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Every once in a while, a client sends me something that stops all of us in our tracks.
Jo sent me a video after seeing the first photos of her first finished Custom & Reconstruction project pieces. She was standing in her sewing studio, crying, apologizing for having no makeup on, and trying to put into words what it meant to see her diamonds again. And then she said something I haven’t stopped thinking about: “I can’t wait, and I can’t believe they’re coming home.” You can watch Jo’s testimonial on Instagram here.
This is why I love Reconstruction. Sometimes the materials sitting unworn in a jewelry box carry an entire person, relationship or chapter of your life with them. And when we can preserve that history while making something you genuinely want to wear now, those memories get to come back into your everyday life.
After Jo sent me that video, she talked to her mum to make sure she had the full story of the ring those diamonds came from. What she sent me afterward made this project mean even more, because it turns out this wasn't the first time this particular piece of jewelry had been given another chapter.
When Jo's mum was a child in the 1940s, she was having a pillow fight with a friend on her parents' bed and managed to crash into her mother's bedside table, somehow damaging her engagement ring in the process. And that was the end of Jo's nan's original engagement ring. Her grandparents didn't have much money, and her grandad was a Royal Marine at the time, so replacing it simply wasn't something they were able to do.
Many years later, sometime around the 1960s, Jo's grandad was retiring from his final job as a mace bearer for the City of Portsmouth in the UK. After all those years, he decided he finally wanted to give his wife another engagement ring, so he took her to Hatton Garden in London and they chose one together.
Jo told me her nan was incredibly proud of that ring and absolutely blown away by the experience of going to Hatton Garden, London's historic jewelry district, and seeing all of the jewelry behind those famous locked doors. The ring they chose together that day is the very same ring that eventually came to Jo, and the same one we have now deconstructed to give those diamonds another life.
I mean... come on. How incredible is that?
Jo came to me with diamonds from her nan's ring and a very specific hope for them: she wanted to preserve the stones, but she wanted pieces that felt like her. One of nan's diamonds would become a 14k yellow gold pendant necklace on an adjustable 18–20 inch chain, similar to our North Star Necklace. The two smaller diamonds would become a pair of 14k yellow gold stud earrings, just like our Stellaras.
At the same time, we were working on another meaningful piece for Jo using her own original engagement diamond. Her ring was too snug and she had been drooling over some of our Reconstruction Projects. We set that stone into a 14k yellow gold bezel on a 6mm wide band with a matte finish and hand-carved detailing inspired by my Line Ring. So this project ultimately became three new pieces using diamonds from two different generations of Jo's life.
Two of her nan's diamonds became a pair of 14k yellow gold bezel-set stud earrings, inspired by my Stellara Earrings. They aren't perfectly identical stones. One measures approximately 4.44mm x 2.85mm and the other 4.46mm x 2.54mm, and I love that.
The third diamond from nan ring became a pendant necklace in 14k yellow gold on an adjustable 18–20 inch chain, inspired by my North Star Necklace. And Jo's own engagement diamond was set into a 14k yellow gold bezel on a 6mm wide band with a matte finish and hand-carved detailing inspired by my Line Ring.
These aren't diamonds we selected from a parcel because their measurements matched perfectly. They are her grandmother's diamonds, and Jo's own. The point was never to erase their history or force them into something they weren't. The job was to design around what Jo already had and give those stones a new form that felt intentional, beautiful and wearable.
Jo talked about wanting to do something with these pieces that could “bring us joy every single day.” That's such a simple and perfect way to explain what I hope Reconstruction can do.
I couldn't have said it better myself.
Jo trusted us with pieces that cannot be replaced, and I don't take that lightly. Neither does my team. So when she told us through tears that she couldn't believe they were coming home, there may have been a few tears on this side too.
Jo, thank you for trusting us with them. I hope you’ll hold them tight for years to come.
If you have inherited jewelry, old gold, loose stones or pieces sitting unworn because they no longer feel like you, you don't need to know exactly what you want to make before reaching out. That's part of what we'll figure out together.
We can talk about what you have, what matters to you about it, what can be preserved or reused, and what you actually want to wear now. The answer might be a completely new piece, a smaller transformation, or sourcing additional stones to make the design work.
The starting point is simply deciding that the jewelry deserves another life.
With a full heart,
Colleen
© 2026 Colleen Mauer Designs. All rights reserved.
Published October 8, 2026.
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