Workshop Services

 

On-site jewellery repairs

Repairs of all precious metal jewellery items

*Winter 2023 / 24 edit*

We are taking a break from repair work during November & December to allow us time to focus on making jewellery for Christmas shoppers. We don’t want to turn any work away but we unfortunately do have to prioritise because we know that the retail side of our business will be very quiet after Christmas. Please do drop your repair work into us during this time as this means that your work will be in the queue for when we get back to repair work after the New Year. However, please don’t expect to hear from us with quotes etc until the New Year (this part of the process often takes as long as the repair work itself). Your jewellery will be kept in a safe until we can get to it. If by any chance we get more work done than we expect to before Christmas, we will contact you but please don’t expect to hear from us until after the New Year.

If you would rather keep your jewellery until we’re able to work on it then please contact us to discuss your repair so that we can plan for doing it when we get back to work after New Year. If you don’t let us know details but take it into us in January then there will be other work in front of it and it is then unlikely to be looked at in January. We have a busy and very different start to the year coming up as, all being well, we will be making big changes at our premises. Once we have spent the first few weeks of the year on repair work, we will be taking another break from repairs for February so that we can renovate our premises before we get back to normal around March.

Thanks for your understanding.

 

We’re always really happy to offer advice specific to your enquiry but here are some examples of our most common repair work and frequently asked questions.

  • Full remodelling

  • Ring sizing up and down of plain and stone-set rings made from silver, gold or platinum

  • Repairing rings which have been damaged or cut off

  • Checking & repairing stone settings

  • Sourcing & replacing missing stones 

  • Chain repairs in all precious metals

  • Replacement catches

  • Replacement earring fittings

  • Jewellery cleaning & polishing

  • Engraving

  • Replacement watch batteries, straps & pins

  • Watch bracelet adjustments

The above list is some of our most common repair work. If what you are looking for isn’t listed, just get in touch.

We also handle plating of jewellery & rings and pearl restringing. Please see below for more information.

Watches

Watch batteries and straps supplied and fitted.

Watch battery replacements for all brands of watches: £7.50, £9.50 for 3v batteries (most watches are 1.5v at £7.50) or £10.00 for 1.5v watches with screw backs.

Watch straps (unbranded):  From £11.95

For a wee bit of background on our charges for services like replacement batteries, please take a look at our news & offers page.

We also replace watch pins (£3.50) and do watch bracelet adjustments (£5.00).

We don’t stock branded straps but are happy to fit them for you if you supply the strap. Just ask if you’d like to discuss this before purchasing the strap. The strap must be the correct width, exactly.

Most of the above services can be done while you wait but at times Paul (owner / jeweller) may not be in the workshop so please do call ahead if you’re making a special trip.

We don’t carry out or handle watch work such as replacement faces, hands or numbers, re-sealing or services. Most watch and clock work would be carried out by a horologist rather than by a jeweller / goldsmith but we do offer the repair work listed.

Clocks

The only clock work we carry out is replacement batteries and  movements. Most clock repair work would be done by a horologist rather than by a jeweller or goldsmith.

Cleaning & polishing

Jewellery and ring cleaning and polishing from £10.00 – £25.00 (for platinum).

Checking settings is always part of this service – something which is done before we carry out the cleaning & polishing process. This is a really thorough process – it’s not simply dipping your jewellery in a solution. We check your pieces for things like loose stones before we use a time consuming and skilled process to clean & polish them.

We can sometimes offer this service while you wait.

For a wee bit of background on our charges for services like polishing, please take a look at our news & offers page.

How the jewellery repair process works at Love from Skye 

Bringing your repairs to us

We will take your repair in and we will either give you a definite price & estimated timeframe at that time, or, we will contact you with an exact price before we carry out any work. We will then let you know when your jewellery is ready to be collected.

All customer jewellery kept on site is stored securely in our safe and your jewellery is fully insured while it’s in our care.

More details below for everything which comes under our standard repair catagory – our most common repair work – and frequently asked questions.

Contacting us first about your repair

It’s easier for us to tell you how much your repair will cost if we are able to see your piece of jewellery in person but we appreciate that you might want an idea before you make a special trip to see us. In this case, it really helps if we can see a photo of your piece.

We do need to know what your jewellery is made from. (Is it silver? Is it gold? What carat of gold is it? If it’s white gold, is it rhodium plated?).

Does it have any stones?

We can then try to let you know if your repair is doable and if so, how much it should cost approximately.

If your enquiry is regarding sizing a ring, we would need to know the above information and, if your ring requires to be sized up, then we would also need to know how many sizes it needs to be increased by in order to give you a price. If you are able to tell us what metal your ring is but not what size it is & what size it needs to be, then we can let know the charge per size before you visit us but if we can see you in person then we can measure your size and provide you with all the information you need. Please do bear in mind that the more sizes your ring is required to be increased by, the more metal we have to add into your ring.

If your repair involves a replacement stone then we need to know the size of stone.

If you are able to pop in to see us then we can answer all of these questions for you.

Re-sizing a ring

Customers can sometimes be surprised at the work which goes into resizing a ring so here’s a step by step idea!

