Having a piece remade: what the trade has just written down

On 6 August 2026, Professional Jeweller reported that the National Association of Jewellers had published new guidance for its members, titled Bespoke and Remodelled Jewellery: Managing Expectations, Risk and Design Changes. It covers reusing a customer's own gold, handling stones a customer brings in, casting and material loss, remaking antique pieces, design changes partway through, and prices that move while a job is still on the bench. Katie Gillespie, the NAJ's compliance and policy manager, said in that piece that customers may not always appreciate the technical considerations, limitations or risks involved.

A trade body does not write a checklist for the jobs that go smoothly. It writes one because remodelling is the work where a customer and a workshop can mean two different things by the same sentence. So here is what actually happens, from this bench.

I have made jewellery by hand in London for over 20 years. It began on a stall on Portobello Road, and the pieces went on to sit in Liberty, Selfridges, Harvey Nichols and Harrods. The workshop is still in London, and I still set the stones myself.

5 things nobody tells you about having a piece remade

1. The stones get looked at before anything is promised. Old settings hide a lot. A claw setting that has held a diamond safely since 1930 can be holding a stone with a chip along the girdle that nobody has seen in 90 years. A stone that is sound where it sits now is not always sound enough to be pushed into a new setting. That is the first thing I check, and the first thing I tell you, even when it is not the answer you wanted.

2. Old gold loses weight. Melting and recasting loses some of it, and solder, old findings and worn areas come out of the usable total, so the gold from one ring does not reliably make one ring of the same size. Gold of different carats cannot be melted together and then called 9kt either, because the finished piece has to be hallmarked honestly. What happens to metal that is genuinely spare is covered on recycling your jewellery.

3. Old cuts are not modern cuts. An old European cut or a rose cut diamond is deeper than a modern brilliant, with a smaller table, which is exactly why it catches light in that soft, lamplit way. It also means a ready made modern setting will not take it. The setting has to be built around the stone. That is the reason a remade piece looks like nothing in a shop window.

4. Keeping the character is a decision, not a default. If the engraving inside a Victorian band matters to you, or the slightly uneven milgrain, say so at the start. Those details are easy to keep and impossible to put back.

5. Every quote is individual, and that is not evasion. The price depends on which stones can be reused, their condition, how much metal survives, how the setting has to be built, and the gold price that week. That is why I quote from a photograph first, free and with no obligation, on Second Life Jewellery. Send a picture and I will tell you honestly what can be done with it, before you post anything to anyone.

If what you want is a stone you can see

Not everyone with a stone in a drawer wants it remade. Some people want to start with a piece whose whole idea is a stone that is visible and alive. The Second Life TBar Gemstone Necklace is £325 in gold vermeil, with a round stone set to spin freely inside its mount on a T-bar chain, in black onyx or pearlised moonstone. In crystal tradition onyx is worn for steadiness and moonstone for intuition. It does openly what remodelling does quietly: it puts the stone where you can watch it.

I notice the same thing in the studio every week. People do not come in asking for gold. They come in holding something, and what they want is to be able to look at it again.

2 other ways in

For a stone and a letter together without a commission, the Initial Disc Birthstone Necklace is a 10mm engraved disc with an 8mm birthstone beside it, £45 in sterling silver, £60 in gold vermeil and £250 in 9kt solid yellow or white gold. Everything solid sits in the 9kt Solid Gold collection.

If you are bringing several people into one piece, which is what an inherited set is usually really about, the Circle Initial Necklace takes up to 4 initials cut out of a single circle, from £150 in sterling silver and £425 in 9kt solid gold. At the easy end, an Initial Charm is £25 in sterling silver, engraved here in the workshop.

The second life is the real one.

If there is a ring, a pair of odd earrings or a handful of loose stones you have not worn in years, send me a photograph and I will tell you what it could become. The free estimate is on Second Life Jewellery, or write to me at anna@annalouoflondon.com. Anna Lou x.

Questions people actually ask

How much does it cost to have a ring remodelled?
There is no list price, because no two jobs use the same stones, the same amount of reusable metal or the same setting. I quote each one individually from a photograph, free and with no obligation. Start on Second Life Jewellery.

Can you use the gold from my own jewellery?
Usually yes, and most people want to. Melting and recasting loses some weight, and pieces of different carats cannot be combined and hallmarked as one carat. I tell you before we start whether your own gold covers the new piece or whether we need to add to it, and what happens to any left over, which is explained on recycling your jewellery.

Will the ring still fit once the stone has been reset?
Not necessarily. A new setting changes the depth and the shoulders of the band, and most inherited rings were sized for somebody else's hand anyway. We size it for you as part of the job. To measure at home first, the ring size guide shows you how with a strip of paper.