Custom pendant, birthday gift

Creating custom jewellery is a wonderful collaboration, pushing me to explore new designs.

I love collaborating on custom design projects. It requires me to connect with my clients & really listen to their needs and requests. Collaboration pushes me creatively to explore designs that I would not have come up with on my own.

Creating a birthday gift that is unique to the wearer

This particular custom jewellery pendant was a surprise birthday gift. The intention was to make something truly personal and unique that told the birthday girl’s story and journey. After having many conversations with my client, I knew the recipient was a fascinating businesswoman and scientist. Her life changed when she had a deep-sea encounter with sperm whales. Her connection to this powerful animal was instant and intense. I got the impression it had become her animal guide. Upon discussing more, I discovered she has 4 children. As a mother myself, I know the importance our children play in our lives and wanted to incorporate that into the design.

With these concepts in mind, I was given free rein to let my inspiration take off and take flight. Normally I would make 3 sketches to narrow down a design direction, but since the client trusted my judgment completely and I went full speed ahead and followed my intuition.

My custom jewellery process takes place in my Toronto studio

I chose a pendant shape that is round because it represents the self, wholeness, movement and femininity. I made the decision to create imagery on each side to give her 2 separate looks and make the piece more versatile. This also allowed me to incorporate more personalized design elements without overcrowding the piece.

Once I solidified the design in my head, I kicked everything off by melting an ingot of fresh silver metal. I then passed it through a rolling mill to gradually transform that metal ingot into a flat sheet of metal. At this point in the spirit of embracing technology, precision, and saving time, I decided to have the outer circle’s edge, the whale motif, and the constellation laser engraved onto my sheet of metal. This allowed me to saw through the round shape, in the metal quickly, and get started on hand engraving the whale. I used very sharp engraving tools to cut the metal away and create the shiny cuts that define the design work on both sides. After completing the whale, I moved on to the constellation. Once the constellation was achieved I used a Sharpie to place the 4 birthstones randomly around the constellation design. After a few Sharpie iterations, I decided on the final placement of the stones and went ahead and drilled those holes out. At this point, I went ahead and polished the whole piece before setting the gemstone birthstones, which are a softer material, that will abrade while polishing. The last step was to star-set each unique colored gemstone.

Personalized jewellery gifts are timeless and are meant to be passed down to family and loved ones.

The outcome of the project was Amazing. The birthday girl was completely surprised and loved the design. Here’s what she had to say

“This is hands down the most thoughtful thing anyone has made for me, this is so beautiful”

Get in touch, I am here to guide you through your custom jewellery journey

I come out of these projects thrilled and Happy to get to share memories and milestones with my clients.

If you or anyone you know is interested in a custom pendant or custom jewellery in general, please fill out my custom design form and don’t hesitate to get in touch with me. I would love to get to know your story and collaborate on something unique for you or your loved one. Also please follow me on Instagram to see more of my jewellery journey.