Wellington goldsmith artist Dorthe Kristensen specialises in creating new jewellery pieces from existing pieces.
A large part of her craft is listening closely to her client's personal stories, Dorthe tells Kathryn Ryan.
Originally from Denmark, Dorthe describes her authentic style of handmade jewellery as "organic with Nordic minimalism".
Dorthe's goldsmithing apprenticeship taught her to work "to a tenth of a millimetre", Dorthe says.
"The great thing about what I do is that the tools are very minimal, it's basically still [the same] tools that were used 100 years ago.
"Sometimes [the client will] give me a picture and if I feel it's not something I do, then I will refer them to someone else ... [there's] quite a set style I have and they do look handmade because they are handmade, and there's nothing computer-generated or 3D printed in my jewellery.
"I guess where I got a lot of my design from comes right back to my upbringing in Jutland, Denmark, where sometimes farmers would kick their clogs in the dirt and find a Viking ring."
Dorthe says a large part of her craft involves listening closely to her client's personal stories.
"Sometimes they can be really sad stories, so sad that it will almost make me want to cry.
"Also sometimes I also remake rings for people who are still in a marriage and they might have been married for so long that the ring is wearing a bit thin, and that's also lovely."
Other times, someone may want to recreate a ring they've lost or makeover a ring given to them by an ex.
"I always say to them, let's make a good thing out of a really bad thing that happened, so make a new piece that might make them happy and not dwell so much on the piece they lost.
"It's great fun and ... quite funny, someone once said 'well he doesn't love me anymore, but my diamond still loves me'."
After Dorthe's client picks out a style for the piece, Dorthe can then mentally trace a design for them.
"I never draw any pictures because the magic happens in the workshop so that's basically what I say is that 'if you don't like it, I'll make it again', and 98 percent of the time, it's good."
Dorthe lets her client know when they have a piece that's too precious to be recreated.
"Amazingly, sometimes I get diamonds that can be over 100 years old and there's not a scratch on it ... in the old days, they used to cut the diamonds in the mine so they look quite different to the diamonds you see today.
"But again, I also have to respect if that's part of people's story, that they want to have [the gold] melted down, and of course what's also really lovely is that we live in a country where sometimes people find gold nuggets in the river.
"When people come in with gold nuggets, it's just amazing... even though they're very close to pure, there can still be bits of quartz in them so ... I might do it a little bit differently to other gold.
"Sometimes people might only have nine karats and kind of want to upgrade the quality so we might put a couple of pure gold nuggets in it."
While it's better to work with purer gold, it also requires the laborious task of cuttlefish casting, she says.
"It is quite a hard job, and sometimes preparing the gold takes longer to actually make the new piece of jewellery. By all means, it's not glamourous. It pretty much takes me three weeks from each [piece] to get my hands clean again."
For 20 years, Dorthe has also been running jewellery making classes for people who want to create their own pieces.
"I don't have as many classes anymore ... but you certainly had some classes where people made each other their wedding ring.
"The stories that have been told around the tables for the last 20 years, the laughs and friendships made, it's so great."
Apart from jewellery, Dorthe has also experimented with other creations over there years, including perfume bottles, hair clips, and enamelware.
"I don't want to be one of those jewellers that keeps making the same thing for years and years, because I'm not planning to retire before I'm 85, so I've got a long road ahead of me that I want to keep being interesting."
Dorthe Kristensen's gallery Vilders is well-known in the Capital's Aro Valley.
