Inherited Jewelry – What to Do With Your Inherited Jewelry?
Locked Away Jewelry is Sad
Your beloved Grandma Lowena passed on. You are past tears and you are moving on with your life.Your lawyer Mr. Pender has given each of the family members pieces of her jewelry. You received her soldered together wedding set and clip-on pearl earrings.Hmmm, now what? You can't wear those clip-ons as they are.
And her ring overwhelms your hand.
"You're Not Changing That Are You?"
Your Grandpa Joe doesn't want you to change anything, so you've put everything in the safety deposit box.
You're thinking, maybe when your daughters turns sixteen you'll give them her great grandmother's jewelry.
Nope, nope, negatory, that's not the right answer.
Jumping Up On My Soapbox, or My Opinionated Opinion!
From Pin to Pendant
I have a soapbox to jump on here. I see too many neglected treasures on a regular basis. These are gifts of love and meant to be worn and talked about.
My mission is to pull them out of the safety deposit box and bring them up to date.
To change them to your taste. I want them to sing, so you'll wear them.
Wear It, Don't Warehouse It
Those were gifts of love, they need to be worn. And no, I don't mean you need to wear clip-ons if you have pierced ears.
I mean change it, alter it or do what's needed so you can love it and wear it.
In the case of the pearl clip-ons, my client liked the look of the earrings. They reminded her of her grandmother.
After sitting unworn for ten years, we converted the pearl and leaf design clip-ons into hanging ear charms.
Now she can wear them on three of her pairs of hoops.
Whose Gift is it Anyway?
When you are given a gift, it now belongs to you.
Other people can't tell you how to treat it or what to do with it.
That'd be like giving your daughter a bike and telling her she could only ride it on the sidewalk and never go beyond your street, ever.
Oh, you do that? Don't do that.
The Gift of Love Can't Give Love From a Safety Deposit Box
If that ring is too big and bold for your hand, re-make more than one ring!
In this case we separated the two curved diamond bands and restored the center ring. We made new straight bands for her daughters.
You can tell your daughters, these rings were from your Great Grandma Lowena's wedding set.
Then you can tell Grandma Lowena's story and those rings will be more special to your daughters.
What You Can Do To Wear Your Gift Of Jewelry
Vikki and Her Daughters. They Loved the Rings!
If you remove the diamonds from the old wedding ring and make something new, that new ring or pendant that you will wear will remind you of her and her love for you.
Re-using diamonds or gemstones is something I regularly recommend.
I feel that the energy of the person who wore that ring or earrings is in the gemstones. When a new piece is made, it's yours, but it will feel embued with the love of the giver.
What Really Matters?
It doesn't matter that you are changing it.
It matters that those were her diamonds.
She'd rather have you wear a memento of her, than keep her old ring like a shrine in a safe.
What About Grandpa's Feelings?
You can take the old setting of the ring and put Cubic Zerconia's (fake diamonds), in it and size it to your finger size and wear it in front of your Grandfather now and then. Seeing that ring will please him.
Honor the Love the Gift Was Given to You In. Wear It!
Grandma's Diamonds in a New Ring
Create a new design that works for you, your fashion style and lifestyle with Grandma Lowena's diamonds in it.
Tell your daughter and your son and family about her and keep her memory alive.
One day the piece of jewelry you made from her wedding ring will be a cherished heirloom, perhaps to be changed into the style of the day by your heirs.
A Final Tale of a Pendant to a Pin Prettily
This beautiful Art Nouveau pendant came to my client from her mother.
She wanted to honor it. However she rarely wore necklaces.
Pendants weren't her thing, but she did love pins.
Wanting to honor the curvaceous style of the design, I came up with a top section for this beauty.
What Do You Do With Your Inherited Jewelry?
Wear it, share the stories and add priceless family significance to your inherited jewelry!
Wear It Don't Warehouse It!
For Examples
Here's One Ring Made From Her Mother's Ring. Then we Made Earrings
There are a number of real life before and afters utilizing older and inherited jewelry in the photo albums at www.facebook.com/callagoldjewelry.
Other posts to check out: Using Inherited Diamonds in Wedding Rings, Using Inherited Pearls creatively. Click on the Revitalizing Jewelry category for more posts.
More in the Inherited Jewelry Series:
Wear it Don't Warehouse it: One Inherited Ring Redesign Makes a New Jewelry Wardrobe
Inherited Jewelry, From Unworn to Cherished, Debra's Story
Inherited Jewelry - What to Do With Your Inherited Jewelry?
Inherited Jewelry - Telling Jewelry Stories - Karen's Story
Your Personal Jeweler,
Calla
Hi Calla!! Loving your before and after pics here!!
Do antique diamonds tend to be higher in quality? Just wondering if that isn’t another reason why revamping the old might not be a much better way to go.
Keep those pics coming! I love them!!
