Most custom pet pendants on the market are made with laser engraving or laser cutting — the pet's image is etched onto a flat metal disc, or cut into a silhouette shape. It's fast. It's affordable. But the result almost always feels the same: flat, stiff, and a little lifeless. When you hold it in your hand, something feels missing. It doesn't quite look like your pet — the one with the tilted head, the goofy grin, the eyes that melt you every time.

That's not the kind of pendant we make at POMTIQUE.

We use a more demanding, more intentional process: lost-wax casting (investment casting). It takes longer. It involves more steps. But it's the only way we know how to capture not just what your pet looks like — but how they feel.

How POMTIQUE Makes Your Pet's Pendant

Step 1: Hand-Sketched Design — Finding the Essence

Our designers study your pet's photos carefully, looking for the moment that's most them — the head tilt, the tongue out, the look that makes your heart do something. We don't trace. We interpret. Using freehand illustration, we distill your pet's personality into a design that feels alive. This step determines whether the pendant will truly resemble your pet — or just look like a generic animal.

Step 2: 3D Modeling — Building Dimension

Once the sketch is approved, we move into 3D modeling software. Every surface is sculpted with intention: the slight bump of the nose, the gentle hollow of the eye socket, the way fur flows across the forehead. Laser cutting can only work in two dimensions. Our 3D modeling gives the pendant real depth — so the finished piece has the kind of presence you can feel when you hold it.

Step 3: Wax Printing — Locking In the Details

The 3D model is printed as a physical wax prototype. Every detail — the direction of each fur strand, the curve of the ears, the expression in the eyes — is rendered in wax before a single drop of metal is poured. Think of the wax model as your pet's stand-in: the more precise it is, the more faithful the final piece will be.

Step 4: Metal Casting — Brought to Life in Silver

The wax model is encased in a heat-resistant mold. Under high heat, the wax melts away — leaving a perfect cavity. Molten 925 sterling silver (or your choice of precious metal) is then poured in, filling every contour with precision. This is the moment the pendant is truly born: from wax to silver, from soft to solid, from digital to real.

Step 5: Hand-Finishing and Plating — Jewelry-Grade Polish

Fresh from the mold, the raw casting is cleaned up by hand. Our craftspeople file, sand, and polish away any casting marks until the surface is smooth and luminous. A final electroplating layer — platinum, gold, or rose gold — seals the piece against tarnish and gives it the warm, lasting finish you'd expect from fine jewelry.

A One-of-a-Kind Piece, Made for a One-of-a-Kind Bond

When your pendant arrives, it isn't a mass-produced customized product. It's something rarer than that.

It was sketched by hand, sculpted in 3D, cast in fire, and finished by a craftsperson who cared about getting it right. A laser-engraved pendant is a flat piece of metal with a picture on it. Ours is dimensional, tactile, and alive — the kind of thing that catches the light and makes people stop and ask about it.

The pets who share our lives — and leave paw prints on our hearts — deserve to be remembered in full. Not as a silhouette. As themselves.

Ready to commission your pet's portrait? Shop our Custom Cat Portrait Pendant or Custom Dog Portrait Pendant — handcrafted using the lost-wax casting process described above.

📖 Want to learn more? Read our complete guide: Custom Pet Portrait Jewelry — The Complete Guide →