How to Create Custom Jewelry & Bring Your Design to Life

Creating your own jewelry is an exciting process. You can take an idea and translate that dream into a real, unique piece of jewelry! If you want to create that perfect piece of jewelry or are interested in redesigning an older piece, creating a custom design is a great option to consider.

Over our 140 year history, we have helped countless people design pieces from scratch. Here are the steps to create custom jewelry designs when you work with your local jeweler:

Start with an initial concept

The possibilities here are endless. We can bring practically any jewelry design you can imagine to life. And we always welcome a challenge!

You only need to have a general idea of what you want in the design when you start the process. You do not need to know all the specifics before walking into a store. Our team will collaborate with you and together help create your custom design.

For example, maybe you are having some trouble finding the perfect engagement ring. You may have an idea of some of the characteristics that you want for the ring (like the diamond's shape and ring's style) but cannot picture it exactly. If you were to come into one of our stores and explain some of your ideas, our experts can get started just by having a general understanding of your concept.

A rough sketch is created

Once the jewelry's design has been decided upon, our staff will work with you to create a rough sketch of the jewelry or show you different pictures to demonstrate the various features that it will have. This will serve as a quick way to show you how we can make your design come to life, and you'll get an idea of what it will look like.

CAD software is used to create your design

From the rough sketch, our staff will then create a CAD (computer-aided design) rendering of the custom design so that the jewelry appears as a 3 dimensional digital image. In this visual, we will include the type of metal being used and any colored gemstones that you may have on the piece. The final image can be rotated around so that you can see if from multiple angles.

This CAD visual can be shown to you in person or even emailed to you so that you can view it on your own computer. This is the time where you should make any last minute changes that you would need to before the jeweler starts creating the final product.

A wax or resin model of the jewelry is created

After you approve the CAD rendering of your custom jewelry, we then begin the CAM (computer-aided manufacturing) portion of the process. Using the latest technology, we generate a wax or resin model of the piece. This model is cast and stones are set wherever necessary. Using this near-final version of your custom design, we will then work to bring the design to life.