People have been honouring their lost loved ones with memorial jewellery for centuries. Inside rings and necklaces of precious metals are the ashes or locks of hair of someone special, whose life is to be remembered eternally. We can make hair or ashes necklaces and rings to your specifications, from the design concept we develop with you to the final, finished item.

The creation of ‘mourning jewelry’ began when King Charles I died in 1649 and it’s a practice that jewellers carried forward into the Victorian era. Back then, makers in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter workshops lovingly crafted precious mementoes of the dearly departed, and we’re still doing that in ours today, using the same traditional methods that allow us to make pieces that are to be worn and held close forever.

From the moment you give us the hair, cremation ashes or even pet fur, we handle it with the same care we’d want for our own loved one. In a piece of jewellery that we work with you to design exactly as you wish (we don’t use castings for this practice), we delicately enclose the symbolic material, creating a piece as unique as the person we’re honouring.

If you’re able to visit us in our workshop, you can even take part in the process, placing the hair or ashes into the capsule yourself, ready for us to tightly seal away.

The outcome is a piece of memorial jewellery that will last a lifetime and beyond.

Browse our lookbook of designs we previously made for customers for inspiration.

Get in touch via the below contact form or email jo@hellcatjewellery.com and let us know your specifications to make your memorial jewellery unique to you and your loved one.

We offer a range of gemstone choices and metal options as well as hand engraving personalisation.

We will get give you a quote and let you know details of where to send your locks of hair or ashes.