A few years ago, way up in the North of England, entrepreneur and jewellery designer, Janet Stansfield came up with a great idea: source semi-precious stones from ethically sound sources and let the customers design their own jewellery; then have it made by jewellery designers right here in the UK. That was back in 2012 and finally this year she realised her idea with the launch of bespoke jewellery design service DIWAH. She’s supported by a great team of jewellery designers up in Newcastle making the jewellery as the online orders come in.
As part of their launch, DIWAH invited me to try out their bespoke jewellery design service, and I’ll admit I just couldn’t resist it. We don’t currently do sponsored posts here at Our Little Organic Life, but once in a while we do like trying out a product or service that our readers might like and sharing it if it meets our ethical and environmental standards. Obviously here at OLOL we try to not encourage mass consumerism, and so buying no jewellery at all, or buying jewellery from the charity shop is more environmentally friendly than the service which DIWAH offers. However, I happen to love jewellery – its my #1 weakness – and feel that having one or two pieces which I’ve had a say in designing and which really match my capsule wardrobe is okay with me. So I said yes please, that I would love to try their service, and in turn, they agreed that they were happy for me to share my story here with you.
It’s a pretty simple process to design your own jewellery with DIWAH.
Step 1: Go to https://www.diwah.com and click on the ‘start designing’ tab. A variety of templates and design options will come up with different looks, but if you want to have all of the 1500+ design components available to work with, you can do that too. (That’s what I did!)
Step 2: Once you’ve chosen your template and your design elements, just start designing by clicking and dragging the stones and clasps of your choice onto the online template. The pieces are priced by weight, so I balanced off the heavier stones in my piece by using lighter design features to keep my piece within my chosen budget.
Step 3: When you’re done, just check out and within around 10 days your necklace will be completed and sent to you. Before its sent out you’ll get a lovely email from your designer with a photo of your piece as its being created and as a final piece. They’ll also write you a personalised note card which will accompany the piece when it arrives in its luxuriously packaged box.
I ended up designing two necklaces. The first one was a very neutral piece with some bold statement semi-precious gems, a thick gunmetal chain and copper clasp with copper detailing. I called it COPPER HEART. The second piece was more bright and fun, designed to match my new electric blue summer dress. It featured natural turquoise, coral and what they call ‘potato crystals’ which are in fact glass beads. I love this piece and I named it after my daughter, E*** GOES TRIBAL.
Here’s the photographs I received from my jewellery designer before the item was shipped out to me:
And here is the unboxing of the pieces when I received them.
I loved that my request for particularly dark smokey agate was taken into account and the paler ones used in the first mock up of the necklace were replaced with darker ones. That’s the beauty of bespoke! In the end, I found the copper entwined crystal pendant was just too heavy a look for my small frame, so I clipped it off and it sits amongst the collection of natural stones and shells I look at while doing yoga.
DIWAH is a nice, small, British company making very fun bespoke costume jewellery. Its made with decently sourced components by folks right here in the UK being paid decent wages (which is more than I can say for the jewellery available from many overseas based eBay sellers). I’m happy to share news of their launch here on this blog and to recommend them for their fun bespoke jewellery design experience, nicely made pieces and great personalised customer service.
Wow how amazing, I love the designs. So personal and colourful x
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for commenting! I had so much fun choosing the stones to use and coming up with the designs!
LikeLike
Is it weird to say that just reading your blog makes me feel so grounded! I love your whole ethos, and your taste in bespoke jewellery, both these pieces are so pretty and I think I would definitely pick turquoise as it’s supposed to be good for healing and God knows I need that. x
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much for your kind words! It means a lot to me when people genuinely enjoy what I have written and appreciate the principles I try to adhere to in life and on this blog. And turquoise is my favourite stone! For some reason its the one I’ve been the most drawn to over the years. Just looking at it calms me immensely. I didn’t realise it was associated with healing – I must look into that.
LikeLike
That’s so good that you can be personal and create your own jewellery x
LikeLike
I love the idea of being able to create a piece of jewellery that is completely personal and unique to you. Such a great idea!
LikeLiked by 1 person
What gorgeous pieces!!! I love the vibrant colours it all has a goddess vibe to it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much! I had so much fun designing the pieces. Now I’m doing a bracelet to match!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Beautiful! I worked with Diwah too and the designs were just stunning.
LikeLiked by 1 person
They are really nice folks aren’t they? Such a creative business idea.
LikeLike
Oh wow that’s amazing!
I love creative activities, I always have so thinking that my jewellery has been crafted for yourself must be great!
Mika | http://www.la-french-connection.com
LikeLike
Thanks Mika, and yes it was a really special experience – and kind of difficult choosing from all the different stones and styles!
LikeLike
Wow! Absolutely amazing! The designs look so pretty!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve never thought about designing my own jewellery before but it looks brilliant 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is and its not too expensive either. I think the brightly coloured one with natural turquoise and glass beads came out to around £18 or so. The other was was pricier because of the large smokey agate stones and the crystal pendant.
LikeLike
I can still remember how I love DIY bracelets when I was a kid. With Diwah, it’s more varied in terms of designs and techniques. I bet it was an awesome experience.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Jessica, it really was quite a special experience and so much fun to have something that I designed myself.
LikeLike
These are so pretty, I love the design and colours x
LikeLike
So amazingly bright with all of those colours, such a great talent x
LikeLike
It was really so much fun designing it. I loved the bright colours too! Thanks for visiting & commenting. x
LikeLike
Well this is different! What a fun post
LikeLiked by 1 person
This sounds like such a great experience, perfect for a gift too!
LikeLiked by 1 person
lovely idea and designs. love how you have control and have a variety of beads etc to choose from
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love the idea of personalising the jewellery, it would make a great gift!
LikeLiked by 1 person
This looks like it would make a lovely gift for those into arts and crafts of whom I know a few.
LikeLiked by 1 person
These are so pretty, and perfect for a personalised gift.
LikeLiked by 1 person
They look absolutely gorgeous! What a lovely gift to design and give to a good friend x
LikeLiked by 1 person