Before & after — real transformations
Commissions from my Carouge atelier: inherited jewellery, heirlooms, pieces that stopped being worn — each remodelled into something worn again.
The piece that came in, beside the piece that went out.
A grandmother's ring → Amethyst, turned
Her grandmother's ring — a deep purple amethyst in a heavy claw setting, worn by nobody for years.
The stone came out, and went back in upside down. What was hidden underneath — the faceted pavilion — became the face of the ring, catching the light in a way the old setting never let it.
The same stone her grandmother wore, seen from the other side.
One earring became three pieces
→ A pair of studs
She lost one of her favourite sapphire earrings and kept the survivor in a drawer for years — too pretty to throw away, impossible to wear alone.
Its two clusters came apart and became a pair of deliberately mismatched studs: one blue-haloed, one gold, just as the original was.
One orphan earring, worn again as two.
The leftover diamond
→ A pendant
The same earring had a diamond between its two clusters. It went nowhere near the drawer this time.
Set in a pavé halo on a fine chain — the third piece from a single lost earring.
Another grandmother's ring → A pendant, stone reversed
Different client, same instinct: her grandmother's amethyst, set upside down so the faceted underside faces the light — this time as a pendant in a plain gold bezel.
Two families arrived at the same idea without knowing it.
A solitaire → An Art Deco halo
A classic solitaire that no longer looked like the woman wearing it.
The original diamond stayed; a sunburst halo of baguettes grew around it.
Same stone, same promise — a different ring.
Great-grandmother's earrings → Two pendants
Two carved black flowers, broken and unworn since her great-grandmother's day.
Each became a gold-hung pendant — one for her, one for her daughter.
Four generations, still wearing the same flowers.
Grandmother's bracelet → A diamond cluster ring
A diamond-set bangle, inherited and never worn.
The stones came out of their row and regrouped as a cluster ring — the same diamonds, rearranged from a straight line into something with movement.
Out of the box, onto her hand.
A heavy curb chain → A Knife Edge chain
A dated curb chain with real weight to it.
The gold was melted and remade as a chain from my Knife Edge collection — the same metal, in a design she'd have chosen anyway.
A tasselled necklace → A pair of drops
An 18ct gold tassel necklace — amethyst, peridot, aquamarine — that never left its box.
The cascade was split in two: the same stones on the same fine chains, now a pair of drop earrings that actually get worn.
Unworn white gold → An emerald statement ring
A pearl-set branch necklace and a small emerald ring, all 18ct white gold, all unworn.
The emerald was reset flush in a wide banded ring — a quiet stone made into the whole point of the piece.
