CONGRATULATIONS!

Well done to Sally who was Monday's winner, Nathalie our winner on Tuesday and Bron - Wednesday's girl. One of our brand new designs will be making its way to each of you very soon!

New Limited Edition Bangles

We have been able to get our hands on five of these lovely chunky Gold Vermeil Sterling Silver handmade bangles, we are rather pleased with them and we wanted to give you a first look! They are going to be £350 each and as there are only five and we can't get any more, just email customercare@zigzagjewels.com if you would like to reserve one of the beauties.

From Design to Finished Piece

We thought you would like to see one of our talented designers in action, so here is a series showing a design from initial idea to a finished piece.

Here is the man in action; drawing book, bits of silver, tools and a lot of imagination result in a beautiful new earring design.

so off to the workshop where component parts are soldered together

cleaned up and polished

stones can be set

the silver earrings are stripped, dipped and plated

then we get to have a look.

the only problem is they are so lovely we want them all for ourselves!

Win New Jewels

We would really like to hear from you, get some feedback on new ideas, jewellery, our pictures, and find out from you what you want to see. So...every day his week we will be giving away a piece of jewellery from our brand new selection (before it hits our shops) for our favorite comment.

Just click on 'comments' below any picture and drop us a line.

A Trip Around City Palace

We had a day of exploring the city, this is City Palace. The two flags you can see flying at the top of the picture originate from Raja Jai Singh II. He was given the title of "Sawai" meaning "The One-and-a-Quarter" by Emperor Aurangzeb for his above average intelligence. Since then the rulers of Jaipur have flown two flags, one full and one quarter-sized to symbolize this title.

For anyone who has ever tried to raise a silver bowl...

This is one of a pair of silver urns at the City Palace, it was made from melting silver coins into a sheet and it took two men two years to form it, there are no solder joins they are just silver sheet hammered into shape. They were made to carry water from the Gangees 1902 when Maharaja Madho Singh II went to England for King Edward's coronation, he had them made so he could carry enough sacred Ganges water with him to bathe every day for four months! The urns measure five feet high and are considered to be the largest silver objects in the world

The Making Process

We went to see some of our makers' workshops today, we thought you might be interested to see how lovely and clean everything was, and the journey your jewellery goes through from pure silver to beautiful finished pieces.
so here is the casting process...


First a handmade master copy of the finished ring is used to make a latex mould. The mould is filled with pink wax then the wax pieces are individually touched up by hand to make sure they are perfect.

The wax pieces are then set like little branches on wax tree and placed in a metal tube over which plaster is poured.

The wax is melted out in a kiln and the plaster gets completely dry and throughly hot. It is removed from the kiln then very quickly molten silver is poured into the hot mould.

The silver starts off as pure silver and an alloy is added so it is hard enough for jewellery. The alloy makes it 925 or Sterling Silver.

The trees come out of the plaster and the component jewellery parts are all ready to be snipped off, soldered together and polished up.

Then they go off to the highly skilled setters and with the beautiful gemstones all in place they get a final polish and are ready to go to new homes!

Getting from A to B

These colourful little vehicles will take you wherever you need to go.

nothing is wasted

Here, if it is possible to mend something, it is repaired and not thrown away.

outdoor living.

Everything is done outside.You can have you ironing done on the street by a very cheerful man with a beautiful old iron..

Choosing Stones

We spent much of today choosing lovely new stones to be made into pendants - here is Julie checking out the Amethysts. This lovely rich colour and quality comes from Africa in the rough, and is cut and polished in Jaipur.

We’ve arrived...

We have arrived in a hot, dry Jaipur. Here is a flavour of the varied and colourful city:

busy roads, beautiful patterns.
and moments of peace and calm.The gardener is keeping the hotel plants lush and beautiful, but there has been very little rain here - the monsoon has not yet arrived and the surrounding city is looking dusty and dry We have fitted in some work on the lawn too and visited a few of our makers. We have found some really wonderful pieces. It’s all very exciting, Jaipur is an amazing place, very difficult to take in, a little overwhelming. Full of warm and welcoming people and a constant murmur of life and a buzz of activity. We will get some pictures up of new jewellery very soon and will be running a daily competition for you to get your hands on some new pieces so keep checking back and please keep in touch by leaving a comment.

Trips, Promotions and Generally Very Exciting Things..

We are very excited to be off on a buying trip to India in less than a week so you might like to see what promotions and special things we have in the shops whilst we are away.

In Barnes its Sale time and we have some lovely bargains there for you if you are heading that way.
We have some very beautiful things for summer in our other showrooms too. We have offers on our Charm Candy, which is happily compatible with most of the other brands including Troll and Pandora. These sets of three coordinating charms are just £25 (individually £45) so pop in and snap one up.


If you are heading off on holiday or seeking out some sunshine at home the heart charm necklaces are an ideal way of taking a bit of summer fun with you. In your choice of cord colours and glass beads you really can match up with anything and they make lovely pretty presents too. Take a look, I am sure you’ll love them.

Or if a simple silver ‘wear me everywhere’ pendant is what you are after pick up one of these pretty treats, reduced from £45 to £25
...and take it on holiday with you!

That should keep you in jewels whilst we are away but if there is something specific you would really like to see us do please comment with any suggestions of jewellery you would like us to look out for and any requests you have. We welcome ideas on colours you want to see, and jewellery you have in mind but just can’t seem to find-we will try our best to source it for you. So comment and let us know what you like and what you don’t and we will see if we can make our jewellery even better for you.

And keep checking back as we will be uploading pictures while we are away.

The Birthstone Feature-August.

As it’s the start of August already you might be wondering what the birthstone might be for those summer birthdays.

There are actually two to choose from. The concept of identifying stones with zodiac signs, birthdays and other occasions is an ancient one, but the details vary widely across cultures, traditions and time. But, the most commonly used for the month of August are Peridot and Onyx.

A Little Bit of Information on Peridot

Peridot is a gem form of the mineral olivine and ranges in colour from bright lime to olive green. The Romans had a particular liking for peridot calling it ‘evening emerald’ as the colour remained bright and light at night-perfect for summer garden parties and evenings out!

The best peridots are found on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. The name comes from the Greek ‘peridona’ meaning ‘to give richness’-particularly suitable for special birthdays!

Used as a gemstone for thousands of years, it has been found in Egyptian jewellery. Legend has it that it was Cleopatra’s favourite stone. Very large peridots are set in a shrine in Cologne Cathedral. It is also, particularly sacred in Hawaii as it is believed to be the goddess Pele’s tears.

More detailed information is on our website.


…and Onyx
For the chic Audery Hepburn types Black Onyx might suit a little better.

Onyx is a black or banded variety of chalcedony, found in Mexico, India, Brazil, Madagascar, Algeria and Pakistan.

The name onyx comes from the Greek ‘onux’ meaning nail. Legend says that Cupid cut the fingernails of Venus while she was asleep. He left the clippings on the beaches but since no part of a heavenly body can die, the fates turned them into stone, known as chalcedony. Hence, onyx was believed to encourage the growth of fingernails, hair and skin. For those choosing onyx as a gift I would recommend emphasising the link between the stone and Cupid and Venus-maybe not so much the fingernail part!

Crystal healers believe onyx promotes happiness and improves concentration.
Again, we have a bit more info on the website if you would care to take a look.

There are also lots of lovely pieces in the birthstones for you to choose from, and they all come beautifully wrapped.


If you are finding it difficult to choose may we recommend you take a look at our exclusive Ophelia Range, these pretty little pendants really do seem to suit everyone.