I had the greatest pleasure visiting the local Portland jeweler who designed and crafted all the Twilight jewelry for the Twilight Saga. Artisan Designs is owned by Rick Thurber and he was the primary jeweler used by Summit for the final design work for the Cullen Crest men’s and women’s pieces, Bella’s engagement ring and the Volturi pendant. He also made the moonstone ring worn by Bella throughout the movies and is responsible for contributing the CZ heart for Bella’s bracelet. He and his co-workers Kelli Alton and Randy Estes shared with me the details of the process they experienced and other fun stories.

They worked directly with Prop Master Cynthia Nibler. After the first Twilight movie was filmed here in the Portland area the production was moved to Vancouver B.C. for the remaining movies. His communications were done via phone and emails and they did not get a chance to visit the set. All the work he did for them had to be done quickly and to perfection including making two copies of all the pieces.  When making the Esme bracelet the production people requested 8 copies of it as they were getting smashed up during the fight scene while filming Eclipse. They eventually were made of a rubber material for the stunts.

Esme Bracelet

The production people came to Rick with a general idea for the Cullen Crest. Some basic sketches which included the Hand (faith, sincerity), Lion (strength, ferocity), and Trefoil (perpetuity), had to be incorporated into the final piece.  His team then went to work to design the crest where he added details and made different borders for the men’s and women’s pieces. Eventually they came up with the crest used for the men’s leather cuffs, Carlisle’s ring, Esme’s bracelet, and Rosalie’s and Alice’s neck pieces. He also was requested to do a Bella crest ring which is gorgeous but was never used in the movies.

Cullen Men’s Cuff

Bella Crest Ring

The Artisan Designs business is also responsible for designing Bella’s engagement ring. The ring had to have a historic old world feel to it because in the story it was once worn by Edward’s mother. Rick first came up with an oval shaped ring with several medium sized diamonds placed inside of the oval. After he sent this first ring to the Twilight people they then contacted him on a Friday and said that they wanted something larger and more sparkly. They sent him a drawing of Kristen Stewart’s hand with directions and dimensions of what they wanted. His team quickly went to work and came up with the pave diamond design that was used in the movies. This final ring had to be completed and sent to them by Sunday. His company now makes the engagement ring in several materials. CZ with silver and CZ with white gold are the most popular. He does make it in real diamonds with platinum or white gold which is one of his most expensive pieces from the collection. More than a dozen of these engagement rings have been sold to some lucky women.

Kristen Stewart Hand Drawing

The Volturi Crest was originally intended for use as the Volturi family crest pendant but later it was decided to place these pendants on their throne chairs for each character. The background is made of rare petrified dinosaur bone and is inlaid with pearl, garnet and diamond stone. There is a v-shaped border that replicates vampire teeth that circles the bone. Interestingly, they then had some crafters from our local Portland Saturday Market make up very cool intertwined chains for the pendants. After placing these on the throne chairs the production people had another jeweler make up pendants which strongly resembled what Rick had originally designed for them which incorporated a large V shape with rubies and stones.

Volturi Crest

When the production people were putting together the bracelet that Jacob gives to Bella (and Edward later adds his heart to) they once again called Rick. He was able to acquire a CZ heart and sent it to them for the bracelet which was put together in Vancouver B.C.

I really wanted to solve the mystery of Bella’s Cullen Crest wrist cuff worn in Breaking Dawn part 2. I had Rick look at some pictures of the cuff from the movie. He was able to identify it as the Cullen Crest attached to a smaller leather wrist band for Bella. It is the same Cullen Crest worn by the Cullen family. Mystery solved

Artisan Designs is located in downtown Portland, Oregon. Their website is artisansdesigns.com.  You can contact them through their website to order any of the Twilight Collection. It is on display at their other store in White Salmon, Washington. They do not have any contract agreements with Summit and are able to accommodate any requests. The prices vary from $225 for a Carlisle’s crest ring to $750 for a CZ and silver engagement ring. Prices may vary.  They continue to be busy filling orders from Twilight fans all over the world. I really appreciated their time sharing all the details and showing me their authentic Twilight Collection.

Twilight Collection