A Decade In The Making

There is no greater compliment for a maker than a returning customer - especially one who returns a decade later.

Ten years ago, I made a simple silver seahorse necklace for a bespoke request. Back then, it represented my comfortable skill level: pierced from flat sheet, simple, and plain. Fast forward to today, to celebrate their 10th Wedding Anniversary, it was wonderful to be tasked with an extra special upgrade.

The brief wasn't just a replacement, but to upgrade the necklace to reflect their journey as a family: His and her seahorses and two diamonds representing the birth of their two children. The customer also asked if it could be more sculptural in form with markings and texture. 

It felt like the perfect project to mirror my own journey - upgrading from flat sheet metal to the tactile, 3D world of wax carving. 

Ink & Carving

Wax carving is a medium that I have grown to love after delving in after our daughter was born. Unable to frequent the workshop as much as pre-baby life - wax carving allows you to create from the sofa. It's flexible non-committal properties encourages experimentation and it's price point allows you to refine and remake without blowing the whole month's maternity pay on silver!

The core inspiration came from a very personal source: a seahorse tattoo on his wife's leg. I used the specific shape, form, and dots from her ink to inform the carving, ensuring the necklace felt like a natural extension of her style.

I flipped the right side seahorse for symmetry and to allow the tails to touch, holding the two diamonds between them in delicate three claw settings. For small stones - three claws is a satisfying shape, four claws can tend to make a round diamond look square. 

Blue Wax to Silver

Moving on from the flat silhouette - this bespoke necklace demanded volume! Carving in blue wax is the perfect method for sculptural 3D forms, you start with a solid block and chip away, allowing for great variety in depth - crucially - with minimum wastage. It's ability to melt and softness allows for intricate detail and organic flow, perfect for carving the character elements from the tattoo.

I started with a rough sketch onto the wax and piercing out the seahorse silhouette with a twist saw blade. Jewellers - if you've ever tried to pierce wax with a regular saw blade - you know what happens! 

**Jewellery making hack - a twist blade stops the wax melting as you pierce.** 

Next -  the fun bit: carving, filing, and shaping the 3D form. This is the stage where you see the seahorse's personality start to shine through. I love working up close on these minute details, tiny shavings and delicate lines. There is a real art to carving a 3D form to make the shape come to life, I liken it to working with clay and having to think in 3D instead of 2. It is a real challenge and quite a struggle sometimes. I can certainly feel the cogs whirring trying to imagine how the shape looks from different angles. It helps to have further reference images so you can see where the light hits and recesses and protrusions fall. 

The tricky part with this particular piece - creating two! The seahorse's reflection has subtle asymmetry (because nature isn't perfect) while ensuring the angles and sizing matched to create a balanced pair.

Making Milestone: The Setting

This bespoke diamond seahorse necklace marked a personal win for me, too. In the past, I would send all diamond setting away to my stone setter to set the stones - waiting a week, nervous & excited until it returned.

This time, I did it myself!

After casting via the lost wax technique in the Jewellery Quarter, soldering the seahorses in place to cradle the settings and attaching hidden bails on the back - I claw-set the two brilliant-cut diamonds. A larger diamond for their eldest child, and a smaller for the youngest. Being able to complete this final stage at my own bench felt like a wonderful achievement.

Complete

The final bespoke diamond seahorse necklace is a tactile, sculptural celebration of ten years together.

• Shape : Two silver seahorses touching tails, mirroring the original tattoo dots and engraving.

• Stones : Two Round Brilliant Cut Diamonds, held securely in 3-claw settings.

• Detail : Suspended from a double-looped trace chain via hidden bails, finished with my signature 'Ellenlou' logo daisy clasp.

This bespoke diamond seahorse necklace was a pleasure to make - richer in detail, heavier in weight, and sparkling with new life.

Thinking of marking your own milestone?

Whether it's an anniversary upgrade or a new family addition, I’d love to help you tell that story in silver or gold.