A customer had a small diamond pendant and she wanted something more interesting made using the stone. Her initials are CLC and she said she has always wanted something made using them but she felt her initials didn't lend themselves well to a design. I wanted to make something really special for her, not just a design of flat letters cut out. I wanted the pendant to be tactile and rounded. I visualised the letter C with an L cut into it. I thought it would be nice if the shape was like a jellybean but more C shaped. I then thought it would look nice if the setting on the diamond formed the last C by being a partial rubbed over setting. This way the pendant is a design using her initials but it is still a very beautiful shape.
The best way to make the shape is in wax. This means that the pendant can be more affordable because the wax is filed to make the shape rather than losing the metal. It is also much quicker to file wax than silver to a three dimensional shape.
Here is an image of the finished wax.
From the wax I can calculate the weight the shape will be in silver and decide if it is too heavy or not. This wax was then used in a casting process to make the shape in silver. The silver shape was polished for several hours and the setting for the diamond soldered on in place. The top of the pendant was then drilled so that four handmade silver jump rings could attach the piece to a chain. The piece was polished again and then the diamond was set. The pendant was then given a third final polish and sent to be hallmarked.
The customer was absolutely delighted with the pendant and I'm told that she wears it everyday.