Our client had been given and then inherited some mainly gold jewellery. She knew she would never wear any of it but wanted to have something made to reminder her of her mother and that she would wear everyday. We met and discussed a design and then each piece was reviewed for its finesse, whether it was even gold or not. Precious stones were removed as was any stainless steel (catches have stainless steel springs in them!). Once I'd checked everything with a magnet to check that only gold was left. We then weighed the gold to make sure that there was enough for the jewellery as planned plus 10% which gets lost generally on melting. The gold was then all melted in a furnace and then the bangle cast in Delft clay to create the rough bangle and ring. The sprue's were then cut off and both were then re-fitted to make sure that they would fit. Finally the design took shape through removing excess metal, shining some edges and then polishing. The excess gold was then used to create the matching ring (and the excess of that some little drop earrings). All were then sent for testing at the Assay Office in London before hallmarking. Our client was delighted (she cried) and said that each 'bump' represented the elements that had been melted.
