So, you’ve booked a design appointment with Erin…what’s next?!

Firstly, congratulations on booking a design appointment with Erin Cox Jewellery. Here are a few tips and considerations to help you make the most out of your appointment.

APPOINTMENT LENGTH

Appointments usually last around 40 minutes.

THE EXPERIENCE

During your design appointment we may discuss…

-When and how you would like to wear your jewellery

-Your design vision

-Budget

-Deadlines…and more!

We will offer expert guidance to help you decide on a design you’ll love!

Sometimes sketching is part of the process. We may also need to take measurements, weigh and/or photograph items as well as size you of course!

If Erin is to remodel your own items we may need to keep hold of them while quoting, in this case, we will provide a record for the items left in our care.

CHECKLIST TO BRING

If you are remodelling your own items you will need to bring these along to the appointment so we can weigh, measure and review them.

Bring along any jewellery that might be useful to reference. It could be a ring that fits you perfectly, a necklace with the perfect length chain, a well fitting bangle or earrings that sit to an ideal length. They may help us decide on the perfect measurements & dimensions for your design. If you don’t have any jewellery to bring in, don’t worry, we have all the equipment and sizers to measure you accurately regardless.

Feel free to bring in items or screen shots from our website, Instagram or Facebook pages to show us for inspiration. Or why not pop into our shop and have a play with our current collections to get inspired prior to your appointment?! Please note that Erin designs within her distinctive style & does not copy or replicate the work of other designers.

METALS

Erin welcomes commissions and remodels in…

• 9ct, 18ct & 22ct gold and platinum

• Erin is one of only a few jewellers in the country registered to work with Fairtrade Gold and can work with this upon request.

Erin’s focus is now solely on crafting fine jewellery, so she no longer takes on commissions in silver. She offers white, yellow and red gold options.

REMODELLING YOUR OWN METAL

Erin can remodel your own gold subject to review. She offers a wide range of remodel options (including a hand melting service) when working with customer’s own 18ct gold, 22ct gold or platinum.

Erin does not offer a hand melting service when remodelling customer’s own 9ct gold for H&S reasons. Instead she offers a carefully curated selection of designs that can be created using design moulds & the safer process of lost wax casting. Customer’s own 9ct gold has a higher/unknown alloy content, these alloy metals can result in some nasty fumes when hand melted. Offering a limited collection of designs (when remodelling 9ct gold) helps us to promote a safer work environment.

Do note, remodelling your own 9ct gold into a lighter weight design may not be as cost effective as buying new due to the more labour intensive & costly process of remodelling.

Erin can handmelt/combine your own platinum or gold items if they match metal/carat. Erin does not handmelt/combine items of different carats/metals with the exception of 18ct & 22ct, which can be melted together with wonderful results!

GEMSTONES

Erin can source a plethora of varied and intriguing gemstones or work with your own stones (subject to review). Erin is able to request gemstones (from trusted suppliers) ‘on approval’ so you can see them ‘in the flesh’ before committing.

USING YOUR OWN GEMSTONES

If stones are already set into a piece of jewellery Erin will use her experience to best determine the size & shape for designing and quoting purposes. Once permission is granted Erin will cut stones from their original settings, it is only then that we can accurately determine the true size and shape. If you would like us to weigh & determine the carat weight of your own stones, you would need to express this request prior to the commission taking place, as we can only accurately weigh gemstones that are out of their settings.

Erin has many years of stone setting experience and will take every care with your own precious gemstones. That said, there is always an element of risk when unsetting and re-setting stones, so use of your own gemstones is always at your own risk. Erin can review your own stones under magnification prior to working with them and can advise you of her findings as necessary.

Whist Erin has over 20 years of experience within the jewellery industry, she is not a gemologist. As such, she does not offer a in house gemstone certification, identification or valuation service for customer’s own gemstones. That said, we can recommend our jewellery industry friends for these services should they be required.

We do not recommend or use customer’s own stones that are broken, have chips or large scratches, although, in some cases we may be able to arrange for these to be re-cut or polished. We may advise you to avoid using particular stones due to their quality or if they aren’t suitable for a particular design or lifestyle.

