Custom Portrait Pendant · Hand-Painted Enamel on 950 Silver

The number is the painted face — the picture itself, not the metal around it.

• 12×14 mm (0.47 × 0.55 in) — smaller than a dime. Quiet; reads as a detail up close.
• 14×16 mm (0.55 × 0.63 in) — about a dime. The most-chosen size for one face.
• 16×18 mm (0.63 × 0.71 in) — about a penny. Comfortable room for a face and a few flowers.
• 18×20 mm (0.71 × 0.79 in) — about a nickel. Reads clearly across a table.
• 22×26 mm (0.87 × 1.02 in) — a little larger than a quarter. Our largest; the right choice for two animals, or a face with a background.

A rule of thumb from the bench: one face — 14×16 mm and up. Two faces, or a scene — 18×20 mm and up. If you tell us what you want painted, we will tell you honestly which size it needs.

• The design stage — we draw your piece before anything is painted, with free and unlimited changes
• Photographs of your piece in progress, sent along the way. You don't have to ask
• A final set of studio photographs to approve before it is packed
• Our box, and a silver polishing cloth
• Tracked and insured shipping, worldwide, at no extra cost

One payment when you order. Full refund within 24 hours; 80% after you have seen your design; once you approve the design it goes to the kiln and can no longer be refunded.

Polished silver — the 950 silver itself, left uncoated. It will darken slowly with the years, which is what silver does; the polishing cloth in your box brings it back in a minute. Because there is no plating on it, a bare-silver piece can go back into the kiln, so a chip can usually be repaired.

18K gold vermeil — 3 microns of 18K gold over the same 950 silver. Typical gold plating is 0.02–0.03 microns, so this is roughly a hundred times thicker: years of daily wear rather than months. It will still wear eventually — all plating does — and we can re-plate it. What it cannot do is go back into the kiln; the heat would destroy the gold.

Warmth on the collarbone costs you the repair route. Bare silver keeps it. Neither is the wrong choice, and we would rather you chose knowing.

1 · You send a photo, or an idea. A clear picture in daylight is plenty — your phone is fine. If the photo you love is from 2011 and slightly blurry, send it anyway.

2 · We design it. You approve it. Before any paint touches metal. Changes here are free and unlimited.

3 · We paint and fire it. By hand, under a microscope, layer over layer.

4 · You approve the finished piece from studio photographs, before it is packed.

5 · It ships — tracked and insured. About six weeks from the day you approve your design.

Most of these are. Two things worth knowing:

A commission takes about six weeks, so if it is for a date that matters, tell us at the start and we will work backwards from it with you. For a fixed date, give us three months where you can.

If the day comes before the piece does, write to us — we will send you something to put in their hands on the day, so they know what is being painted for them.