Every REPIOR piece begins as raw wire. Copper, stainless steel or aluminium — cut to length, held in a pair of pliers, and shaped entirely by hand. No moulds. No casting. No machinery beyond the tools in Pilar’s hands.
This is not a romantic description. It is a practical one. Non-piercing jewellery designed around the specific geometry of a body cannot be mass-produced — because no two bodies are identical. The making has to be manual because the precision required cannot be achieved any other way.
The tools
The primary tools in the REPIOR studio are pliers — flat-nose, round-nose, and chain-nose, depending on the curve being formed. Wire cutters. A calibrated mandrel for forming consistent diameters. A ruler. A magnifying lamp for checking the finish. There is no equipment in the studio that could not fit in a medium-sized toolbox. The complexity is not in the machinery — it is in the hands using the tools, and the fourteen years of practice behind those hands.
The time
A straightforward piece — a nipple ring in a standard size — takes between twenty minutes and an hour from raw wire to finished piece. More complex designs take longer. A multi-component connector piece, a body chain with multiple tension points, or anything requiring significant adjustment to hit an exact measurement can take two hours or more.
Bespoke pieces — made to a client’s specific brief and anatomy — take longer still, particularly when the design requires sourcing specific stones or components. Every piece is checked before it ships. The tension is tested. The finish is examined under light. If something is not right, it is remade. There is no acceptable level of almost.
What drives the making
After more than fourteen years of making intimate jewellery by hand, the part of the process that holds the most interest is exploration — finding new ways for a piece to interact with the body. New geometries. New placements. New relationships between wire, tension and anatomy.
The body is not a static canvas. It moves. It changes temperature. It has topography that shifts depending on position and movement. Designing for this reality, rather than for how the body looks in a photograph, is what drives the work forward. Every new piece is an attempt to resolve a specific design problem: how does this form hold against this part of the body, under these conditions, in this material?
From the studio to your body
When your order arrives at the studio, the piece that will sit against your skin does not yet exist. It will be made for you — starting from the wire, shaped to your measurement, checked by hand, and sent when it is right.
If you have a specific request or want to discuss a bespoke commission, write to info@repior.com. Pilar reads every message personally.
Crafted with Passion. Worn with Confidence.
Pilar · Designer & Founder · REPIOR® · Handcrafted in the UK since 2012
Related reading: The piece a client asked for — the REPIOR NERVE · Fourteen years of making · Shop all REPIOR pieces
More from the studio: How a REPIOR piece is made · 14 years of making · The REPIOR mark
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