A client set out to recreate a ring that had belonged to his partner's mother, wanting the design to echo that original piece as closely as possible while making it her own. Sapphire blue was the goal from the start, chosen specifically for its hardness and resistance to everyday scratches, and the design moved through several stone options before landing on a hexagonal cut with matching marquise-shaped accents. When the render came through, he wrote simply: 'I love it.'

This client worked through several rounds of enamel color choices with the design team to get the blue-purple body and aqua tail just right, and asked for a private engraving on the back for her mother, who passed away the previous year. When it arrived, his wife said 'wow wow wow,' cried reading the inscription, and now wears it every day, putting it back in its box each night.

My most treasured piece of jewelry is a gold pendant my dad, a bench jeweler of 50 years, created in the 1970s. During his early years as a jeweler, he began experimenting with casting broom bristles, which created wonderfully organic shapes and unexpected textures. He made this pendant using cast broom bristles and an emerald-cut blue topaz for my grandmother. Before she passed, she gave it to me, and I’ve worn it almost every day ever since. It’s incredibly special to me because it carries a piece of both my dad’s creativity and my grandmother’s story. My dad is always proud when people compliment it, especially because he knows how unusual and innovative the broom-bristle idea was, and he loves telling people, “It’s made from broom bristles!”