A custom pendant is one of the most personal pieces of jewelry you can order, whether it is a set of initials, a business logo, a pet’s silhouette, or a charm drawn from scratch. Good custom pendant design with CAD is what turns that idea into a piece that hangs correctly, casts cleanly, and survives daily wear. At eCadCam, our Glendale studio has spent more than 22 years modeling, printing, and preparing parts for casting, and pendants are a favorite project because small design decisions show up immediately in the finished piece.
Here is how we approach pendant projects, and what you can do to make yours go smoothly.
Why CAD Is the Right Starting Point for Custom Pendants
Hand-carved wax can produce beautiful results, but CAD gives you something carving can’t: a precise digital model you can review, adjust, and reproduce. You can see the pendant from every angle before anything is made, change the width of a letter by a fraction of a millimeter, and order a matching pair or a small run later without starting over. Our jewelry services combine CAD modeling, high-resolution wax or castable resin printing, and lost-wax casting, so the digital model flows directly into a physical piece.
What to Decide Before Modeling Starts
A few early choices shape everything that follows:
- Size and weight. A pendant that looks right on screen can feel heavy or tiny on the neck. Tell us the approximate dimensions you want, and bring a similar piece for reference if you have one.
- Metal. Gold, silver, and platinum behave differently in casting and carry very different price tags. Metal choice affects how thin we can safely go and how much detail will hold.
- Artwork. A clean vector file (or a clear, high-contrast image) of your logo, lettering, or drawing lets us model faster and more accurately.
- Finish. High polish, brushed, antique, or a mix of textures each call for different surface details in the model.
Bail Design: The Part Everyone Forgets
The bail is the loop that connects the pendant to the chain, and it is the part under the most stress. We design bails with several questions in mind: does the chain you plan to wear actually fit through the opening, does the pendant hang facing forward rather than tilting, and is the connection thick enough to last? We can integrate a bail directly into the design, hide it behind the piece, or model a separate jump ring connection for charms that swing freely.
Chain compatibility
If you already own a chain, tell us its thickness or send a photo. It is far easier to size the bail opening in CAD than to discover later that the chain won’t pass through.
Thickness, Detail, and Casting Realities
Casting has physical limits, and a good CAD model respects them. Letters and logos need enough thickness to be strong, and very fine lines can fill in or break during casting and polishing. For initials and script lettering, we typically thicken thin connecting strokes and round off sharp internal corners so the metal flows evenly and the piece finishes well. Our guide on preparing a jewelry CAD model for wax printing and casting covers wall thickness and shrinkage in more detail.
Double-sided and hollow designs
If you want a pendant that looks good from both sides, such as a name on the front and a date on the back, we model both faces deliberately. For larger pendants, we can discuss hollowing or lightening the design to keep weight and metal cost reasonable.
Popular Pendant Ideas We Can Make
- Initials, monograms, and name pendants
- Company logos for gifts, awards, or brand merchandise
- Pet silhouettes and memorial charms
- Zodiac, religious, and cultural symbols
- Charms for bracelets and necklaces, drawn from your sketch or photo
- Replicas of a treasured pendant, using 3D scanning when the original is the only reference
From Fit Model to Finished Piece
For pendants with meaningful sentimental value, we often recommend printing a prototype first so you can check size, bail position, and how it hangs before committing to metal. Once approved, the model is printed in castable material, cast using the lost-wax process, then finished and polished. If you want to add stones, we can build in settings during the CAD stage as well.
Request a Pendant Quote in Los Angeles
Have a sketch, a logo, or just an idea? Send it over and we’ll tell you what is realistic, which metals make sense, and what it should cost. Request a quote from eCadCam in Los Angeles, call us at 213.489.1173, or visit our studio at 4212 San Fernando Rd, Glendale, CA 91204.