Design your own cufflinks

We often get requests to make bespoke cufflinks for our customers. Many people like the freedom that our service gives to create a really unique and personal gift for a loved one, friend or colleague. Whether it's a cufflink personalised with your child's own drawing for Father's day, a silhouette of your friend's much loved pooch or an illustration that means something special to you and your partner, the possibilities really are endless!

We get so many requests for bespoke cufflinks that we have recently launched our Design Your Own Cufflinks. This service allows you to choose between a sterling silver or rhodium plated cufflink setting and gives you complete control over the design etched onto the wooden discs.

Here are some great examples of bespoke cufflinks and some more information about the images to use or avoid for the best results.

Designing your cufflinks

It's important to note when designing your cufflinks that laser cutters only see in black and white, this means it will etch the areas that are black and leave the areas that are white. An image in colour or with many areas of grey will not work as effectively as a black and white line drawing. Here are some examples of images that work well and those that don't:

The dragonfly illustration on the left is beautifully detailed when enlarged but on the small scale of a cufflink it looses detail, by removing detail in the version on the right the end result will be far more effective.

Here is a good example of a multi-toned image which has been desaturated ready for etching. The image on the left has too many shades of grey to give an effective etching but by increasing the black in the image on the right the etch will work well.

Here is an example of an image which will not work as an etching. Unfortunately as the image is desaturated and the areas of grey are replaced with black or white you can see that the varying tones and detail of the image are lost. It's best to avoid images with too much detail and bear in mind the size of the cufflink when choosing your design.

The ideal image or design is one that has been designed in black and white or can be easily desaturated without loss of detail or overall effect. It's good to keep this in mind as you design your cufflinks. If you are not sure whether your image will work please email us at info@mariaallenboutique.com and we will be happy to help.

Image size

Images need to be as large as possible and the optimum quality is 300DPI. If your image is less than this then please let us know and we will be happy to help.

Copyright images

We must also take into account any copyright that the image may have, if you do not own the copyright of the image then we will not be able to use it. We can however design you a similar image that we own the copyright for. Any image or design you have drawn or made yourself will not have copyright and will be fine for use. Not sure if your image is copyright? Email us at info@mariaallenboutique.com and we will be happy to confirm this for you.

Placing your order

You can place your cufflink order online by visiting our website here. Once we have received your order and your images we will work with you to design artwork that you are 100% happy with. Once you are happy, your cufflinks will be made and sent by 1st class post. We aim to make and deliver all personalised orders within 2-3 working days, but please be aware that if considerable art work time is required for your order this may increase.

Now let your imaginations run wild and make sure the next gift you give is a truly personal one!