REBUS creates handcrafted signet rings and shares why these rings are so personal

It is correct we really like symbolism and personalizing our jewellery. There are quite a few strategies to do so, and signet rings have normally played their portion. The world has a newfound adore for them as traits establish and our fondness for devoted or personalized jewelry grows. Rebus is a organization specializing in signet rings and cufflinks. I sat down with Emmet Smith chatting about his attractive business.

I have been performing in the jewellery trade due to the fact 1986. My initially foray into the trade was at the Sir John Cass Faculty of Art in Whitechapel, the place I invested a yr learning jewelry design and generating, stone location, silversmithing, and hand engraving.

Emmeth Smith, REBUS

I right away fell in appreciate with hand engraving I would completely reduce myself in a miniature environment I could develop. I then started a 5-year apprenticeship with a firm in Hatton Backyard called R.H. Wilkins. Small did I know then I would go on to invest in that business twelve decades afterwards.

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”I began Rebus in 2005, primarily thanks to the stress of currently being despatched bad-high-quality signet rings to operate on”

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Also, RH Wilkins was a B2B small business. Acquiring a workshop of exceptionally proficient engravers, I needed to encourage the art of hand engraving immediately to the customer who wears our jewellery. 

Rebus, a B2C jewelry brand name, authorized me to do just that. All my group loves operating intently with our clients to build seriously imaginative artworks that we then seal and engrave into the piece of Rebus jewelry we have developed for them. Each individual customer in the retailer is invited to our workshop, where they fulfill the craftspeople producing their jewellery. They are generally quite fascinated in the engraving process and are astonished at the detail that can be attained with just compact handheld chisels (gravers).

This immediate contact with the shopper provides me (specifically as I invested two decades in an out-of-sight workshop) and my team a great deal of satisfaction. 

We have fairly a big workforce for an unbiased jewelry firm. The workshop is beneath the keep. Here we make and seal engrave the signet rings and other jewellery items. We have eight engravers, a person of which is however serving her apprenticeship. The apprenticeship lasts 4-5 decades, dependent on age and prior experience. Our livery firm, The Goldsmiths Corridor, indentures our apprentices and presents them and us heaps of assist. The jewellery trade is a tiny, incredibly supportive industry comprehensive of skilled craftsmen and artists.

We also have an in-property creation office and a income and style team that performs with our prospects to flush out their strategies and present sketches.

Rachel, one of the gross sales staff, and a single of the engravers consider what we do on the road to the US, exactly where we set up trunk reveals in motels. They were off to LA and West Hollywood in June and took appointments at The London Lodge.   

I at this time commit a lot of time dwelling in Crete and have acquired two canines, a border collie (Kenny) and a mixed-breed shepherd puppy (Dolly). Both canine had been deserted Dolly have to have been 2-3 months previous when I discovered her in an olive grove. Kenny was approximately a year old when I identified him working all-around a mountain street. I suspect he escaped from his past proprietor. Sadly, in rural areas, the canine are still left tied up in olive groves or fields undesired puppies are typically discarded. 

This tale is from Matthew Hart, one particular of our grasp engravers who is accompanying Rachel on the US trunk show, who had his pet dog engraved on his own signet ring:

My mother experienced a fox terrier as a baby and constantly needed yet another. So 1 day, we discovered some fox terrier puppies for sale. Straight away, we noticed Ted and had to have him. We named him ‘Ted’ since (other than looking like a teddy bear), I was viewing plenty of Father Ted at the time, and it was in between Ted or Doogle. Ted is now 6.

Signet Rings are incredibly own I made a signet ring in memory of my father. 

This is my own version of a mourning ring in the spirit of Momento Mori (I now have an additional signet ring that has the motto Momento Vivere ‘remember to live’ engraved into it). My father, Philip Smith (aka Dickie, Detsy, the Captain), died in 2019, and I made the decision to structure a signet ring in his memory that I could have on daily and try to remember him.

The shape is a larger edition of the Rebus Marquise, it is made from 18K yellow gold, and I have employed vitreous white and green/grey enamel.

On one shoulder, I carved an ear. I took this notion right after going to a museum in Berlin, wherever there is a long lasting historical Egyptian exhibition. I acquired the Egyptians’ use of the ear as an icon was common in their art, wall carvings, and worn as amulets. These listening to or ‘Sacred Ears’ had been carved into partitions of temples so that people today would have the ear of their deity, to share a message with the gods and goddess.

The symbolism of ear amulets is not generally perfectly recognized, but I like the model that it signifies a individual and is thus connected to that man or woman. I sometimes hum a tune or say a couple words and phrases into ‘his ear’ it is a comfort for me. Not to mention it would charm to my Dad’s sense of humor and makes me chuckle in some cases.

I selected white enamel on the best surface, as utilised in regular Victorian memento mori jewellery. Within just the white enamel are lifted gold letters that say ‘Not by Terms.’ I was a bit of a tearaway, but he would constantly give me a hug in times of difficulty. He did not require to say a term they were being avoidable. The stage also is portion of the Latin motto exactly where I took the title Rebus from ‘Non verbis, sed Rebus,’ not by words but by suggestions or photos.

In the centre of the ring is a dim environmentally friendly colored enamel, which references Ireland Father was a pretty happy Irishman. The use of white enamel around eco-friendly presents the signet ring an visual appearance of an eye, a excellent that was not prepared, but I have constantly liked stunning problems.

Less than the environmentally friendly enamel is an engraved graphic of a door. Right after Father died, I found out just one of his notebooks. His to start with and only entry was a sonnet he copied, which he could have go through from a single of his guides. At the stop of the sonnet, he wrote it was a person of the most wonderful poems he had read through. It is identified as:

When I am lifeless and laid at final to rest by Gamel Woolsey

There is a line: ‘As air that quickens at the opened doorway,’ which struck a chord with me, and of class, the graphic of a door is a effective symbol and metaphor.

Our two hearts engraved into the doorway want no rationalization.

I wear this ring each day. I’m not concluded however. I have an additional shoulder I could carve a person working day, and I system to place a concept inside the shank. He liked Neil Young, so it’s possible a line from just one of his most loved songs.

This signet ring is a reminder, a conversation, and a tribute to our love. Father and son.

Gail and Sophie gifted just about every other a ring with their pet dogs on it. Built and made by Rebus

 

Definitely certainly, our stone setter fosters rescue dogs and consistently provides them in. Also, Kate from the income workforce sometimes walks her puppies to function. So, we have two upstairs on occasion and one downstairs. The Rebus retailer is found on a current market road (Leather Lane, in central London) that is perfectly acknowledged for its stunning food items stalls. I bet the pet dogs love coming to function!