Customer Stories

Discover the impact of a portrait cameo

I am not including photos of the cameos with these stories as I want to preserve privacy.

My first cameo portrait

Portrait carved onto 18kt yellow gold for a mother in 1999. This was ordered by the grandmother as present for her daughter. She chose to have a portrait of her grand-daughter. With this portrait I never met the customer as she was a client of a retail jewellers in Vancouver. I handed the completed portrait jewel to Rhonda Jones, president of Jones the Jewellers. The next day Rhonda called me to tell me of the reaction.

When the customer first saw the portrait pendant she gasped and was silent for over a minute. She then started crying. Rhonda was concerned that something was wrong with the Jewel. However the customer said that the portrait had captured the spirit of her grand-daughter and that she was overjoyed with the result. When the the lady left the store they said that she was just beaming with a broad smile. She visited the store many times and became a very loyal customer.

This experience taught me that a portrait jewel can have a very powerful emotional impact.

Cameo of a premature baby

With a painful loss the wearer may well want to keep her portrait private. One day I received a series of photos of a premature baby who lived for only 15 minutes. The photos were heartbreaking and I cried when I saw them. The husband wanted the memory of his daughter to be preserved as a gemstone portrait. This was one of my most difficult orders. I felt a large responsibility to really make the portrait breathe with the spirit of the girl.

I realized that the portrait should not be displayed as a pendant or brooch. I wanted the mother to wear the cameo often, so I designed a cameo locket as the perfect solution to this dilemma. I have been told that the mother does wear the cameo jewel every day. I received wonderful news later as the husband told later that his wife had given birth to a healthy baby.

Mother refused to take off her cameo for surgery

The husband and father of two asked me to make a portrait cameo for his wife. We used a photograph taken on holiday that showed the father with his two boys. The finished cameo was presented to the mother for her birthday. I heard from her husband that she has worn the cameo pendant very day since then.

Later the mother had to undergo an emergency surgery she refused to take off her cameo. The surgeon had to wait until she was anaesthetized before he could remove it. When she recovered from the anaesthetic and saw her family. She immediately checked for her cameo and asked to have it back.

Portrait of a much loved grandfather – ‘Papi Viejo’

The finished Cameo caused quite a sensation when it was delivered. The whole family were invited to the gift presentation. There was a very emotional response and there were many happy tears all round. I really love that I could honor their beloved ‘Papi Viejo’ and help to create such a happy occasion.

” We gave the cameo to my mom last Wednesday and she is still speechless. When she first opened the box she took a huge breath and began to cry. When my father asked her what the gift was she tried to tell him but was overwhelmed with emotions.”

Cameo to help a mother remember her son

There was a family tragedy where a mother lost her son from a tragic accident. This prompted the close friend of the mother to ask me to create a portrait cameo of the young boy. I designed a cameo locket so that the mother could wear the cameo whenever she wished as the portrait was covered by a gold lid. She could then choose to reveal it to friends or family. I engraved a line from the poem read out at his funeral as an inscription on the gold locket frame.

Portrait for a loved grandmother

I was asked to carve a portrait for an elderly mother and grandmother who was in a hospice. She was battling cancer and I had to complete the cameo pendant quickly. Her son sent me a photo, from 1936 of her as a young woman to use for the portrait. I carved the cameo into a white and red layered agate and we set it in gold.

I created a photo-book to go with the cameo. I asked for photos of her taken throughout her life, to create a section which showed her ‘life stages’. She was delighted with the cameo pendant and the photo-book.

Two Portrait cameos for a US Marine serving in Iraq

A few years ago I created two cameo Jewels for a United States marine who was serving in Iraq. The first cameo had portraits of his three children, while the second cameo was a portrait of his wife. I was contacted while he was in Iraq, which meant that sharing photos via email had to be done with the co-operation of the military security service, which was interesting !

I delivered the completed cameos to the Marine and his wife while they had leave at a US Army base in the UK.