CRAFTSMANSHIP_
Three things we make well.
Hand-painted enamel, fired layer by layer in a kiln. Natural stones polished only to reveal their form. Gold, applied in engineered layers thick enough to carry you through years.
This page is short because the work is long.
FEATURE 01 · THE ENAMEL_
Painted by hand. Fired in layers.
Mineral colour, fused to silver, forever.
Every Elysian pendant is decorated with painted enamel — the oldest form of decorating fine metal in colour. A skilled artist mixes powdered mineral pigment, applies it with a fine brush, and fires the piece in a kiln at approximately 800 degrees Celsius.
Then they do it again. And again. Layer upon layer, until the piece is ready.
Between firings, one brushstroke too many or one degree too hot, and the piece starts over from a blank oval. We have no shortcut for this. Printing would take seconds. Decals could be applied in a minute. Neither produces real enamel — neither lasts.
Real painted enamel is fired mineral colour, fused to the metal beneath it. It does not fade with time. It does not peel. With basic care, an enamelled piece will outlast the person who first wore it.
But the surface is fired mineral. Dropped on a hard surface, struck at a sharp angle, exposed to real heat — and it cracks. Our Promise is clear about this, and so are we: the beauty of these pieces asks for a little care in return.
The pendant that ends up in your box passed every one of its tests. The ones that didn't never left the workshop.
FEATURE 02 · THE STONE_
Selected for colour, size, and clarity.
Polished to reveal — never to round.
Every Seren bracelet is built around natural crystal. Moonstone from Sri Lanka. Aquamarine from Mozambique. Rose quartz from Madagascar. Zeus quartz, tourmaline in quartz, lodolite — most from Brazil.
Each stone is selected by hand from rough material, not bulk-ordered by the kilo. We look at three things:
- Colour. The depth and clarity of what the stone actually is, not what filler can be added to make it look like more.
- Size. Weighted enough to feel substantial on the wrist, not so large that the piece wears you instead of the other way around.
- Clarity. Enough translucence for the stone to catch light, with natural inclusions left in rather than masked.
Every Seren stone is polished as a freeform — its own natural shape, brought to its most beautiful expression. We remove only the impurities and the sharp edges that would catch on clothing or skin. We never round a stone down to a standard silhouette.
Some come out oval. Some come out teardrop. Some end up in shapes that do not have a name. None of them look like the stones in someone else's wrist.
Because no two people are the same shape either.
FEATURE 03 · THE GOLD_
Two ways, one standard.
Engineered layers, not a thin promise.
CROSS-SECTION · SEREN 6-LAYER STACK ·· ELYSIAN VERMEIL
Gold plating is one of the easiest places in jewellery to cut corners. A single layer of gold at half a micron is technically plated gold — and it wears through in a season. We made a different choice.
— On Seren: six layers, about ten microns total.
A brass base is coated with six microns of copper, then a sub-micron silver bridge, then 0.18 microns of genuine 18K gold as the colour layer, then three microns of protective coating, then a 90-minute bake to bond it all. The 18K gold layer is thin, but it is a designed element in a ten-micron stack — not the whole plating.
— On Elysian: 3.0 microns of 18K gold, in one layer, directly over silver.
Elysian pieces are vermeil — which has a legal definition in the United States. The FTC requires at least 2.5 microns of gold over sterling silver. We apply 3.0 microns. That is twenty percent thicker than the minimum, and it is the same standard used by the finest heritage vermeil houses.
The silver itself is specified piece by piece:
- The pendant body is 950 Britannia silver, at 95% pure. This is the silver used in Fabergé's most celebrated enamelled pieces, and the reason is quiet but real — the higher purity behaves more cleanly under the high temperatures needed for painted enamel, and the surface takes the gold better.
- The chain is 925 sterling silver, the global standard for fine jewellery chains, specified for its balance of strength and flex.
WHY VERMEIL_
Some brands only make enamel on solid 18K gold. We chose vermeil — 3.0 microns of 18K gold over 950 Britannia silver — for a reason.
High-fire enamel on silver is not a shortcut. It is an older tradition than enamel on solid gold. Fabergé's most celebrated pieces are enamelled silver. The firing window is narrower, which asks more of the artist.
But it keeps a piece that would otherwise cost five thousand dollars at a price you can actually wear every day.
CARE FOR YOUR PIECE_
This is the craft. The rest is what you do with it.
Wear your piece gently. Take it off before showers, swims, sleep, and anything involving chemicals or sharp impact. Store it in its pouch when it is not with you. Enamel and high-quality plating are both permanent surfaces under normal wear — but neither survives a direct drop on stone.
If the metal has worn through long daily wear, Our Care Service restores it. If the worst has happened to an Elysian piece, write to us — we will give you an honest answer about whether restoration is possible.