• SCAMPER: an effective system for finding a design
  • Sources of inspiration both on and off the Internet
  • Possibility of jeweller customisation

Would you like to create a uniquely individual custom-made piece of jewellery with the help of a jeweller? Looking for sources of inspiration? In this case, you should use a proven system developed by author Bob Eberle. While it can be used in relation to designing pieces of jewellery, it also serves as a checklist for every form of new development from existing products. It’s called SCAMPER:

Substitute: Replace individual elements (e.g. the material, a certain design element, the set gemstone).

Combine: Combine elements or ideas that you may never have seen together in this form (e.g. two rings merging into one, different precious metals, a chain and a ring).

Adapt: Adapt something you see elsewhere (e.g. in nature) and integrate it into your design. Change the function or certain elements. For example, this could be the surface quality of something, the shape, or a pattern.

Modify: Change its size – maximise or minimise it. In this way, previously small details can take centre stage while other elements fade into the background.

Put to another use: Misuse something and turn it into something completely new.

Eliminate: Remove individual elements and reduce your design to the essentials. Less is often more and puts an even greater focus on what remains.

Reverse: Like a photo, sometimes interesting new ideas arise when you look at the negative. In other words, the exact opposite. Dare to switch everything around, to turns things inside out, and to think exactly the other way around.

Inspiration is often found in places where you least expect it. As with love, you can search for it, but often it finds you on its own and takes you by surprise. Use a variety of sources: from the obvious ones such as visiting a jeweller, museum or art exhibitions, to walks in the great outdoors or checking out architecturally interesting buildings and places you rarely or never visit.

There is also an almost infinite variety of suggestions for individual jewellery design on the Internet – look no further than the websites of online jewellers or large picture and photo portals such as Pinterest or Flickr, which also have special categories for jewellery. Platforms such as Etsy and eBay where people offer self-created works of art and jewellery are also good. Looking into the past is also worthwhile, as auction house websites often list old pieces of jewellery that carry the design of past decades and centuries. These can be wonderfully combined with modern elements to form something completely new.

Don't be afraid to ask for expert advice. With jewellery, there are many possibilities for how to customise it according to your own specifications. A jeweller can also give you valuable pointers regarding the precious metals and stones that are used, show you what is possible within the framework of a fixed budget and incorporate their experience its workmanship.

You want to have a piece of jewellery that’s made to measure according to your ideas? The BAUNAT team looks forward to hearing your ideas and will be happy to advise you and implement your ideas together with you.

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