Jewerly Manufacturing- All you need to know!
If you are a budding jewelry designer or someone who is just looking to start their own business in jewelry, it is important to educate yourself; not only about the industry, the market, the advertising, but also jewelry and what goes into the process of making it.
For a jewelry designer or a jewelry manufacturer, people think it is most important to know the customer and have a design and while those things are essential, they are not nearly enough. You may find yourself asking, “How do I start my own jewelry business?” and while that question can be answered by us and we would help you every step of the way, it is important to do research on your own as well! Never diminish the power of educating yourself.
Having knowledge about jewelry manufacturing or how jewelry is made will smoothen up y the process of bringing your creativity and design to life all the more simple. It is always better to know how jewelry is made as it even helps in communicating with the people who you work with more efficiently.
Jewelry manufacturing is actually one of the last steps in the process of jewelry making. Jewelry making is an art form that takes time, effort, and patience to build. Every piece of jewelry the one makes is unique, every idea is different than the other so different resources go into the making of every single piece of jewelry, it is not as simple as coming up with a design and then going straight to making jewelry.
The Accessory Consultant offers an 8-step process that focuses on all the details, including the smallest ones. Every single thing is taken care of in our process of manufacturing jewelry that includes:
- CAD
- 3D Printing
- Molding
- Casting
- Stone Setting
- Finishing
- Plating
- Engraving
These are steps taken by us to ensure you nothing but the best quality jewelry when you start your own business. These steps always ensure that your idea comes to life in the most colorful and beautiful way possible. Every step is crucial and we pay high attention to minor details to make every piece of jewelry perfect. The standard procedure of manufacturing jewelry follows only 5 of the steps out of the 8 listed. However, we take extra care of your needs and want your idea to be unique to you and be personalized for you!
Once you have an idea in your head and you want that to be a design that out into the world, there are several things, materials, and people required to make that happen.
The process of jewelry manufacturing actually starts molding. Molding is the first step that takes place when it comes to manufacturing; in this process, a mold is created out of wax that contains your design. Wax is used because it is easily available, cheap, and one can correct their mistakes, if any, on a wax mold easily.
This is then met with casting. Casting is the most important step since this is the part where jewelry takes actual life and is made. This is a complicated step and requires special equipment and trained individuals. Although, you can try casting at home by using wax and dental tools.
The next step is polishing and finishing and that is how jewelry is manufactured. However, there are many ways in which one can produce or make jewelry.
Different ways to Manufacture Jewelry
- Casting
Casting is the most common way of producing jewelry and for good reason. Casting is considerably less expensive ways of all the other types of jewelry manufacturing and it allows a manufacturer to experiment with or make a large variety of designs. In this process, the design is carved out on a rubber mold on which wax is poured.
When the wax hardens, the plaster is poured onto it to make a permanent mold.
When the plaster hardens, metal is poured in it, and then it is put in the oven. When the mold is in the oven, the wax melts away. This is a cost-effective way to produce jewelry as it does not require a lot of space of heavy machinery, and it also produces jewelry fast.
There are some downsides to this method as it makes items that are porous and less durable.
- Swamped or Die-struck Jewelry
This type of manufacturing begins with a process known as die. This method is specifically designed to make only some particular types of jewelry pieces, the design is made by hand on hard metal dies that are then stamped into softer and precious metals that form an imprint of the design.
This method is used to create jewelry that is lightweight, however, the durability of the jewelry piece is not compromised in the process. Jewelry made by this process needs less finishing and polishing but the cost of manufacturing is higher because of the heavy equipment that is used.
- Handmade Jewelry
This method is self-explanatory and must seem simple enough but it is anything but simple. Handcrafted jewelry is not common and one requires a very skilled and steady hand to manufacturing jewelry by using this method.
This requires individuals with years of practice and no use of machinery is allowed. It is an extremely slow process as it requires a lot of attention and care and only one piece can be made at a time. It is expensive to produce, however, hand-crafted jewelry is very valuable and rare.
- Electroforming
In this method, wax molds or copies of jewelry are made that are then coated or covered with a thin layer of metal that is electrically charged. These copies are then put into an electrically charged liquid that has precious metal particles.
When the copies are submerged in the liquid, the precious metal particles attach themselves to the copy. Like in the process of casting, the wax melts through a hollow that is already created. This creates a hollow piece of jewelry that is lightweight, strong, durable, and long-lasting.
