Crafting jewellery can take a significant amount of time. After all, it takes a lot of time and delicate effort to elaborately craft its details and produce high-value pieces. It’s also why, for some people, learning about the very process of jewellery making piques their interest and nurture their love for these accessories even more.
Some ornamental pieces like black diamond jewellery have intricate production processes that rival most other decorative pieces. If you want to know how jewellery pieces are made, this article is made for you!
Jewellery making: Old and conventional means
The oldest approach to making jewellery can be dated back to the times of the artisans, where placing stones and gems was their primary consideration. High-valued stones like diamonds, amethysts, rubies, garnets, and sapphires were chiseled and refined to various lengths and sizes before they are intricately placed. Some artisans also hammered and pounded these stones to make more details appear in them.
Knowing the development of today’s technology, you may have wondered what techniques were used back then. Here are some of them.
Cloisonne
The insinuation of various glass fragments into pieces of metals was coined as cloisonné. To create elaborate designs, artisans used high temperatures to place metals and glasses. This produces compelling and eye-catching forms. Artisans especially in the Eastern parts of the world highly practiced and honed this classic technique.
Filigree
An artisan can produce holes and thin wires into a jewellery piece by using heat and pouring it into high-valued stones. Most of them also like to use different metals for variations in the design and create patterns using gold, silver, and copper. Many praise this technique because of its ability to produce classic designs.
Modern ways of jewellery making
The new way of jewellery making uses computer-generated forms and tools to facilitate wax casting and other related micro techniques. Some people prefer this especially for custom-made pieces, because it often uses different materials and sophisticated details. This is especially great for those people who prefer their diamonds incorporated into the piece, like those commonly found in black diamond jewellery sets.
Many other innovations have been adopted by many jewellery companies that dabble in custom-made pieces. This includes:
jewellery casting
jewellery casting involves placing pre-filled powders into a container of steel where a specific temperature is set. To capture the variation in the shape and orientation of pieces, an artisan will form wax and polish it by brushing or hammering the edges. This way, a cast is formed and a jewellery piece is molded into its exact fit.
Jewellery Molding
Some jewellery pieces are molded into a set with detailed ornamentations. Through the help of computer-generated plates and algorithms, the details are incorporated without the artisans having to manually craft the parts. This makes it even more efficient for some jewellery makers since they no longer spend more time on one particular piece.
Although contemporary jewellery molding has become more automated and computer-generated, some people still resort to the hand-crafted touch of a master artisan.
The process of jewellery making requires more effort and patience. While the old jewelry methods produce classical designs, modern-day tools and techniques help create more luxurious and sophisticated designs. It is up to you to choose which one suits your needs and preferences better.
