A New Piece Based on Jewelry You Already Own

Most people who say "redesign" mean one of three things. The shape is right and the scale is wrong. The metal color is wrong next to the chain they wear now. Or the piece meant something, a gift, a parent, a city, and they want that meaning in a form they will actually put on. All three are design briefs. None of them require the old object to be taken apart on our bench. You keep it. We draw the next one. You see an exact price. Nothing is made until you agree.

Photograph the old piece in daylight, front and side, next to a ruler or a coin so the millimeters are not a guess. Write one sentence on what must survive: the letter, the outline of the cross, the way a signet sits on the finger. Write a second sentence on what must change: larger, yellow instead of white, diamonds added, a bail that fits a 5 mm Cuban. Two sentences beat a shoebox of jewelry with no priority. The shop still needs those sentences even if you are standing at 7900 NW 27th Ave, Unit 506, Miami FL 33147.

This path is the same custom path as any other idea. Phone 954-504-5640 or Instagram @frankydiamonds. Founded 2010, family in the trade since 1990. The motto is "We ain't cuttin no corners," which here means the new piece is described completely, not waved through because the old one was sentimental.

Copy proportions, not scratches. If a pendant looks right at 25 mm, the new drawing should say 25 mm, not "same as Grandma's." If a signet face is the right width for your finger, measure that face. If a hoop diameter is the one you always reach for, measure the hoop. The new piece can improve thickness, bail strength, clasp choice or stone coverage. It should not pretend that "similar" is a dimension.

Look at live prices so the new drawing has a neighborhood. Small 10K pendants, including the Gold Initial Necklace and the Classic Oval Locket, are $365. A Gold Cross Pendant is $430. Mixed natural diamond pendants jump to $5,800, $5,900, $7,300 and $9,500. Men's 10K diamond rings run from the Apollo at $3,465 to the Round Baguette Signet at $8,680. If the piece you love is a small gold cross, the new piece is in the first neighborhood unless you add size or stones. If you add a full stone face, you have left that neighborhood on purpose. The design should show the departure so the price is not a shock.

Sentiment is not a karat. A new piece in 10K, about 41.7 percent gold, can carry the same letter as an older 14K piece, about 58.3 percent, or an 18K piece at 75 percent. The drawing names the new karat. You might choose 10K because the catalog's chains are 10K and you want the colors to agree. You might choose 14K because our lab diamond rings are 14K white gold. The old hallmark is information. It is not the spec of the new job.

The quote names the diamonds that will be set in the new jewelry: count, total carat weight, shape, and origin. Laboratory-grown stones have to be called laboratory-grown under the FTC Jewelry Guides, in words that sit where a buyer will see them. Natural stones get a plain statement that they are natural. GIA's distinction is growth. The crystals can look alike. The history does not match, and a laboratory can tell. A render cannot. The word has to be on the page with the price.

Our own file shows how origin is already being sold. Fifteen lab diamond rings, all E color and VS1, 14K white gold, $1,050 to $8,500. Four mixed natural diamond pendants, 10K, $5,800 to $9,500. A 26.6 carat lab diamond bracelet in 14K rose gold at $9,000. If the new piece is "like my old cluster, but cleaner," point at a grade. E VS1 is a real spec on the ring shelf. It does not transfer by osmosis to a pendant. Write it down or write a different grade. Silence is how two quotes diverge.

Adding stones to a shape that used to be plain gold is the change that moves money fastest. A $430 cross outline, redrawn and paved, is not a $430 piece with a tip. Seats, carats and setting time show up as their own lines. If the number is too high, shrink the paved area on the drawing. The old plain cross can stay in the drawer. The new one only exists after you agree.

Going larger is the most common "upgrade," and it is the easiest to misprice in your head. Double the height and width of a flat pendant and the face area is about four times larger. Gold follows area if thickness stays constant. Stones follow area if you keep the same coverage. A pendant that felt like a modest step up can be a different budget. The model exists to show that before a cast. See what the 3D render locks.

Going smaller has its own failure. Fine detail in an old hand-engraved piece will not survive if you shrink it. Letters blob. Portraits turn to noise. The render is the test. If the small version looks like a smudge, it will cast as a smudge. Keep the old piece at the size that works, and change something else: the chain, the bail, the metal color. Not every brief should get smaller or larger. Some should get a better chain.

Chains are often the actual upgrade. A pendant you already like may be hanging on a chain that is too thin or the wrong color. A Miami Cuban Link at 1.50 mm is $495. A Flat Miami Cuban at 5 mm is $1,880. Another Miami Cuban at 5 mm is $4,260. Changing the chain can change the whole outfit without a new pendant at all. Check chains before you commission a new face. Custom versus ready-made is the decision in one place.

A ring idea copied from an old ring still needs a current finger size on the new design. Fingers change. A wide new shank fits tighter than a thin old one at the same size number. The drawing shows face width, shank thickness and size together. The men's shelf, if you want a reference, is those nine 10K diamond rings from $3,465 to $8,680. If the old ring is a thin band and you want a signet, the old ring stays as it is. You are ordering a signet. Price it as a signet.

Earrings copied from a single survivor need a diameter and a backing, and a decision about one versus two. Classic Ball Earrings at 3 mm are $260. Baguette Hoops are $1,035. Inside Out Diamond Pave Hoops are $3,295. If the survivor is a small gold ball, the pair may already exist. If the survivor is a one-off cluster, the new mate is a custom match, priced from the spec you can document. Measure it. Do not say "the usual size."

Bracelets need a wrist length, not the memory of a clasp that used to fit. The bracelet size guide is the method. A new bracelet inspired by an old one still follows custom bracelets: length on the design, exact price, no build before agreement.

Initials, dates and religious outlines are where spelling and silhouette matter more than karat. Cursive Gold Initials in the catalog are $390. A Gold Cross is $430. A custom letter that has to match a specific hand-drawn monogram is a render problem: the letter at real size, thick enough to cast. Approve the spelling on the model. The old piece can sit next to the screen so you can see whether the new letter is faithful or just adjacent.

If the old piece is a photo pendant, the new one needs a usable image, not a photo of a photo of a locket. Photo pendants explain what the image has to survive. If the old piece is a nameplate, name chains cover length and letter height. Use the old nameplate as the sample of lettering you want, and let the new chain be specified in millimeters.

We do not invent a story about where the old piece came from, and we do not need one to draw the new one. The bench needs the shape and the change. You can keep the story at home.

The new design arrives with an exact price built from the new grams, the new carats, the origin and the labor. If that number is for a bigger piece than you meant, shrink the drawing. If a catalog piece already is the change you wanted, buy the catalog piece and leave the old one as the reminder. Initial pendants and the custom start page are the two doors. One is finished. One is a drawing.

Insured shipping covers a new piece that leaves the showroom. A manufacturing defect has a 7-day window. No refunds. All sales are final. Those rules are about the new sale. They are not a judgment on the old jewelry, which was never part of this invoice.

Bring the two sentences, the photos and the measurement. You will get a design you can refuse. Refusal is free of gold. Agreement is what starts the build. That order is the whole protection, sentimental or not.