After my husband passed away several years ago, it has been just my daughter and I. She was so young when it happened that she really only has a few fleeting memories of him. She graduated high school this year and I wanted to give her something special as a gift, something that would almost be from the both of us. There had been an I.D. bracelet he had worn, a gift handed down by his father and grandfather before him, and although I didn’t think it was something my daughter would wear, I wondered if there was some way I could incorporate it into a piece of handmade jewelry.
There was a jewelry store nearby that offered custom design jewelry, so I brought the bracelet down with me and told the craftsman what I was thinking about. He said he could definitely incorporate the bracelet into a new piece of custom jewelry and all I needed to do was come up with a jewelry design. He caught me off guard with how convenient and easy it would be, and when I explained that to him, he laughed and told me he gets that a lot.
“People think custom design jewelry involves weeks of sketching and model making, all to get the right look,” he said as he turned on his computer. By quickly scanning an image of the bracelet, he brought up a computer aided design program and began to show me all the possibilities that I had. Seeing just how easy this could be, I started thinking about creating two pieces of custom design jewelry. I explained what I was thinking about, and in just a matter of minutes, he had both looks up on the screen for me.
Then came the part that I thought would be the deal breaker: the cost. The figure he quoted me was surprisingly within the range of my budget, and I knew the only reason it was more than I thought was because I decided to get two pieces of handmade jewelry instead of one. The final custom design included a bangle that used pieces of the ID plate itself and a necklace featuring links from the original chain.
It was a pretty emotional night when I gave her the gifts. She had never known about the original bracelet but loved the fact that she had two pieces of custom design jewelry that came from it. A day does not go by where she isn’t wearing at least one of those pieces of handmade jewelry.
There was a jewelry store nearby that offered custom design jewelry, so I brought the bracelet down with me and told the craftsman what I was thinking about. He said he could definitely incorporate the bracelet into a new piece of custom jewelry and all I needed to do was come up with a jewelry design. He caught me off guard with how convenient and easy it would be, and when I explained that to him, he laughed and told me he gets that a lot.
“People think custom design jewelry involves weeks of sketching and model making, all to get the right look,” he said as he turned on his computer. By quickly scanning an image of the bracelet, he brought up a computer aided design program and began to show me all the possibilities that I had. Seeing just how easy this could be, I started thinking about creating two pieces of custom design jewelry. I explained what I was thinking about, and in just a matter of minutes, he had both looks up on the screen for me.
Then came the part that I thought would be the deal breaker: the cost. The figure he quoted me was surprisingly within the range of my budget, and I knew the only reason it was more than I thought was because I decided to get two pieces of handmade jewelry instead of one. The final custom design included a bangle that used pieces of the ID plate itself and a necklace featuring links from the original chain.
It was a pretty emotional night when I gave her the gifts. She had never known about the original bracelet but loved the fact that she had two pieces of custom design jewelry that came from it. A day does not go by where she isn’t wearing at least one of those pieces of handmade jewelry.
