The Bespoke Jewellery Design Process

As a master designer, maker and stylist of extraordinary fine bespoke jewellery since 1986, every piece that I have had the privilege to work on had its own personalised story to tell, captured in time and passionately crafted through a well thought out process.

Creating a bespoke piece is not a cookie cutter process, so take this into consideration prior to your appointment, as it will take a little investment of your time in order to produce something that is extraordinary..

Many things are taken into consideration to create a piece styled, in proportion to the individual within your budget. Prior to our initial obligation free consultation, sharing your budget will help serve you best, allowing me to guide you through realistic options and where best to spend your money.

Find Your Inspiration

Before your appointment with Dallas, find the inspiration, repetitious pattern, symbol or wording from a period in time or style that is reflective of you and your design. One source of inspiration is to browse example of previous pieces through our collection pages.

Once you have an idea of your piece, book your appointment to visit the Cronulla workshop. Part of the booking process includes some optional questions that allows Dallas to best prepare for your first meeting and to understand your expectations.

Appointment

Together with a little investment of your time Dallas will guide you through the design of your piece while discussing important decisions around proportions and longevity, capturing your sentiment and meeting your budget.

Everything about your ideal design is dictated by the size and quality of the diamonds or gemstones, so it is important that these are sourced first if required. With the ability to source stones worldwide or to have a stone specifically cut to your requirements, Dallas can help supply stones for your design or look at incorporating your own gemstones. Selecting a diamond can be a daunting task, read more about choosing diamonds.

During your appointment in-store, try on a large range of rings in varying sizes, shapes and widths to find what is comfortable and proportionate to your hand. Sizing is an important part of making a repetitious patterned ring (poesy) or full set eternity ring as it may not be able to be re-sized later without complications.

The thickness of a ring can determine it’s longevity. Selecting a thicker band has both financial and sentimental benefits in reducing possible future repairs and extending the lifespan of your piece. Dallas is passionate about ensuring the piece created for you becomes a heirloom to pass through to generations to come.

Rings with the same profile, but different thickness to ensure longevity

This initial stage of bringing together your ideas shouldn’t be rushed, and it may take more than one consultation to gather all your ideas and come up with a design to suit you.

The Design

With your stone/s, size, width, shape and thickness selected, Dallas will discuss your preference on which materials you would like to use. Designs can be made in gold which is available in yellow, rose and white as well as alternatives such as platinum and palladium. All these design elements are then interpreted into a sketch to bring your ideas to life followed by a three-dimensional model.

Alternatively for a small cost, the design can be created using CAD tech enology, allowing you to see the piece in 3D, visually to scale as well as enlarge, reduce and rotate the design to see it from all angels inside and out, in all its finer details.

Pricing

Once all the above design elements and your budget are taken consideration, Dallas will provide a price and once approved a deposit paid and the bespoke piece will begin production.

Manufacture

You are involved in this whole process from concept to completion, and at the end of this process, your design is meticulously crafted in our workshop. On average it takes 4-6 weeks to produce a jewellery piece to our high quality standards.