Every ring is drawn by hand, carved in wax, cast in 18K gold or platinum and set under the loupe. Nothing is kept in stock.
The atelier
Hoveniersstraat 22, Antwerp. One oak table under one window, since 1998.
Fig. 1 Casting: the metal at pouring heat, week two.
The Atelier
Sentinel, The Bench
Hoveniersstraat 22, Antwerp
Filed under: Atelier
Abstract
Sentinel began in 1998 as one oak bench and one apprentice in Antwerp’s diamond quarter. This piece follows a ring from the first pencil line to the last polish, and asks why nine people still choose to make every ring by hand, to order, in a city that taught the world to cut stones by machine. It looks at drawing, wax, casting, setting and finishing as five decisions rather than five steps, and at what a ring owes the hand that will wear it.
1 Marthe Verbeke, founder, in conversation at the bench, Antwerp, 2024.
2 The bench is a single oak table, 4.2 m long, built for the atelier in 1998.
3 Nine hands: five goldsmiths, three setters and one polisher.
“Measure twice, cast once.”¹
“A ring should outlive the hand that made it.”²
Keywords
Bench work,
Lost-wax casting,
Stone setting,
Antwerp, Made to order,
Rings for life
Almost thirty years ago Marthe Verbeke rented a single room above a stone dealer on Hoveniersstraat and set an oak table under its only window. The first rings were wedding bands for friends; the first commission, a solitaire for a dealer downstairs who wanted to see what a setter would do with his best stone.
The atelier still works from that table. Every ring begins as a drawing at five times its size, is carved in wax, cast in 18K gold or platinum, set under the loupe and polished by the same hands that drew it. Nothing is kept in stock. A ring is made once, for one hand, and it can always come back to the bench it was made on.
Sentinel
Vol. 01, The Bench (2026)
The collection
Eight rings in three families: solitaires, statements and bands. None is kept in stock. Each is cast to order in 18K gold or platinum and set at the bench.
Sentinel
Sizes
EU 48 to 62, inside diameter
Point at a size
EU 48 to 62, inside diameter
Sentinel
Order book
Vol. IV, selected commissions, 2023 to 2026
Date
Type
Ring
14.03.26
Engagement
Solace
02.02.26
Wedding bands
Tide, a pair
19.11.25
Signet
Commission
30.09.25
Restoration
A grandmother’s solitaire
08.07.25
Engagement
Ember
21.05.25
Commission
Orbit, in onyx
12.12.24
Wedding bands
Lune, a pair
04.10.24
Resetting
A family emerald
17.06.24
Commission
Crest
25.03.24
Engraving
Lune
09.11.23
Engagement
Marquise
13.06.23
Commission
Verdant
p. 112
Order book, Vol. IV
Fig. 1 Point at a line in the book to see the ring.
Every ring that leaves the bench is written into one book, in pencil, on the day it leaves: what it was, who it was for and the year. Clients are never named outside the book.
Fig. 2, 3 Pages 112 and 113.
Sentinel, Antwerp
p. 113
Sentinel
Visit
One door, one bench, one visitor at a time
Address
Hoveniersstraat 22, 2018 Antwerp. First floor, above a stone dealer, behind the black door.
Hours
Monday
Closed
Tuesday to Friday
10 to 18
Saturday
10 to 16
Sunday
Closed
The visit
About an hour at the bench. Your size, a few stones and the first drawings will be ready.