Savvy Tips & Helpful Hints

Simple Ways to Transform your Jewelry

Do you have a jewelry box? Is it intricately designed and brimming over with brilliant diamonds? Is it an old box that rattles every time you take it out of a draw? Do you keep your earrings balanced on top of it making it impossible to open?

Think a bit about what’s in your jewelry box right now. Is there a horrible tarnished gold ring that belonged to your great aunt that you will never wear? Is there a necklace that was gifted to you that doesn’t quite suit your neck? Whatever it is you have hidden away in your jewelry box, now is the time to haul it out and give it the love it deserves. Many people purchase antique jewelry because you get a lot of bang for your buck which includes lots of diamonds. Many people purchase large multi diamond brooches and other pieces of antique jewelry and then remove the diamonds to make other items such as stud earrings.

Gold and silver are highly malleable metals and as such can be melted down, added to and reset until you are happy with the final product. This means that you can take your old unwanted pieces of jewelry and reinvent them.

Change the design

Changing the look of the piece could not be simpler. Perhaps you were left an old yellow-gold ring that you like the style of but can never wear because yellow-gold is not your color. This can be easily rectified through rhodium plating. Rhodium is a white metal so will give your ring a silver look. No longer that yellow gold that doesn’t suit you, you will be able to wear your new rhodium plated ring all the time. 

Another way to change up the design of the piece is to replace any stones that are set into it. You might have a pendant you love but it is set with February’s birthstone amethyst and being born in September (for example) you would like it to be a sapphire. Any professional jeweler will be able to swap out the stones and reset the piece for you. 

Let somebody else love it

Just because you are not fond of it, doesn’t mean that the particular piece of jewelry in question is worthless. If you sold your unwanted pearl earrings, they could become somebody’s cherished 30th anniversary present. Selling jewelry has never been easier, you can even do it online. Retailers such as F Jewellery make it so easy and you can sit back, happy in the knowledge that your unwanted jewelry is being used and loved by somebody else. 

Break it down

This may sound a little extreme, but if you are not a necklace wearer and you have an extravagant choker gathering dust in the cupboard, then opt to have it broken down. Change it into a bracelet and a pair of earrings, make it something you will wear and perhaps even pass down to a younger generation. Fine jewelers will use the metal and gemstones from the original piece, so that you won’t lose any of its original sentimentality, you just change its form. 

It can even be a good idea to check if the jewelers can offset the cost of altering your piece with scrap metal. So if you have any necklace chains or earring butterflies lying around, weigh them up and see what they’re worth.