THE BESPOKE PROCESS

At Noah James we specialise in creating beautiful bespoke pieces of jewellery, all designed and made in our UK workshops, using only ethically sourced gemstones and materials. We think that jewellery should be made with thought, care and passion. With over 100 years of collective jewellery making expertise, we not only design beautiful jewellery, but we also understand how to make a piece of jewellery which you can wear and cherish forever.

Creating a bespoke piece of jewellery shouldn’t equate to additional expense – due to our low overheads and in-house design and manufacturing, we not only offer massive savings compared to an off the shelf equivalent on the high street, but a unique and superior quality piece.

You may already have ideas for the design of your piece of jewellery, or you might not have a clue! Either way our designers can help to start the process for you – this can be done with an initial consultation by phone/email/skype or by booking in for a free consultation in our Manchester Showroom - Book Here.

Here we can show you samples of designs we have in stock, explore different stone options and talk you through the properties of different gemstones and metals. We will also discuss your budget and help guide you through the different options and best way of utilizing your budget. Before your appointment it is useful to know if you have any specific requirements, particularly with regards to stone sizes, shapes and quality so we can prepare a selection of stones ready for you to view

At this stage, once we have a discussed a brief, we take a Design deposit of £250 which is redeemable against the final purchase price of your jewellery. We will then develop ideas using traditional sketching techniques or Computer Aided Design (CAD) software to illustrate 3D photorealistic renders of your piece of jewellery.

Once the design drawings have been approved, we then create a wax or resin prototype of your piece of jewellery on our 3D printers. This is helpful in enabling you to try the piece on and get an accurate feel for the proportions and dimensions of the design.

The item is first cast from the resin or wax/prototype using the lost wax casting method – this means that the finished piece of jewellery is the exact replica of the prototype that has been created. We cast in your chosen metal using recycled platinum or gold, or Fairtrade gold if selected. Once the item has been cast, our jewellers polish and assemble the piece by hand.

The item is then passed to our diamond setter who meticulously sets each stone that has been selected, by hand under microscope. Once all stones are set, the item then has a final polish and steam clean, before being passed to quality control and sent to the Assay Office, where the metal is hallmarked with its relevant metal and purity.

Once the item arrives back from hallmarking, it has a final quality check, is photographed and appraised for insurance purposes. We then give each piece of jewellery its unique passport – this gives you a free annual check-up and clean of your jewellery, which is documented in the passport. This is useful, and even required by many insurers, to check for wear and tear and any damage to claws to make sure your stones are all safe and secure.