Commissions
A third of what we make was never a design.
Pieces drawn for one person: a stone inherited and re-set, a structure we have not built before, a piece that exists nowhere in the collection. This is the part of the work that does not photograph well in advance.
We reply within one business day, and always within two.
Commissioned
Pieces that existed nowhere else.
No. 033 — inherited old mine oval
Her grandmother's stone, out of a 1970s cluster and into a bespoke signet style setting. Same diamond, fifty years apart. Accent diamonds used for a pair of earrings.
Not thisThe first direction kept four of the cluster's accent stones around the centre. It read as a smaller version of the ring she was trying to leave behind.
No. 019 — parti sapphire pair
Two rings made together for two best friends, from one parcel of Australian sapphires.
Not thisThe brief was two matching rings. We drew them matching, and they looked like a set rather than like two people. The parcel decided it — no two parti sapphires are the same, so we stopped pretending.
No. 041 — 1.64ct oval cut
No reference and no collection piece. A description, three drawings, sixteen weeks.
Not thisA more literal version, where the form read immediately as what it is. Legibility turned out to be the problem: a shape you name in one second is a shape you stop looking at in two.
Method
How a commission is made.
Description
You tell us what you are imagining. No drawing is required and none is expected. We agree the figure at this stage, before anything is drawn — a design developed against a real number is a different design from one adjusted downwards afterwards.
Stones
We put options in front of you — the diamonds that suit what you have described, with their documentation and what each does to the piece.
Drawing
The ring is drawn with your stone in it. You will see two directions, not twenty; a commission narrows early because that is how a piece acquires a point of view. This is where the design work happens, and where it is paid for.
Making
Built by hand in Sydney, and not begun until the drawing and the figure are agreed in writing. You see it once at the model stage and can change it before the stone is set. How long depends on which of the four this is; the times are stated with each above.
Delivery
Sized, engraved, documented. With the report for your stone and a written statement of its origin.
What we take on
Four kinds of commission.
An inherited stone
From AU$7,000 · 10 to 12 weeks
The most common commission. A diamond or gemstone out of a ring no longer worn, moved into one that will be. Usually without recutting.
Your own gold
Quoted after assessment · 10 to 12 weeks
Old gold melted and re-made into the piece. It rarely saves money. It means the metal has a history, which is the point.
A setting, altered
From AU$6,500 · 12 to 14 weeks
One of the settings in a different shape, a different metal, a wider band, the Cutaway added or left closed.
Something unbuilt
From AU$10,000 · 12 to 18 weeks, with complexity
A structure not in the range. We will say plainly if it is beyond us, or beyond what you want to spend.
Begin
Tell us what you are imagining.
Answer what you can. A vague answer is a useful one — most commissions begin with a description and a photograph of something half-right.