Elaine's Story: 'My mum's comet'
Over the years we have made some very sentimental memorial jewellery commissions. Sometimes we know the stories behind them, other times we just have an inkling of the meaning the jewellery we are making will hold to that person. Elaine has kindly shared her story, not only with us, but you too. Thank you Elaine, we will hand it over to your beautiful words.
"I collected the ring my mum wore when she died from the hospital two weeks after her sudden death. I looked blankly at the form I had to complete and did not know anymore how to sign my own name. I had to sit down and breathe deeply for a while. I kept the ring in various places, hiding it almost. I tried wearing it, but it was too painful, I kept seeing her hands. Many years ago she had already given me her wedding ring - her marriage with my dad having long ended. I had carried it around with me but never worn it - it felt too strange. The two rings were very important to me and I wanted to be able to finally wear them. But I also knew I couldn’t wear them as they were.
Justin and his team had already made two commissions for my partner and me - two pairs of rings from heirloom gold and silver. I loved the idea of casting in sand from a place connected to our stories. We also were happy to find a jeweller with exceptional craftsmanship, but who also shared our desire for sustainability, fair trade and fair pay. So I knew my mum’s rings would be in the best possible hands.
I started working on design ideas remotely with Taiman. I first considered a two-tone ring - my mum’s ring was yellow gold with a diamond, her old wedding ring plain white gold. But the design was proving tricky. We talked everything through in long emails with lots of sketches and mock-ups. My mum died when the comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS reached its perihelion, and I saw it clearly for the first time a few days after her death. She and I had talked about it shortly before she died, and the comet became very much linked to her in my mind. So that was the design I finally realised was right, and the initial idea for a ring morphed into a pendant. Sophie adapted for me her beautiful design of a two-tone pendant - the two halves symbolising for me something broken, something healing, and two different worlds. The diamond from the yellow gold ring was to be set as the main body of the comet.
An early sketch of the pendant design
My partner and I visited the workshop for the final tweaks. I chose some additional small diamonds to be set into the comet’s tail - it was a great experience to be trusted with tweezers to pick from a pile of glittering tiny grains the ones that to me shone the brightest - don’t sneeze, was the earnest advice I was given.
The sand we used for the cast was black volcanic sand from the Canary Island of La Gomera, where my mum and I had spent some of our holidays together. We kept finding the black sand in our things for years and my mum, exasperated but laughing, once said it would stick with us until the end of time. So using the sand was a way of not only remembering our time together on the island, but also the long-running comedy of the black sand that kept reappearing in the most unlikely places.
Taiman kept in close contact during the process of making the pendant, making sure I always knew what was happening and so that I could decide on details of the design like texture and shading. I once answered her call out on the cliffs near Gurnard’s Head.
When I held the finished pendant in my hand for the first time it was as if I recognised it immediately. It’s a weird effect, but the diamond looks much bigger in the pendant than it ever did on my mum’s ring. Whenever I catch its sparks I remember my mum and her penchant for sparkly and bling jewellery, and her temperament. I like to think of her as hurtling into deep space with that sparkly comet, glittering and throwing sparks into all directions herself, and it makes me smile.
At the moment I wear the pendant nearly every day, it feels like wearing a happy thought. Thank you Justin and Taiman and Sophie!"
