Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, REPURPOSE!
I have melted and reused the gold from dental crowns, old wedding rings from previous marriages, and grandpa's gaudy pendants, to make meaningful new power pieces that meet the current moment and alchemize the past.
It can be incredibly cathartic and meaningful to repurpose these precious materials in this way, and it aligns perfectly with my values around sustainability.
This project above was fun. I took someone's preexisting gold wedding band, and melted it down to create a new, wider and flatter profile, and chased a fern design into it because ferns were symbolic of his relationship with his wife.
Memorial Jewelry
the above photo shows another custom project in which I encapsulated a client's dog's ashes into a pendant, permanently sealed and protected from the elements. Memorial pieces are another type of incredibly rewarding work that I do.
New Custom Talismanic Jewelry and Commitment Rings
The other two categories that my custom clients tend to pursue are power pieces and wedding bands, or rings to express commitment to a partner in some way, official marriage or not. These are both a huge honor to produce because they involve the client letting me in to their story a little bit, so that I can use my aesthetic senses, historical references, and sometimes even divination and psychic abilities to create a design that conveys their specific intention for the piece of jewelry.
Jewelry making is such a rich and vast field of expertise and knowledge, and style varies so greatly because there is just so much to know about metalworking and stones. The physicality of each jeweler's personal touch leads to significant differences in style and feel of jewelry. While I do try new things aesthetically sometimes, I only take on jobs that feel like a close stretch if they are not already squarely in the scope of the work that I do, and filter out the ones that would require me to take a class on a new technique, or just feel like the concept would lead me to make something that didn't feel true to my artistic heart.
So do take a moment to look at my instagram account and go see my gallery of images of one of a kind and custom work to get an idea of the scope of my design work.
if you would like to book a free conversation up to 30 minutes long to discuss an idea you have for a piece of jewelry, please do email me, at lilla@altarmetals.com
I would love to make some jewelry that's just for you!