Custom Jewelry Design Process

"I've looked through several catalogs and nothing really jumped out at me." "I have a vision for a ring in my mind but I cant seem to find what I really want anywhere." "I wish could have more choices for my next piece of jewelry."

These are common customer sentiments. Most customers today are tired of being confined to catalog jewelry pieces that inevitably reflect ideas other than their own. We hear often from customers who have creative, personalized ideas for jewelry, but are frustrated because they can't find anything on the market that fits their image. At Opals International, one of the things we take the most pride in is our ability and willingness to make the customer's vision a reality, working closely with individual customers to design a unique, one-of-a-kind piece. It may be from scratch or it may be a drastic re-styling of an exisiting piece or pieces of jewelry that you are tired of wearing.

With the growth and expansion of our Internet business, the benefits of being able to custom-design a piece of jewelry through online communication have become obvious. While it may not be practical for you to physically come into our store to tell us your idea or view the piece in progress, we are still committed to designing your customized creation. We have developed a systematic line of communication so that, from the comfort of your own home, you can tell us what you are looking for, approve an initial drawing, and then review wax models, metal prototypes, and the final product. YOU work with us through the entire process until your piece is finished, the way YOU desire.

• * What type of jewelry (ring, earrings, pendant, etc.) are you looking for? This also includes the metal or metals you desire, any textures, artwork, etc. etc.
• * What stones do you want? What size of gemstone are you looking for? What specific color hue/intensity do you prefer? What shape do you want the stone to be? Most important with gemstone is quality and this translates into BUDGET, you need to know or let us know what your maximum budget will be for this center stone, that helps us locate the BEST stone for your design and budget.

• * How do you want the stone set in the piece--how high above the ring band do you want the stone to sit? Prongs or Bezel or semi-bezel etc.
• * What kind of setting do you want? (For example, do you want white gold, yellow gold, platinum or silver? 14k or 18k gold?) Do you want the metal textured in any way? Do you want mixtures, two tone, 18k yellow with 14k white ?
• * Are you looking for a contemporary or traditional style? Can you draw us a simple sketch or rendition, or send us or email us a picture from a catalog of what kinds of designs you do like. (we won't copy someone else's work but may be able to do a style of our own similar)
• * Do you want additional stones on the side of your main stone(s)? What kind, color, and shape? Such as diamonds or sapphires on the side of a Black Opal
• * For rings, what is your ring size? How thick do you want the ring band? And how wide do want it ? And do you want it to taper, comfort fit, or skinny wide.
• * For necklaces, what type of chain do you have in mind? The bail (where chain goes through) on top do you want it to be stiff, dangle,swivel, spin, reverse etc. Another example of detailed sketches we will do at this point:

Equipped with this information, our jewelers will make a wax representation that the jewelers will use to create the final product. We will make a digital image in several angles of the wax mold and send you an image. The reason we do wax moldings is so that they can be changed without using costly metal, so be sure to tell us your suggestions for change.

In some cases the piece will be fabricated by hand instead of a wax image, this is sually done in the final metal and usually only after we are very sure of the final design concept. The image you receive will look something like this with the blue stuff being hard wax, hand model or carved exactly to specifications that ultimately will be a competed product after any changes that you desire. Important to note we now have the ability to render a 3-D Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing Jewelry Design Model for you to actually see in full color what the special ring or necklace will look like when done and on you! We use the CAD programs JewelScape and Rhino to create the finest 3D CAD designs. See details at

Computer CAD/CAM Jewelry Design section.

After hearing how you would like the design changed or altered, we will design another wax image, or just modify this one to accommodate your changes and send updated digital images via email or in some cases send the wax to you for closer inspection. This process will continue until the design meets your criteria. After you authorize the wax mold, our jewelers will create the final product, send more images BEFORE we set the stones in order to get your final approvals or changes. Then if it is all fine we will set the stones, polish and take final pictures of YOUR custom creation. We also prepare an insurance replacement appraisal at NO CHARGE and supply the information that you need to get the piece insured with our insurance company Jewelers Mutual Insurance Company. Then we will ship the piece to you. The following images are unfinished metals that were cast from the "blue wax model" above and then the final product as shipped to the client.

It has been our experience that custom designs of jewelry has been one of the most fulfilling parts of our business, both from our perspective as well as the customer's. The process allows the customer to finally get exactly what he or she individually wants out of a piece of jewelry.

It allows us the creativity to help design new, innovative pieces, as well as the satisfaction of making our customers' jewelry dreams possible. We are interested in any and every idea you may have. Please feel free to contact us and begin a relationship with us as we help you design the "special" piece of jewelry you have always been looking for but no one had the patience to do it in YOUR VISION !!

Fine Jewelry made with you, for you and in your vision. The pictures displayed on the right are the final pictures of the Diamond and Opal Inlay Mens wedding ring that we started with a phone call, then a wax, then a metal model, then the finished piece. It is that EASY. The process that is....

This Custom design process follows the same basic ideas for each creation but can progress in many different speeds and levels of difficulty which of course will vary from one individual to another, that is the beauty of creating something special with you !

Designing Process | Design Pricing| More Examples