  1. We will measure your finger size and discuss this with you.
  2. We’ll then let you know approx how long it would take to do the work and how much it will be. Or, we may need to take your ring in and do some calculations as well as check the security of any stones then give you a call with more details. If you would like to go ahead then we’ll get started.
  3. We’ll cut your ring open at the shank, being careful to avoud working near the hallmarks, and either remove metal to make your ring smaller or add metal to it to make it bigger. We never stretch a ring unless it’s a band (without stones) and only a maximum of half a size.
  4. We’ll then solder the joins. If your ring is set with a heat sensitive stone/s then we will use a special material to stop the heat from the soldering process reaching your stone/s.
  5. We then file and buff the ring to start work on the finish.
  6. We then take the ring through a lengthy finishing process. We ‘grease’ the ring, dip it in an ultrasonic, we then polish it which is another time consuming and skilled part of the process, before dipping it for the last time.
  7. Atfter a final wee polish with a polishing cloth, we tuck it safely away in the safe and give you a call or send you a text to let you know that it’s ready!

Engraving

We engrave wedding rings, jewellery, trophies and plaques. We can also engrave images such as your business logo (2D) or even handwriting!

Rings £25.00
Gift items approx £27.50
Glass items (including bottles) approx £30.50

(Quotes are for standard text. Graphics / more complex engraving would be quoted for individually).

Duplicate items from £5 per item (if the items and inscription are both exactly the same).

Trophies from £16.50 to engrave removable plaques (provided with trophy) or £27.50 directly onto trophy.

When you bring your item to us to be engraved, it’s really helpful if you have written down the wording you would like to have engraved along with your name and contact number.

The number of characters are irrelevant to our charging system. This is because the labour time involved in this process is in setting up of our equipment for the job. Therefore, we charge the same price for 2 initials or a paragraph of text.

The only trophies which we can’t engrave are extremely large ones (if your trophy is too large for us to clamp)

We can handle hand engraving if this is better suited to your item. We would discuss this with you further.

Bespoke commissions

As a first step of considering commissioning us to make you a bespoke piece of jewellery please do download a bespoke order form here.

Our bespoke form is really useful to read for further information, such as making timeframes and quotes.

Please also see our gallery page for a very small selection of the wide range of bespoke work we have undertaken!

Please don’t make a special trip to see us to discuss a bespoke piece without contacting us first in case Paul is not available to discuss your idea in person or in case he’s unable to take it on at the time of your visit due to time constraints. There are certain times of the year when we are unable to commit to bespoke work. We would however love to hear from you!

Gemstones

We do source and set gemstones but we don’t cut or polish gemstones as this is work which is done by a lapidarist rather than a jeweller or goldsmith.

Outsourcing specialist repair work

In rare cases, we will outsource repair work rather than doing it onsite in our own workshop but we will always let you know if this is the case before we send your jewellery to another workshop. We would suggest doing this if, for example, a type of specialist setting work is required which we may not have the equipment for or if your stones will not withstand the heat from traditional methods of working and would benefit from being worked on with a laser – which is high tech equipment that we don’t have.

When we send work to another workshop, it will be a trusted company which we’ve worked with for several years and your jewellery will be sent using a recorded and fully insured service. Customers understandably can feel a little uneasy at the thought of their jewellery being posted but do bear in mind that all our materials, including gold & diamonds, are received in the post and every piece of jewellery we sell has already been through the postal service – to & from the Assay Office for Hallmarking.

Re-rhodium plating white gold rings

(Including rose or gold plate and also including jewellery items)

(The cufflinks above are part of our collection. This pair are silver and they have been plated with rose gold for an effective look, keeping the cost affordable.)

Plating is one of the services which we handle but don’t carry out in our own workshop. (Please see above for details on outsourcing repairs).

When you bring your rings or jewellery to us to be plated, we will check the settings, clean and polish your pieces here in our workshop and then another workshop will carry out the plating.

Plating is approximately £49.50 for a single ring or £55.00 for a larger piece of jewellery (including our insured delivery to our plater and their return delivery to us).

Should you require to have a second item plated at the same time, it would cost approximately £22.00 for a ring or £27.50 for a larger piece of jewellery, making the total charge for your two rings £71.50 or £82.50 for two larger items of jewellery. (This is because delivery does not need to be charged on the second item).

If delivery of your item/s for plating require to be insured for a higher than average amount (upwards of £1,000.00), there will be an additional £10 added to the single item / initial item chcharge. For example, the plating charge for one ring of high value would be £59.50.

Have you ever thought about simply having your white gold rings polished rather than rhodium plated? Take a look at our ‘options & finishes‘ page if you’d like to find out more about plating. We’d be happy to show you what your rings look like after we’ve polished them if you’d like to consider this option as polishing them is required to be done before plating. Having your rings polished instead of plated is lower maintenance for you because polishing is a fraction of the price and is much quicker too – you can almost always get your polished rings back on the same day rather than being without them for a week – 2 weeks while they are plated. Occasionally particular style of white gold rings do benefit aesthetically from being rhodium plated but we’re always happy to offer advice on these things and customers are often really pleasantly surprised when they see what their rings look like without plating.

We can also have jewellery items plated.

Pearl re-stringing 

(Including other gemstone beads)

Restringing pearls is one of the types of repair work which we handle but don’t carry out in our workshop. (Please see info above about outsourcing repair work).

Restringing is approximately £60.50 for a standard length, single strand with the pearls strung on silk thread and knotted between each pearl for security (including our insured postage to our stringer and their return postage to us).

Valuations

We don’t carry out valuations as valuing jewellery is done by specific jewellery valuers and Paul, Love from Skye, is a jeweller & goldsmith. At quiet times, Paul will be happy to briefly look over any jewellery you have to help you decide whether you should have a valuation done but we wouldn’t carry out or handle the valuation. Paul will also be happy to offer advice on identifying metals & stones in jewellery you may have acquired for a minimal fee at quiet times.