'A diamond is just a chunk of coal made good under pressure' .....

We were recently contacted by a lovely lady, Andrea, from Burnley in Lancashire, who emailed late one evening asking for our help. Her son's wedding was rapidly approaching and she had an idea for a bespoke necklace using a rather unusual material which held significant sentimental value - no pressure there then! 

We knew just the person to take on this challenge - if anyone could do it, it would be Iain Henderson of Iain Henderson Designs - a fantastic bespoke jeweller www.iainhenderson.co.uk

Photo courtesy of Jim Poyner Photography www.jimpoyner.co.uk

So we emailed Iain that night with our SOS followed by a quick email to Andrea to let her know that we were on the case. Her lovely response made us even more determined to get this sorted:-

'Thank you for your reply especially so late in the day... I was both surprised and impressed to get such a positive response'.... Andrea

Not surprisingly, Iain and his team took on the challenge and boy did they succeed! They've written the following blog to tell the story and they've done it so well it's better to share their own words! So here goes......
 

‘A diamond is just a chunk of coal made good under pressure’- Henry Kissinger

When our partners at The Wedding Affair got in touch with us to see if we could make a piece of bespoke jewellery for a customer in under a fortnight, we said of course. Brilliant, they said, but there is a slight catch. We waited with anticipation only to be told the customer would like her necklace creating using a rather sentimental piece of coal. Used to working with precious gems like diamonds and sapphires, the team at IHD couldn’t resist the challenge of working with such an unusual material. And with Henry Kissinger’s quote ‘a diamond is just a chunk of coal made good under pressure’ ringing in our ears – we were confident we could create something special.

So why coal? And why the quick turnaround? Our customer had envisioned a special piece of jewellery steeped in sentimentality and designed specifically to be worn at the wedding of her son. Having been let down by the first jeweller she had challenged, she was left with less than a fortnight to turn her idea into a reality. Andrea had taken a piece of coal to her own wedding as a good luck talisman and wanted to keep the good luck flowing by taking the same piece of coal to the weddings of her children but didn’t want to keep it wrapped up in her handbag. She imagined a necklace created with three pieces of the coal to signify her wedding, her son’s and eventually her daughter’s.

Coal is often given to the bride and groom on their wedding day as a way of offering the newlyweds a warm home literally and symbolically. Traditionally, chimney sweeps were also present at weddings to bring the bride and groom good fortune after they were declared lucky by King George II after a sweep saved him from near certain tragedy by stopping a bolting horse some two hundred years ago. And the significance of coal goes much deeper than superstition for Andrea who comes from a family which has many connections to the railway industry. Indeed, her son’s wedding venue was the National Railway Museum in York and with many steam engine drivers in attendance; her necklace was bound to become a real focal point for conversation and reminiscing. With such wedding myths firmly maintained and the sentimentality from Andrea’s own special day, using coal for wedding jewellery actually makes perfect sense!

Working with coal was an interesting experience. Cutting the coal to the required shape was the first difficulty as it splintered and shattered using our traditional jewellery making tools. Determined not to be defeated, we got a builder friend over with a diamond stone cutting blade to angle grind the pieces we required. The coal was then carefully shaped so that it would fit snugly into the pre-created silver setting. The sides of the setting were designed to be higher than those usually used to protect the fragility of the coal. Fixing the coal into the setting was the next difficulty – applying heat was definitely out as we didn’t want to set fire to the stone and any pressure used would make the coal fracture – so we utilised industrial strength glue to carefully bond stone to setting. Following Andrea’s instructions we left the larger central piece natural and polished the two smaller, outer pieces giving an exceptional finish, guaranteed to be a talking point on the top table at the wedding breakfast.

Andrea collected her bespoke coal necklace from us the day before her son's wedding in York and was simply delighted with IHD's creation saying 'you've saved the sentimental value for posterity'.

So here's the fabulous necklace that they created - all we can say is wow! 

Well done to Iain and his team for creating something so special for Andrea. We have to confess that we've got a bit of a rosy glow at matchmaking this amazing collaboration....

01274 551224        info@iainhenderson.co.uk

www.iainhenderson.co.uk