For every bespoke piece of jewellery we make from start to finish, we produce a hand-painted jewellery design that you can keep. We love the results of hand painting jewellery, and it's often the first time that an idea, that previously only existed in your head, comes to life.
Jewellery painting has been used for centuries to help customers choose a design they love and for designers to communicate their ideas to a workshop or craftsperson. In days gone by, before CAD technology and before photographs were widely available, this was the best way to envisage a design before committing to manufacturing in precious metals and gemstones.
Pearl, Aquamarine and diamond earrings
Blue Topaz and diamond ring
Red spinel and diamond earrings
Grey Spinel ring
Using gouache watercolour paints, at 1:1 scale, a designer can give the client a good idea of how the finished piece will look. We can bring diamonds, pearls, and coloured gemstones to life with well-placed highlights and using dark colours to simulate depth.
These days, designs are often rendered on artist’s paper, though in the past vellum was popular and some designers still use this today.
All types of gemstones and metals can be rendered, providing a variety and diversity that can bring designs to life.
The Process
Sketch of Jewellery
The first part of creating a jewellery painting is the sketch. A sketch can be quite rough and you may or may not decide to add colour at this stage. Often, you will sketch your design multiple times and try out slight variations of the design, before committing the time to create a more accurate illustration either by hand or using CAD.
Jewellery Illustration
The illustration is a more accurate and finely detailed version of the sketch and is supposed to be an as accurate as possible representation of the finished jewellery design. Whereas a sketch may be freehand, an illustration will be done with the help of tools, like rulers and specialist jewellery stencils if done by hand.
Today, many designers will use software such as Adobe Illustrator or Rhino to create a 2D design, as these programs enable you to do drawings that have thinner lines and are more accurate. This also speeds up the illustration process and designs can be replicated should this be required.
Jewellery Painting on Vellum
Vellum is a translucent material that has been used for writing and drawing for centuries. In the past, Vellum was made by stretching an animal skin, often calfskin, over a frame to create a paper-like material. The heyday of vellum was in the medieval period, when it was used primarily for illuminated manuscripts due to its ability to maintain the vibrant colours you can still see on preserved manuscripts today. Today, most vellum is made using natural fibres, often from tree bark, and is, therefore, vegan-friendly.
The exact properties of vellum paper differ depending on the materials used and the manufacturing process. This can result in papers with different colours, textures and opacity. Under strong direct light, some are virtually transparent. This can be helpful for jewellery designers who can lay an illustration over the hand of a client so they can get a good idea of scale, as well as how the piece will look.
Art of Diamond Painting
As the saying goes, there’s more than one way to skin a cat (no cats were harmed in the making of this sentence) and there's more than one way to paint a diamond!
There are several different ways to paint a diamond; some are excruciatingly detailed, whilst others are more abstract, yet still produce striking results. Exactly which techniques an illustrator chooses to use depends on a few things. The size of diamond plays a major role, as it's only really the larger stones that you can apply the finer details too. Also, the amount of stones that a design includes can be a significant consideration. It must be remembered that, as part of a commercial design process, there will be a limit on the time and money that a company can commit to a painting. Therefore, a technique that requires less time will be used for a design that includes multiple diamonds, especially if they are small.
Some companies will have a signature style, and this can be influenced by where the company is based or if the company has a tradition itself.
With larger diamonds, normally over 2ct, an illustrator can depict with accuracy the facets on both the bottom and top of a stone.
Paintings of jewellery
Different to paintings of jewellery for the purpose of jewellery design are paintings, for instance portraits, where jewellery is included. As many of these will be painted with oils, the depictions of jewellery will be far less detailed when viewed close up, however, work brilliantly when viewed as part of the overall picture.
Probably the most famous example of jewellery in paintings is the ‘Girl with the Pearl Earrings’, by Johannes Vermeer.
The Girl with a Pearl earring