Jewellery - old ring made modern?

[monkeysmama]

I have a very special gold ring which belonged to my nanny. It's a flattened (against the finger) gold coin with a thin gold band around the back. My grandad gave it to her on their first wedding anniversary and for their next anniversary had the king's ear studded with a diamond (we are from East London ).

My dad wore it every day for years when nanny died. Dad then gave it to me for my 30th. You get the picture.

I am not a gold wearer. I like chunky silver jewellery but have worn this ring every day for 3 years.

I've spoken to my dad and he's happy for me to do something with it that makes it more "me". The back is wearing very thin so I need to do something anyway.

Any suggestions?

TIA

you could have it plated silver.
made into a pendant.
remounted onto a different band.
DP is a jeweller by the way.
are you still in London?

All good suggestions. In London yes.

Sorry but what would silver plating involve? Thanks again.

How about flattening it out so it's a bar, installing jump rings at the end and wearing it on a chunky silver chain. Gold and silver together look very 'now'.

flat like this it's not in gold and silver mix but here's one they do which is amix of gold and silver

It could look very effective

That's a nice idea. I like gold & sIlver together a lot. Have you used that jeweller before? Thanks.

plating would involve cleaning the piece, removing the stone, plating (they would use Rhodium i think, to make it silver) then drying the piece and resetting the stone.
Plating itself is a very cheap process, but the plating solutions go 'off' quite quickly which drives the price up.
DP would do it cheaply for you im sure, he is in chancery lane.
you could also see what your options are re. strengthening it up/changing it.
save £££ by not going through a shop.

Thanks for the suggestion and explanation MLB. I am going to have a think about it - I like the suggestion of mounting it somehow but need to do some more looking.

im a jeweller and id say rhodium plate us the way forward

it should cost about £20-£30 a go and will last for about 6 months before looking a bit dull and possibly wearing in the high contact areas. the good news is that if you dont like it your ring hasnt actually been altered in any way as rhodium is fairly easy for a jeweller to remove.

its worth noting that rhodium is used on all white gold and platinum jewellery to bring the shine up as either metal is quite dull naturally.

if you fancy flattening it down it could also be a nice charm for a bracelet or as a set piece in a bangle