We recently had a customer come in with her grandmother?s engagement ring, which had an immense sentimental value to her. Despite how much the ring meant to her, she hardly wore it in its original state. She came to us with her dilemma. She needed to find a way to preserve the sentimentality of the piece while also turning it into something wearable. After assessing the condition of the ring and talking with the customer about what she wanted, we turned this ring into a beautiful necklace. We were happy to accommodate her and eventually, the ring was turned into a gorgeous pendant. The process we took for this customer mirrors the approach we take for everyone when they come to us with an older piece of jewelry. We take the time to listen to their story and then assess the piece to determine the best approach depending on its quality and the costs involved. Here?s a look at some of the options customers have in terms of what they can do with their older jewelry:

Restore or Repair the Old Jewelry

If you love the piece as it is but know that it could look a lot better than it does, consider repairing and restoring the original so that it looks as good as new! For example, if you have your grandmother?s engagement ring and want to use it to propose to your girlfriend, restoring and repairing it would be a great option.

Recycle the Old Jewelry

Did you know that jewelers often use recycled materials to make new pieces? If the elements of the piece, such as the stones and metals, are in fairly good condition, they can be separated out from the original piece and turned into something completely new and exciting. If you?re interested in recycling a piece of jewelry, you?ll want to contact your jeweler. From there, you can decide if you want to turn the recycled pieces into something new, or sell it so that the jeweler can use it in a new design.

Turn Old Jewelry Into Something New

In the case of our customer, she opted to turn her grandmother?s ring into something completely new while still retaining the original characteristics of the ring. This can be done by separating out the elements, such as the stones and metals, and using them in a completely new design. There is room for much creativity here and by taking the customer?s feedback into account, we can design something new that they?ll truly love. When you have an old heirloom piece, you don?t need to keep it in its present form. There are many things that you can do that will give the piece new life. In the case of our customer, she now has a piece that not only preserves the original beauty of her family heirloom, but that she can wear all the time. Do you have an older jewelry piece and want to examine your options on what to do with it? Contact us or stop into the store to get more information!