Now that my piece of jewellery is made, before it is set with the stones and polished it has to be sent to the Edinburgh Assay Office for testing and hallmarking. Every piece is tested for purity and will not be hallmarked if it fails.  For instance if I were to use 9ct gold and 18ct gold together then the piece would be marked as the lower purity of 9ct.

Before it goes off to the Assay Office every piece of jewellery has to be marked by me with my unique mark – in my case it is JT in a diamond shape.  My hallmark enables anyone to tell who made the piece of jewellery. The other marks that are applied by the Assay Office show what the metal is, what the purity is, where is was hallmarked and the year it was made.  A really useful bit of provenance.