Lori
Lori, antique diamonds tend to be cut differently, therefore when modern cuts are placed next to them it creates visual dissonance. Some antique diamonds are better quality than current diamonds as evidenced by how amazing they can look once re-cut into the modern faceted styles. Others are just average. The larger ones I’ve had re-faceted to modern cuts have been big wins in the before and after department. I always encourage people to use those antique diamonds, because they can be wonderful in the beauty department as well as the special meaning department. I’m glad you like the pictures! I… Read more »
Calla: I see that you are as good at using words as solving jewelry dilemmas. What fun to read your posts even if I don’t have any inherited treasures just yet.
Thanks Kymberly, sometimes when someone hears a inherited jewelry story it inspires them to fix older jewelry or in one case to create inherited jewelry. A client of mine was robbed of her inheritance and just gave up on the idea of family jewelry. She is now recreating pieces for her heirs and it’s quite a fun undertaking.
You know, that is a really cool idea and I think a lot of people just don’t realize that this is an option. Great post!
Hello Calla: I haven’t inherited anything worth value yet, but I do have a ring that broke at the bottom (if that’s what you call the part directly under the stone). I need to pull that sucker out of whatever box I stashed it in and bring it to you for some ring love!
Alexandra, you are the best. And I love the phrase “ring love.” I’d be delighted to give your piece some ring love! ~ Calla
Hi Calla,
I love “wear it, don’t warehouse it” It is soo true. How many airlooms are put away, never to see the light of day. I am in full agreement here!
I was given a ring of my grandmothers but I wanted to find out what kind it was (silver, white gold etc) Where do I go for this?
Hi Holly, That is an excellent question to ask. Some people think immediately, “oh, I’ll get it appraised,” not realizing that it is a paid service and if the ring is silver they just expended money to find out that the intrinsic value (actual value of metals and stones) is $10.00. Good jewelers can look with their magnifying loupes and read the stamps inside your ring and tell you what they mean. If your grandmother’s ring pre-dates the American stamping act, a good jeweler will do an acid test to figure out the metal. We do this regularly for people.… Read more »
Know anyone good in Austin Texas? I took 14 rings of my grandmothers (all diamonds and sapphires) to a jeweler today and asked him to re-do my current engagement ring incorporating stones of my grandmothers. He basically told me the labor cost would be too high and offered to trade me all 14 rings for a slightly bigger diamond to set in my existing setting. I left a little disappointed to say the least. I thought I could show up, drop off 14 rings and come back and pick something awesome up. What’s your thoughts on this? I’m feeling a… Read more »
Dear Lost, My feeling after reading about that exchange is that the jeweler planned if you said yes to pop out the gems, melt the gold and move on in a swift and efficient way. I’m thinking they don’t specialize in custom jewelry design or re-using inherited gems. Now to be fair, I haven’t seen the gemstones. If they were tiny and of poor quality maybe he didn’t want to see you stuck wearing them. Then again he could lack creativity and not see what could be created. Saying that it’d be expensive only makes sense a if he’s not… Read more »
I received my grandmothers engraved wedding rings. Any suggestions? Id like to keep them as they are but I cant wear them because im afraid to bend them. They are silver not gold.
Hi Kayliegh,
Thanks for writing with your good question. If you are afraid to bend them, they may as you are seeing be just too thin and may need to be re-shanked. Here is a blog post describing this work with examples:
https://www.callagold.com/jewelry-repair/re-shanking-your-rings-what-why-and-when/
Once you have done the needed repairs and your jeweler says they are strong enough to wear I recommend wearing them to remember her love for you.
Your Personal Jeweler,
Calla
Hello, I was researching your web-site looking for ideas for what I can do with 6 or 7 gold wedding bands given to me by deceased ancestors. There are no gemstones, just a nice handful of gold that I would like to wear in honor of my loved ones. Hubby and I are debating whether I should have something nice made with them that I can wear. I think wearing all those bands would not look right and some are just the wrong size for me. Do you have any ideas that are not over the top and that would… Read more »
Hi Linda, Thank you so much for writing about your unique challenge. Since you have that much gold you have more choices than the average person. First I’ll turn you on to why melting it all together to make a ring isn’t a great idea from a structural standpoint: https://www.callagold.com/custom-jewelry-design/why-not-re-use-your-old-gold/ Once you’ve read that and get it about rings, I will say that if I were to add gold to raise the karat of all of it and we designed a pendant that could work. Pendants don’t have to be as perfectly strong as rings. The easiest idea would be… Read more »
What do you do if you’ve inherited yellow gold jewellery, and you never wear yellow gold? I wear silver and white gold. I’ve inherited some nice things from my Mom, and they have not been worn for 10 years because I don’t wear yellow gold. I would like to wear them but I just don’t wear yellow gold.
Hello Elle,
Your question is excellent. Recently Trish shared her yellow gold unworn jewelry and we ended up rhodium plating every single piece. This is where we use rhodium to whiten the jewelry. Read this blog post with before and after pictures to show you and explain how this works:
https://www.callagold.com/jewelry-repair/five-ways-to-fabulous-ify-your-jewelry-with-rhodium-treatment/
Do let me know how this sounds to you!
Your Personal Jeweler,
Calla