Commissioning a piece of jewellery can be a fantastic way to create a significant gift or a personal memento that is layered with meaning and tailored to suit the individual. The process, and the piece, can be as simple or as complex as you’d like. As each piece of jewellery is handmade it’s possible to customize shape, colour, content, size, length, metals, stones and motifs. 

One: The simplest commissions involve taking existing designs and tweaking them slightly. This will usually involve picking a colour way and a length, and certainly choosing the words to be included on the stamped silver. Sometimes a cast shape will change, or the selection of stones, or a gold loop to silver (and so on) to suit the person for whom it is intended. The advantage with this method is that it’s possible to produce the piece within a couple of weeks, with very little extra cost and also that the commissioner can visualise the finished piece. Visit the custom bangle page here for an example of how this works...

Two: A more complex commissioning process involves creating a piece (or pieces) of jewellery from scratch. Recent commissions have included a necklace based around a specific sonnet, a necklace based around motifs of the recipient’s favourite things with the colour way drawn from the eye colours of family members and a collection of four necklaces for four family members to feature a melted down and remoulded gold wedding ring in amongst the castings. The list could go on..... The process is deeply personal and the result is a completely unique and meaningful piece of jewellery. It is however a lengthier and costlier process. If you are interested in commissioning this type of piece please email your ideas and details and we can begin a process of conversations and sketches before embarking on making something special.

Three: A collection of work is commissioned by an organisation. This can entail (for example) making a range of jewellery to complement the work of a featured painter, drawing on their colours and themes. It can also involve creating a unique range which is particular to the mood and feel of the hotel or gallery commissioning, often drawing on their locale  Sometimes it is more complex, such as the Leach Pottery Commission where the work was developed as a response to both the work of Bernard leach and also the role the studio played. For more examples please see the Gallery, or if you are interested in commissioning, please feel free to contact me to discuss possibilities.