What Actually Happens at a Design Consultation

Most people arrive expecting a sales pitch. A design consultation is closer to an interview, about your hand, your budget and how you actually live.

People put off booking because they assume it commits them to something. It does not. Here is the whole hour, described plainly, so you can decide whether it is worth your time.

It starts with questions, not stones

The first part is not about diamonds. It is about the person who will wear the piece.

Do they work with their hands? Do they type all day? Do they wear rings already, and if so, do they sit high or low? Is there a wedding band that will eventually have to sit beside this ring? Do they take jewellery off at night, or never?

These sound like small questions. They decide the setting. A high four-prong solitaire on someone who gardens is a ring that will be in for repair twice a year.

Then the budget, early and out loud

We ask for a number near the start, which some people find abrupt. The alternative is worse: an hour designing something beautiful that you were never going to buy, and an awkward ending.

A real number lets us tell you where it is best spent. Sometimes that means a smaller stone and a better cut. Sometimes it means 18k instead of platinum. Occasionally it means telling you that what you have described cannot be made for that figure, which is more useful than a polite quotation you will never accept.

Then the drawing

Casey draws by hand, in front of you. Not a catalogue, not a mood board, a drawing of your piece, changed while you watch.

This is the part clients are surprised by. You will say "the band is too heavy" and see it thin out on the page. You will say "can the stone sit lower" and watch the setting drop. Three or four passes usually gets there.

You keep the drawing. It is yours whether or not you order.

What to bring

• Any existing ring that fits the correct finger, for sizing
• A photograph of anything you like, and anything you hate, the second is more useful
• The other person's hand, if it is not a surprise
• Any inherited stone or gold you are thinking of using

What you leave with

A drawing, a size, an honest price range, and a rough timeline. No deposit is taken at a first consultation.

If you decide to proceed, the next step is a CAD model, a three-dimensional render of exactly that drawing, which you approve before any metal is cut.

The consultation is free, and it is genuinely free. We would rather have the conversation and lose the sale than sell someone a ring that is wrong for their hand.

Book a complimentary design consultation at the C'Garden atelier, The MET Corporate Towers, Kuala Lumpur: 010-766 7448 · hq@cgarden.com.my

C'Garden is an independent bespoke jeweller in Kuala Lumpur. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by or certified by any organisation, laboratory or brand named in this article. Third-party names are used only to refer factually to those organisations and their published standards. All text and imagery in this article is original work created by C'Garden.

Reference

Jewelers of America. (n.d.). Engagement & wedding. Jewelers of America. https://www.jewelers.org/buying-jewelry/jewelry-buying-guides/engagement-and-wedding