How To Build a Jewellery Collection Personal To You

Buy Your Own Stones

JeDeCo customer Natalie loves colour and sparkle.  The jewellery she wears is bold and beautiful and showcases the amazing stones that she has collected.  Natalie isn’t a gem-dealer or jeweller, she works in a completely different industry, but she travels a lot for work.  In 2011, she came across the opportunity to buy gemstones in Afghanistan and she was hooked.  Since then Natalie has bought stones from all over the world:  pearls from the Middle East, rubies from Pakistan, topaz and tourmaline from Afghanistan, turquoise from the American south west.   Often the original settings are not well-made or imaginative enough for Natalie so she works with a jewellery designer to incorporate the stones into a piece of jewellery that she loves.  Natalie is all about reinvention.  She has one diamond ring that has been reincarnated three times in different settings, as her tastes change. 

Topaz ring by La Parra Jewels

Choose a Creative Designer

Natalie often works with designer Laura Parra, of La Parra Jewels, who has re-envisioned many pieces for Natalie.   One of Natalie’s favourite pieces is set with a huge topaz that she bought in Kabul.  She was attracted by its colour but she also loved the look of a V-shaped imperfection inside the stone.  Laura took the topaz and made it into an amazing ring, which can be worn in several ways: all the pieces fitted together, the gold inner ring worn in front or behind the topaz ring, or each ring worn separately.

 

Set of three diamond engagement

rings by Kristin M

Laura is not the only JeDeCo designer that Natalie has worked with.  Kristin M designed and made Natalie’s engagement ring, three separate gold and diamond rings that Natalie wears as a set.

 

Build Your Collection

Buying your own stones or reinventing jewellery that you like, but don't love, is a great way to build a very personal jewellery collection.  Every stone tells a story, one of places you’ve been and things you've seen.  By working with a jewellery designer and incorporating old elements into a new piece of work you add to that story and create something new altogether.