21 days, start to finish
How a commission works
Nothing is owed until you have seen a drawing and a price. That order matters — it is the difference between commissioning something and gambling.
The bench
One ring, five stages, 21 days.
These are not five different rings photographed nicely. This is the same band from the moment the wire was cut to the moment it went in the box — the stages nobody shows, because a factory cannot photograph them and a maker rarely stops to.
01Wire3 days
Sterling wire drawn down to 2mm, cut, and the two ends filed dead flat so they meet with no light between them. If they do not meet, the solder will not run, and no amount of pushing will fix it later.
02Formed5 days
Bent round, then trued on the wooden mandrel and tapped until it is a circle rather than an oval. Silver work-hardens as you bend it, so it goes back in the flame to soften twice before this is right.
03Soldered4 days
Flux painted on with a brush, the bezel sat down onto the band, then hard solder first and easy solder after so the second join does not open the first. Into the pickle, out, checked, and often done again.
04Set6 days
The stone goes in dry, and the bezel wall is rubbed over it a little at a time, working opposite sides so nothing lifts. This is the stage that takes longest and the stage I will not hurry, because a slipped burnisher marks the stone and there is no undoing that.
05Polished3 days
Emery, then tripoli, then rouge, then a wash — and the inside of the band gets the same attention as the outside, which is the part nobody photographs and everybody feels.
Add them up: 3 + 5 + 4 + 6 + 3 =21 days— the same three weeks quoted on the commission timeline below. Those are elapsed days in the studio, not hours at the bench. There are five or six pieces going at once and metal has to sit: it goes in the pickle after soldering, and it rests overnight after setting before a polishing mop touches it.
If those two numbers ever disagree, one of them is a lie. They come from the same file, so they can't.
Commissions
From a pencil drawing, in 21 days.
A commission is a conversation before it is a transaction. Here is the whole of it, with the dates, so nobody has to guess and nobody has to chase.
Day 0
You ask
An email with whatever you have — a photo, a description, a budget, or none of those.
Day 3
We sketch
A pencil drawing and a price. Two changes are included; after that I charge for drawing time.
Day 5
You approve
Half up front, once you have seen the drawing and the price. Never before.
Day 19
I make it
Wire to polish, at the bench. You get one photo partway through, unless you ask me not to.
Day 21
In the post
Tracked and signed for, boxed, with a written note of the metal and the stone.
Three weeks is typical. Around Christmas it's five, and I'll tell you before you commit — not after.
three weeks is the number on the bench strip above, and it is the number I quote you. From late October it stretches, because everyone wants the same thing at the same time and I will not rush a setting to make a date. You get the real figure in the first reply, before any money moves.
What things cost
- Silver ring, plain or hammered
- £120 – £220
- Silver ring with a stone you choose
- £220 – £450
- Earrings, silver and pearl
- £70 – £180
- Name or word piece, pierced by hand
- £140 – £260
- Remodelling something you already own
- £180 – £600
- Engagement ring, 9ct or 18ct gold
- £850 – £2,400 plus the stone
Ranges, not guesses — the price lands inside them once we have a drawing. Half up front after you have seen it, half before it posts. Nothing is charged before the sketch, because taking money before anyone has agreed what the thing looks like is how commissions turn into arguments.
What I will take on
- Engagement and wedding rings, in silver or in gold.
- Remodelling — inherited stones taken out of something unwearable and set into something you will actually wear.
- Name and word pieces, pierced by hand from sheet rather than cast.
- Bezel-set cabochons and simple claw settings for stones up to about 10mm.
- Resizing and repairing anything that came out of this studio, for as long as I am working.
What I won't
- Watch repair. I have never done it and I am not going to learn on yours.
- Broken chain repair. It is fiddly, low-value work and the repairer on Catherine Hill does it better and cheaper than I would.
- Plating, cubic zirconia or resin. Not a judgement — just not what this bench is set up for.
- Setting an opal or a tanzanite into a ring you plan to wear every day. I will make you the ring; I will tell you the stone will chip.
- Copying another maker’s design. Bring me a photograph as a starting point and I will draw you something adjacent, not identical.
- Anything needed in under two weeks, unless something similar is already half-made. 21 days is the honest number.
Before you email
Get a range in about a minute
Five questions — what, which metal, which stone, how involved, and when. The answer is a range, and every number behind it is shown.
Two things people ask
Changes, and what happens if you hate it
Changes to the drawing
Two rounds are included. After that she charges for drawing time, at £35 an hour, and she will say so before starting rather than putting it on the invoice afterwards.
If it arrives and it is wrong
Send it back within fourteen days and she will alter it, remake it, or refund the balance — her choice of the first two, your choice of the third. Commissioned work is exempt from distance-selling cancellation rights in UK law, and she does not rely on that.
Ready? Tell her what you are thinking of — a photograph, a description, a budget, or none of those.
Replies within two working days. three weeks at the bench after that.