Is your jewellery box full but you have nothing to wear? Broken this, ugly that, sentimental value and raw value, but no bling! What’s a girl to do? You need to repurpose those investments and here’s how.
Reduce the unwearable clutter:
If you’re like me, you have a jewellery box full of earrings with missing mates, broken chains stretched beyond repair and pieces from teenage days (maybe from old boyfriends – what?!). What on earth do you do with these? While you won’t get the value from the labour the goldsmith put in to make these, the gold itself is still worth more than you think. AND in some cases, the price jewellers will buy scrap gold for is more if you use the value towards something else in the store… sometimes as much as 25% more! Your old, unwearable pieces could buy you a beautiful, fashionable new piece of jewellery!
Reuse the pieces that have life left in them
Ever treat yourself to a new haircut/colour, time at the spa, or a makeover? Your jewellery needs that too sometimes. Lotions and hair products can stick to your gemstone and won’t necessarily wash off with just water. Often times it takes as little as a professional cleaning at your favourite jeweller, a service which should be free! You’d be shocked to know how often I see people shocked or teary-eyed when they see their clean jewellery come to life again. Sometimes it may take a bit more work and there may be a small charge, but the results are worth it. Small scratches can often be polished out and if your white gold pieces have gone dull they may just need to be re-rhodium plated!
Some jewellery in your drawer could be clean as a whistle, but the ring doesn’t fit, the clasp on the chain is broken, the claw on a gemstone catches on everything… All solvable problems and usually very inexpensive. Imagine all those pieces, back in the land of the sparkly after quick visit to your favourite jeweller.
Recycle the pieces that are just not you… into the new you!
But what about those pieces that are too sentimental to just get rid of? Perhaps you’ve inherited Aunt Gertie’s hideous “1970s Special” loaded with tiny diamonds or rich Grandma Mae’s enormous diamond solitaire that sits so high you’re just sure you’d poke an eye out if you wore it. The solution? Melt it down and have those gems and gold remade into a fashionable WEARABLE design. All the sentiment - but beautiful and fitting of your lifestyle - so you can enjoy it! After all, that’s what Aunt Gertie would want, wouldn’t she?
When you have something custom made, your jeweller can help you create a design that suits you by combining all of the features of pieces you like and eliminating the features you don’t. Once you have a concept, the goldsmith designs the piece, creating a computer generated picture so you can see your design from all angles. Then, a 3D printer is used to grow a resin model so you can actually try it on! Here’s where you make sure its just right. If its too high/low, to square/round… or just not quite what you imagined, it is revised until it is perfect. Only then are your sentimental pieces melted down and used to bring your beautiful new, custom piece of jewellery to life!
Jewellery should be loved and worn; Don't let it tarnish and gather dust in the bottom of your jewellery box. Stop by Kelowna's favourite jewelry store, European Goldsmith, to discover the possibilities of what you can reduce, reuse or recycle from your old jewellery!
