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By Lauren De Cesare

An ode to my Nanna Fay, who taught me to love bling!

Often people ask me why I use my whole name on Facebook — Lauren Fay DeCesare — hit me up! But there’s a reason I use my middle name, Fay.

My beautiful Nanna’s name was Fay. She was everything I want to be when I grow up. Classy, elegant, always had a face of make up on, hair done and immaculately dressed. She would get up in the morning and put on her make up and all of her diamonds, just because the gardener was coming over. She was from a time when going to Rundle Mall meant wearing a hat and gloves, none of these drop-crutch pants — GOD NO!

My Nanna liked anything sparkly and shiny. When she was a child in the 1920’s she always dreamed of having lots of jewellery. She said she used to wear the round bit of plastic from Vegemite jars around her wrist, thinking to herself “one day I hope these are diamonds”!

So the motto always was: THE MORE BLING THE BETTER. I think this is where I got it from. Exhibit A, this is me below, as a three year old, wearing gold bracelets, a fur bower and a large festive sparkly hat!

When my Nanna passed away, she left me her engagement ring and a beautiful bracelet that she wore every day. They were so special to me but whenever I wore the engagement ring people would stop and ask me if I was engaged – in the end I stopped wearing it because I thought it was ruining my chances of actually getting engaged ha!

Then we met Mike and his Dad, John, and master jeweller Stef, from Opal Diamond Factory on Beehive Corner. I instantly felt comfortable and believed in their expertise completely, so within days I had given him my precious jewels to turn into a spectacular ring. It takes a lot to trust someone with something so special, but with Mike and the team it was just so easy. After a couple of visits to chat about the design, I was completely in love with the sketches that Mike and Stef had created.

The difference between these guys and most other jewellers is that they specialise in handmade pieces. From melting, flattening the gold, to beating it out and everything else that goes into making a ring – it was all done in their store on King William Street using ONLY the existing pieces of my Nanna’s beautiful jewels.

Adelady is all about sharing the best of SA and supporting local. I will never take this ring off, I love it and had to share with you all. I hope my Nanna is proud.

Lauren Fay xx

These are the jewels that we started with…

Each piece was broken down and the white gold and diamonds were separated…

The initial mould is set…

The white gold was melted together to form the base of the ring…

The settings for the smaller diamonds was then added to the main ring…

And here is my beautiful ring, completed. I’m in love! 

If you have jewellery sitting in your bedside table just longing to be worn OR if you’re looking at getting engaged (or just that special pressie for that special someone), make sure to follow Opal Diamond Factory on Social…

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Lauren De Cesare

Lauren De Cesare

Co-Creator and Sales Director extraordinaire for Adelady, she loves to talk AND she loves to talk business.

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