Too many people are getting old jewellery lying in a drawer. Heirlooms, wedding rings and jewellery you have received from loved ones. Objects that carry memories and stories, but are no longer used.
My most personal piece of jewellery
At Wabi Sabi we work with gold remelting. This means that we use the gold the customer delivers to us and create a new personal piece. The material follows, and so does the story.
One of the best things about these orders is the closeness that already exists in the material before we begin.
I myself wear a Fråst bracelet every single day. It is the most personal piece of jewellery I own.
Many years ago I received a gold bracelet from my husband. The gold came from jewellery after his mother, the grandmother of our children, whom I never had the opportunity to meet myself.
The bracelet meant a lot to me, but the design belonged to another time. It became a piece of jewellery that I only wore on special occasions, before it eventually ended up in my jewellery box.
When I later melted the bracelet into a Fråst bangle, I also chose to include a ring from my own mother. This way, several stories could continue in the same piece of jewellery.
Today, the bangle is on my right hand, every single day.
When old jewellery gets new life
For me, recasting is not about replacing something old with something new. It's about continuing what already means something, in a form that suits life as it is lived today.
This is often what makes remelting so personal. Many people come to us with gold they have inherited, received as a gift or cared for over many years. The material has value in itself, but it is often the history that makes the decision important.
When we work with remelting, the process starts with the gold the customer already has a relationship with. The material is cleaned before being used in a new piece of jewelry, developed and produced in our workshop in Tromsø. The result can be anything from a ring or bracelet to a pendant or a pair of earrings.
For those who want an even closer connection to the process, we also offer Sand Casting Workshops where you can make the jewellery yourself.
For some it's about being able to carry a memory forward. For others it's about giving new life to jewellery which would otherwise have been left unused. What they all have in common is the desire to preserve something that already means something.
From heirloom gold to new jewelry
When we work with remelting, the process starts with the gold the customer already has a relationship with. The material is refined before being used in a new piece of jewellery, developed and produced in our workshop in Tromsø.
The result can be anything from a ring or bracelet to a pendant or a pair of earrings. The shape changes, but the material and the story follow suit.
This way, the material can continue its journey, carried, used and lived with through new generations.
Read more about remelting here.
Text by Ann-Merete Skaue Øines, Owner & Designer
