How We Made – Finger Print Memorial Jewellery

The last 12 months have been particularly difficult for everyone to deal with amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

All the more so for those that have lost loved ones recently and keeping the memories of those special people alive seems more important now than ever before.

At the end of the first lockdown we were approached by a long standing client to make two sets of pendants after their Dad passed away. One incorporating their Dad’s fingerprint and handwriting and the second incorporating their Mum’s fingerprint and handwriting.

Whilst we have created many pieces of memorial jewellery before we have never been commissioned to create something like this before.

We had to make each one in two slightly different ways. The first stage was to create the tear drop shaped discs that we would ultimately engrave the fingerprints and handwriting on to. Our goldsmiths suggested dimensions for these then we passed them by our client for approval and then individual made them, polishing out the depressions in the middle of each where the fingerprint would be engraved. That was the easy part done!

The fingerprints were taken from two different mediums, the dad’s print was taken from a fimo imprint whilst the mum’s fingerprint had been taken in ink. In order to extract the fimo imprint we 3D scanned it and transferred it to our laser engraving machine which then mapped it in 6 different sections to create the very best impression possible. This was definitely the hardest part of the project, as we were able to simply scan the second fingerprint and the handwriting then have them laser engraved on to the respective discs.

I don’t mind admitting to being very nervous throughout the process having been entrusted to create such an important set of jewellery, but both the client and I were incredibly happy with the outcome.

All of us here at Charles Nobel hope that they get a lot of comfort from wearing them.