Reworking
Gold you already own.
Inherited rings are often worn once and then kept in a drawer for thirty years, because the piece belongs to someone else's taste and the person who left it to you is not there to ask. The material is still yours. It can become something you will actually wear.
Before and after
What is worth keeping.
Two things carry over: the stones and the gold. The stones are usually the reason to do it at all — an old cut that has been sitting in a setting nobody likes is exactly the kind of diamond we would otherwise be searching for.
The gold is more complicated. It can be refined and reused, but it is rarely enough on its own and its alloy is often unknown, so it is generally combined with new metal rather than melted straight into a ring. We will tell you what yours actually yields before anything is done to it.
What does not carry over is the original design. A remodel is a new piece made from old material, not a repair or a modification. If what you want is the piece you have, restored, that is a different job and often the better one — we will say so.
How it goes
Four stages, and a point of no return.
1
Photographs
Send images of the piece from several angles, with anything you know about it. We can tell from photographs whether it is worth going further, and we will say if it is not.
2
Assessment
The piece comes to us, insured both ways. We identify the stones, weigh and test the gold, and tell you what can be made from it and what cannot. This stage is chargeable and is refunded against the commission if you proceed.
3
Drawing
A design drawn around what you actually have, rather than around what would be ideal. Nothing is dismantled until you have approved it.
4
Making
The piece is unset and the new ring is built in Sydney. This is the irreversible stage, which is why it comes fourth rather than first.
One commission
The same gold, twice.
Shown at the same scale, in the same light, from the same distance. A remodel photographed generously is not evidence of anything.
Plainly
What we will and will not do.
Reworking heirlooms goes wrong when nobody says no early enough. These are the answers we give most often.
| Old cut diamonds | Almost always worth keeping and resetting. These are the stones the house is built around. |
| Small accent diamonds | Usually not worth reusing. Setting them costs more than replacing them, and we will tell you when that is the case. |
| Coloured stones | Assessed individually. Many older coloured stones are more fragile than they look, and some cannot be reset safely. |
| Gold | Refined and reused where the quantity and alloy allow, usually combined with new metal. We state the yield before proceeding. |
| Sentimental value we cannot verify | We will not tell you a stone is remarkable because it belonged to someone you loved. You will get the honest assessment and make your own decision. |
| A piece worth more intact | Some pieces should not be broken up. If yours is one, we will say so and recommend restoration instead. |
Begin
Start with photographs.
Nothing is committed at this stage and nothing is dismantled. We look at what you have and tell you honestly whether it is worth doing.