By Amy Brenan, Director of Heirlooms Jewellers, 21 South Street, Wareham

DO you have an old favourite or inherited piece of jewellery lurking in your jewellery box unworn and forgotten?

If it’s inherited, maybe it is not really your style but you can’t part with it. Or it may have been fashionable but now doesn’t look appropriate.
You can breathe new life into these pieces by having them redesigned.
A solitary earring could be transformed into a gorgeous contemporary pendant.
Or the gemstones from an old-fashioned brooch could be reset into a very wearable ring.
Before you approach a jeweller to redesign a piece of jewellery for you, it’s worth having a look online or in a magazine to see what type of style is attractive to you.
It also gives the designer a better idea of what you would like and the opportunity to talk through options like additional stones, different metals and any personalisation you would like – for instance a word engraved on the inside of a ring or a symbol, date or birthstone that means something very special to you.
At Heirlooms, we were recently commissioned to make an engagement ring for a Welsh gentlemen for whom it was really important that his homeland was reflected in the ring.
We were able to incorporate this by featuring a Welsh knot into the design.
We also adapted a beautiful Victorian mourning ring, complete with the original blue enamelling which was very typical of the time, and were able to inset a new agate stone to make the ring more wearable for our client.

The new piece of jewellery could breathe new life into something that wasn’t previously worn

The moral of this story is pretty much any piece of jewellery can be redesigned into something you would love to wear.
The possibilities are endless.