Monday, May 19, 2014

Personalized jewelry - A post on wedding gifts, jewelry design and ....Paris

What does Paris have to do with personalized jewelry?
 Read on and find out :)
Let's start with a question:
What combines aesthetics and message with an intimate touch?

More intimate than a work of art,
more resilient than a written note,
a piece of jewelry can do what very few objects can.

It can dazzle the eye, at the same time keeping a wish or message close to one's heart.

No wonder jewelry makes such a popular gift.
Especially when the gift is made especially for you.

Rather then talking about personalized jewelry, I would like to 'walk my talk' this time and show you how I created a gift that touched hearts.
Sarah and Benjamin wedding invitation, November 10th

It started with a wedding invitation we got - which it a very good start given the wedding took place in France and enabled to sneak a few days in Paris (...see the connection now? :))

As a wedding gift, I decided to create something special for the bride. Something that will always remind her of this day and our wishes for many happy days together.

As research is something I love to do, the first thing I did was to start collecting pictures and researching symbols I could use.

Here is a link to the Pinterest board I created then.

When it comes to wedding/happiness/connection symbols, I discovered the sky is the limit.
From Celtic knots, to infinity signs, to Chinese symbols - you name it.
Eventually, as this is a young Jewish couple I settled on pomegranates, a symbol of abundance and fertility.
What better wish for a young couple than having as many happy years together as the seeds of the pomegranate?

After days of sketching pomegranate pendants, and not being really happy with any of them, I looked at the wedding invitation again ... and flipped it to its backside.

Bingo!!!! The bride and groom designed an interlocked version of their initials:  B and S.

What better way to surprise them than creating a lasting version of their design?

Few days later, and pendant is ready - glistening in sterling silver, featuring a stylized version of the bride and groom initials and 3 pomegranates. Two set with rubies, one engraved with the wedding date.



Complementing the pendant, I thought a pair of pomegranate earrings will really make this a nice gift, so back to the studio....and here is the result!

...I liked them so much, I posted these in my ETSY shop

Packed in a handsome box, the necklace and earrings traveled to France and after the wedding ceremony went to Sarah, the beautiful bride.


A few weeks later, back at home, we got a really nice note (...in French of course :)

"....your gift, so thoughtful and personalized shows your generosity ...."
You see, this is the essence of personalized jewelry to me:

You do not have to say it,
the recipient knows it was designed and created especially for them.

.......and will probably cherish it as such for a long time






Next time you want to give a truly personalized gift, invest a bit of thought and it may go a very long way towards making a loved person very very happy.

Here is the link to the English version:
To help you do exactly that, I wrote a short guide and published it on my ETSY store. It is free (well 20 cents, as you can not post free listings on ETSY....)

There is an English and a Hebrew version - pick the one you are more comfortable with - download, read and let me know what you think of it.

Bye,
Amy