Reusing Jewellery: What Does it Cost?

What are the costs involved in reusing jewellery?

When reusing jewellery we may have all of the materials we require but it still requires quite a bit of labour to turn one thing into another thing. If we don’t need to add any additional materials then the cost will depend on the amount of labour required to bring your vision to life.

Why Some Designs Cost More Than Others

I generally break designs down into three categories and then within those categories there are two options. The categories are simple designs, intricate designs and very intricate designs. Within these categories the options for the designs are that either a) they are based on an existing model or b) they are being custom created entirely from scratch. So, as you would expect, a simple design based on an existing model will be much less expensive than a very intricate design being custom created from scratch.

Examples of simple designs would be plain wedding bands with no stone setting or engagement rings with three or less stones. Intricate design examples could be a half eternity wedding ring or a halo engagement ring. Very intricate designs examples include eternity wedding bands, two tone wedding bands & engagement rings and halo engagement rings with a diamond accent band. Platinum rings will also always fall on the higher end of the cost range because platinum takes so much more labour to finish beautifully.

What Exactly Are You Paying For?

To give you an idea of the kinds of labour that are involved in re-using jewellery I’ve provided a list here. Basically I think it’s important for you to see what you’re paying for!

• the careful removal and cleaning of gemstones from the original jewellery pieces (sometimes this can take a looooooong time)
• the preparation of the metal for re-casting
• a casting house fee charged to cast your metal separate to their large batches
• either computer generated or hand drawn mock ups of the design
• a CAD design
• either a hand carved or 3D printed wax model of the piece
• construction and soldering if necessary
• finishing and polishing
• setting, the more stones to set, the more expensive it is

Reusing Jewellery: The Costs

Each project is unique and has its own unique set of variables which means each project will also have its own unique quote. That being said, I thought it would be helpful to give you a guideline of average costs for each category and option.

Remember, the difference between an existing model and one that is custom created from scratch is that you are limited in your design choices but the design choices are limitless when custom creating from scratch. It may be more expensive but you can re-use your jewellery and make absolutely anything you want! There is always value in getting exactly what you want.

I’ve specifically listed engagement rings (or just custom rings in general) because that it was I do most often. For other pieces such as bracelets, necklaces, earrings and cufflinks I would create an individual quote for you.