We all have them. The traditional, safe pieces of jewelry that, while they’re fine and lovely, we just don’t wear. They’re not us. They’re not this decade, or epoch even. They don’t say anything about us stylistically, at least not anything we’d want to broadcast. You know…that gold snake chain, the gold heart with your birthstone set in it, a traditionally set diamond stud. That’s what Judy had – a pair of diamond studs. The diamonds were beautiful, but you’d never get a real sense of that in these settings.

before

Now you have to understand…Judy has great style. She knows how to layer. She loves asymmetry and creating new arrangements by linking various pieces together. She and a girlfriend often split pairs of kara | daniel earrings so they can wear a single with their other fun and funky adornments. So, these diamond studs weren’t doing Judy any justice, they needed a new home. So Judy met with us.

We took one diamond and it became part of a ring trio that you can see here. It was decided the other diamond stud would become part of a pendant. Judy wears a lot of kara | daniel stainless steel, including our chains, and loves things long. So we designed a clean cylindrical pendant that would lend good weight to a longer chain, but wouldn’t compete at all with the fire of this diamond. Out of the gold prongs and into the spacious stainless setting the diamond appeared much bigger, and had gorgeous light. It now shines as an attention grabbing pendant in a way it never did in its previous gold prong setting.

after: hammer-set recycled diamond in stainless steel

This piece will be on exhibit at The Green Show: Recycle, Repurpose, Reuse at the Epic Center . Kalamazoo, MI . September 9-30. Opening reception Friday, September 9th . 5:00-8:00p.