So I decided with one of my clients to take step by step pictures of her ring being made. Unfortunately, the pictures didn't turn out as well as I would have hoped and I also didn't have a tripod at the time. In the near future I will be making another series like this to illustrate the enormous effort that goes into one of these pieces. Its all done by hand folks. This is not how most jewellery is made.
This particular client wanted me to take a diamond from an existing ring she had and make a new ring for it.
Step 1: Cut the diamond out of the old ring.
Step 2: Gather all of the pieces needed for the ring. This is all 14k white gold.
Step 3: Take the big piece, measure and cut it to the correct length, bend it around and solder it. The picture is just after soldering.
Step 4: Time to make the circle design elements which will be on the top of the ring. Take some of the gold, cut small lengths, bend them around and solder them together. This is the same process as making the band, just smaller. The picture show some of the small bits prior to soldering.
Step 5: Hammer the ring into a round shape and sand it to a nice smoothness. Usually this requires going through at least 4 different grits of emery paper. Do the same process on all the little circles that were made in step 3. Also, take one of the round bits that were made in step 3, solder on some square wire to make a setting for the diamond. Pictured is the main ring after sanding, the circle bits before sanding, and the stone setting before sanding.
Step 6: Solder all the little bits onto the ring.
Step 7: Drill out the holes in all the circles and the setting. File down some of the tubing so that they get shorter as the continue around the circumference of the ring. This is necessary so that the little protrusions don't stick into the side of your finger. Drill some extra holes on the band to make it look even better. Sand and polish the ring until nice and shiny. Cut the seat for the diamond, these are the little notches the stone sits in. Set the stone. Round the prongs and sand and polish them. Get the ring plated in rhodium if it needs it and voila! Finished Ring!
So, the finished ring. In the end it turned out great. The hardest part for me was sanding and polishing in all the little spaces and crevices . That took a lot of patience and was still frustrating. The thing I really like about working like this is that I have a direct connection with the metal I'm working with. I form it, I joint it together, I create its surface. As I said at the beginning, this is very different from the way most jewellery is made.
Most commercial jewellery(ie. Birks, People's, Mappins, Wal-mart, etc...) is made by first creating the jewellery as a wax model. Its then made into a mold and a limitless amount of wax models can then made which are identical to the original. Usually several hundred to a couple thousand wax models are made. These models get put onto a "tree" and a crucible is made. After the crucible is made, its basically a reverse cavity or impression of the wax model. Molten metal is then poured into the crucible and allowed to cool. The mold is removed from casting and you have yourself a "tree" of several hundred to a couple thousand pieces of jewellery. The jewellery is cut off of "tree" and is generally sanded and polished by machine, not by hand. So, in the end, most jewellery is not even touched by someone until the very end. A great place to check out this process with pictures and a much better explanation than my own is:
http://pblinc.com/steps.aspNow I do have to say I use the casting method upon occasion to make items which either cannot be made like the ring I made above, or are just suited to the casting method. I do not use the mass production casting method in my jewellery making, with the exception of pieces, which in my opinion, benefit from the increased stability of structure which casting provides. To date, I have only used this method once, in one of my bracelets. All other uses of casting my jewellery are limited to unique pieces in which I hand carve one wax model which is cast as one single unique piece which I could not have made using a fabrication method. The first wedding bands in the previous post was made this way.
Anyways, that was a rant and then some. If anyone has any questions about my jewellery making methods, please feel to contact me. And as always, check here and my website
www.wilkdesigns.com for all my new pieces.
