Keep it in the family: Jewellery remodelling at Cerise

The accessories boutique, Cerise on Columbia Road, London are now offering a bespoke service to get your old jewellery melted down and remodelled and updated to suit your current style. Now you’ll be able to wear those unwanted gifts and family jewels with pride and no hint of irony.

Do you have one of those tacky but expensive pendants left over from the cringey days of your 18th birthday? Don’t throw it away. Cerise UK now offer a redesign service whereby you can get your old jewellery turned into hot, wearable accessories that you won’t ever want to take off again.

You’re probably well aware that the greenest type of style comes from recycling well loved pieces rather than buying new and letting decent products go to waste. But the knack is being bothered to actually remodel something to suit your current style, and finding the time – and talent – to do it. So we’re thrilled to know Cerise are offering this service for around £200 which is great value considering the longitivity of such individual pieces.

Marie Aidley, the founder of Cerise says she was influenced by the resident jeweller Simon Rees. Maria says, ‘Rather than moving old unworn bits of jewellery from cupboard to cupboard, covered in dust, Simon could reinvent the jewellery into something wearable.’ Simon has 20 years experience as a jewellery maker and his ideas provoked a creative project for Maria who loved the idea of giving old accessories new life.

The reasons for Maria wanting to recreate pieces were personal too. She says,’I really wanted something to represent the members of my family, using the diamonds from the jewellery of my 2nd wedding which I never wear.’ Lucky Maria got Simon to take the stones from the said jewellery and merge it with extra metal from a tennis bracelet she had bought herself from the divorce settlement from marriage number 1. ‘All that stuff is water under the bridge now so it seemed like a perfect way to show I’ve moved on and get a tasty wearable treat.’

Maria and Simon’s creativity and skill didn’t stop there. Next they came up with a ’story ring’ which was a stackable ring with different stones on to represent every child of Maria’s of which her kids could wear when they grow up.

Simon originally had the remodelling idea when he found out his cousin was getting married, and the family didn’t have enough money for the wedding so he gathered their unused gold to melt down and make the wedding rings. ‘At the time I had no idea they would be transformed into such extraordinary colours. I created two bands and because of the various golds used, the outcome was quite unpredictable – but they looked wonderful.’ The rings sound beautiful, and so could any of your old jewellery if lent to Simon when he left to his own devices.

Although you may not have children to create jewels for yet, or even left over wedding accessories to reinvent, we bet you have the odd accessory from someone you love who doesn’t quite know your style. (Why is that always the case?) This is that much needed solution to all those dodgy bits and pieces you’ve inevitably collected over the years from certain special people who somehow didn’t get it right.

Visit CeriseUk.com