Guest Post – Jessica and the L’Ambra Necklace transformation
L’Ambra started life as a silver bracelet that my dear old dad bought me when I was fifteen years old. I remember spotting it in the window of a jewellery shop in Alnwick, Northumberland and immediately falling in love with the deep golden stone – something about it felt so ancient and magical (and not a little Jurassic Park-esque)!
After weeks of badgering, Dad agreed to buy it for me. I was so excited and couldn’t wait to show it off to my friends. Unfortunately, on its first outing, the clasp came undone and I came very close to losing my new treasure. I couldn’t bring myself to wear it again, out of fear of it coming undone. It stayed in my jewellery box, lonely and unworn, for the next 23 years.
To be honest, I’d almost forgotten that the bracelet existed when my dear friend Christina started up her business remodelling people’s old unworn jewellery. I thought it was such a clever idea, and knew that she had some serious skills after she’d made me a set of fabulous silver and gold rings. It was when I was recommending her to some friends that I remembered that I too had a bit of old jewellery, gathering dust in my jewellery box! I took a few pictures of it and sent them over to Christina to see if she thought she could work her magic on it. The more I thought about it, the more excited I got. Sadly, my father died in 2018, and I loved the idea of being able to take something he’d given me and turn it into something wearable and beautiful.
Sadly, my father died in 2018, and I loved the idea of being able to take something he’d given me and turn it into something wearable and beautiful.
When it came to choosing the design for my new piece, I bombarded Christina with images of bracelets and necklaces that I’d found on Pinterest. One necklace in particular really struck me – it was so glamorous, with a gold setting. Very Studio 54. I had visions of myself wearing it on a long chain with a low-cut dress and swanning around looking like a young Stevie Nicks. Christina took my ideas and drew up some sketches of designs I might like. We settled on one similar to the Studio 54 design and decided to plate it in gold, which we both agreed was a better colour to show off the beautiful amber stone.
Christina sent me regular updates of her progress, including her creation of the wonderfully innovative ampersand bail.
After a few weeks, my new piece of jewellery was finished, boxed up and couriered to my house. To say I was excited to open it is a serious understatement. The packaging was so sleek and cool, and when I slid open the box, I knew I’d made the right decision. L’Ambra is stunning, and exactly what I wanted. It’s completely unique. And Christina had even taken the surplus silver from the bracelet and turned it into a little silver nugget pendant, which I completely adore too! I love wearing my new pieces of jewellery.
“Having something my darling dad gave me and that my friend created is so meaningful and special. I know that I’ll treasure it, and more importantly wear it, forever.”
Response from Christina at CARLSSON 1064.
I loved making this necklace. Jess is a good friend of mine and I know how much her father meant to her. He was such a wonderful man, full of fun and laughter and I really felt the pressure to make this into something completely special for her.
The pinterest board inspiration was fun and we both came up with a lot of different ideas, but the trend we saw was that in all the images we liked most, the Amber was paired with gold. Jess was very drawn to a gorgeous gold pendant with a decorative bail. It was beautiful. I wanted there to be meaning behind the design, not just to make something beautiful, so I created a pattern using two ampersands back to back because this necklace will always be the link that joins Jess and her father.
The focus of this remake was on the bail, creating a necklace out of a bracelet. Every piece of that necklace uses the metal from the original bracelet that was gifted to Jess from her father. After removing the stone, I cleaned up the setting and also filed back a bit of the back of the stone as the Amber had a really dark layer at the back, removing this gave the stone transparency and vibrancy.
After cutting out the ampersands for the bail, there was a good amount of silver left over. I love to use every single last bit of metal, so I melted down the remaining silver and made Jess one of my little nugget pendants with a little bit of sparkle set into it. It’s weighty and it’s tactile and it lets her have her father close to her heart every single day.
