Published on by Olivier Maupas-Sehikyan · Rings
Some requests are settled in a matter of minutes. Others stay with you long after the client has left. The one I am about to tell you belongs to the second kind.
Old jewellery and the wish to give it a second life
One day, a client pushed open the door of my workshop in Saint-Sébastien-sur-Loire, near Nantes. She was holding several pieces of old gold jewellery. Some were damaged, others frankly out of fashion. Yet she wanted neither to sell them nor to leave them lying in a drawer. They were filled with memories, and she was looking for a way to give them a new life.
Her idea was clear: an 18-carat white gold ring set with diamonds, elegant and understated, which she could wear every day. Not a showcase piece, but a piece for living in.
Listening before drawing
I always take the time to listen. Before I even pick up a pencil, I need to understand the emotion behind the request. In a jewellery transformation in Nantes like this one, technique comes after the story. So we laid the pieces out on the workbench, one by one, and talked about what each of them meant.
I then proposed a fully bespoke approach: her gold would be melted down and her stones reused. Nothing would be lost, everything would be transformed.
A first drawing took shape. Then a second, to refine the volumes and rebalance the proportions. Little by little, the future ring appeared on paper. Once the design was approved, I knew the story could continue at the bench.
Working with the diamonds: giving existing stones a new setting
First of all, I carefully examined the diamonds my client had entrusted to me. Their cut, their brilliance, their condition: everything was studied under the loupe. Each stone has its own character, rather like a face, and you must learn to read it before you can do it justice.
For this creation, I chose a daisy-shaped composition. A central diamond is surrounded by a pavé of smaller diamonds. This design enhances the main stone while adding extra sparkle, like a halo of light.
Grain setting, or the art of letting light through
The choice of setting is decisive. I opted for grain setting, which gives the delicate, luminous effect I was after. Tiny beads of metal, raised and then pushed down onto each stone, hold it with precision. Light moves freely around the diamonds, and the ring looks all the more alive for it.
I work each position by hand. The diamonds are placed one by one, under the loupe, in the calm of the workshop. This stage demands patience and rigour: every movement is controlled, because nothing must be left to chance.
The whole should look natural, as if the ring had always existed this way. In this bespoke jewellery creation, the stones find a new identity. They are no longer the remnants of old jewellery: they become the heart of a piece for today.
The handcrafted making of an 18-carat white gold ring
It all begins with the melt. The gold my client brought is recovered, refined, then turned into an 18-carat white gold alloy. I will not hide that this moment moves me every time: the old piece disappears into the crucible, and a new one is about to be born.
I then shape the body of the ring. The metal is rolled, curved, then fitted to the desired size. Comfort matters as much as appearance, especially for a piece meant to be worn every day.
The head, meanwhile, is made separately. It is designed to hold the central motif and to receive the diamonds with exactness. Next comes the assembly: each element is joined together, then the structure is carefully checked before going any further.
The setting can then begin. The stones are secured with great care, in work that calls for real technical mastery. Once the diamonds are in place, the ring is polished. This is the stage that fully reveals the glow of the white gold and the liveliness of the stones, the moment when the piece seems to awaken before my eyes.
I finish with a final quality check. I inspect every detail, every grain, every curve, because a ring must be flawless before it leaves the workshop. This handcrafted ring making in Nantes takes place entirely in my own workshop in Saint-Sébastien-sur-Loire, which allows me to follow the piece from the first sketch to the last stroke of the polisher.
A bespoke ring between jewellery tradition and emotion
On the day of delivery, there is always a special moment, a suspended instant. When I presented the ring to my client, the emotion was palpable.
She was discovering a unique piece, a diamond ring that truly resembled her. An elegant, modern creation, yet also deeply personal, since it carried within it the material of her old jewellery. Nothing had been lost, and yet nothing looked like what she had first brought me.
This is what I love about transforming jewellery: it allows you to keep a legacy while creating something contemporary, which naturally finds its place in everyday life. I approach every project with exacting standards, with the aim of making lasting pieces, built to last through the years.
As a jeweller in Nantes, I put my craftsmanship at the service of these stories, each one different. Every ring tells one, and this one will go on being worn, day after day.
If you, too, have old jewellery waiting in a drawer, you are most welcome at the workshop. We will take the time to talk about it, simply, around a workbench and a few memories.
