Every piece we make begins on paper, not in metal. Before a single gram of gold is weighed, a designer draws the same flower a dozen times — tighter, looser, with a longer stem, with a shorter one — until the proportions feel inevitable. This is the story of one pendant, from that first line to the moment it leaves our workshop.
It starts with a drawing
Our design team works in pencil first because pencil is honest. A CAD render flatters everything; a sketch shows you where a petal is too heavy or a bail sits too high. Only when the hand-drawn version is right does it move to a 3D model, where the stone seats, prong heights and metal thicknesses are set to the tenth of a millimetre.
Tip: If you are commissioning a custom piece, ask to see the sketch stage. It is the cheapest moment to change your mind and the one that shapes everything after it.
Casting and the first clean-up
The model is printed in wax, invested in plaster and cast in the alloy you chose — 14K or 18K gold, or 925 sterling silver. Fresh from the cast a piece looks nothing like jewellery: dull, with a sprue to be cut and a surface that needs filing, sanding and a first tumble before a setter will touch it.
Setting, by hand, under a loupe
Each diamond is seated individually. The setter cuts the seat, lowers the stone, and tightens every prong or bead with a graver while watching through a 10x loupe. A stone that sits a hair too high catches on knitwear for years; one set a hair too low loses light. This is the slowest step and the one we refuse to hurry.
A good setting is one you never think about. The stone is simply there, and it stays there.
— Trimaani workshop
Polish, hallmark, certify
Three stages of polish bring the metal to its final finish — high-polish, satin or a mix, as the design calls for. Gold pieces are then BIS hallmarked, and every diamond piece is certified by an independent laboratory before it is photographed, boxed and released.
- BIS hallmark on every gold piece
- IGI certification for diamond jewellery
- A final inspection under magnification before packing
Eleven steps, several pairs of hands, and one piece that will be worn for decades. That is the only ratio that has ever made sense to us.