We recently completed a commission to create something extra fabulous for a 4oth birthday present. We were delighted to be asked and the completed work is one that we are particularly pleased with and happy to able to share with you.
The request was for something extra special for a 4oth birthday gift that would commemorate a very special friendship. The birthday girl has been living in Australia for the last 5 years but retains close ties to her New Zealand heritage. A bracelet was decided on and we were delighted to incorporate a special design in each of the eight segments.
A koru was incorporated in one of the segments to represent New Zealand and a gecko represents Australia.
The finished piece was posted to Brisbane and the birthday girl was ‘absolutely thrilled’.
If you are interested in having something created for yourself or a friend we would love to work with you. We are happy to discuss your ideas to help you come up with something to suit the occasion or personality.
Use the ‘Contact Us’ link on this page to send any questions and enquiries, we look forward to hearing from you.
10 days ago we had a customer request a special ring made for her, of course this is no problem for us and something that we really enjoy. It is nice to make something special for a customer and to share their delight and joy when they collect the piece or when we ship it to them.
The customer that I am writing about was from Poland and wore some unusual and large pieces of jewellery and to make something to suit her was no problem. She told us what she would like, discussed the details with Doka and left us with her ring size and these words ‘if I like it I will buy it’. We discussed a price with her at the start and gave her an approximate price as to be 100% accurate at this stage was a little hard, we did not know how much silver the piece would use or how many hours it would take to complete the ring.
Our Polish lady said she would come back in two days and see how the work was progressing.
Two days later she came back to see us and admired the work in progress and brought herself a beautiful filigree bracelet from our display.
Again we talked about the price of the ring and unfortunately communications broke down a little here, I insisted that the price we had originally quoted was very reasonable for the amount of work that had gone into the ring. Where she said she did not understand why the bracelet she had just brought would be cheaper than the ring as the bracelet required a lot more work than the ring. Although this was not the case as the bracelet was a less complex piece that took less hours to make, but she insisted the price for the ring was too high and she has not been back for her ring.
The XL bling ring is finished now and it is a stunning piece as you can see but I am sure it is not to everyone’s taste and I wonder how long it will sit in the store before someone else comes along that will like it?!
It’s a size 14 if you’re interested!
Filigree XL Bling with Coral feature
In hindsight we should have insisted on a deposit for the ring we had been commissioned to make.
What other advice can anyone offer to help with future situations like this?
Our shop is tiny, we have a small display window outside that showcases a few of our unique Seba designed pieces of jewellery. I often long for a great big window, both so that I can see out and so that passers by can look in and see that we create jewellery RIGHT HERE. It is so nice to have the chance to share our passion for filigree with visitors to Korcula and we have met some really lovely people here at Seba Dizajn. It is especially nice to see our young visitors enthralled as they watch jewellery being made – we have a few children wanting to stay long after Mum & Dad are ready to leave which is funny.
This morning we met a lovely group of Americans who were here on a chartered yacht trip, 20 friends sailing in Croatia for a week, understandably they were having a fantastic time. It was so nice to start my day chatting with them, this bracelet in our window display was what drew them into our shop;
Silver Filigree Bracelet by Seba Dizajn
It was nice to be able to explain some of the filigree techniques used in making the bracelet and for them to be able to watch something being made was a special experience.
Coincidently when I opened my email after this group had left I found a message from a customer that was here in June asking about a price for this same bracelet!
Please visit our facebook page, www.facebook.com/SebaDizajn if you are interested in seeing any more of our unique jewellery.
Today I am really happy to introduce you to, Sharon Howard who has contributed a piece about her favourite piece of jewellery. Sharon blogs too! You can find her own blog here, http://showard76.wordpress.com/
My favourite piece of Jewellery by Sharon Howard
To be honest I’ve never been the greatest jewellery fanatic. I know lots of women go crazy for jewellery and it’s usually a typical ‘good’ buy if you are trying to impress a girl, another way in which I’m just awkward I guess lol. I don’t own much jewellery; I have a few rings and necklaces and a bracelet.
The one thing I get through lots of though is earrings; I have a nasty habit I finding a pair I love and wearing them to death or loss, loss being more common! I also have a habit of buying a pair to suit a particular outfit and then not wearing them again.
But a favourite piece of jewellery is something I had never really thought about. I have several items that I wear for the majority of the time, but I think that’s more due to not being bothered to change for other items than them being favourites? I nearly always where my gold pentagram necklace, my gold ‘mum’ ring, my white gold Celtic style ring and of course my engagement ring. Of my earrings the pair my fiancée bought me last Christmas is the set I wear most of the time.
So, what is my favourite piece of jewellery and why?
Pentagram necklace - similar to mine
I guess really it must be the pentacle necklace. It is slightly unusual as most pentagrams are silver or ‘costume’ jewellery items; silver is most popular as it represents the moon in paganism. I found my gold one in a small independent jewellery store in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham, about 4 years ago, and just had to have it. It represents my ‘erring towards paganism’ beliefs, although I am not actually a pagan. I suppose it also is quite a symbol of ‘me’ now as well, people identify me with it – unique, different.
It is also a good talking point, a conversation starter when I meet new people. For some, who recognise the symbol appropriately, it will trigger a conversation about paganism and views on the topic. For those who don’t recognise the symbol correctly it becomes a learning experience as I explain the difference between it and what they mistake it for; for example the most common mistake is for people to say “Oh, are you Jewish?” as they mistake it for a Star of David –
Star of David
which just shows how little they know as the five pointed pentagram is quite different from the six pointed Star of David the most shocking example of this is when I met Russell Tovey (who plays George in Being Human) his character wears a similar pendant in the show, but even he thought it was the Star of David! The other common mistake is to think I am a devil worshipper, as some people think it is a satanic pentagram, which always makes me laugh, fair enough it is the same symbol, but for so called devil worship it is placed upside down/inverted.
If you would like to share something about your favourite piece of jewellery we would love to hear from you, sebacroatia@yahoo.com
