A fair number of our commissions start from a story rather than a stone. A film, a childhood character, a place a couple visited: the brief is to build that into a ring or a set without it turning into costume jewellery. These are three we have made.
A Cinderella Carriage Ring
This engagement ring is shaped like the pumpkin coach from Cinderella, with a Burmese red spinel held in the body of the carriage and round brilliant diamonds picking out the frame. Red spinel was chosen deliberately: it has a ruby-like colour at a lower price, and because it is singly refractive, like diamond, it returns a clean bright sparkle. From above it reads as a solitaire; from the side, the carriage.
The client wanted the coach to be obvious in the hand but not fussy from across a room. We kept the diamond count low and let the spinel carry the colour, so it works as an everyday engagement ring rather than a one-occasion piece. Red spinel of this shade, a saturated Burmese red, is genuinely rare, which is part of why it was chosen over a treated ruby.
A Princess Jasmine Pendant
An anniversary gift for a client whose wife loves the character Jasmine from Aladdin. The pendant is shaped as a crescent moon, a nod to the magic-carpet scene, with round diamonds set through it like stars. The centre stone is a trilliant-cut tourmaline in a bluish-green close to the colour of Jasmine’s dress, and the trilliant shape echoes her earrings. The tourmaline is the wife’s birthstone; a round bluish-violet tanzanite below it is the husband’s December birthstone.
The two birthstones sit together on purpose. The trilliant tourmaline is hers, the tanzanite is his, so the pendant reads as a portrait of the couple as much as a reference to the film. The design took several rounds of sketching to get the moon proportion right without it looking like a logo.
A Fairytale Tanzanite Wedding Set
This Si Dian Jin set was commissioned by the mother of a December bride, on a fairytale theme. The pendant holds a trilliant tanzanite cut to read as a heart, in rose gold with flora detailing around the stone. The bangle sets a round tanzanite at the centre of a heart-shaped tiara. The ring matches, with flora on the shoulders and a round tanzanite. All three are made light enough to wear day to day rather than kept for the wedding.
Si Dian Jin, the “four touches of gold”, is traditionally given by the groom’s family to welcome the bride. Classic sets are heavy 916 or 999 gold. Here the mother asked for something lighter, in a mix of rose and white gold with tanzanite, that her daughter would actually wear after the wedding. The heart and flora motifs run through all three pieces so the set reads as one commission.
What a Themed Commission Involves
The risk with a story-led design is that it tips into novelty. We spend longer than usual at the sketch stage working out how much of the reference to keep. Usually it is one clear element, the coach shape, the crescent moon, and everything else is restrained so the piece still reads as fine jewellery. Colour does a lot of the work: a stone matched to a character or a memory carries the reference without the metalwork having to shout.
Can any idea be made into a ring?
Most can, within reason. The limits are the strength of the metal at small scale and whether the shape stays wearable. We will tell you early if an idea needs simplifying to survive daily wear.
Does a themed piece cost more?
Usually a little, because of the extra design time and the hand-work involved in shaping the motif. The stone is still the largest part of the budget.
Commission a Fairytale Piece
A themed commission takes longer at the design stage, because the shape has to be recognisable without becoming a novelty. We work it out in sketches with you first. See our customised engagement rings, wedding jewellery and flora jewellery, or book an appointment to talk through an idea.
