Fran brought me in her mothers double diamond engagement ring made in what we thought was platinum (more on that later) to be made into 2 new diamond solitaire rings and the metal melted down and made into a cherry leaf pendant.

The diamonds from the ring were unmounted and cleaned. Each diamond was distintly different and beautiful due to their old mine cut facets. Viv wanted to have both rings made from 18K white gold. I choose to use a white gold alloy that contains palladium wich makes it a little more expensive but will never need rhodiium plating in future saving time and money!

One diamond was more round than the other and suited her partner Viv’s style so I designed a classic full bezel sparkler that would be hard wearing and could easily stack with her wedding band and engagment ring.

For Fran’s ring I used her slightly off square curvy edged diamond to make another ring that was similar to Viv’s in style but less round and little more quirky.

I melted down the original ring and made it into a cherry leaf pendant for Fran to wear as a daily piece of jewellery that reminded her of her Mum, worn close to her heart as was her favourite tree. I forged this down, cut it out and engraved all the texture and details then sent it into Sheffield Assay Office (SAO) for hallmarking.

SAO phoned me to inform me that it tested as a very unusual alloy being a mixture that was used pre WWII to simulate platinum It was confrimed 59% gold, 27% palladium, 6% nickle and trace platinum probably from the platinum hard solder i used! It was marked Marked 585.

15 years together