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A-B Gemstones
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Chain making
Chains can be mass-produced quite quickly, as the process is similar for each type of chain. Round, oval or square wire metal is fed into a specialized chain machine that shapes the metal into various patterns by wrapping it around a shape former. The machine then cuts the link and interweaves the next link with the previous one. Modern machines automatically weld the ends of each link by a laser or microplasma welding torch, but more often the links are soldered in a belt furnace.
More intricate chain designs, like herringbone, need to be flattened to achieve the desired look. This is done by rolling the chain in a rolling mill and then sending it to a secondary station to make it flexible once again. Even more complex chains are created using stamped pieces that are bent and then interlocked. Some lightweight, hollow chains use a metal core that is leached out after the design is complete.
Doublet
Doublet is a process in jewelry making in which two gemstones are permanently bonded together, either for a special look or for durability. It is often created with one opaque stone, like an opal or stabilized turquoise, placed under or over another layer of clear rock crystal or quartz. The resulting gemstone is beautiful, often with a checkerboard cut or a cabochon top.
Electroforming / Artforming
Electroform jewelry is most often used to create a bold, three-dimensional style that is exceptionally lightweight. Often referred to as Artform, the electroform technique is growing in popularity and offers designers and manufacturers the ability to create unique pieces that were once impractical and costly.
Similar to lost wax casting, electroforming involves immersing a wax mold or shape former into a solution of gold or other metal. At the end of the process, the wax or shape former is removed, thus leaving a miniscule hole at the removal site. A finished electroform piece is typically around 100-150 microns thick, but can be as thick as 250 microns.
Gold Plating
Gold plated jewelry, sometimes referred to as "gold filled" or "gold overlay", is formed by joining a metal with an outer layer of gold through a process of precisely controlled heat, pressure and time. This formation helps reduce the cost of jewelry without sacrificing design, beauty, durability or long-term wear.
This creation begins by carefully fitting a sheet of gold to an underlying metal. These metals are then placed in an airtight environment where edges are covered with a paste to prevent oxidation and scaling. The metals are quickly heated to approximately 900 degrees Centigrade and then hydraulically pressed with approximately 2,500 pounds per square inch.
After being pressed, the welded metals are moved to a rolling mill which compresses the metals into a sheet. Repeated rolling and heating processes are used to attain the desired thickness, densify the gold so it is hard and durable, and strengthen the fusion of metals.
Typically the gold layer is comprised of a gold between 10K and 18K. Its thickness will vary depending on the piece being made. Total gold content must be at least 1/20th of the weight of the finished form.
Hand Crafting
Intricate and laborious, hand crafted jewelry often starts with the basic metal forms, including bars, tubes, rods, plates, rings, and other simplified forms. Utilizing various specialized tools, as well as years of experience, the metal is shaped into its desired form. It is one of the most demanding jewelry processes due to the amount of experience needed, as well as time invested on the part of the artisans.
Holloware
Bracelets, earrings and other lightweight jewelry can be manufactured by using a hollow, or holloware, method. This process involves forming a gold strip into a tube, often with a base metal core to help the piece hold its shape throughout the process. The tube is then shaped into jewelry by wrapping it around various smooth, textured, twisted, or spiraled dies. Once the jewelry piece has been completed, the base metal is removed.
Lost Wax (Investment) Casting
One of the earliest metal technologies, lost wax casting began in the Middle East around 4,000 BC and remains popular today. It was first developed for melting copper, but was eventually adapted for gold. Compared to other gold formation processes, the art and science of lost wax, or investment, casting has many advantages. It allows for greater freedom when designing, creates a better reproduction of fine details, and incurs lower production costs.
Creating a piece of jewelry from lost wax casting involves a series of complex steps. It begins with a master model that's typically made of a hard alloy such as nickel silver, a copper/nickel/zinc alloy, or just silver. From the master model, a rubber mold is created by surrounding it with a sheet of rubber in a mold frame. This is then placed in a heat press and while cooling, the master mold is revealed by cutting the rubber into halves with a scalpel.
Many copies of the master mold can be made in wax from the newly formed rubber mold. A wax injector injects molten wax into the mold cavity, typically under vacuum to remove air from the mold. Once cooled, the wax is removed and it is now an exact wax copy of the original master mold.
The wax molds are assembled into a "tree" around a center feeder and placed into a metal cylinder called a flask. A slurry formed from special investment powder and water is then poured around the wax tree. It is placed under a low vacuum to remove air bubbles and then allowed to set and harden. This new form is called the refractory mold.
The flask is inverted so the wax inside the refractory mold can be removed, either by melting it with steam or by placing it in a burn-out oven. Once the wax is removed, the hot flask is placed into a casting machine and melted gold is cast into the various investment molds. After cooling and solidifying, the refractory mold is doused in water to break off its outer portion, leaving only the cast gold pieces. These pieces are cut off from the original "tree", assembled into various types of jewelry, and polished.
Soldering
An often unnoticed, but very important part of the jewelry-making process is soldering. Soldering brings various parts of a jewelry piece together to form one consistent and unified product. When soldering, the pieces of jewelry to be joined are heated and then brought together with a melted solder alloy that runs along the joints. Although still popular, some shops are moving toward using laser welding, which is especially beneficial during repair work when the soldering torch may damage gemstones or other delicate parts.
Stamping
Creating jewelry using the stamping process produces hollow, lightweight pieces of jewelry. It is typically only done when a high number of items are being manufactured. Similar to how coins and medals are made, a thin sheet of gold or silver is placed between a series of steel dies which are blanked out and progressively punched to form the three-dimensional shape. Once completed, these stamped pieces are soldered together and polished, forming the final jewelry product.
Tubing
Tubing is often used when creating uniform, circular jewelry, such as wedding bands, bracelets, and hoop earrings. To create durability, there are typically four different general-purpose alloys applied to the thin walls of the piece. The wall thickness of tubing-processed jewelry can range from 0.070" to 0.005" and the outside diameter varies from 0.040" to 1".
Wire Sculpting
An ancient and exquisite form of jewelry making is called "wire sculpting". Dating back almost 5,000 years, wire sculpting is done entirely by hand with the use of a few hand-held instruments. The process requires no glue and the wires are not soldered together. Since it is a hand crafted work of art, each piece is entirely unique and cannot be exactly replicated.
