A little imagination goes a long way.

What's possible? Well most things really! There are a small number of times a commission is turned down on the grounds that it would be a direct copy of another design, would be impractical or simply would look terrible. On the whole, most design requests can be developed and result in a very personal and beautiful piece of jewellery.

We are always full of ideas and it's straight forward for us to come up with ideas on your behalf based on what you like or dislike or on designs that have already been made up. We can also tailor existing ranges of jewellery to suit you. Dot the jewellers likes to alter any design to make it personal to you and there are simple areas that can make a design personal. Proportions are important as everyone is different and what looks good on one may not suit another. For example, the overall width of a ring can make a big difference along with its overall height, profile, metal/gem mix, finish etc. Listening to your likes and dislikes this can be taken on board and a design altered to fit perfectly.

If you chose to have a fully new item of jewellery, a past design re-designed or an existing piece altered the following process is followed…

Step one: There needs to be a starting point, this can be a selection of designs you like, elements of a general point such as hard sharp forms or soft flowing designs. Colour of metals & gems are helpful, also cuts of stones (there are more than you think) can be a good starting point. We do have to broach the subject of budget at this stage as we don't want to scare or disappoint you and it can quite often set an overall parameter for the design.

Step two: Do absolutely nothing as we do the hard work. As you would expect from a commissioned design they need to have time invested into them to get a good selection (always three completely different concepts).However, we endeavor to take no longer than three weeks over step two.

Step three: See how we have done. You will be presented with a selection of computer-aided designs that have been rendered (photographed) just like the finished piece of jewellery. At this stage we will obviously have the designs but can also have a selection of gems if applicable for your consideration.

Step four: Be fussy - we like it. As the designs consist of time and a collection of lovingly positioned pixels we can easily change things you may have questions over. We like you to take your time over the design as changing things after this stage is not impossible but does throw up problems and possible additional charges. (N.B. if a design is not working out as well as the designer may hope (this can happen when you are making things for the first time) it will be changed with no cost to the customer - we are very proud of our customer service and fight to maintain it that way).

Step five: Commission, when you're happy with everything we are going to do for you we can start work. At this stage we require a 30% deposit based on the overall cost of the item.

As all the brainy stuff has already been done, with the whole production process worked out in the design stage, it's normally four to five weeks to make the item up from scratch.

Step six:It's all yours (sorry we do have to ask you to pay for it). But we don't leave it there - you're one of our customers now so if you require the item altered in size (excluding full eternities) no problem and it's free, along with polishing to re-finish the item as many times as you like.

(The only thing to point out at this stage is that refinishing is an abrasive process and your lovely jewellery will disappear bit by bit. So leaving it to once a year or when you're going out and want to impress are good opportunities to take up the offer. Please can you let us know that you're on your way - we love to help, but can get very busy).