Josephine - Upcycling at its best

- from dated and dull to fresh and fabulous
Upcycling jewellery using old existing pieces
A brand new piece of upcycled jewellery made with gemstones and metals salvaged from a customer’s existing collection.
Old jewellery items upcycled to contemporary pieces
Here's what we had to work with - a treasure trove of beautiful gemstones in boring old settings!

Published: May 2021

What a lovely project!

A new customer, on a trip from the USA, was tempted into visiting us by her sister’s collection from Veronica Anderson Jewellery. She asked us to make an entirely new collection of contemporary pieces from her old jewellery – which had vibrant and unusual gemstones – their beauty completely swamped by their old-fashioned settings.

She asked us to design necklaces, earrings, a bracelet and lots of RINGS! This brave and very happy customer is receiving lots of compliments on her jewellery!

4 of our top SA artist/jewellers created 18 pieces. Here is one of the rings…...

Stunning ring made from old existing jewellery
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Jewellery Collection | Jo Gon

Published: May 2021

Our story

  • - is a year in the making
  • - covers two continents
  • - features eco-friendly jewellery
  • - and is one of which we are
    EXTREMELY PROUD.

The customer

  • Her name is Josephine – a South African living in the USA.
  • One Friday afternoon in late 2019, Jo walked
  • into our little shop in Rosebank.
  • Envious of her sister’s many Veronica Anderson pieces, she asked if we would design some jewellery for her---.

In her bag

  • A box filled to the brim with rings, pendants, earrings, necklaces - a treasure trove of beautiful and exciting gemstones! But the settings? Oh no! Josephine asked….

"What can we do with all of this?"

  • "Can you make me some new pieces? I would like to have a contemporary collection of necklaces, pendants, a bracelet and lots of RINGS!"
Jewellery making in process

What a lovely project!

  • We dismantled every piece, and started the process of designing the new jewellery for her. By the time she went back to the States after a few weeks holiday, with much discussion and several meetings, she had 5 new pieces in her collection.

Back in the USA

  • Josephine told us of the many compliments her new jewellery was drawing from her friends and colleagues! We continued working on ideas and were expecting to finalise the designs on her next visit to SA.

COVID struck,

  • and Josphine was stuck in the USA. We continued regardless and completed the project vie e-mail and WhatsApp.

Just over a year later,

  • Jo received her last pieces.

The gemstones,

  • in her collection were unusual and beautiful, and lent themselves to being used in contemporary designs.
 

Four of our top artist-jewellers

  • created 18 pieces for this remarkable lady – whose faith in what we were doing for her was inspiring.
 

This is truly eco-friendly jewellery!

  • We reworked her precious metals and used only her existing gemstones. Her only cost was the labour.
 
 

We do love our jobs!

Finished jewellery items, upcycled from old pieces
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So what are you waiting for? Let's start creating your dream piece of jewellery today!

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