In her jewelry box there was a very discolored dog tag (looks black in the photos above), with her daughter’s signature. We also found a thin rope chain and a heart pendant.
It was an interesting challenge to use the daughter’s actual signature to make a bespoke nameplate necklace in 14k yellow gold. To make sure the nameplate was heavy enough to be hand engraved, we took the little tag, cut it in half, and used a traditional process called “sweat soldering” to double the thickness.
Now what is sweat soldering you may be wondering?
Small chips of solder are laid between the gold pieces to be joined, and then the entire piece is heated up to melt or “sweat” the solder to flow. Once it was sized to my specifications, the plate was hand-engraved with Sophia’s actual signature.
and then it all came together – redesigned necklace
Her daughter’s mantra “small but mighty” was also engraved on the back. I work with a very talented magician of a hand engraver – check out the other mantra pendant created from this jewelry box. The original tag had a cutout of the Hebrew letter for “life” which is visible on the back side of the new plate.
The rope chain was also found amongst the jewelry she brought in. To complete the necklace, we split the chain in the center and attached the nameplate.
Additionally an 18k yellow gold heart pendant that mom purchased in Italy many years ago was added to the necklace as a dangle. The center “diamond” is not real, probably a cubic zirconia or “cz” as it is affectionately known in the trade.
- 14k yellow gold engraved nameplate tag on thin rope chain with 18k yellow gold heart pendant with assumed cubic zirconia center
- Location: Barkhamsted, CT
