Hair, hardware turned into new family jewels
Jewellery trend finds value in sentiment
● The battery of a pacemaker that will be removed from 11-year-old Evan Humby’s chest on Tuesday will most likely be fashioned into a piece of jewellery for his beloved cat, Baxter.
The Johannesburg boy’s mother and her fiancé are already wearing engagement rings made from titanium from the battery of his first pacemaker, removed two years ago.
The battery itself was recycled into a pendant that Evan wears around his neck.
From pendants holding the ashes of dead loved ones to engagement ring diamonds made from hair, and jewellery fashioned from gold dental fillings, South Africans are taking personalised bling to a new level.
Globally, personalised and sentimental jewellery was last year’s unexpected fashion trend but only a few pieces are as personal as the pendant Evan proudly shows off as a “a reminder of everything that has been done to keep him alive over the past 10 years”.
His mother, Tracy-Lynn Field, said Evan — who was born with a severe congenital heart defect and no pulmonary valve — regards his pendant as one of his most valuable and special possessions.
“Soon after it was made, we showed the pendant to Evan’s cardiologist at Sunninghill hospital, Dr Kenny Govendrageloo. He laughed and said it was an unusual idea,” she said.
Johannesburg-based gold and silversmith Leanne Beuster, who created the pendant and engagement rings, is accustomed to designing “weird and unusual pieces”.
One of her recent creations was a silver heart pendant filled with the cremated ashes of the father of a 21-year-old woman. The piece was a birthday gift from the woman’s mother.
Another client approached Beuster to make rings from the gold dental fillings she inherited from her grandfather.
“I have found that people are wanting jewellery that is handcrafted, unique and that has a sentimental and meaningful connection to a person, a time or circumstance,” Beuster said.
For a 28-year-old Cape Town entrepreneur who plans to propose to his girlfriend later this year, a unique engagement ring that will always have a meaningful connection to the couple’s parents was priority.
The ring’s diamond is made from the couple’s parents’ hair.
“Family is incredibly important to both of us, coming from families where our parents have been married for over 30 years. This diamond will be made from the hair of our parents, symbolising their strength being with us and guiding our love,” the man told the Sunday Times.
He has asked not to be named because of the surprise proposal.
The Algordanza diamond set the man back about R36,000 and is being created in Switzerland.
About 5g of hair or 500g of cremated ashes are required for carbon extraction to create the diamond.
The company simulates the conditions in which natural diamonds are formed with high-pressure, high-temperature (HPHT) machines.
“The diamond is a real diamond. It is made in an HPHT machine [and] comes with a certificate signed off by our founder and owner, Rinaldo Willy, after being inspected,” said Algordanza SA local partner Keith Kroon.
“The diamond has the same physical, optical and chemical properties of a mined diamond.”
The diamond on the ring Gavin Blok gave his wife for their 30th wedding anniversary was created from hair from his three sons.
“After my mom’s passing, I had an Algordanza memorial diamond made from her cremation ashes. I loved the idea so much that I wanted a second diamond — one to celebrate life, love and family,” he said.
Some people are “blown away” whereas others are sceptical when they discover the diamond on his wife’s ring was created in a lab from hair. “We don’t care what others think. To us it’s one of our most precious possessions,” Blok said.