A new cut, setting, or design vision can breathe fresh life into pieces that have passed through generations. In this guide, we spotlight the masterful specialists worthy of your trust for jewelry remodeling.
Brent Neale, New York
Brent Neale has a talent for infusing warmth, whimsy and wearability into serious stones. When a client brought in her late mother’s four-carat yellow-diamond ring, Neale reimagined it as a wildflower pendant, surrounded by white bezel-set diamonds. She takes the formality out of prong-set designs by cradling stones in gold bezels.
“Bezels make stones less fragile and less fussy,” says Neale, who, as a mother of three, understands the need for sturdy jewelry you can live in. She often encourages clients to reset diamonds alongside colored gemstones, like the unexpected pairing of a square-shaped diamond with a round blue sapphire. “The beautiful thing about redesigning diamond jewelry,” she says, “is that you can always change it again. Jewelry should evolve with you.”
brentneale.com
Sarah Ysabel Narici, New York
Sarah Ysabel Narici thrives on a creative challenge. Rather than sticking to one aesthetic, the British-Italian jeweler, now based in NYC with her brand DYNE, lets each piece evolve around her clients’ heirloom diamonds.
“I want to understand their world, tap into the stone’s sentiment and use their inspiration to get me excited,” she says. She’s known for unconventional settings, intricate details, and concealed engravings, like the tiny butterflies etched inside a newly transformed ring.
dyne.com
Ming Lampson, London
When a client brought Ming Lampson a seven-carat diamond pendant, she thought it was such a gorgeous white stone that it needed a bold casing to show it off. She proposed a striking, deep-green enamel setting. “It felt modern and brave,” she says.
Lampson doesn’t impose a signature style on her clients’ pieces. Instead, she studies each stone and lets it guide her. “I take it out of its setting, reflect on it, and think, ‘How can I enhance this?’” Her designs balance boldness with intimacy, and above all, “they must spark joy.”
mingjewellery.com
Dries Criel, Antwerp
“People come to me when they want something bold, graphic, with a pop of color,” says Belgian designer Dries Criel. He uses his design language of sculpted and textured yellow-gold pieces with geometric enamel patterns in new ways for bespoke commissions.
Most often, clients want him to remake their traditional solitaire engagement rings into striking, modern designs. One example: He recast a prong-set stone in a sculpted sandblasted gold ring with a vivid blue enamel pattern. “It’s powerful, but not flashy,” he says.
driescriel.com
See more: The Most Impressive Jewelry Gifts for Her
Jessica McCormack, London and New York
Jessica McCormack is becoming the definitive name for modern diamond designs with an enviously easy aesthetic. McCormack herself embodies laid-back luxury: she often wears a uniform of crisp blouses and faded denim with statement jewels, like a spectacular eight-carat diamond pendant swinging on a long gold chain — proof that serious diamonds don’t need to be formal or fussy.
She recently turned a Victorian-era diamond floral brooch into her signature Gypset earrings and pendant (Georgian-style button-back diamonds) and transformed a client’s post-divorce prong-set diamond into a bold, high-polish gold cocktail ring. “I only make things I would wear myself,” she says.
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