsea fair. That kind of referral is one of the best parts of this job as it means someone trusted me with something that mattered to them enough to recommend me to a friend.

K came to me with two rings that had belonged to her late mother:

An 18ct white gold diamond eternity ring
A silver ring set with two sapphires and diamonds

Neither ring got worn day to day, but both had way too much meaning to stay sat in a drawer. She wanted them combined into a single 18ct gold disc pendant, something she could wear all the time, that held her memories in one place.

We met at my East London studio so she could bring the rings in person and talk through what she had in mind for the design.

Two inherited diamond and sapphire rings

Why I take the stones out before I design anything

Before I can design a piece like this, the stones have to be removed from their original settings. It where my creative work starts.

The way I design with multiple stones, it really helps my imagination to be able to play around with the placement of the stones. I used a piece of blue tac and formed it into a disc of a similar diameter to the size K said she'd like the pendant to be. The challenge with this piece was that the two oval sapphires were slightly different sizes so it would never look perfectly symmetrical. I played around with a few ideas before I landed on one that looked so unique and striking. To bring the pattern to a balance we had to add two extra diamonds to the design, which pulled the whole pattern together. Working with your stones sometimes means adding another gemstone or two to make the design truly stand out.

Experimenting with the placement of the stones

Why bespoke pieces take longer to make

What people often don't see in a finished piece is how much of the process happens away from the bench entirely. Once the layout was agreed, there were weeks of emails back and forth with K - checking sizing, confirming exact stone placement, going over small design tweaks, making sure every detail felt right before anything was made up in gold. Bespoke work like this is as much about that conversation as it is about the making. Getting a piece this personal right means slowing down and going back over the details as many times as it takes. It’s what I love so much about making bespoke jewellery, I really enjoy the interpersonal side of this kind of work and the conversations and emails before the design work help me form a picture of a person and what their style is and how my designs can fit with it.

Why we didn't just melt down the gold

A common assumption people bring to a remodelling commission is that their old gold gets melted down and reused in the new piece. Sometimes that's exactly what happens but it wasn’t the best option this time.

The white gold eternity ring, once the diamonds were removed, was sold for its scrap value, and that amount was deducted from K's final invoice. Because the new pendant was being made in yellow gold, melting down the white gold from the ring wouldn't have worked for this design.

K wearing her new pendant with her own chain

The finished pendant

There's always a moment, right before a customer sees their finished piece for the first time, where I feel a wee bit nervous! This is jewellery rich with memory, and there's no version of "close enough" that feels acceptable. When K saw the finished pendant, she was overjoyed. Her mother's diamonds and sapphires, once kept in a drawer in two rings she didn’t wear, were now sitting together in a single piece she could put on every day. I also had the back of the pendant engraved with meaningful dates and initials which added to the precious, sentimental value of this piece. A true piece of heirloom jewellery that K will pass on to her daughter one day.

If you're wondering what to do with old or inherited jewellery

If you've got rings, a parent's jewellery, or pieces you've simply stopped wearing, a few questions worth asking yourself:

Would you actually wear this if it were reset into something new?
Is there a stone or detail that matters more to you than the setting it's currently in?
Could two or three unworn pieces become one piece you'd wear constantly?

Repurposing sentimental jewellery isn't about erasing the original piece. It's a beautiful, personal journey where we take a precious symbol of the past and transmute it into a whole new thing that still holds what it once was. If you have rings, a pendant, or any jewellery sitting in a drawer that you'd like to reimagine in your own style, get in touch and book a Zoom call or studio visit for a free half hour consultation.

What Can I Do With Inherited Jewellery? Transforming Sentimental Rings Into An Heirloom Pendant