The right piece of jewellery can be a deeply personal item, and none more so than a jewel that has been specially tweaked to make it unique to you. Whether it is the addition of a simple initial or a more elaborate secret message, there is an art to buying, and creating, personalised jewellery.
Engraving is perhaps the most ancient method of personalising jewellery, and when done well it can be an art form in itself. With personalised jewellery so popular right now, many trendsetting jewellery brands, such as Jemma Wynne and Aurélie Bidermann, now carry ranges of contemporary rings, pendants and bracelets that can be engraved with initials, names or short messages.
Cult jewellery brand Foundrae, based in New York, has taken the concept of engraving and given it a new lease of life with its Mama bar necklace. Order the colour you like - the necklace comes in green, blue, red, black and white champléve enamel - and personalise it with up to 10 letters of your choice, picked out in gold in a cool Gothic script.
You might have to patient, allowing for a few weeks to personalise your jewel, but when it arrives, it will instantly resonate and is sure to become part of your staple collection. You can opt for something simple, such as initials or a name, for a forever piece, or be brave and choose a private joke or favourite quote.
Adding a carefully curated collection of charms to a bracelet or necklace is another way to personalise your jewellery, and taking this concept one step further is Sheherazade Goldsmith and Laura Bailey’s luxury jewellery brand Loquet London. As well as offering a wide selection of its own precious charms to be dropped into its gold and crystal lockets, you can now also upload a sketch of your own design that will be transformed into a unique charm by the brand’s goldsmiths.
While charms and engraving are designed to be seen by all, there are more discrete ways to create luxurious personalised diamond jewellery, like the secret diamond messaging systems developed by R.Y.M Jewelry and Jessie V E London. R.Y.M. has created a set of precious symbols to be affixed to its Diamond Digit necklaces, with each assigned a number so you can create numerical combinations such as birthdays or lucky numbers, or use a code to spell out secret binary messages.
Jessie V E, meanwhile, has transported the language of braille to fine jewellery by inverting select diamonds on her Feel the Love rings, creating subtle pointed bumps that can be read with the fingers. Create a name or initials using up to eight characters, or for an unusual proposal, “marry me” fits perfectly within Jessie V E’s strict character count.
