Behind the series

Inspired by the sovereignty and power of the historical Wax Seal Signet ring, Selene is here with her own mystical take on the treasure adorned by Kings and Queens, Pharaohs and Rulers, for thousands of years. The Wax Seal Ring has historically been imbued with incredible power, because it was the signature of a person in extremely high office. The Wax Seal signified that a document was 'official' - it legitimised legal papers, and allowed the recipient to distinguish a genuine letter from a fraudulent one. 

During reigns of Kings and Queens, there would be one wax seal that signified them, and one only. Upon the death of a ruler, their wax seal would usually be destroyed and a new one created for their successor. You can see why these small designs become so significant in terms of the authority that they embodied.

Signet rings for the lower classes (by lower, we're still talking the middle-upper classes, like the aristocracy) often featured Family Crests and other unique designs that signified the position of the person using it.
With that in mind, we designed this as our Dixi Pack Family Crest. Holding a delicate crescent moon between her finger tips, Selene's gentle hand is encircled by olive branches, symbolic of unity and friendship. This design is an emblem of the spirit and identity of us all as a divergent community, and we hope that it will remind you of all the Pack Family you have, all over the world, every time you adorn it.

The initial ideas

We met our designer collaborator, Chaser Spaeth, on Instagram through our original Talent Scout Competition back in 2019. We absolutely loved their style and wanted to see more, so we HAD to reach out. Looking back, we can't say just how thankful we are that we did. We weren't just blessed with the privilege of having an incredible artist to work with to fully realise our ideas, but we found ourselves a wonderful friend too. Chaser has now gone from customer to assistant designer and we have created many magical treasures together.

These are some of the first initial designs that Chaser presented to us, and the very first iteration of our beloved Selene! They had these designs under their belt ever since the original Talent Scout competition. We are truly thankful that Chaser held onto these designs as they couldn't be more perfect for the new chapter we are entering at Dixi.

The design starts to come to life

If you are a follower of our @dixipack page, you may remember quite a while ago we posted a teaser design and asked for you to vote on which you preferred. We were excited to bring you all in on the early stages of this piece and be able to actually influence the end design!

But here is what you didn't see... the first bare bones sketches of what this design was actually for!

Our Wax Seal signet ring; we couldn't decide whether a circular or oval shape best complimented the design. With all your insightful feedback, votes and comments, we opted for the oval. It allows the hand and moon to be lengthened slightly, and the olive branches to be even more delicate.

Now the overall shape had been decided, it was time to move onto the next phase of more detailed sketches.

You can see how the design is really coming to life by this point and the little details are building, especially that uneven 'wax seal' style edging all around the outer edge, an overt nod to the historical inspiration behind the design. Naturally we couldn't resist turning this into a matching pendant so those of you who aren't ring lovers can join our wax seal family too.

With these final sketches, it's time to send to our CAD artist Caroline who works her magic to turn these into a fully 3D computer mock ups. During this process Caroline also helps us alter parts of the design that may be impractical, or that won't translate very well into a wearable piece of jewellery during the manufacturing process.

We then have samples made and will go back and forth for many months perfecting and refining, before the design is finally approved for production.

The Final Ring

 
It is usually with this one single approved sample that we begin shooting social media and product images! So fun fact - most of our main content (images, videos, everything) for a new product is actually picturing the very first sample, and not necessarily one of the pieces we have in stock that you buy, though these are identical! Because the manufacturing process can be lengthy, we have to make the most of those weeks and months so we don't have to delay release when they are ready.

We hope this little behind the scenes look at the designing process makes you love our sweet Selene even more. If you're on the outside looking in, it can be easy to underestimate the sheer amount of work that goes into that one single ring; it may be hard to get your head around why we have to price products as we do (because no, prices aren't decided on the cost of materials alone - a whole list of factors comes into it!).

So, let us know if us being transparent about the making process is something you're interested in seeing more in future! And if there is a burning question that we haven't answered for you, reach out!