We often suggest avoiding using your own old tiny (>2mm) diamonds/gemstones. They can be difficult to safely remove & reset. From our experience, they are often uncalibrated, not perfectly round can can lack in cut, quality, or clarity making them difficult to successfully work with. Inclusion of these types of stones can not only cause technical setting issues but aesthetic ones too. For a reasonable price we can provide alternative excellent quality tiny sapphires, rubies or G VS diamonds to enhance & bring your designs to life!

Erin can work with customer’s own more fragile or soft precious stones, such as pearls, emeralds & opals, but we advise that these types of stones are at more risk when being unset, re-set & worn. These stones should also be worn with more care and consideration than their harder counterparts.

HALLMARKING

Metal items brought in for remodelling without a UK traditional hallmark will be tested prior to remodelling. Please note we can not take responsibility for the accuracy of metal testing results. Whilst we use our effective equipment, experience and training to gain results there is always potential for error.

Obviously, when melting down & remodelling old items old hallmarks will be lost. That said, we send remodelled items to get re-hallmarked with today’s current stamps.

Although rare, we are transparent that, when using customers own metals, due to solder contamination etc, there is potential that the items could fail to meet current standards when sent to the London assay office for hallmarking. For example, we have had 18ct hallmarked items that, after remodelling have fallen a touch short of the requirements to be re-hallmarked at 18ct. If this is the case the item will usually be stamped with the next carat grade down (i.e. 14ct instead of 18ct). Should an item fail to meet 9ct requirements and then it will be returned without a hallmarked.

QUOTES

Erin’s remodelling fees start at £450. We quote on a case by case bases. Once the design appointment has taken place we will work out a quote for you and email it to you as a PDF attachment. We aim to send out quotes (which we honour for 14 days) within 1-2 weeks of your design appointment. Once you have received your quote and are happy to proceed, we require a 50% deposit to book the work into Erin’s schedule.

TIMEFRAME

Erin’s turnaround on bespoke commissions can be as little as 6 weeks but usually takes approx 15 weeks (from the date a deposit is paid).

Should you wish for an express lead time we have two options.

Option 1: For an additional 10% of the cost of your piece of jewellery we will bring your due date for completion to 10 weeks rather than 15.

Option 2: For an additional 20% of the cost of your piece of jewellery we will bring your due date for completion to 6 weeks rather than 15.

This would need to be discussed at the point of placing your order and paying your deposit.

VALUATIONS / INSURANCE

Erin is not a professional jewellery valuer. If you are remodelling your own materials into a piece of jewellery the value paid will not reflect its true value. For insurance purposes you may want to get your jewellery valued. We recommend Micheal Inkpen for jewellery valuations & TH March (referral code: AE096T) for jewellery insurance.

If we are working with your own items, while not being worked on they will be held in our safe and be insured. If your own materials require posting (for example to the assay office) we opt for the insured (up to the value of £2500) Royal Mail special delivery service.

LOCATION

We are located on Topsham high street opposite ‘Country Cheeses’, a couple hundred yards down from (the same side as) ‘The Salutation’ and a couple doors down from ‘The Parish Church of Saint Margaret’.

You can get to us by…

Rail: A train runs from Exeter central to Topsham approx every 30mins. We are 6min walk from Topsham station.

Road: Leave the M5 towards Clyst St Mary, Follow signs for A376 (Clyst St George), then follow signs to Topsham / Darts Farm along Topsham Road. Go past Darts farm and continue into Topsham. There are 3 main carparks:

1) Holman Way (EX3 0EN) which is a 5mins walk away

2) Matthews Hall Car Park (EX3 0HF) which is a 3min walk away

3) Topsham Quay (EX3 0JB) also 3 min walk away.

There is also on the road parking through the village but spaces are very limited and short stay.

Bus: From Exeter there is a regular bus (Number 57) which leaves approx every 30 mins and takes just over 20mins to arrive in Topsham.