The Anatomy of a Mother’s Necklace: This is How I Do It

If you are familiar with my work, you know that my passion is designing customized, heirloom jewelry for individuals that represent their lives, their personality or their families.

Mother’s Jewelry has a long history. Traditionally, rings were the sole adornment for a mother because they are the “original” representation of a woman’s child. A mother’s ring usually contained the birthstones of her children.

While there is a long history as to the origin of Mother’s jewelry, things have changed a lot these days. Traditions have morphed into a more modern style, infusing initials, pendants, charms and birthstones in very unique ways.

I thought we could have some fun today and you could see how my process for designing a mother’s necklace works.

It starts with an idea and a phone call or email…

In this case, my client’s wife had emailed me a few months before my trip to Bali about a custom piece. We briefly discussed design aesthetic and overall feel. Unfortunately, she was caught up in “LIFE” and we temporarily lost touch. I was so excited to receive a call from her husband a few months later.

Since I already had an idea of what she wanted, the rest was fairly straightforward.

I came up with a bunch of ideas and sketches.

My Client really wanted the mother’s necklace to be a surprise so he got her sister involved…

Enter sister who was awesome to work with. I love it when someone knows someone so well that they can easily narrow down a selection of designs in a few minutes.

We quickly came up with three charms:

One charm represents each of their two daughters and one charm represents themselves and their family unit.

These pieces were carved in wax first

Then off to creation and diamond setting

Instead of birthstones, we opted for diamonds. Depending on the birth months, the selection of birthstones can be difficult to source in a particular shape or design. Diamonds are an excellent way to add sparkle and significance.

Once the diamonds were set, the piece was polished and sent to the engraver to hand-engrave initials into each of the charms.

The final result – Beautiful!

I am super stoked to have created this amazing mother’s necklace creation. It is really on of my favorites of all times.

Just for fun, I posted some more of the sketch designs below. Let me know…

Which design you like best and why?

You can leave your feedback in the comments below.

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