From Reference to Ring: How a Custom Piece Begins

Inside WWAKE’s custom process: how research, material understanding, and close observation shape one of a kind pieces.

Inside WWAKE’s custom process

A piece of WWAKE jewelry is the end of a very long conversation. Stone, earth, human hands, centuries of meaning... all of it present in a small object that carries multitudes. This holistic perspective informs everything we make, from our collections to custom pieces and reimagined heirlooms. For us, making has always been about much more than the completed piece. It's about every decision that led to it, every question that shaped it, every person the material passed through on its way to becoming something worn.

This is a closer look at how that process actually works: how we research, how materials lead us, and what we find when we leave room for the unexpected.

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"Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose." — Zora Neale Hurston

The questions we ask about a material before designing are ones an anthropologist might ask. What is the history behind it? How does it grow? What does it tell us about the cultures that first encountered it, about what humans find worth keeping? What does it say about how we perceive value?

Research and collection are inseparable from our process. Our studio archive is a deep well: books on Indigenous textile traditions, pre-Columbian ceramic forms, carved architectural details. We keep a growing collection of mineral specimens as thinking objects, reminders of what materials are before they become anything else.

This is what we mean when we talk about looking. The references don't announce their relevance. They accumulate and then they arrive. When we look at a client's reference image, we're doing the same thing: reading past it for what it knows about its own making, and what that might want to become.

Our materials and how we use them tell the story of who we are as people. WWAKE exists in its humanity: how it's sourced, how it's cut, how it's designed, how it's fabricated, how it's worn, and the history behind the craft and the trade that makes any of it possible.

When we let materials lead, we are considering the stone's origin, the miner's community, the cutter's particular skill and the proportions it produced. No piece is separate from where it came from. It carries that chain forward.

Our designs begin before any drawing - most often they start with a stone held against different weights of metal, worked out in the hand. A setting that resolves beautifully as a sketch can feel entirely different at the scale of an actual finger. As Anni Albers described the textile work at Black Mountain College: it’s discovery made possible by working directly with materials.

We’re always curious about seeing between the lines, and finding something astonishing just below the surface. The word WWAKE carries it: a wake in water, where each gesture is a singular form and together they compose a whole. A design moves through iteration until what remains is the thing that could not have been planned.

We research, we collect, we leave space to play and discover. A reference pulled for one project reappears years later in a context where it finally makes complete sense. A specimen kept on the shelf begins a conversation that changes how a collection takes shape. An imperfection in a stone becomes the thing the whole design orients around.

We trust that looking carefully at what's already present is usually more generative than looking for something new. What you need is almost always closer than it appears… our greatest inspiration is right here with us.

How do I begin designing a custom piece of jewelry?

When a client comes to WWAKE to design a ring, whether something entirely new, built around a stone they already have, or beginning the process of resetting an heirloom, our first conversation is one of getting to the essence.

How long does it take to make a custom ring?

Most custom pieces take between 6-10 weeks from design confirmation to completion. If you're working toward a specific date, we recommend reaching out as early as possible.

Can I use an inherited stone in a new design?

Yes. An inherited stone arrives with its own history: whether a grandmother's sapphire or a family diamond, we'll assess the stone, discuss what you'd like to carry forward, and design around that.

One Of A Kind