Commissioning with us involves fewer decisions than people expect, and that's by design. You tell us what you want at the start, you approve the design before anything is made, and you see the finished piece at the end. Everything in between is ours to manage.
The conversation that starts it
We begin with a consultation, in person at the studio or remotely if that suits you better. We ask about the styles you're drawn to, how you actually live and work, what you'd want to wear a ring alongside, your budget, and whether you're starting with something already in hand, a gemstone you've bought, an heirloom stone, a metal preference. Nothing is agreed at this stage. You're giving us enough to come back with a proposal, not committing to a price or a design, and the consultation itself costs nothing, whether we meet at the studio or over video call.
From that conversation we write up a brief covering the design direction, a rough budget and a working timeline, and we ask you to look it over and agree it before any design work starts. It's worth being candid with us here about budget and what matters most to you. A brief that understates the budget tends to produce a design we then have to scale back later, at a stage where changes cost more than they would now. There's no design fee and no deposit at this stage and design work is included, not billed separately. The one deposit in the whole process comes later, once you've approved a design and chosen a stone, and it's there specifically to secure that stone. It's generally half its cost, though we're flexible where it helps.
Where the real decisions happen
Once the brief is agreed, we move into CAD. You'll see 3D renders from multiple angles, and often a resin model you can try on for scale before anything is made in metal. This is the stage with the most back-and-forth, and it's meant to be as we keep revising until you're happy with it, covering things like the height of a setting or the angle a stone sits at, it's refining the design. We'd rather you took your time here than rushed to approval, because CAD is genuinely the cheapest point in the whole process to change your mind. Once you sign off on the file, we build to match it.
If your design calls for a diamond or gemstone you don't already own, we source a shortlist against the parameters in your brief showing cut, colour, clarity, carat, certification, for you to compare, rather than presenting one option and hoping it fits. A well-specified diamond is usually quick to find; something rarer can take longer, and we'll tell you if that's likely to affect your timeline.
Our reference site Commissioned has a full step-by-step account of the bespoke process, if you'd like the general mechanics alongside what we've described here about how it feels from your side of the table.
What we handle without you
Once the CAD is approved and the stone confirmed, the piece is cast, or occasionally hand-fabricated where the design calls for it, that choice is generally ours to make based on what the piece needs structurally. Stones are set, the piece is polished, and any detailing is finished and checked over. None of this needs your input, though we'll flag it if anything changes the timeline we agreed. Where the finished piece meets the legal weight threshold, it goes to a UK assay office to be hallmarked before we can hand it to you as gold, silver, platinum or palladium.
The end of the process
You collect the finished, hallmarked piece and try it on for the first time as a completed object rather than a render. We'll talk you through aftercare and provide documentation for insurance, since a bespoke piece has no prior sale history to value it against.
Getting started
Across the whole process, your genuine decision points are the brief, the CAD approval, sometimes a stone shortlist, and collection at the end. If that's a process you'd like to start, we'd be glad to talk it through at a bespoke consultation.