Ever wondered what goes on behind-the-scenes of a bespoke order? This blog follows the story of Heather’s custom bangle from her initial ideas through to the final product. Many of the pieces I am commissioned to make have beautiful stories behind them, and this is one of them.
How a bespoke order is made:
Having already made 2 bangles for Heather, she set me a challenge for the third. We started off with her sending me a few simple sketches to work from.
I began by creating the hearts. Each was made from carefully bending, filing and soldering small pieces of silver wire together. After soldering, each heart was then filed again to get it smooth and remove any sharp points which may have made it uncomfortable to wear.
The hearts were arranged and then filed again along the joins to give a solid join when soldered. These had to be done in batches, being careful not to overheat the existing joins and melt the solder apart!
At this point I decided which width wire would look best for the rest of the bangle and sent Heather a message to check she was happy. Once one end was soldered to the hearts, the bangle was measured to Heathers size, cut, filed and soldered together (again I had to be very careful not to break existing joins!).
She had also asked for either a green or blue seaglass charm. I have a lot of seaglass so after a lot of options I found this green heart in my collections from Gyllyngvase beach.
Another message was sent to see if she liked it. Thumbs up to proceed!
Once the seaglass was chosen I worked on making the bezel setting and jump rings.
Before the last jump ring was soldered closed, I thought that the seaglass charm might look better from the main bangle rather than one of the hearts. Heather agreed and so the jump ring was attached and the bangle and polished up.
Finally, the seaglass was set and the bangle given one last polish using a polishing cloth before it was photographed.
The story behind the 5 hearts:
The five hearts represent Heather’s 5 dogs:
The first, middle and last hearts represent her black, lab/springers who have sadly passed away. At either end are Gemma, who died an old lady and Gracie, who died at 18 months from eating something poisonous. In the centre is Molly, she was a therapy dog who worked with SEN (Special Educational Needs) children.
The two hearts between these represent her current dogs – Millie and Lily – being guided through life by the previous dogs.
“They fill my heart and showed unconditional love at all times”.
What a thoughtful piece of jewellery!
I love working on commissions like these, producing something
meaningful and special for its owner.
If you’d like to know more about bespoke orders or would like a piece making, please get in touch to discuss your ideas with me.
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