several months ago, we melted down rings along with the bits and pieces from her jewelry box to create a diamond pendant. like so many of us, she wanted to reduce and reuse.
a heart ring was among the items that was supposed to be resized. unfortunately, through my communication mishap, the shop misunderstood and included the ring into the melt. imagine my horror to find out it had been destroyed with the other items!
when a jeweler makes a mistake
i do my best to be as transparent as possible including when i have made a terrible error with someone’s property. one of the most common complaints in this business – something i have heard over and over again – is when a jeweler makes a mistake, either they do not take responsibility or they still charge for the work done. i take very seriously the trust that people have in sending me their belongings. there are times where i lose money; but at the end of the day, not only do i want to be able to sleep at night, but i also want to be able to look in the mirror and like who i am seeing.
she was so very very gracious about the ring since she absolutely loved the resulting pendant which included her dad’s original diamond in the plate. the diamond and emblem were the most important features to maintain. but her mother had had the heart ring made, so it too was also tied up in the emotional mix, both loving and not. there was no charge for the labor to make the pendant, due to my responsibility in the snafu.
i offered to have the ring reproduced and after a small while she said, “let’s do it.”
as a matter of course, i usually photograph items from customers in order to document what i have and for use on my web portfolio and social media. luckily, in this instance, I had both photographed and measured this sweet ring so we were able to duplicate it!
it was reproduced as faithfully as possible with the information i had collected. the measurements and photographs were used to create a digital model using a CAD (computer-aided design) system. CAM (computer-aided modeling) was used to build a wax model from which a mold was created. the mold was used for the metal casting, and ultimately the piece was hand finished.
there was no charge to her to replace the ring. i did charge for parts and labor for the addition of the small diamonds which she decided to add to the ring to accompany the pendant whose diamond was originally in the center of the heart.
the history of this ring was a juicy story involving divorce, theft, and reuse of the diamond. now, although reproduced, this piece holds part of the story of her life – including the error that was made on my part.
- heart ring in 14k yellow gold and 14k white gold with 3 single cut diamonds
- location: Colebrook, CT
