The Best Projects Have Stories!

Here’s a fun story and a neat, currently in-progress project. The story, which you will see turns out well, starts with a divorce. Not acrimonious, the parties involved have agreed to co-parent in the best interests of their child, now 8 years old. The mother often brings her child to Oregon to visit her parents and was visiting in Southern Oregon during this recent 4th of July holiday. Having previously made contact with me through my recently launched website, garydawsondesigns.com, we made arrangements to meet to discuss what to do with her old engagement ring.
She had the idea that she wanted to recycle the materials of the ring into something for her child, probably a pendant. Something that would represent both parents and yet be mostly about the boy. Beyond that, and the fact that she would prefer to also utilize an emerald, the childs birthstone, she didn’t really have a solid direction for the design…so we talked. I love how the design process evolves!
In talking about her son’s birthday, she mentioned that there had been a storm with lightning on the day that he was born. And interestingly, on each birthday since…lightning had also appeared. It wasn’t a stretch to suggest that lightning might play a part in the design of his pendant. She also mentioned the bicycle race that her son always had with his grandpa. Always a close race, always contested, the “Pedal Cup” was much anticipated by both Grandpa and Grandkid! There was even a trophy. A rolled out penny with the words “Pedal Cup” stamped into the surface. After some thought, and further consultation with her via digital imaging and email since she was now again out of state we arrived at a working concept…here it is.


I removed the diamonds and melted the platinum ring into an ingot. After rolling the platinum ingot into a sturdy piece of sheet, I cut out two lightning bolts and visualized that those, representing both parents, would point toward the emerald that she had chosen for the pendant. The lightening, of course, also represented the child’s birthday history. I will set the emerald into a pure gold (24K) bezel to represent the purity of intent of both parents to work together in the best interests of the child. Then, remembering the rolled-out penny shape, I visualized applying all of these materials onto an 18Karat background in the same shape. The center stone of the engagement ring will be graver set in a star-cut, near the top of the pendant to represent the “rising star” that is this child. Accent stones will be graver set into the sides of the pendant to add a deco-ish, super-hero feel to the entire pendant.
There are other subtle elements of meaning build into this pendant. In creating custom jewelry, we can not only recycle materials to our advantage, but built in layers of meaning. For me this is fulfilling and joyful!

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